Grand Opening Thoughts and Reaction

from Erin Bird

"Wow, what a great morning!"

That's my initial reaction as I reflect just a few hours after our grand opening Worship Gathering. Some of my thoughts include:

• Our Launch Team served so hard, yet with smiles on their faces.
• The music was better than I had expected.
• My teaching went as well as I had prayed it would.
• The communion/response time was very meaningful.
• And we had to set-up extra chairs for all the people that came, which honestly surprised me.

Expectations
All week long, I tried to have no internal expectations about attendance numbers. I didn't want my joy to be based on how many showed or didn't show. Sure, we had sent out a ton of postcards, advertised in the paper, and had a commercial on KWAY. But I wanted my joy to be based upon the fact that Jesus rose from the dead after dying on the cross for my sins. And for who ever showed up, I wanted to give them that joy. So honestly, it would have been a great morning whether 20 people showed or 200 came.

There were naturally awkward moments simply because we aren't a Jesus-centered community, yet. Personal radars were on high alert, which probably kept some from fully entering in to the morning. It's hard to laugh at jokes when the pastor's new to you (plus, my jokes are pretty lame...). You don't know whether to clap with the songs or after the songs simply because you don't know the culture of this church yet. But as we begin to settle into a church family over the next several weeks (hopefully continuing to meet new people and invite them to be part of this new church) we'll begin to see a community emerge, one that can begin to engage in worship and with the teaching more.

Oh, and sorry we don't have a bunch of photos. We commissioned someone to take photos of the morning, but he got so caught up in the Worship Gathering, worshipping Jesus and listening to the teaching, that he simply forgot!

But that's fine with me - I won't forget this day.

Overall, it was fun. Despite the rain, it was a joy-filled morning... and I look forward to many more! This was only the beginning.

Wow, what a great day.