Grant Thiessen

Utalizing film

what an awsome time last night at the Experience. my message was called "NEVER SURRENDER". it was a look at never surrendering to the attacks against us in life. i used the story of moses when he had to keep his hands lifted in order to win the battle. and the story where the expert sailors who were transporting Paul lost all hope during that storm. i opened with a 5 min clip from "Kingdom of Heaven" where the guy surrenders Jerusalem and then he tells the queen, "your brothers kingdom was in his head and in his heart, and that kingdom can never be surrendered". at the end of the message i played a 2 min compiled clip i made from scenes from "saving private ryan". i added the movie theme song as a background audio and while it played i made this statement.

"Never surrender. When life crashes in on you… never surrender. Life is worth fighting for. If you surrender where will you be then? So even when you think “I can’t do this anymore” it’s really your only option. You can make it through anything if you never surrender… when depression attacks you – never surrender; when you cant find the answer to WHY your even doing what your doing – never surrender; when your sick and tired of all the bad things in life falling on you – never surrender; never surrender yourself to bitterness even though it seams to have you…never surrender yourself to hate, even though it seams to have you… never surrender yourself to arrogant pride even though it seams to have you…never surrender yourself to lust and perversion even though it seams to have you… never surrender to the thought that God is not on your side because He created you…never, never, never, never surrender……" then i went right into a time of prayer as we totally surrendered to God, the only way to be able to NEVER SURRENDER to the attacks in this life..

  church was awsome last night. Pastor Jay from Sanctuary Church came to check it out with some of his guys. it made the room feel good. God has really brought us together and he and his church are providing some great coaching helps. his started in the same litte location we did about 6 years ago with about 40 people. now they run 7 to 8 hundred and he really seems authentic about helping us grow for the kingdoms sake. gota love a guy so passionate for Jesus that after 3 services he would come worship with us and make his kingdom call way more than whats going on inside the 4 walls of the Sanctuary church....wow... God help me pursue more passion to increase my compassion for people you put in my path...

taking on 2009 with intensity..

crazy stuff happening already at the Experience. God is shaking us up and looking for the passionate.... i must say, so am i. looking forward to starting our new series in late Jan on spiritual disciplines... must be creative on how to bring life application to those who will know nothing of what i'm about to say.... church planting to those who have little or no knowledge of God is so awesome... no chrstianease here friends...

serving the community

after flooding rain finally stopped, we unloaded the soup and shared a meal with some homeless folks for Christmas.

Cars...

somehow God just keeps using car trouble to continually keep me living by faith in Him. I mean almost all of my cars are running by faith. resent situation... Aimee, Karen, Jackson and Jared are headed down to San Deigo to the zoo. car over heats so they pull over in San Clemente and call for help. I hit the road for a 45 min trip to rescue and switch cars so they can still make the day. while hanging out waiting the kids are playing in the parking lot chasing seagulls and somehow Jared tripped and Karen fell on him and he split his head wide open on the ground. 2 guys ran over to help stop the bleeding and as they were giving instructions to the hospital Karen informed them the car was broke down. they all loaded up in the strangers car for the trip to the hospital... Jared screaming "bloody"murder, Jackson screaming that he didn't want to be in the strangers car. i finally got there and as we strapped the kid down in a strait jacket the doc. said wow we need to call in a plastic surgeon for this. 2 hours later we put the jacket back on and fixed the little guy up with the added bonus of screaming filling the entire place. needless to say we all headed home as i winged the overheating car to HB. ssssoooo i'll be fixing that thermostat today, right after i change all 4 brakes on Justin's car.... good times, thanks God...

new location

here's some footage of our new location. God is so awesome, He endlessly does stuff for us that just blows our minds. May it always be for His glory, and may we be the church for the un-churched, and continue to be submerged into the community of HB like Jesus was to His community...

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WOW...God completely worked it out...

 well, God has worked it out and we'll be staying at our new location. Paul who heads up Carden School really wants us to be a positive influence on campus. we will be using the sight at basically no cost..... we just use it. of course we will be honoring our original financial comitemt each month by giving to the parents fund-raising committee, and buying costco and smart & final gift cards some months at the amount of our agreement. to give to the school. this is working out well for us as we now have access to the property any night of the week, and all day Saturday and Sunday. even though we still set allot of stuff up, and break allot of stuff down, it's much better to store it under the stage than hauling it out to a trailer.

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we knew there would be opposition!

Well, the first week of our new series,"HOSTAGE" was a great time. new people showed up, and even Paul, the guy who runs Carden school where we meet. second week in the new location, and I just found out yesterday that the Ocean View school district decided to not allow subleasing at their sites any longer. well, we sublease from Carden school, who has leased from the OV school district for the last 25 years. To just decide to stop all subleasing violates there contract, so Paul is going to fight it. It's one of those, "it's just the devil" things. God help us reverse this decision..

"HOSTAGE" series

This is the new series we'll start on Oct.19th.  Doing a series has always helps people reach out to their friends. it just gives a point of conversation to get some talkin started ya know.

Passion is growing

good times had by all at the GA...

I must say it was the most directional change i've ever seen at the GA in 20 years. I feel so excited at where God is guiding our church. I am humbled at the oportunity God provided for me to have a brief moment to share from the stage at the GA about the passion of church planting as American Missionaries. thanks to my friends Jesse and Bishop Williams for getting me there. I had some incredeble meetings with some other church planters from around the country as we brained stormed with Michael Knight about how to build a network of church planters by the hundreds around the country. I'm eager to get it going. even as I struggle to make it all work here in Huntington Beach, I know the plan is far bigger than I see..... I believe I might be related to Gideon.

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