kylegilbert

A few months ago, I was impressed to see Firefox open up a graphic t-shirt selection online, and I was inspired to do the same sort of thing for Faith Promise. Well, now I have! Our Communications Team has put together some designs, and I’ve posted them up so that people can order their own custom colors, sizes, and styles. I got my own order in the mail last week, and I love it. I’m hoping that these t-shirts will be a helpful resource for many in our church to start conversations with people who are unchurched or disconnected from God.

Its been a fun project to work on in between other projects, and we’ll be adding new designs to the lineup over the next few months.

PS – I do still have arms and a head, but it was really late, and I took this photo myself.

One part of my job that I really enjoy is working with amazingly talented people at Faith Promise and leveraging the internet and social media to promote the ministry that is happening there.

This weekend I had the opportunity to put together a really cool website. Sacred Storm is the dramatic Easter production that our church has done for the past few years. I’ve not personally watched it, but from the photos and the testimonials of my friends, it’s pretty amazing. This year, we’re doing Sacred Storm the weekend before Easter (six productions), and if things go well in the development of our Internet Campus, we’re going to rebroadcast it the afternoon on Easter Sunday – probably 3 pm EST.

Great weekend at Faith Promise! The rap below (featuring the Pastor’s two sons) came right before Pastor’s hard-hitting sermon.

According to ComScore, there are now over 1 billion people who have internet access -  that is between 15 & 22 percent of the people alive on earth.  It’s an amazing number of people, and the implications are huge, especially for the church.

For the past couple of months, I’ve been working through the details of launching an Internet Campus at Faith Promise Church.  Our hope is to stream the entire service on Sunday mornings at 10 am (ET) by March 2009.  More than just sermons, this would include all the drama, video, and music of the weekend service.

This will allow two things to take place:

• People who aren’t ready to set foot on our physical campus will have the opportunity to experience Faith Promise over the internet.
• People who are physically or geographically unable to attend our church will have the ability to worship with us.

My prayer is that our Internet Campus will be a tool that is used by God to change lives all over the world as they hear God’s message of redemption and are inspired by authentic biblical leadership.  Please join with me in praying, and I’ll keep you posted as things progress.

Tonight was an awesome night of worship at Faith Promise!  We set a record for a single service with 1,226 present (1321, if you include the kids in Preschool) .  That’s pretty full, especially when you take into account that there are only 1,000 seats in the auditorium.

One of the songs was, For the Glory of it All, and it really made me miss all my pals from the West Campus.  I love you guys, and I think about you all the time!  Come visit, when you have a chance!

One thing I really appreciate about Faith Promise is the focus on resolutions and goal setting.  It’s a passion of the pastor, and it has become a part of the culture of the church.  From church-wide goals to personal growth plans, I find myself right at home.

In the midst of my goal setting, I realize that I am once again face to face with the Beast of Familiarity.  If I’m not careful, my driven personality drags me into stale religion and rule keeping.  I can read through chapters without being pulled into and overcome by the Text – without being engaged by the Personal God of the Universe.

Because of this, I’m doing a couple of things this year:

1. I’m using a different Bible translation (NLT) than the one I normally read (NIV).
2. I’m committing to spend more time journaling my prayers – either written or typed.

What about you?  What helps you to stay focused on Christ?  Is there anything new that you’re committing to for the year?

This is probably silly, but I’m really excited about some Faith Promise window stickers I just had made.  My hope is that the members of our congregation will put them on their cars, filing cabinets, lockers, or any other place that can be a conversation starter for people they encounter each week.

We plan to give them out in January, but in the meantime, they’re sitting in my office.  Come by, and I’ll hook you up (I’ve got 3,000 – four spools).

I know this photo is pretty lame, but it’s hard to take an on-the-sly photo when you’re ushering and all you have is an iPhone to do the job.  I’m standing about six rows from the back left corner and facing the screen on the right side of the stage.  You can see a glimpse of the balcony on the right.

I love the atmosphere of worship and anticipation in this place.  People are excited to be there, and yes, it feels a bit like a rock concert.  I love it!  (Why should that feeling be reserved for only concerts and football games?)

One of the interesting things that I got to be a part of today was watching part of a video commercial shoot for Faith Promise.  We went off site to a studio where an ad agency was filming an ad that will run in area movie theaters between now and the end of the year.