New Sermon Series

I am REALLY excited about a new sermon series that we are starting at the GBC on February 5. It's called "Jesus." I know its a REAL creative title but this series will focus knowing the "why" behind Jesus. A lot of people believe in Jesus but haven't taken the time to really look at why. This series is going to last 8 weeks and it will be our build up to Easter on April 8. Really looking forward to it!

Here's a preview:

Sunday, Chick-Fila, buildings and wet cell phones

Yea I know random title cause i feelin in a random mood. It is Monday after all! So let's get right to the randomness.

Sunday

• It was a GREAT day yesterday at the GBC. 
• Band was rockin. They did a great version of this song. One of my favorites
• Yesterday we talked about Toxic Influences in our lives. Movies, music, facebook, magazines,etc...
• I didn't go all legalistic and proclaim a ban on all such things like back in the day (which made us want it more), but asked is this an activity I would invite Jesus to participate in.
• Lots of new faces again!!! 

Chick-Fila

• I love Chick-Fila
• They are a great company that was started by a Christian man, Truett Cathy.
• They are closed on Sunday and still make the same amount of profit percentage as other fast food chains.
• I went the other day and was VERY impressed with their service. I was referred to as a guest not a customer. Big difference between the 2 terms! 
• The church could learn alot form Chick-Fila
• Tim Hawkins has a great song on the subject.

Building Update

• The building Team will meet with our architects this Sunday, January 22.
• Our first draft of our master plan is up and generating lots of excitement.
• We are waiting on God's timing in all of this (just in case your asking)

Wet Cell Phones

• It's true that I dropped my iphone in the toilet (water was clean)
• I am devastated.
• I'm thankful for good friends who loaned me a phone to use.
• I will have to pay about $150 to replace. Thinking of starting a charity fund for this.
• Never realized how dependent I am on my Iphone.
• It did make for a great sermon illustration on Sunday.

Well that's whats rattling around my brain today.

Love.Grow.Serve.

 

Random Musings on a Monday

It was great to be back to our normal service times yesterday at the GBC. 

• Great crowd yesterday with many new families
• Started our new series called Toxic which will deal with getting rid of those things which are toxic to our spiritual lives.
• Heather DeBord led worship for us yesterday and did her great job as usual.
• Yesterday's communion service was one of my all time favorites! Great spirit in the house.
• I REALLY believe that this will be the greatest year of ministry that we have ever seen.
• I also believe that this will also be one the greatest seasons of change that we have experienced.
• We displayed to initial concept of our master plan. Excitement was high.
• Met with the building team last night and we have come to agreement on the first phase we will be pursuing. Exciting to be around a group that really believes that the best days of this church are ahead  of us.
• Overheard a older, long term member who said she hoped she was still around when the new church campus was completed. I hope she is too.

Big reminder:

That's it for a Monday

Love.Grow.Serve

2011 Year in Review

Well I had meant to post this a few days ago but the flu got in the way. 2011 was an exciting year at the GBC. A lot of things were absolutely amazing moves of God that only He could accomplish. Last Sunday I recounted them for our church (you can watch it here)  and even when I was speaking them I was thanking God for the privilege of serving Him in this Church. My biggest prayer is that God will show us His glory and it will be enough for us and this year He showed us His glory in amazing ways. I will recount some of them here:


In 2011

• we saw about 150 people come to know Jesus as savior
• We saw over 50 people baptized
• Largest Easter ever over 700 people, 50 people saved
• Largest mother's day 435
• Largest non holiday attendance 403
• Largest Christmas service 662
• 14% increase in attendance

Those numbers are AWESOME and they are all a God thing!!!

We also purchased 26 acres of land for our relocation and we took steps to go mobile by putting the building up for sale and working with the school district to move forward with us meeting at the community School. On November 27 we did a trial run of meeting at the community school. 425 people showed up and 25 people gave their lives to Christ!!!!

Amazing things take place when we do exactly what God tells us to do. 

But we haven't seen anything yet because the best is yet to come!

2012 is going to be a GREAT year!

Reflections on the BEST service we ever had

This past Sunday was the BEST Christmas service we have ever had at the GBC.


A few key points:

• The volunteers were off the hook. From setup to greeting to teardown, production, band, children's workers and everyone who made cookies. Thank you for giving of your time and talent to making the day a success. Lives were changed because of you.
• The Choir and band were amazing! I thought that they really to it to a whole nother level and Oh Holy Night was off the hook.
• Big shout out to our production crew who worked long and hard to make it happen; especially Chad Mayer who works hard on every event.
• We had 662 in total attendance. A record for a Christmas service with many first time guests.

There were a lot more things that I can take away and post but the biggest thing is that God was glorified,  Jesus was preached and lives were changed. 

There is nothing better than that!!

I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and hope that God blesses you greatly!

Hey Church here's what's coming up.

A few things to share with you today:

• This Sunday will be the BEST Christmas service we have ever had. We will be at the High School at 10am. It will be an amazing time of worship and we expect to pack the place. I hope that you have made your invites. People are most open to invitations to Church during Christmas. We expect to see people come to know Jesus as we will clearly present the Gospel.
• Sunday, December 25 we will have one service at 10 am to celebrate Jesus. This service will be about 50 minutes long and there will be NO kids ministry that day as families can worship together.
• December 31 we will be serving communion at the church from 6-7:30 pm. This candlelight communion is one the best things we have all year. Come as a family or with friends and spend as much time as you like.
• Sunday,January 1: we are having 1 service 10am
• Starting , Sunday, January 8 we are starting a new series called Toxic. This series will talk about toxic influences in our lives and as we start a new year these will be things that we want to get rid of.

I hope that all of us will have a joyous Christmas season and a prosperous New Year. Church lets make 2012 even better than 2011.

Love.Grow.Serve 

A incredible weekend

Haven't blogged in a while but wanted to update about one incredible weekend.


The weekend after Thanksgiving is typically slow because lots of people are gone; but not this year. This year we did church at our community school as a dry run for becoming a mobile church. We had been asked by the superintendent of Schools to do a dry run before she would approve us for a longer term. It went better then we could imagine. The place was packed!! Doing this showed us that we can do this on a temporary basis until our new facility is built. It also showed us that people will come to a gym for church as we have many first time guests.


A few quick thoughts:

• Our volunteers all weekend were fantastic. We had many people come out on Saturday for setup and we completed setup in just over 2 hours. After church on Sunday we were tore down in 1.5 hours. AWESOME!
• Our greeters were out of this world. It was raining and our guys in the parking lot made a HUGE impression by escorting people with umbrellas. It was one of those impressive touches that was noticed. Our folks at the doors and inside the gym made everyone feel comfortable.
• The service was great! Heather and the band knocked it out and the sound was amazing! Due to such a short notice we did hire a sound company. Concept Sound came in and helped us do an amazing job. Mark is a true professional! We have used them twice before and they are always great to work with and great partners in ministry. They will be designing our sound and lighting for our new facility and they are worth every penny.
• Robin and her volunteers in our kidz ministry really brought it and the kids had a blast!!
• That night Amped, our student ministry held and event there and drew over 60 for a fun time. Bart and his crew went the extra mile!

But the biggest part of Sunday is that 25 people raised their hands at the invitation indicating that they had prayed to receive Jesus as their savior. The previous line is why we will leave our church building and become a mobile church. It sounds crazy to religious types but we are ready to go ALL in to see this county turned upside down for Christ. Join the adventure!

love.grow.serve