I Liked It

I think I've recovered from last week...it was crazy! But when it was all set up and we were singing praises out to Jesus, I have to say I liked it. I think it looked good, sounded waaaaayy better than I thought it would and we've gotten positive feedback and comments from regulars and guests.

Since Claude already beat me to the blog you can check out the pictures he posted on his blog. I really think people were suprised at how much like a church and how little like a Boys and Girls Club it looked.

I was really excited about one guest in particular. When we were buying the metal to weld our chair carts together, one of the guys who works there was talking about church and stuff and offered to help with the welding if we needed anything. We called him, he came out and did some welding and showed up on Sunday!! Seems like a great guy and afterwards he said to me, "I think I found a home" Great stuff.

We were talking at staff meeting last night and are working at getting prepared because we think we've got some fresh momentum now and we're expecting things to continue growing. It's a little slower growth than I'd like, but considering we started with just my family, had maybe 45-50 at the theater and have been averaging over 120 this year (not counting Easter) I can say we're growing. We'll be recognizing a new group of PARTners and having another PARTnership class in the next couple weeks. We're also starting something new...PARTner of the month. We want to celebrate those people who've made the commitment to Discovery, to an Outlet and to ministry. I love our first pick. Haven't decided for sure if we'll recognize this week or next...guess you'll have to be there.

Can You Believe It?

Alright, it's the day before Easter and it's April. It's also cold. How cold? Cold enough to SNOW?! Can you believe it? We had snow flurries. And once the wind started whipping up at 25 miles an hour, visibility was down to a quarter mile! That's just crazy.

It's supposed to be even colder tomorrow morning...may even be in the 20's. So much for spring time and all the weather that you typically think about with Easter. Hopefully it won't keep too many people away. We set up a bunch of stuff last night to help with the Minority Business Expo and I have to say, things look pretty sharp. Definitely a transformation. We'll set up most of the rest of our stuff after the expo closes down tonight. I'm excited to see the whole thing all set up. Looks like it will be a great day (regardless of the weather) Just praying for people and receptive hearts.

Butterflies

Have you ever had butterflies? You know, the feeling you get when you're excited and nervous at the same time. I don't usually get too many butterflies, maybe when I asked my wife to marry me and right before our first kid was born, but I've got a lot of them this morning. I always have a few every week before I speak, but not this many.

I'm looking at the list of all that still needs to be done and get a little nervous. Then I get a phone call from someone who got one of our mailers who wants to know what time we meet and I get excited. It's a bit like a roller coaster. At least for the most part I'm enjoying the ride.

I think anytime we're trying to do something bigger than ourselves, we should feel the butterflies. If churches and Christ-followers don't have that butterfly feeling on a regular basis, I'm thinking there's a problem. I mean, butterflies are attracted to flowers - their color and scent. If people and churches don't have butterflies it's a good bet that their color is fading and their fragrance is all but gone. They're like a tulip or daffodil that looks and smells so good for a bit and the rest of the time is just a plain old plant that blends in and doesn't really matter much. I don't ever want to be like that. I hope Discovery is constantly in bloom, trying new things, taking risks, making our corner of the world a little brighter. If we are, we'll have that butterfly feeling a lot more.

I Need This

Still working on the final details for the message on Easter and I know I need this message. We're starting a brand new series called "Finding Success" and I'm here to tell you...with all the energy I'm using this week, I'm definitely trying to find whatever will make this move, this series, this message and this entire Easter experience a successful one. I have to pull back and think about what success is. I'm filtering it through the paradigm and definition that we'll be using for the whole series, and that makes it a little harder for me to measure success.

Will hundreds of people coming be a success? If everything looks and sounds good will it be a success? If I'm "on" when I speak will the message be a success? If people show up and think "wow" is that a success? I just don't know and it's not because I don't want all of the above to happen.

True success is just so much more than a singular event. The event still matters. The accomplishment still counts, but true and lasting success comes later. For example, if we resist temptation once - we succeeded, but I don't believe we should consider ourselves successful yet. We should still fight temptation of course, but real success comes much (sometimes much, much) later.

So I'll continue to work hard and put everything I've got into succeeding this weekend, and we'll know in a few months and years if I can be considered successful.

Going Out Tomorrow

Made a HUGE mistake that we didn't detect until too late on our mailers. Would you believe we didn't put a time on it?!?! What a bunch of amateurs we are.

Either way, nearly 20,000 more will hit the mailing routes tomorrow (even without the times) and we'll be praying that people will go to the website or call if they don't know when we meet (which is 10:10). Considering I've seen our little yellow road signs at a number of the major intersections, people who get the cards may have already seen those and gotten the time of 10:10 from them. I guess those signs are staying out all week long this week. Usually we pick 'em up Sunday, but we're getting a lot of drive by traffic so that's a good thing when it comes to marketing.

I'm excited about our series too - Finding Success. Too often people define success in the short term, but it's more than that. It has to be. How else could you define a since it covers so many years? I can't wait to successful lifeshare what I've been learning. We'll be rolling out the red carpet (same stuff they use at the MTV music awards!) for our first week. I'm so glad we can get into the building to semi-set-up on Friday night and Saturday, because I'm still stressing over how it's all going to work out. But hey, God's in control (when I let him).

Coming Together

It's so encouraging when people pull together to make something happen. Preparations for moving to the Boys and Girls Club are in full swing. All the chairs are here and Claude and I have been doing grunt work - specifically working on welding up some carts for moving the 20 lb padded folding chairs we'll be using. Since welding isn't my thing, I didn't know about "flash burn," but I do now. I was up Tuesday from 2-4 in the morning with my eyes hurting and watering and feeling like I was gonna go blind. I guess I burned my eyeballs when I was helping Claude do the welding. Won't do that again.

We put a proto-type cart together and took it up to the BGC to make all our measurements were correct and it's a good thing because we discovered a little issue that we needed to fix before we went and made all 5 carts. While we were reworking the design, I got my "24 hour notice" phone call that our stage was going to be delivered. . . now! So with 10 actual minutes of lead time, I had them deliver it to the BGC and we offloaded it from the truck. Man, that thing looks great. Only one problem. Those carts won't fit through the doors either. Don't know what we're going to do about that yet. Replacing the non-standard doors isn't an option though. So with 400-500 pounds of steel to cut and weld up, Claude's busy working on the other 4 carts, while I'm off to the post office to send out our second direct mail piece. It's only Wednesday and I feel like it should be Friday.

Moving On

Just got back from packing everything up and I have to say I had a little moment standing in the empty auditorium of South Central for the last time. I thought about how much has happened in the last year and all the people we've been able to connect with. I thought about the lives that have been changed...

And now I just got back from what turned out to be a very long interruption while I when I started typing this. Yeah, I'll miss the school, but I'm looking forward to the Boys and Girls Club and what's going to happen there. There's just something exciting about moving. I think it creates momentum, gives people a reason to invite people, and keeps us from getting stuck in a predictable rut. See you next Sunday.