MoviePastor.com: Church, Culture, Christ

Crosspoint T's

You may have noticed Sunday a LOT of people were sporting the new Crosspoint T Shirt they got at the Pig Out.  They look fantastic!  A lot of people asked about getting a shirt but the lobby experience got hosed up by batman so we didn't have them available Sunday.  Also we ran out of Small.  They will be available for $10.00 in the lobby this week (and every week).  They come in Brown and Charcoal and sizes range from Small-3XL.  We also have some kids sizes.  We will be making them free to first time guests as we revamp our guest services and follow up system.  Hopefully we'll be rolling out a few more designs along with some other stuff to promote Crosspoint and give freebies to our guests.

Ministry Opportunity - Personal Assistant

I am in the market for a part time personal assistant.  The pay is the same as I get (zero).  As we grow, my capacity to manage some of the details of Crosspoint create bottlenecks and too many dropped balls.  I am looking for someone to assist me in several areas.  Ideally this person would not have a full time job already and be free to work wherever and when ever doing things like screening phone calls and email and handling certain tasks that need to get done that I dont have time to do any more.  The qualifications are simple. 

1 - you must love Jesus more than anything in the world
2 - you must love Crosspoint - that will be evident in how you've served, how you give, and how you attend.
3 - you must be able to use and understand technology.  If you cant use a computer or text message or figure out something like twitter - this wont be for you.
4 - you must have great people skills but have a thick skin.
5 - you need to be accessible days, evenings and weekends.
6 - you must be self starting and able to get things done without me going "is it done yet?"
7 - I have to like you.

As I said - this job doesn't pay (right now) but who knows where it could lead for the right person.  Tasks might be things like ordering equipment, answering email, finding a vendor for a purchases, running an errand, getting props, following up with one of the many irons i have in the fire and the like.  Also the personal assistant will set up the "green room" at the theater on Sunday, run interference for me if necessary, and make sure that I have tic-tacs, caffeine and I am ready to preach.  If you are interested shoot me an email and tell me why you would be good for this.  If I dont select you it doesn't mean you suck - it just means I selected someone else so remember the part about the thick skin.

Pig Out - WOW!

Unbelievable Pig Out today.  It was nearly 100 degrees but what a day.  I'll grab some people's photos and post later but this was the best year ever.  The food was awesome, the kids had a blast on the water slide and the bounce house, the pool felt great and there were so many new faces!

We had 10 scheduled to be baptized.  After I was done I opened it up and 5 more joined the party.  It was incredible to see people just be obedient to God.  One family went together - there were 6 of them all total and we dunked em all at the same time.  It was absolutely awesome!

Also our T-shirts look INCREDIBLE this year.  They are not Pig Out specific either.  They come in two colors and I promise people will take notice.  We ran out of some sizes - we'll get more printed.  They are only $10.00 and buckle would want to sell them.  You can get one at Church.  One of the guys that got dunked, Eric, did the design and Pam had them printed. 

AWESOME AWESOME day!  Im beat.  See you in the morning!

Can't wait till tomorrow!

Pig Out

This Saturday is our Annual Pig Out BBQ Bash and Baptism Celebration.  Its THE event of our church and this year will be a blast.  It starts at 2:00 and we have the best catered Pork Chicken and Ribs you can eat.  Bring your side dish, lawn chair, maybe some lawn games.  We have a great location to hold it!  There will be a tent, fans to keep you cool, a pool to swim in, and the kids will have a moon bounce and water slide.

Im really looking forward to hanging with my crosspoint peeps, getting to know some of the new faces, and dunking a bunch of folks.  Make sure you are there to watch and celebrate this important step.  I may hold a few of them down for good measure! 

See you Saturday!

Hot Topic Recap

Week 1 of Hot Topics - Religion - Speaking in Tongues is done.  Holy smoke.  I was so giddy and full of excited nervous energy during the worship I couldn't hold my iPhone steady enough to take a good picture.  They are all blurry.  I'll get someone else's.

Unbelievable vibe and energy as people were greeted by a vintage VW Bug complete with surf rack and antique cooler and beach umbrella.  Rodney and Jennifer - you guys ROCK!!!  As people entered the theater they were greeted by friendly people who put a Lei around their neck.  Summer music from the Beach Boys, Jan and Dean, Jimmy Buffet, Blake Shelton and Los Lobos rocked the lobby that themed with Palm Trees, a Tiki Bar and snow cones.  Our surfing countdown had some pretty funny reminders every minute.

When people entered the auditorium they saw a stage outlined with tiki torches and a grass "skirt".  On stage were beach balls, "tiki" poles (like a totem pole), and palm trees.  When the countdown ended we tossed out a half dozen beach balls and  had an old fashioned beach party to the tune of Wipeout by the Safari's.  Beach balls were being bounced around, people were on their feet and engaged in what was going on and then we ROCKED the worship set.

After a video promo for next Saturday's Pig Out our band played Losing my Religion by REM.  It was complete with a mandolin that absolutely was the most incredible thing I ever heard.  Kevin can sing that as good as REM did - and the place was electric!  It was insane. 

I got up and preached the message God gave me at 1:00am this morning.   Yes - you read that right.  I had a sermon that was good doctrinally and informationaly - but absolutely sucked and I couldnt make it make sense.  I literally wrestled with myself, with God all evening Saturday and finally scrapped half of my 10 hours of work around midnight.  I prayed and God began to reveal what He wanted people to hear and I rearranged it, changed the main theme.  As God poured out what He wanted me to say I literally couldn't type it fast enough.  I went to bed at 2:45 am, woke up at 5, loaded the pick up three times back and forth to the theater, downed a Monster Lo Carb and shucked the corn.   I dont think I have ever had as much fun and freedom preaching as I did today. 

We finished the service with a great song about Love - Arise - and then did a reprise of one of the HOT songs to close out the service. 

Our volunteers and our staff absolutely blew me away at how great everything looked and how well all the elements came together.  I'll find a picture and post it.  I'd post the video but we jacked up the audio track - this was our first attempt.

The highlight of the day though was the half dozen or so people who trusted Jesus as Savior!  Absolutely incredible.  And the icing on the cake - for the first time ever we broke 200 - in the middle of summer!  Now thats HOT! I was absolutely blown away by what God did at Crosspoint today and on the way home after the service while I was stopped at a traffic light I cried. 

Unbelievable Day!  We serve an AWESOME God! We have an INCREDIBLE Church. 

The night before...

I absolutely LOVE the night before a new series like Hot Topics.  Since we are a portable church there is a lot of uncertainty associated with it.  We have a TON of props to set up and no way to do a trial run.  Besides our usual 2-16' trailers full of junk - we'll have cars, SUV's and a pick up loaded to the gills with props.  And when they get there - we have to figure out on the fly how to put it all together to make it look good.  Some stuff isnt even done yet and we dont know if it will work! Honestly a ton of stuff can go wrong in the morning - and I absolutely LOVE it.  I thrive off of it in fact.  Cant wait till tomorrow!

Hot Hot Hot

Headed out today to get some work done - and its HOT outside.  Reminded me that its going to be HOT at Crosspoint tomorrow.  We start Hot Topics Sunday.  We'll be tackling some issues related to Religion and the church, politics, Homosexuality, and Alcohol.  What does the bible have to say about Ellen's marriage and how should the church respond?  Is it OK for Christians to drink beer?  Was Jesus a Republican?   What about speaking in tongues?  What's that all about?  It should be HOT HOT HOT. 

Sunday will be fun and it will be silly sometimes - but it will help you, it will help your friends, Jesus will be worshiped and the Word will the taught.  Do not miss HOT TOPICS!

iHappiness!

Well, apple sure wasnt ready for the iLaunch of the iPhone and neither was AT&T but after a long day that began at 4:00am i have achieved iHappiness.

The day began with waking up at 4, showering, and heading to the AT&T store to avoid crowds in Metro Huntsville.  I was meeting my buddies there at 5.  Well one was going to come at 5:30 and bring breakfast.  I arrived to no line but noticed cars in the lot.  Too bad - they lose.  I got got my stuff and headed to the door.  2 kids that camped out overnight had their stuff there so I was #3 at 4:30.  My buddies were 5 and 6.  I already knew that only 6 people would be allowed in.

The AT&T people arrived about 6:30 and started setting up and getting our hopes up for an early launch.  They came out and put up a barricade around 7 and at 7:30 came out and had us pre-fill out what we wanted - made sure we knew how many bills to lay out, and checked upgrades for existing customers.

The doors opened at 8 with about 40 people in line.  I made my dash to the register, they got me a phone, swiped my card and I was paid up in 15 minutes.  Not bad. Then they had to "unbrick" the phone.  Basically you connect to itunes and register it.  All they got was "connecting to the itunes store" - and then timeouts.  Suddenly there was panic among the employees.  No one could sync.  Some people couldnt even pay and activate with at&t.  They had to break out the old school credit card machines! 

At 8:50 they told me the new plan was let people take them home and sync them.  ITunes store was getting slammed.  CRAP.  So I left with my iBrick and headed to work.  Got here at 9:30 and started to try and sync.  No joy.  called apple.  No operators available - please call back!  WHAT?  Not a good sign.  So I called at&t.  Their suggestion - leave it plugged into the computer and it will eventually sync.  Uh - no it wont.  iTunes timed out and gave an error. 

Now im searching the internet - EVERYONE is having the issue.  Several suggestions to work around - nothing.  Suddenly around lunch I get a text message from AT&T.  Welcome to the AT&T network.  Could this be it?  I can use my phone now - but I cant sync with itunes.  Off to a meeting and I come back and one of my buddies is working.  WHAT?  I shut down iTunes, disconnect the iPhone - reconnect - BAM!  Im registering my new iPhone.

It was a pain, apple and at&t were unprepared - but no riots took place, I have an iPhone that works, and no one lost body parts. 

Here are my pics from this morning:

HOT STUFF

Had a creative meeting last night about HOT TOPICS.  We are going to have a BLAST this Sunday.  You will think you are at the beach so dress accordingly!  Flip Flops, Board Shorts, Hawaiian Shirts.  There will be Lei's, Tiki Torches, Surboards, Beach Boys, Beach Balls, Sno Cones...The Music will be HOT HOT HOT.  The message I'm leading off with will help set the stage for the rest of series as we tackle what the bible has to say about gay people, drinking beer, politics. 

What I say over the course of the next month is going to SHOCK some of you, liberate some of you, convict and convince some of you and maybe even make some of you mad.   Get your friends there.  You dont want to be late either! 

mo betta

Im pretty excited about some new things we are going to be doing soon at Crosspoint.  We are raising the bar in a lot of areas and jumping the curve to a whole new level in others.  Some things on the horizon:

• New and improved Childrens ministry area - and I mean over the top.  more details soon.  Hang on!
• New video production software - they will get better and better as we learn.
• New presentation software - should be better for the team (and a new mac to do it on)
• Services on the web via streaming video (not live - sorry not yet)
• Upgrades in the sound department.  working with some consultants on that
• A new resource center including CD sets of past messages, a book store of sorts, crosspoint t-shirts and swag.
• A new guest connection process with freebies and stuff for first time guests.

There's probably more on the list.  Some will be subtle improvement - some will be WOW - all will be to help us better accomplish the mission of making passionate disciples.  Im pumped up!