It is the day after Easter weekend, a time like no other to see new faces and touch lives we may never see again. All of us as ministers certainly know the opportunity that has been given and I hopw that we all did what we could to be effective in reaching the unchurched.
This year we held our annual Easter weeeknd celebration in our local park which has a large amphitheater. It is our 9th year and this year a local A/G church of about 100 or so asked if they could partner with us to which we replied...without a doubt yes.
So after months of of our 2 church staff's meeting (alot more work for us this year) we stepped into the weekend on Saturday for a community wide Easter Egg Hunt w/ 30,000 candy filled eggs, 2500 hot dog lunches, brand new bikes and tons of other stuff. Our Mayor, council and poliece chief all came out and in spite of 50 degree weather a crowd of roughly 2000 came out to enjoy the day with us.
Yesterday we held our Easter service in the same park and combined our worship teams, tag team preached a illustrated message (with spanish translation) and held a kids program in the aquatic center near the amphitheater. We gave away more bikes and a easter basket to one lucky family filled with small appliances, toys, dvd and 19" flat screen tv etc
The results were 627 peaople who came to the services. 48 who stood and made confessions of faith. Most of them came down where they received bibles, filled out altar cards and met sme of our pastoral staff. We had a info booth both dys that had packets filled with info on our church and gave away a few hundred of those.
The highlight for me was when we gave the basket away with all the stuff in it, it was given to a spanish woman who had just come down for salvation. When I called her name, she stood and came down with her new spanish bible in hand. She stood in front of the basket of household items, put her bible in front of her face and sobbed.
The weekend is now past but the real work begins. getting people to come has never really been a prolem for us, it is getting people to stay, get connected and start a journey of faith with us.
I hope your weekend was a true success for the kingdom.
TELL US ABOUT WHAT GOD DID FOR YOU!
Todd, this is great. Thank you for the update. I rejoice with you. Thank God for the 48 decisions. That's what it's all about.
ReplyDeleteWOW!! This is the only word i can even think of when i heard what God done thru Legacy CC and Pastor Todd. I have the same feeling of what God done at clc also.
ReplyDeleteWe give God all Glory and thanks for allowing us to be a part of move of His Holy Spirit. We did not even mention a goal of how many we wanted to see attending clc. We did have a campaign to see a bunch accept Christ.
3 + 1 = 50, was our campaign. We first told our people, DO NOT INVITE PEOPLE THAT ARE CHRISTIANS. We challenged our people in invite 3 people/families, told them to not come to church without at least 1 person/family, then we prayed and believed God that 50 people would accept Christ. To make a long story short, here is what happened.
On Easter at clc, 3 + 1 = more than 50. We had 54 people accept CHRIST. WOW. I cannot even explain how I feel that God allowed clc to be a part of such a move of God. Just a few lives of stories that i have heard so far that accepted Christ. A mom, a grandmother, a community leader, a son, a stripper, a teenager, kids in KC, a drug user. These are just some of the people that i know accepted Christ on Sunday. Thank you Jesus for allowing us to be a part of these people's life transformation. Also to add to this clc broke 500 in attendance for the first time.
I am overwhelmed by a Relentless God who loves us so much and that He allows us to lead people to become fully devoted followers of Christ.
Eddie, that's amazing. I would love to hear some of the personal stories of those who accepted Christ. I also talked with Tom Skiles, and he shared concerning an amazing number of people that accepted Christ at SOS. Again, that's what it's about. Now we need to get them connected to the church and learning the Jesus' life.
ReplyDeleteGreat Stuff! Pastor Jared Ming had a great Sunday in Southern California with 800 people in attendance. His church is less than four years old. I'm proud of him.
ReplyDeleteYou guys challenged me this year. Let me be transparent. I need to be challenged. I get bored real easy; and you've got me thinking about making next year even better. After twenty years full-time at the same church (the last thirteen as senior pastor), it's easy to assume that everything is being taken care of. Eddie, your challenge motivated me to check the urinals and smell of the bathrooms, and much more.
I'm already thinking about next year. How can we do it better. I will do a FREE pancake breakfast to inspire more to come the early service, or offer a third service. We packed in 100 extra chairs; and there was standing room only in the 2nd service. It broke my heart to see one famiy leave because they couldn't find a seat. We had 2,500 people on Easter Weekend (that's Good Friday worship & drama, Saturday's Car & Bike Show, and Sunday's five services.) More than 1,500 people attended our two Sunday morning services. 75 people gave their hearts to Christ. Our "Pie Ministry" is following up on sixteen new families (those who filled out cards)with a Marie Calendar pie.
Here's the point: I'm still disappointed. We could have done more. We should have been better prepared. The bad news: It's too late for that. The good news: There's next year. Keep inspiring us old guys! I'm one old dog that's willing to try a new trick to see more souls saved and discipled!
I love reading the reports. Eddie and Jeff, you guys inspire me to reach higher and dig deeper. Some feel the spirit of competition with others, with you guys it is challenging one another to go beyond what we have settled for in the past. I can't wait untill we can all get together again and talk shop. Blessings to you guys!
ReplyDeleteJeff,
ReplyDeleteDude, keep it hot. You are an inspiration to me. Don't allow complacency to set in and satisfaction to become part of the equation. No matter how many we reach we should be reaching more. The Great Commission is what we are all about. IF the church is not reaching the lost them we are just maintaining status quo.
It's taken some time to reflect. Guys, I've been in the throws of renovation work for over 17 weeks and our staff is a little tired but we're getting our strength back!
ReplyDeleteAs we approached Easter we were still finializing the move from our Gym back into our newly renovated Worship Center. This meant lots of man power and hours spent getting things done. Thank God for great volunteers!!!!
We did the normal advertising (signage, media, etc.) but we also distributed 4000 door hangers that we customed. Our people were in full force in the community connecting with their neighbors.
On Palm Sunday we moved into our new Worship Center (one week ahead of schedule! YEAH!!!!) This was helpful because we wanted to work out the bugs of the equipment, etc.
On Easter Sunday we also modified a time change for our early service from 9 am to 8:30 am. The half hour will help us with parking issues and time constraints between the two morning services.
So, everything was in place. Parking lot attendants, greeters, ushers, children's workers, media, sound, lighting, you name it...we were ready for the main event.
I knew the "unconvinced" would be coming and I knew the Christmas/Easter people would be there. I didn't have a typical Easter message prepared. Rather, I spoke on "The Fight Is Still In Me." I just preached my guts out and was greatly assisted by our Choir & Dance Teams.
With a combination of both services we counted 650 people in attendance and the altars were full of people who declared that they weren't going to lose their fight either! We also witnessed the conversion of 10 souls added to the Kingdom. I'm so thankful today.
We reformated our assimilation process with a new strategy and it's working great.
We're witnessing new families since Easter and are ready to plug them in.