- Now that was fun!
- For those of you not with us, we recapped every series from 2009.
- That’s 52 hours worth of content that we condensed into an hour’s worth of highlights.
- I figured this was going to be one of those hit or miss type of things.
- Luckily it was a hit…I’m not sure I’ve ever had this much feedback so soon after an Experience.
- One of my big fears was whether it would translate to people who were guests.
- I had one lady come up afterwards who was from North Carolina and she said the format helped it all to make sense and she was wishing she lived close so she could attend all the time.
- The other cool part was the number of people who shared with me how it brought back memories to the week/series which they got saved or for some it was a reminder of when they first started attending.
- I was so excited for today that I was wide awake at 5am and ready to go.
- Set-up and the warm-up time were super easy today!
- That’s a good thing because the tech for today was crazy.
- Great job by Chris, Andy and Crissy making things happen behind the scenes exactly when they should have!
- Also I’ve got to give a big thank you to the band.
- In the midst of Christmas and everything else, they have spent 20+ hours at the church in the last week getting ready for and playing in Experiences.
- If you haven’t thanked them in awhile for what they do, please be sure to do so soon.
- In fact, I thought the standing ovation you gave them Christmas Eve after the Trans Siberian song was cool and I know they appreciated it.
- Back to today…it was strange for both me and the band because we were basically doing something the entire Experience…usually it’s one or the other at a time so you get a bit of a break. Not complaining, just different.
- It would be hard to post the audio online for today, but I am going to try to put together a video at some point in my “free” time.
- So in the meantime take the outline from today and go through each of the application questions so you see your growth from 2009 and evaluate in what ways you need to grow in 2010.
- The funniest/most painful moment of the day occurred backstage during the 2nd Experience during the 1970’s medley. Andrew wasn’t playing but was watching from the side wing. He got excited and went to do an “Elvis like” windmill with his arm, but didn’t realize I had come up and was standing behind him. When his arm came (rather hard and fast I might add) it grazed me in the face then hit me squarely in the upper chest. I t hurt but we had a quick laugh about it.
- He wasn’t laughing though when he then went back on stage and dropped his guitar, breaking a part of it.
- I guess that’s what God does to people who punch the pastor. 🙂
- All in all a very good day and hopefully an inspiring look back at all that God has done in 2009.
- Enjoy the pics below.
Inside Today’s Experiences
- Well that was interesting.
- Figures that on Christmas weekend we get a huge snow storm that kept all but the die-hards from coming out.
- 2 or 3 times per year the message is purely evangleistic in anticipation that many unsaved people will be in attendance.
- We you have 50 feet of snow (give or take a few feet) it means basically only Christians are going ot be there.
- Surprisingly though we still had 2 people commit to Jesus for the first time.
- That’s awesome!
- The team had fun with today’s Experience.
- Did you ever in your life think that you would go to church and get to hit beach balls around?
- The Party series has been both fun and impactful.
- 18 people have now become Christians during this series.
- I loved the music today…a great mix of hard and fun to soft and thought provoking.
- As Lisa said, “It was amazing to see the same people who were having fun with beach balls at the beginning, crying at the end as they reflected on the condition of their souls”.
- Cressa, Jenny, Andrea and Gayle did awesome on both O Holy Night and It Is Well.
- I laughed in both Experiences during the Awareness Test videos when people realized they had been tricked.. In case you weren’t with us, check them out. Awareness Test 1. Awareness Test 2.
- When I walked off stage during the 1st Experience I was carrying my chair off as well so I forgot to turn my mic pack off. Apparently you could hear me briefly talking backstage…oops.
- All in all not a bad considering all that was happening.
- I’m currently typing this and observing the team as they practice for Christmas Eve.
- Be sure to join us at 5:30 for what should be a memorable Experience.
Inside Today’s Experiences
- I’m useless without my wife.
- What’s that have to do with today…
- She had her wisdom teeth taken out Wednesday and has been having trouble sleeping so she slept in the guest room last night so I could get a good night’s sleep.
- She’s the one who is normally in charge of the alarm clock and even though I set it and double check it last night…I still messed up.
- Imagine my surprise when she wakes me up this morning at 8:30 and says, “Aren’t you supposed to be at church now?”
- Oops…luckily the team is proficient enough to function without me during set up and our morning run-through.
- Except that someone forgot to unlock the back stage door (which I normally do) so when I went to go on stage during the 1st Experience, I was again greatly surprised to be locked out.
- Other than that it was a really good day.
- The team and both crowds were really energetic, which makes preaching so much easier then.
- Have already had about a dozen people stop me to say how convicting today’s message was.
- Andrea absolutely tore it up on the song “Battlefield”…great job!
- I think everyone had fun with the word S’mikheh.
- Aaron heard me preach a similar message to this one 3+ years ago where I talked about S’mikheh and he still says it from time to time.
- Two of the ladies back in the tech area this morning thought that it was funny that I wear stage make-up on Sunday’s.
- Hey it’s not like I’m Adam Lambert or anything, but a little foundation to smooth the skin and cut down on the glare never hurt anyone. 🙂
- Please pray for our bass guitarist Brett. He never showed up today and we’re hoping he just overslept since he works late on Saturday night’s. Or since we had practice on Saturday instead of Thursday because of Thanksgiving, it’s also possible that he thinks today is Friday. In any case we’re worried about him since we still haven’t been able to reach him.
- All in all I really enjoyed this series…Brian designed an awesome stage…we got to hear from Doug for the first time…many more people came into a relationship with Jesus…lives were changed…all because Jesus is a Maverick unlike any other.
- Tonight is Hanging of the Greens or HotG as we like to call it. Only time I get to hear I’m hot. 🙂
- Have a great week. Be sure to invite a lot of people as we kick-off the PARTY series next week.
Inside Today’s Experience
- Interesting day.
- Had all kinds of little problems getting ready for today.
- I hate the little fixable ones more than when the big unexpected ones hit.
- In the midst of all that I grabbed the wrong mic pack for me.
- Imagine my surprise when I wasn’t getting sound.
- Even more imagine my surprise when I feel Chris lifting up my shirt to check the pack in the midst of trying to speak.
- Once we got that all worked out, the rest of the first Experience and all of the second went really well.
- Fun having Aaron with us today!
- Andrea absolutely crushed it with the new song, “It’s Your Love”…awesome!
- I haven’t been feeling good all week, so the message today drained me big time.
- Especially since I was dropping the hammer hard.
- Again let me reiterate a few points:
- You don’t own anything, it all belongs to God.
- God wants you to prove to Him that you believe that by giving back 10% of your income to Him in what is called a tithe.
- If you don’t tithe, God says your stealing, robbing and embezzling money from Him.
- He says in fact that there is a curse on your money.
- So 90% of your income with God’s blessing on it is greater than 100% of your income with God’s curse on it.
- If you don’t tithe it’s not that you can’t afford it, but rather you choose to be disobedient to God. (listen to this section of the message for some thought provoking challenges).
- Last but not least…
- God doesn’t need your money…He owns it all anyway.
- We don’t need your money…giving has been up the last few years…we’re seeing a surplus each month…we’ve added staff in the midst of a terrible economic downturn in our country…
- This is all about vision…we want to reach as many people for Jesus as possible and that takes money…the more we have the more we’ll be able to reach.
- So Jesus said, “Where your money is at is where your heart (passion, attention) will be as well.
- So take the 90 day tithe challenge.
- This is the only thing in all of scripture that God said you can test Him in.
- He said to tithe and see if He doesn’t throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing on you that you don’t have enough room to contain it all.
- Sorry to re-preach this, but I’m sick and tired of seeing Christians devote their time and money to things that just don’t matter.
- Alright time for a nap…not feeling good at all…please pray.
Inside Today’s Experiences
- Another fun day!
- Any day where people are giving their lives to Christ though is a good day in my book!
- Both crowds today we’re really energetic…especially the 11:15 crowd.
- I loved the band’s version of the song, “Second Chance”.
- We had Andrea hold out the one note twice as long as it is in the original and in both Experiences I got goose bumps…she and they did awesome!
- It’s been great to add some new band members recently…today we added Steve on drums and Andrew on guitar.
- That’s in addition to recent additions of Brett, Dan and Cressa.
- All the new people are doing great and adding nice depth to the team.
- Of course I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Brian, Adam, Andrea, Alex and Gayle for their years of hard work on the team.
- I really enjoyed this series…I always get as much out of them preaching as you probably do listening to them.
- Remember, “The clearer the vision, the fewer the options, the easier the decision”
- Also don’t forget, “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down”.
- Next week we’ll only have the 9:45 Experience so make sure you’re there early to get a good seat and don’t forget to invite someone as we launch a new series called “Reality Check”.