Easter at NoMi

Here is the scenario on Saturday night... as I get home from preaching the Easter message, and knowing that the final, final details are being worked on to prep for the 11am launch, here is what I am thinking...Will anyone show up? Or, will too many people show up? From what I understand, these are the classic thoughts of a church planter or anyone who is beginning something new!

Well, after pouring rain all day on Saturday, Easter Sunday literally dawns and the sun breaks through... we began with telling the boys the story of Easter (Jesus is alive!) and then let them open the Easter baskets (Ryan tried to eat his...believe me, I think he could do it!). I head out the door with Jonathan and make way for NoMi...

We had done a practice run (a preview service) on Saturday (which helped us iron out many kinks ahead of time...after all, we tore up and re:nomi'd our church in the last few weeks...we had to know what we were doing when our potentially biggest service of the year was going to happen!). As we rolled up to the campus, the teams were already beginning to arrive and set up their areas. They all did great! From warm Krispy Kreme and hot Starbucks coffee, amazingly decorated kids rooms and smiling KidsWorld team leaders, First Impressions team members in the parking lot and wearing aprons for our "That's Amore" teaching series, to our worship band and tech team...every area was clicking on all cylinders and hitting homeruns... we were finally ready for our guests...

And wow, did God bring us our guests! Over 300 people (including 48 kids - and 12 of those were under age 3!) showed up for our first official service as Oasis Church North Miami. All of our new chairs and tables downstairs were filled. The balcony was filled and buzzing with a great spirit (I asked the audience the question to fill in the blank... "That's Amore means _______"...I got some answers from those near the stage and then I said "how bout an answer from the balcony?"... and as one voice, literally, they said... "Love means trust!!!...the whole room reacted...it was awesome!). We even set up some folding chairs and had people sitting in the lobby. Our small cry room was filled with kids. God brought us the perfect amount of people for our building. In fact, I heard there were about 112 cars in the parking lots and grass...and this does not include our team parking wherever they could find a spot!

The mix of people was awesome as well...we have always been a multicultural church but, being our first service and advertising in Dade, we did not know what to expect...but looking over the audience and shaking hands after the service, I saw an amazing mix of people, cultures, and ages, and life stages...perfect!

Well, this post is reaching GuyMelton.com length and I don't want to lose you...I will update this week with some special stories and people I met, let you know about the follow-up, share with you some feedback I got and my thoughts on it, and update any others things that need to be told...thanks for praying and being part of Re:NoMi!