It was great to see the crowd that turned out Sunday for our first Easter Service since moving to Frank Theaters. Here’s some “behind the curtain” stuff I want everyone to know…
1. Six months ago we were a church struggling to survive. We were losing our venue, and after a year-long, emotionally bruising search filled with rejection after rejection, we were facing the serious possibility of being “homeless” as a church.
2. Sunday was a “normal” service. Other than the fact that we were celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus, it wasn’t a special Easter service. If Sunday was your first time to attend actionchurch, you can expect the same type of service to happen next Sunday. Instead of preparing for a few “special” Sundays a year, we work hard as a crew to have 50 SPECIAL SUNDAYS a year. (I say 50 weeks because we take the week between Christmas and New Year off…and we have a church-wide picnic in July.)
3. Speaking of Crew, the “secret” of actionchurch…the real “behind the curtain” thing that you should know, is that all of the talented, passionate, hard-working, crew that make Sundays happen each week are volunteers with busy lives, careers, kids, jobs, and thousands of other pressures and concerns that normal folks have. In Spite of that, each week our crew manages to put together a service that you would normally see at much larger…and MUCH bigger budgeted…churches. I’m proud to be part of such a talented and generous group!
4. We are just getting started! I announced Sunday that James McBride would be heading up our action groups launch in the fall. A few weeks ago I introduced you to Kenna Schaller who is now heading up our outside events efforts. Over the past few months we have been aligning our crew into their personal “sweet spots”, and with the addition of our new crew-members, I think we are poised with the leadership needed to go places as a church that seemed totally impossible just a few months ago.
5. And finally…there’s the curtain…the big black curtain that stretches across the back of the the theater. What’s behind that curtain? Here’s the great news. Behind that curtain is 150+ red leather recliners…great seats for even more folks to fill on Sunday mornings. 150+ more opportunities for your friends and my friends to hear about Jesus. 150+more opportunities for your family and my family to hear the Good News that has changed our lives! 150+ new opportunities for potential crew members and leaders of the future. And guess what…God provided those seats for us…planned that we would have them available…even when it didn’t seem like there was a single seat in York County available for us to rent.
I can’t wait ’til you see what’s behind that curtain in the upcoming months. I look forward to demonstrating together that these ancient words from the book of Ephesians are still true:
Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think Ephesians 3:20