Can you believe it – less than two weeks away? It’s time! Pull out all the stops and start inviting your friends, neighbors, co-workers, and family to our Easter Egg Drop and Easter Service. Make the call, walk across the room, drop by their house, send a text, twitter, or facebook message, but whatever you do, invite them to come! Maybe go old school and actually write a handwritten note and put it in the mail. After they get up off the floor or come back from the ER, you’ll have a huge open door to tell them about Coastal. But I’m serious. More and more people say they would come to church if someone simply invited them. And people are especially open to come on Easter.

We had another awesome weekend at Coastal! Several weeks ago I told Janet that sometime soon I felt that we would just jump in attendance about 20 or 30 people. Well it looks like we have. For weeks during the beginning of this year we were hovering around 150. Then last week we jumped for no real apparent reason to 186. What was this week’s big drop back to reality you ask? 174! I think we just pushed through a mini-barrier. We had lots of guests and return guests. Now let’s bust through the 200 mark!

We had a great Newcomers Lunch on Sunday – over 20 adults! We’ve been pretty intentional about these over the last year, but I think we’re about to get a little more systematic. For example, maybe we start having them the first Sunday of every other month – something like that. That way our guests always know we have one coming up. We’ll see. Bill Brown made a great plug for 1st Impressions Ministry at Newcomers Lunch.

Speaking of Ministry, last week Geri Lee had several new people volunteer for Communion Prep and this week Bill had some new volunteers for 1st Impressions. Janet also had a great training meeting for Coastal Kidz.

Coastal, don’t forget that with growth, comes change. We have to constantly remind ourselves why we do what we do. And we have to constantly ask ourselves are we willing to do whatever it takes to reach one more person for Jesus? Positions in ministry change, programs change, facilities change. But what doesn’t change is our purpose of sharing LIFE! It’s about others not us.

One of our goals that you’ve heard us talk about is to add a third service in the Fall – a 6PM Sunday night service geared toward reaching a younger audience. By the way, we’re already getting a ton of positive feedback about it. It will be a 3rd service, just like the other two. We are simply expanding our capacity for growth. Now we might tweak the music a bit and the atmosphere might be slightly different, but the message and main elements will be the same. Let me be quick to say that we don’t have everything figured out yet. We don’t have enough volunteers yet. But we are planning, praying, and working out the details now – volunteers, Children’s Ministry, Student Ministry, etc. I believe that many of the volunteers for this third service aren’t even a part of Coastal -YET! But I have learned over the years that if we don’t set goals and move forward in faith toward them, even when you can’t see everything, you never accomplish anything great for God. These are exciting times at Coastal. Let’s continue to move in faith together and shrink the size of Hell one life at a time!

Wow! I know I keep saying that, but that’s how I feel right now. Wow! Sunday was awesome! We had another person who gave their life to Christ! We are shrinking the size of Hell – one LIFE at a time! Another person renewed their commitment to Jesus. Tons of people signed up to take Next Steps and get involved here at Coastal. We also had our largest non-special event attendance – 186 people! We kicked off the New Year stating that we were going to be a church of 250 by the end of the year. It’s March, just three months into the year, and we were at 186! Between the two services, Nursery had 21 babies!

On Friday night, we had a Financial Team meeting to go over the church’s finances – more of a reality check than anything else. While things are definitely better than they were about 6-8 months ago, we are still dealing with the effects of a down economy. People are hurting. We are looking at ways of cutting spending and continuing to make wise decisions. However, we are carrying too much debt. We prayed that God would bless our people. We prayed that our church would grow and that our people would grow in their giving. Well, not only did we have a great attendance, but I got an email from Rebecca, our Treasurer, telling me that some serious praise was in order. We had a great offering! Keep it up Coastal!

On Saturday night we had our Volunteer Appreciation Banquet. We had a blast! It was our way to thank our Volunteers. I think they felt blessed. We gave everyone a new t-shirt. On the front of the shirt it says, “Don’t just go to church.” On the back it says, “Be the church.” It also has our web address. On Sunday it was cool seeing everyone wear their shirt. I explained that it has two meanings. One, we don’t want anyone thinking that they just attend Coastal. It’s not about us. We are on a mission to see people come to Christ. And everything we do fits into that purpose. Two, the church is not located at 460 Arlington Dr. We are to be the church in our community, in our schools, in the workplace, wherever God has placed us. In fact, by Sunday night I had several people tell me that they were stopped by people who asked about our church because of their shirt.

And lots of new people are signing up to serve all over Coastal. In Promiseland, our Children’s Ministry, Janet has had several new people step up to observe and serve! Someone served in Nursery for the first time and came out saying, “I found my niche.” Somebody else was offered a t-shirt but he responded, “No, I want to earn it by serving.” We highlighted our Communion Ministry on Sunday and Geri had 5 new people volunteer. Wes had over 20 students Sunday night and has had several new volunteers.

On Wednesday night at 7PM we are having another “Egg Stuffing” party! Right now we have 11,000 stuffed Easter Eggs. We want to push that number to 20,000. Bring plenty of eggs and plenty of candy! It should be a lot of fun.

Like I said – WOW! These are exciting times. But this is just the beginning. I can’t wait for Sunday! Bring your lost friends! I plan on presenting the gospel in a very creative way. Don’t miss it and don’t miss this opportunity.

Tonight at Coastal, we have our Annual Volunteer Appreciation Banquet. We started this tradition last year as a way to thank and bless our volunteers. We will laugh a lot, eat a great meal, and love on our volunteers. We will also give them a small gift of appreciation. I truly believe that we have some of the best volunteers in the world. I know that no one at our church volunteers for me. They choose to serve God, by serving others. They do it because it all fits in to our purpose of sharing the LIFE of Christ with the world around us. And when someone comes to Jesus, when lives are changed, their serving played a part in that process.

I’ve also learned that people value whatever it is you celebrate! We wanted to raise the value of serving here at our church. So we systematically went about celebrating serving. We seek to bless and recognize our volunteers. We take them to the Unleash Conference free of charge. We have this Banquet. And throughout the year we look for other small, but thoughtful ways to say what you do is noticed, important, and valuable.

I’ve been slack this week blogging. But let me just say that last week was awesome here at Coastal! 6 people gave their lives to Jesus and crossed over from death to LIFE! That’s why we do what we do! For the last several weeks, we’ve simply preached the cross of Christ as we’ve looked at the final words Jesus spoke from the cross. I can’t wait for tomorrow! If you’re a Coastal Volunteer, hope to see you tonight!

This morning while I was at the church office, Bruce and Linda Evans stopped by the church to introduce me to their new “friend” and show him our church. Come to find out, Bruce and Linda were test driving a car and invited the salesman to our church. He expressed some interest and since he couldn’t say no, they drove him over (talk about a captive audience). He actually lives nearby. They showed him around and we told him about our Easter Egg Drop. Pretty cool. His name is Saul. Bruce told me that we’re going to change his name to Paul.

What’s even more interesting about this little story is that this morning in my men’s group we read 1Corinthians 9. Listen to vss. 22-23, “I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.” Our church is right in the middle of the “auto mile”; maybe we’ve been missing out on a new evangelism strategy.

Can’t wait for the Unleashed Conference tomorrow! We leave at 5AM! It’s going to be a day of fun, laughter, learning, and inspiration. Right now we’re taking 16 people. Still have 4 tickets left. Call me NOW if you’re interested. Part of the fun of any conference is just going as a group – the ride up and back, the conversations, and being stretched as a team. It’s going to be awesome!

The flowers aren’t in full bloom, but wow what a beautiful weekend in Charleston and what a wonderful week at Coastal! I just love what’s happening at Coastal right now. Do you know what it is? It’s momentum and we have it right now. As I shared earlier last week, we had a great egg stuffing party. But it’s not just the number eggs we stuffed and taped – it’s the people, the purpose, and the excitement.

Ricky Spell had the windows replaced in the Nursery this past week. Delma White made tremendous progress on the fence around the playground and it will probably be finished this week. Josh Rutan was at the church ALL day today landscaping the front sign. He worked like a dog. These are physical changes that make a huge difference. They all communicate that we care. They help remove distractions from people hearing the gospel and taking next steps. They help create WOW experiences that encourage people to return. Thanks guys for all your hard work.

Had a great meeting with Bill Brown, our 1st Impressions Ministry Leader. He is on fire and ready to take his ministry to a “whole nutha level.” Saturday’s FUEL meeting was awesome! Lora Firman, my Administrative Assistant, has put a lot of work into our Egg Drop and many other things which have allowed me to focus on my primary role. The Nursery Ministry had a great meeting today after church. Really impressed with Jennifer Schroder and Kathy Bench. Seeing lots of new Children’s Ministry and Student Ministry Volunteers – Michael Kane & Michael Occhipinti stand out. Louis Camblor & Kathy McGhee have jumped right in and serve wherever needed. Wes has done an excellent job with our Praise & Worship Team and it shows. Everyone is jacked up and ready to do whatever it takes to share and experience the LIFE of Jesus with the world around us! People are inviting and bringing friends! I could go on and on!

Right now we are taking about 15 people to the Unleashed Conference at the Newspring Church in Anderson SC. Coupled with what’s been going on at Coastal – this year’s conference is just going to stoke the flame so to speak! I can’t wait. We still have about 5 tickets left. If you’re interested in going – give me a call.

I know it was “time change” Sunday, but we had a great day. Our attendance was up, 1st Time Guests were present, and we lifted up Jesus and shared the gospel! It doesn’t get any better than that. Coastal, get your friends to church. We will partner with you in leading them to Jesus. You love them, serve them, and show them what a Christ follower looks like and then get them to Coastal and we’ll clearly present the gospel. Loved the music today too. Wes’ sister was in town and sang with the team. She has a beautiful voice. We get more and more comments about our music.

Well guys that’s about it for now. The “lost” hour is catching up with me. Need to get some sleep. Ready for an awesome week!

Don’t forget to set your clocks forward one hour on Saturday night!

Coastal you never cease to amaze me! I am blown away! We announced a couple of weeks ago that we were going to have an “egg stuffing party” at the church for the Egg Drop. It started with my small group and then we announced it at the church this past Sunday. It was actually my son Christopher’s idea. With kids and students, we had over 50 people show up! We stuffed and taped almost 9,500 eggs! And on top of that we had a lot of fun doing it! We’re almost half way there to our goal. We have the best volunteers in the world! Here are just a few pictures:

Wow – this morning was nasty outside! We didn’t have snow or anything close to that (like our neighbors to the North), but I seriously considered bringing in the animals two by two. Janet was scared driving to church this morning! During the first service I was thankful that the power didn’t go out. The weather let up by the second service, but the damage was already done as far as attendance goes. However, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be and we had 1st Time Guests. I still think we can break 175 before Easter! Let’s go for it this Sunday!

Honestly, it was a very moving day. We kicked off a new series, “Words from the Cross.” For the next 6 weeks leading up to Easter, we’re going to be looking at Jesus’ final words that He spoke from the cross. I loved the decorations we set up in the auditorium. On the walls we have very large banners hanging that look like ancient pages of scripture with Jesus’ words highlighted in red. And then on the stage we have a large cross with title of the series across the cross beam. It looks like it was burned into the wood. All of that came out of our Creative Team meeting (great job guys). My message this morning was, “Father, forgive them.” It was a very strong salvation message and a reminder of God’s grace. Janet said it would have been a great Easter message. We also talked about forgiving others. Melanie said it was so good she stayed twice (although I think she feels that way most weeks)!

Our Volunteers continue to do a great job each and every week. Bill Brown is taking our 1st Impressions Team to a new level. Speaking of Volunteers, this Saturday at 10AM is our FUEL Leader/Volunteer meeting. This Saturday’s meeting is specifically for all Egg Drop Volunteers. Don’t miss it! We will be going over all the details of the Egg Drop.

There are a couple of things coming up that are specifically designed to encourage and bless our Volunteers. Thursday, March 12th we are taking 20 Volunteers to an all day leadership conference at the Newspring Church in Anderson SC. We still have 6 openings. Let me know this week if you can go. We will leave from the church at 5AM and return around 9PM. And then on Saturday, March 21st, 6-8PM, we have our annual Volunteer Appreciation Banquet. The Banquet is our way to thank our Volunteers. If you were here last year, you know that it’s an event not to miss.

Well, that’s about it. I’m uploading today’s message to our website and iTunes podcast. Get some plastic eggs and candy and come and join us this Wednesday at 7PM the church for an Egg Stuffing Party! Possible snow flurries tonight – 72 next Sunday! Gotta love this crazy weather!