Sunday Blitz

> Great Sunday all about Freedom! Three of our pastors who normally don't preach tag-teamed the message, speaking about Freedom from Family Stress, Freedom from Economic Tyranny and Freedom from the Fear of Death. All three did a great job, even if they collectively went a little longer than we're used to.

> We opened up bother gatherings with The Who's "I'm Free". Actually, we did a cover of Geoff Moore and The Distance's cover of The Who song (which is a good thing because after finding a few videos of The Who's original version, you wonder how anyone had the vision to make that song sound good). It's fun to do something unexpected every now and then and keep people on their toes.

> The 9am gathering was packed out...I don't think there were any empty seats left by the time all the tourists arrived around 9:15 (you'd think people on vacation would have the easiest time getting to places on time...), and the 11am gathering was pretty full as well. We didn't have time to squeeze in our last song ("I Am Free" by Jon Egan) at 9, but we did at 11...talk about some high energy worship!

> It was a great day, personally, as my wife, Tricia was able to attend a full worship service for the first time in nearly a year. She was even able to ride with me on Sunday night to and from our Communion Gathering, which was really awesome. I love you, Tricia!

> Speaking of which, it was also my first communion gathering with our church in about 6 months. Although the numbers were down, it was, as it always is, a great time of fellowship and worship. The band went "unplugged" with an acoustic set...even pulled out an acoustic bass guitar. We introduced Hillsong United's "Lead Me To The Cross" (look for it again next Sunday morning), which is quickly becoming one of my new favorites, and we pulled out Todd Agnew's "Grace Like Rain" which we hadn't done in a while.

> Some cool events coming up in the next several weeks for our church include:

Impact Outerbanx - A youth event that was started a few years ago by a local methodist church, but has grown to include other local youth groups this year. From what I know so far, it's an intense, four-day (July 28-31) mission blitz on our community, with each group getting an opportunity to serve in a different way each day. The groups will be meeting at our church building each morning before heading out, and the MilePost13 Band will be leading some worship to get their day started.

Operation Backpack - An outreach event for our community. We've been collecting new school supplies at the church, and will be setting our building up as a distribution center on August 9. With the economy the way it is this year, we're hoping this will be a great opportunity to serve our local families. We've invited other local churches to join us, and hopefully it will grow in future years.

Nate