One of the perks of moving to Lubbock was that we already knew where we would go to church. We first visited Experience Life when we were in town at Christmastime. We were like this church is so cool ~ if we lived here, we'd totally go to church here.
So instead of procrastinating church hunting like we have done in the past, we have jumped in head 1st to our new church home. And we fit right in because our pastor has said straight up that no perfect people are allowed, and Lord knows we are far from perfect.
Brandon is the worship leader there, Jill sings on the worship team, Beth plays the keyboard, Steve does the sound...We sit with Gregg and Wendi and all of the little cousins are in Sunday School together. My girls are so thrilled when Tori and Sarah stop by their class to give them a hug and/or help out. Tori and Sarah are like rock stars to Macy and I'm so glad that she has teenage role-models to look up to.
It's no secret that our home group in Arlington was an important part of our church experience at Pantego. Biblical community was just as important there as it is at Experience Life. Except at ELife, it is called Life Houses. Jill and Todd lead the Life House we (and Wendi) are apart of and our Life House will now be meeting at our house every week. I'm so looking forward to expanding on Chris's sermons each week and draw from past experiences and daily life to contribute. Between Gregg and I, we have a few things to bring to the table...
This past weekend was the one year anniversary of the church. Experience Life started with zero people and one service to last Sunday 1,500+ and 3 services! And by the way, ELife rents it's space at a skating rink. But when you are there, you don't think of the snack bar to the right or the concrete floor underneath the chairs. Because, God, he is there amongst us.
Saturday night was the launch of the 5:00 service (which we'll now be attending) and as part of the celebration, there were Cardboard Testimonies. And husband, he participated.
Alcoholic Alone Searching for Answers
Recovering Beautiful Family Seeking God's Will
Tell me the tears weren't coming...
We were there for all three services this weekend. On Saturday night, I just watched the testimonies so I could clap, cheer and cry. 1st service on Sunday, I videoed it with my camera (which looks all distorted on the You Tube video below but watch anyways just to hear Brandon sing ~then watch it again to try to read the words). 2nd service, I took pictures of the card boards. I was all front row Joe and felt like a total ELife groupie...
So, Saturday night after the service, we stayed for a concert where the worship team recorded a live CD.
Clearly Macy and Kendra were into it.
Kendra was having a moment before she started her air guitar.
This weekend was such an spiritual high that was so needed in the midst of the spiritual warfare that has been coming our way the past few weeks.
God is working in this city through Experience Life and we are so grateful to be apart of it.
...I'd love for you to check out the video clip of the past year (Paigey is in it when it shows the Toddler class ~ she's getting out of a chair at the table). I've watched it about 476 times.
...And check out the clever marketing campaign and billboards that Chris created. It's how he rolls.
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