Monday SOC

My Monday Stream of Consciousness (SOC)... some thoughts from the weekend at St. Paul's:

• Great weekend at St. Paul's! Even with the Labor Day long weekend, great numbers and great energy!

• I was really encouraged by how people responded to the 150 Day Challenge. I wouldn't be surprised if we hit our goal in about 120 days! How awesome would that be!

• I am also really excited about the energy and momentum building for the Manchester Campus. It will launch Easter 2009... more details next week at the Manchester Campus Vision Night (7:45pm Sunday).

• Want to keep up with what is happening with Manchester? Follow the progress through Facebook here.

• Preaching 4 services in one is pretty exhausting.

• I am excited for our video experiment at the 6PM starting next week.

• I loved preaching through 2 Peter. That was a fun series!

• The 4PM Service was probably 70% students... and lots of freshman. Awesome!

• The bus was standing-room-only at the 4PM. Very cool!

• Music at all 4 services was excellent.

• Personally, I really love and appreciate the Jazz service.

• Traditions... "Sing Hallelujah".. breathtaking! Man, Betty can sing!

• Something different at 4 & 6 PM. More keyboard-driven and I thought it worked. No worries... guitar will be back next week, but good to know we have options.

• Beth is doing a great job... not just on Sunday but in everything. She is a great addition to the team.

• Part of my message on Sunday was that "faith comes by hearing" (not sight). Someone seriously asked me "what about deaf people?" Hmmmm... I think he might have been serious too, lol. Oh well.

• The answer? "Hearing" is related to "The Word" which you can read even if deaf.

• The 6PM service is probably our coolest and most experimental service these days. Coffee station in the chapel, discussion time after the message, and some other cool stuff coming. Check it out!

• Why are we doing all these very cool extras at the 6PM? To be honest, we need some people to shift from the 4PM service to open up seats and we are not beyond bribery :-)

• I may start making homemade blueberry muffins at the 9AM too :-)

• Today is Sept 1st and I literally could not be more thrilled with how our fall is coming together. Our volunteers are unbelievable --- thank you all!

• Next week we launch a new series called TEXT. I am excited about it.

• Don't forget to pray for the 150 Days!