I came across this video today of a journalist named A.J. Jacobs who decided to spend a year following every single rule in the entire Bible. Jacobs considers himself to be a 'respectful agnostic'. It's a good picture of how the world sees the Bible and Jesus.
Today was the Pekin Campus Sneak Peak! That means we took the Pekin Campus of BridgeWay LIVE for a week for evaluation to see how 'ready' we were in preparation for our Launch Day on September 13. Here are some thoughts from a fantastic day:
- We met at the Pekin Kerasotes Showplace 14 Theater on Route 98 in Pekin. It's a great venue with lots of room to grow!
- Aside from location, another difference was that we only had one service instead of two. Our services in Morton are at 9:30 and 11:00. We had one service at 10:00.
- We arrived like we do every Sunday at 6:30 am. Even though we had an extra half hour, we kept it the same in case we needed it - which we did...
- We had a fantastic set up crew there (as always). They had all four children's areas set up in about half an hour! I'm pretty sure that's some sort of record. The bad news is that these guys have set the bar really high and now they'll have to live up to it every week. Of course, they'll be up to it :)
- The lobby also went together quickly, and we had some good feedback from our lobby people about possible improvements there as well.
- Theater 3 was our adult worship theater and all things considered, it went together really well and really quickly.
- The guys were setting up nearly all new equipment and really flew to get it done as quickly as they did.
- We did have some computer issues, but thanks to the sharp minds of our computer guys, the issues were quickly resolved and we were ready to, as my man Wayne would say, "Party on!"
- The run through of the service went as well as it does in Morton, as did the service.
- Our band was kickin and even though they hadn't played together much as a unit, did a really nice job. As good as those guys are, they'll gel quickly in no time.
- I really enjoyed the song at the end by Mark Schultz called "I am." It has very powerful lyrics and you could feel a strong sense of worship in the room as the song went on.
- That song was in response to the One Prayer message we heard from a guy named Tim Chambers from a church called Shore Fellowship out in Jersey.
- His message was entitled "God is...I AM."
- He talked about how we get to know people by their name, but a name isn't just a name, it's who a person is.
- A couple of cool lines I liked: In talking about the phrase from Psalm 23, "The Lord is my shepherd," Tim said: "God is is, God was is, and God always will be is."
- Another one: "God wants to turn my Am I's? into his I AM's!" - that's good stuff!
- On top of all of that, our children's area functioned really well.
- Our greeters, BridgeCafe folks, and other First Impressions team members were exceptional as well.
- We had some minor bumps, but let me emphasize the word MINOR.
- All in all, it was probably about as good as we could have hoped for.
- We even had some new families in attendance that had never been here before!
- Along with all that from Pekin, our Morton campus was fab as well. It's awesome to see how God is faithful, especially when He calls you to do radical things for Him.
- God is good!
- I also wanted to give a shout out to my parents, Bruce and Liz, for being here today as well. I'm pretty sure they come to see my son, but I like to think otherwise. Love you guys!
- I also want to give a big shout out to all my family at BridgeWay. I received so many birthday wishes today it was ridiculous! The Sneak Peak was a gift that will be tough to top!
Thanks again to the incredible staff, volunteers, and family at BridgeWay. You guys are great and I can't wait til the "Sneak Peak" becomes a weekly expectation of God at work through BridgeWay in Pekin.
