WEEKEND UPDATE (041110)

Hey guys, just a quick post to celebrate a great weekend at CROSSROADS and at Church at the Bay in Tampa, Florida.  Leslie and I, accomapnied by Caitlin and John headed down for Tampa at the end of last week and had a great time for a number of reasons you can find here.  Here's a few of the things I noticed about this weekend and a few things I picked up through the grapevine:

• Sunday was the first time that I've been to another church on Sunday morning in years.  If was GREAT!  While I've been to a lot of different churches, when I get a Sunday off, I tend to want to sleep in and be lazy.  
• CATB had great worship and their tech stuff is fantastic.  Learned a few valuable things to bring home to Crossroads, and Hal Mayer's message was great! 
• Then Hal made fun of Alabama.
• Then Hal made fun of Alabama again.
• Then I made fun of Hal.
• Then Hal took the microphone away from me.
• It was BIG fun and according to Hal's Blog this morning, I am the first person to ever yell "Roll Tide!" from the platform of their church!!  Then we met Vickie after the service who is moving to Enterprise.  Her husband's an IP and they're coming for 3 years.  What a great morning.  Hal made fun of Alabama, and we walked out with a new family for Crossroads!!  
• Then the REALLY BIG deal.  Prayed for CATB Youth as they headed out for several days of hard work at the Annex getting the new Highway 68 space ready!!  These young people are giving up Spring Break to serve our church and our community!  Blown away by their commitement and the dedication of their leaders, including Youth Pastor Hal Mayer IV.  Thanks CATB!!
• So WHAT A GREAT DAY AT CROSSROADS, HUH???!!!  Guys, one year ago we had 119 people at the cinema for "Bomb Sunday".  Well, you guys bombed "Bomb Sunday" completely out of our future vocabulary when 296 people showed up, more than 2-1/2 times the number last year!!!  Way to go CROSSROADS!!! 
• Thank you Pastor Matt (PM) for doing a great job Sunday morning teaching about heaven!  Tons of great comments including:
• "PM does a great job of getting God's word across.  I know heaven is a real place."
• "Nice to know this world is our temporary home!"
• "Looking forward to eternity!"
• "A great reminder and challenge to keep my life in perspective."
• "Great way to look at heaven!" 
• And my favorite quotable quote:  "We're not floaty ghosty things with wings". Ha-ha!!
• Great job by Nic on a great song at the end of the service!

What a wonderful day for Crossroads!  I heard from so many people that there were many first-time attenders, that there were plenty of volunteers making short work of set-up and tear down, and that the building was full of happy, smiling people!!  What a blast to celebrate together!  We had a great weekend, but I missed everyone and can't wait to be back next week to kick off a brand new original series called 'OZ'.  I'll post about it later.  Have a GREAT week!!!!!