I just wanted to wish all of my faithful blog readers a very Merry Christmas and a safe and happy new year.

Be sure to be in The Lord’s house as Pastor Andy brings an incredible message in a series called CRAZY where he will be asking the question ‘What are you going to do THIS year that will cause others to say you are CRAZY?’

Great things are ahead for The Gathering in 2008 - I believe that it will be a landmark year for us. God Bless each and every one of you!

Merry Christmas!

Pastor Gene

Here are some interesting facts about The Gathering in 2007. For all of you blog readers that are part of our family - this one’s for you …

THIS YEAR YOUR CHURCH…

• hired 12 new employees
• doubled in size
• experienced more of it’s future through the revelation of our God of what we were born to do
• gave over $570,000 to missions and almost $300,000 back to Sevier County
• sent our Mission Pastor to India, Africa, El Salvador and Niagara
• mailed our over 1,000,000 pieces of mail
• received air time on ABC, NBC, CBS and CNN
• was featured in the Knoxville News Sentinel and also made the front page of The Mountain Press
• ran a radio ad on WIVK for over 3 months for people ‘who don’t like church’
• hosted it’s first ever Golf Tournament
• hired the premier media company in the Nation (Clark Pro Media) to help launch our television ministry.
• was able to hire one of the largest non profit CPA firms in the Nation
• made Christmas A LOT better for over 1,5000 children
• put brand new Nike tennis shoes and clothing on over 1,000 children going back to school
• gave out several tractor trailer loads of food, bread and cold milk
• completed it’s sixth year of existence and is on the brink of standing amazed at what God can do
• completely renovated our KidzPlace facilities because we refuse to let our children grow up without hearing about Jesus in a way that they will understand and enjoy
• broke ground on a state of the art church facility necessary to sustain the exponential growth we have seen
• has not even begun to walk and to live

I say it all the time. I pastor the greatest church in the entire world. We had an incredible week serving our Community at Christmas at The Gathering. Come share communion with your family this weekend as we celebrate all that God has done at our church this year.

Merry Christmas and God Bless!!

Check This Out - You Will Be Proud!!!

Wow! The first day of Christmas at The Gathering was AWESOME! We have had over 600 children already show up to pick up their bikes, toys, coats and food baskets! We’ve had a great volunteer attendance and incredible atmosphere. We had Channel 8 and Channel 10 TV stations show up and several of the local newspapers were here! One of our staff members Terri Danis did a wonderful job showing the reporters around.

You can also watch another video that was featured on another TV station in town here.

We are expecting an unbelievable turn out on Wednesday and Thursday. We need ALL Volunteers to show up and help us serve the children of Sevier County. Can’t wait to see you over the next couple of days! And remember we do this all for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ and because Every Child Deserves Christmas!!!

I want to thank everyone who attended church this weekend. It was one of the hardest messages that I have ever had to give as I shared some of the details of my walk with God that are very precious to me. Several years ago The Lord did a deep work in my heart as He gave me a deeper understanding of a literal place called Hell. Also, like Paul said, I have always had a desire to know our Lord in the power of His resurrection.  I have never wanted to disobey, grieve, or quench the Holy Spirit.

This thought that we are looking at right now, “If The Lord Came to Town” is extremely convicting to me. As we approach the end of the year, my prayer is that you would continue to ask yourself these questions…

• If He examined your faith, would it break His heart?
• If He examined your prayer life, would it break His heart?
• If He examined your burden for the lost, would it break His Heart?

The idea that we have the ability to make The Lord weep has really been rocking my world this week. I encourage every one of you that was not able to attend church this weekend to download and listen to the podcast.

It was one of the most difficult messages that I have preached in my entire ministry. I would not have wanted to preach to anybody other than The Gathering family.

Thanks again for allowing me to bear my soul. May we continually bring a smile to His face.

Pastor Gene

P.S. What a week to SERVE our Community.

David May told me that we had a tremendous response this weekend for our first Christmas at The Gathering.  For all those that did not have a chance to sign up to serve our community, it is not too late.  We are expecting 1500 children and 500 individual families.  I have told many of the leaders in our community that there is no way to pull an event off like this without a tremendous volunteer base.  I’m not one bit worried that the people of The Gathering will not step up.  Every single time that I have asked this church to step up to the task at hand, they have done it.  Every once in a while the Lord allows us to experience His wonderful presence.  I honestly believe that we will have the privilege to experience His presence the week of Christmas at The Gathering while serving our community.  Let me encourage everyone of you that call The Gathering your church home to take this opportunity to serve.  One of the great things about serving in this capacity is that there are so many new people at the church.  What an opportunity to get to know others in the church we would normally not get to know.  The Lord is allowing us to finish the year in a tremendous way!

 Love Ya Pastor Gene

Don’t forget to pick up your tickets for The Chest of Joash Celebration service on January 13th at The Black Bear Jamboree Theatre.  This is always an incredible night of music, drama, and, of course, the revealing of the amount of the pledges and the Chest of Joash offering.  Also - we are still receiving pledge cards and gifts through the end of the year so if you have not yet turned yours in you still have a few weeks.

This past Chest of Joash service was the most incredible experience that we have had to date.  My heart was so blessed to watch each and every family kneel and pray before giving their sacrificial gift.  I am certain that God heard every prayer that was prayed and I wait expectantly for each of them to be answered.  Remember what the scriptures say …

For where two or three gather as my followers, I am there among them

Our 7th annual Chest of Joash is finally here.  I can hardly wait until Karen and I and the boys kick off our Chest of Joash. I’m believing God that we are going to stand amazed at what He can do. Remember to pick up your tickets for our Chest of Joash celebration in January.   Our theme the last 7 years has been, “Not Equal Gifts, But Equal Sacrfice”. No pastor in the world could be more proud than I am of you.

Pastor Gene