- PUMPED about Revolution Church tomorrow. I am extra pumped about the message. Uh Oh.
- PUMPED about our Easter Series. Its coming like a freight train.
- PUMPED about the life change stories pouring in from people at Revolution!
- PUMPED about getting my mountain bike on tomorrow with Jason Casanova. Booyah.
- NOT PUMPED about our printing situation. Seriously, I can barely keep from throwing it through our front window.
- NOT PUMPED about the rain jacking with my plans to weld up a new fence at the gym with Seth today.
Tag Archive - easter
Saturday Night Shots
Easter Sunday Mind Dump
Breaking today’s mind dump into sections:
Easter Sunday:
- Today was absolutely off the chain! Love me some Easter! A great kickoff to Ultimate Fighter, our new message series.
- We had over 800 people in church with tons of 1st timers. God is GOOOOODDDD.
- I’m going to go ahead and brag and say that I picked the opener song “Give Him Praise” by Lincoln Brewster. INCREDIBLE. Had a choir on stage and everything. Wil and Micah sang it just like Israel and Lincoln do on the cd. MAN those guys know how to BRING IT.
- Had a new set design up today. LOVE IT. No more packing, assembling, re-packing, etc. This one is all fabric. It flows, it changes colors, and it flies out into the fly space when church is over each week. NICE.
- I met so many new people today that I can’t remember a single name. Good and bad.
- We called in extra donuts anticipating the crowd this week and HEB just said “Ok, they’ll be here Sunday.” Then, when the cafe team went to pick them up HEB was closed for Easter. Whoops. We ended up going to the other 3 donut shops in town and buying them out. LOVE IT. MAYDAY MAYDAY The Connection Church is buying every donut in Kyle!!! HAHAHAHAH!
- This was the least stressful Easter Weekend ever for my family. Feels good to be at a point where volunteers are rocking it out. We have more man (and woman) power than ever before and more giftedness than ever before. That’s how is should be!
- Had some tech issues with kids check in and videos today, but we got it all covered quick.
- I saw one mom walk in with 4 kids when we had about 10 minutes left in the 2nd service. I almost said “hey! come on in! enjoy the last song!” LOL.
- If you liked the video today, say thanks to Steve Etheridge. That guy has written a lot of great videos for us here lately. Here is a link if you missed the infamous Karate Cole flick.
- Or, you can watch the entire service right here.
- Best of all today, I got to chill with my family, watch Back to the Future 3 with them, and hunt eggs with Couper.
- Cleaned old birds nests out of our vent pipes on the house today and got stuff all in my mouth and eyes. BIRD FLU! AHHHH!
The Big Hunt:
- If you took pics of the big hunt please email them to me. All of them. Now.
- My brother came to the Big Hunt with his new puppy and his girlfriend. Love those two.
- I got to watch Couper hunt eggs this year. THAT is how you know that our team did an incredible job of putting on the Big Hunt. Trey and Jennifer Williams are saints.
- During the Big Hunt, I was out front greeting people before they ever got out of their cards and sending them to the parking guys. We counted right at 2,000 people coming in the gates.
- Loved having the hunt at the racetrack. Best venue we’ve had yet!
- I had tons of people saying how awesome the event was as they left. Made lots of connections!
Other:
- Watch for two new websites to launch this week: Connectionfamily.com and a new version of theconnectionchurch.org!
- Going to be a busy week!
- Can’t wait to do it all again in 7 days!
- Naps are still for wimps!
- Seriously, I want someone to call me at 6:00am every day this week and yell at me to get out of bed and RUN. If you have my number do it.
- My FPU class graduates tomorrow night. I wish it were a requirement for all High School Seniors to take this 13 week course. We wouldn’t be having such bad economic issues right now if that were the case.
Jesus is Dead
Our Lead Pastor, Cole Phillips, said something that really hit me hard last night at our Good Friday service. He said that those first Christ followers only knew one thing when Jesus died on the cross; that is, that He was dead.
We jump ahead to the Resurrection too fast too often. If Jesus had been crucified yesterday we would only know one thing right now-that Jesus is dead. We would only know the bloody, messy cross. We would be focused on the fact that He paid a serious price for our sin.
I cannot imagine the defeat, the peril, and the sense of lost hope that those first Christ followers must have felt.
And then the next morning came.
The stone was rolled to the side. The tomb empty. His body gone. Word spread fast that He had risen.
Can you believe what that experience must have been like? MAN!
Just a simple observation that has completely changed the posture with which I celebrate Easter and Holy Week. Right now, Jesus is dead. We only have the cross to thank Him for.
Tomorrow…well…we’ll see what happens.
Thank you Jesus for the cross.
A Fast Friday
Today we celebrate Good Friday which is the Friday of Holy Week. It commemorates the crucifixion and death of Jesus.
I fast each year on Good Friday to remember Christ’s sacrifice for me. And this year, the whole TCC staff is fasting from all food, all day in order to spend extra time focusing on God before this BIG weekend.
Would you join us in focusing on God today? Its simple. Skip your meals and spend the entire lunch and dinner hours with God in place of eating. I think you’ll be surprised at how fast an hour with God goes by. Just get on your knees and spend time with Him.
On Good Friday, Jesus agonized on the cross for six hours. My favorite part of the story that we celebrate today is when the centurion on guard at the crucifixion declares, “Truly this was God’s Son!” (Matthew 27:45-54.)
Jesus was God’s only Son and He gave Himself for every one of us. Focus on that today.
