Yesterday we had our first Sunday Gathering. I was up until 2 am the night before. I think I was a bit wired, but also pulling together things I forgot until then.

Everything went great. We have some amazing volunteers who served big time!
I want to list some here:
> Carter was a monster help on production!
> Andy and his boys were epic on the food and beverage side of things!
> Mike was the greeter king and leader who put an awesome group in motion! Servant Man!
> Chris was the do what it takes fella.
> Jane was the welcome queen and shared from her heart like a pro - preach it sista!
> Ben was the powerpoint guru.
> Bob was on the guitar but also a set up and tear down wizzard!
> Ken & Brenda were servants to the core following the gathering!
> Doug & Margo and their family had servants hearts and showed up to serve!
> We had remarkable volunteers in the kids area!
Carol, Vicki, Jen, Mike, Brenda, Ashley, Paige, Becca, Ellen, Erin, Laura,
Ashley, Becca, Sammi, and others...
> Nate M. was getting giggy with the tear down and all around service.
> Fred and Ally came to serve the kids and showed Christ!
> Wade was killer on the percussion and led the way by sharing and serving.
> Many of our core members stepped in to help set up chairs, clean up, greet and
serve.
> Mike did a killer job with the band - they were awesome!
The Band was: Casey, Jordan, Granger, Bob and the Wade man.
> Nate made the kid program hum and the kids had a blast!
> Ryan was the servant - do what it takes fella.
> The YMCA was awesome - Patrick checked in on us and helped get the sign up.
> Bruce and Anita from the sign factory helped us out with an awesome sign.
> Jan was the photo queen - being creative with the memories.
> If I missed someone - sorry - not that anyone reads this anyways.

We need to do some serious follow up and thank you notes. One thing that I would love to see a part of our Watermark culture is the heart of service in community and the response of encouragement. It seems easy to begin to see people as a player in fulfilling the vision of seeing people grow and find Christ. Rather than seeing those very people as the mission and vision. Through service people can encounter encouragement, truth and community to grow with Jesus.

So anyways we had an amazing morning! But we did not "do" church - we "are" the church. Now that we are doing some gatherings we will need to cast the vision of "being" the church even more.

We were blown away by how many people were there yesterday - it was humbling. There were 153 total people including kids. Wow! Lots of new faces!

I did not feel good about my message. I could not seem to speak clearly - and felt like I was walking through mud to communicate. I do feel like I have been under spiritual oppression. Anyways - I never usually get nervous, but as soon as I stood up to speak I all of a sudden realized the significance of the moment and began to get nervous. Funny. I was so busy getting everything together that I forgot to be excited and to realize what was happening until I spoke.

I finally ditched my notes and felt more comfortable. The challenge was to live your faith so that others could come to know Jesus. To be committed to grow with God so that you can go and help others do the same.

Well - I gotta jet. Praise God.

sd