This Summer at NWH...

I love barbeques. I'll even be so bold to say I think everyone loves barbeques. Our church is going to do some barbequing this summer. In fact, we're going to barbeque every Sunday.

Why?
Two reasons, in no particular order:
First, it gives us a chance to get to know our congregation better. Similar to the "family picnic" we've done for the last couple years here on the church grounds, we get to come together after the second service, enjoy some food together and spend time talking to old friends and meeting new ones.
Second, it gives us an opportunity to reach out to our community. If we know there will be burgers and hotdogs after church each Sunday, why not invite neighbors and friends to come to a service and enjoy lunch afterward?

Who?
To make it happen, it will take some planning and some people with hearts to serve the church and our community. We hope to get people in various ministry teams within the church (e.g. Growing Families group, College ministry, Worship ministry, etc.) to commit to serving on 1 or 2 of the nine Sundays between June 28th and August 23rd. The team will need to attend the first service, and spend the second service setting up the barbeque, cooking, setting up tables, etc, and will also need to plan to clean up afterward.

How?
Some might ask if it's feasible; i.e. can we afford it and can we coordinate it? The plan is let the people in the church coordinate it, as mentioned above. We have some budget dollars alloted for summer events, and will also supplement that with a $2 charge for lunch (if you are bringing a guest, they won't be charged for lunch).

Catch the Barbeque Vision
What do you think? Would you invite someone you know to church and a barbeque? Would you enjoy having lunch with our church body after services? If our church catches this vision, would it be a successful outreach? Can we, as a team, take on at least one Sunday barbeque? I propose that we pray about this and see if we can be enthusiastic supporters of this event. We won't have our regular first-Sunday team lunches for the summer, so that opens us up to taking over at least one of the barbeques. Let me know what you think, or if you have questions.

Let's Eat !

Our next team lunch is this Sunday, March 1st. We're going to meet in the brown house again at 12:30 and enjoy a Potato Bar! These are great times to get togther, eat, talk and just hang out with others on our ministry team. Please find time to come by! Please let me know if you'll be there and we'll let you know what you can bring.

Making an Impact

Our church puts a lot of value on our Holiday Services. Instead of putting effort into a pre-Christmas "pagaent" or a pre-Easter celebration as some churches do, our leadership has found that the greatest impact for reaching people with the gospel of Jesus Christ is to focus on the "day" itself (i.e. Christmas Eve, and Easter Morning). The people who show up to pre-holiday "events" tend to be those who are already involved in the church. On the other hand, a lot of people who may not go to church will come on the actual holidays. The number of people who attend NWH weekly services during the school year is usually in the 470 to 570 range. Compare that to Christmas Eve services, which had attendance of 740 and 853 for the last two years (respectively), and Easter, which had 986 in '06, and 1080 in '07. As many of you know, we tend to put a lot of effort into Christmas Eve and Easter Morning services, and this is why. We consider this a "built-in" evangelistic opportunity. We try to put together a service that allows believers to celebrate the greatness of those days, while also delivering a clear gospel message. My reason for sharing this is to let you know that the sacrifices you've made for those services (time and effort) is well worth it. Also, I hope that you will catch the vision that leadership has for the opportunities created by those holiday services. Have you been involved in any of the holiday services? I know many (most) of you have, and I hope you have noticed the number of people - regular attenders and visitors - who have attended those services and been blessed. I hope some people have told you just how much they appreciate it. Many have told me, so I'll just pass that along to you now: you are appreciated! We may never know how many lives have been impacted directly, but be confident that your commitment to giving your best has helped the message of hope in Jesus Christ be communicated.

I'm looking forward to serving with many of you again at Easter. Our goal this year is to approach the services much like our last Christmas Eve service, with a combination of music, singing, and concise messages conveying the life-change that God offers through His son. Please add Easter to your list of things to be praying about. Consider if-and-how you'd like to be involved with your time and talents this year to make Easter an offering of our best, for His glory.

Mark your Calendars

Coming up! Plan to be part of these opportunities... they're a great way to get closer to your church family and to get motivated to become even more involved in our church vision.

Baptism Service, Feb 22, 4:30pm at the Osborn Aquatic Center
Have you been baptized? Know anyone who wants to be? There's an opportunity coming up on February 22 at the Aquatic Center. 4:30pm. Plan to come and be a part of this service, even if you're not being baptized.

ONE meeting, Mar 8, 6pm
The format for these meetings has changed to include an extended time of prayer for each other and for the various ministries at NWH. If you didn't make it to the last meeting, come and find out how great this time is. It's an opportunity for our ministry team to get to know the needs within the church and stay up-to-date with various other ministry work being done.

Congregational Meeting, Mar 15, 6pm
Another opportunity to stay in touch with church plans and proposals. You'll get more of the "business-side" of NWH updates at this meeting... a great followup to the ONE meeting the previous week.

Powerful and Effective...

We've been praying specifically for some people in our ministry and I wanted to post these links where you can get some updates. It's awesome to see how God's been answering prayer. Let me know if you have any additional updates to add to these.
Click here to get caught up on Jessi Furlo's condition.
Click here to get caught up on the birth of Houston Young

The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. James 5:16

Local Worship Conference/Concert

Worship Northwest is happening again this year; a great local conference opportunity, including a concert with Big Daddy Weave (who brought us songs like Audience of One, Christ is Come and others). Click here to get to the Worship Northwest website. Here's an excerpt about the conference:

Worship Northwest is [organized by] a multi-denominational group of Oregon worship pastors who have a heart and a passion for encouraging worship leaders and worship teams throughout the Northwest. Now in its tenth year, this conference has been attended by hundreds of worship teams from five western states, representing a wide variety of worship traditions. More than 1200 people from 233 church throughout the Northwest joined together at the 2005 conference...

I've heard from at least one person on our team who'd like to go. I'd personally love to go, but would be even more excited to see some of us get the chance to go as a team. Please let me know in the next few days if you're interested.

Christmas Eve at NWH

Hey - just want to say thanks to all who were involved in the Christmas Eve service, and to those who came to join in the worship as well. Dave Faddis, Luke Buchanan, Doug Easton, Maddie Berry, Jason and Emily DeMoe, John Dougherty and Elissa Smith did an outstanding job of creating a seamless service, allowing the Gospel to be delivered clearly. It really took an incredible amount of work for some of you, and I (and the church) really appreciate it. Since I'm mentioning it, I should remember those who've served in the past as well, in case I never extended the thanks for your huge efforts: Gretchen VanderPlas, Dave Snider, Mike Hiller, Tim Karplus, Stephen Wagner, Doug and Jane Easton, Andy and Sheri Phillips, Jim Clark, John Stanley, Linda Fox, ...and I probably have missed someone... thanks for making our Christmas Eves an awesome time of worship at NWH.

-paul

Awesome is The Lord Most High

Always nice to hear some of the writer's inspiration behind a song. Check out this one by John Abel, writer of Awesome is the Lord Most High.

http://www.ccli.com/usa/Community/CCLITV/Default.aspx?v=482d7fef-965f-469e-b274-95e14f8804ca

-paul

November Lunch

Falltime in Corvallis. Pretty awesome. I feel the need for some Chili and Cornbread.

Let's meet for lunch this Sunday (nov 2) in the brownhouse (W4) after 2nd service. This is a potluck...bring your best Chili and Cornbread! Please attach "alarm-rating" stickers to your pot of chili if needed (i.e. 3-alarm, 4-alarm, no-alarm). See you there!

NWH Celebration Sunday 2008

Celebration Sunday was great again this year...always cool to see the congregation together in one service. Thanks to all those who worked hard - moving and setting up gear, practicing parts, going to extra rehearsals, etc. - to make it possible. I appreciate the humility of so many of you who do things that receive no "notice", but make a huge contribution. Thanks for serving God the way you do. Here are some pics to check out (click to see larger images).

If you have some time, post some comments here. How was your time in worship (whether you were leading, or not)? What would you change to help our congregation worship on these Sundays? What were your thoughts about the message (The Dream. You can listen here: http://www.nwhills.com/index.php?id=303)? How do you see WAM fitting into that vision for our church?

Enjoy the day. God bless you and your families.

Starfield in Corvallis

The band "Starfield" is going to be leading a worship service this Thursday at 7pm here in Corvallis at Calvary Chapel. This is the band that gave us some of our worship songs like "Reign In Us", "Filled With Your Glory", "Revolution" and some others that I've added to our playlist on this page. Check out their website for some other songs and stuff (http://starfieldonline.com/). More info (tickets, etc) is available on Calvary's website here: http://www.calvarycorvallis.org/current_info.

Conveniently, some of this week's worship team could not attend our normal Thursday night rehearsal, so it's been moved to Saturday morning at 8:45. That leaves Thursday night wide open for you to go see the band if you want :-)

WAM Goes Tropical (pictures)

Hey all. It was great to see so many people turn out for our September team "lunch". Thanks again to the Lampis for hosting, and thanks to all for taking some time to just hang out together. Great pics (click for larger images). Until next time...

Patience and Grace

God has this incredible patience and grace. In a spiritual sense, absolutely. He forgives our repeated offenses and continues to offer us the salvation we don't deserve. But Jesus also taught us in such a practical way. Read this passage from Mark 6:

The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest." So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.

I find this amazing. Why? Well... if I were exhausted from serving people all day and decided to get away to a quiet place with my buddies, but found that MORE people were IN our quiet place, wanting MORE from us...man. I wonder if I would have compassion on them and desire to minister to them like Jesus did. Sadly, I think my first thought would be : "What are you DOING in MY quiet place!? I need to rest! Get out!

Hopefully, Christ has taught me more. More patience. More grace.

What would your response be? Who tests your patience? Maybe they don't even deserve your patience, but what does Christ teach us? : To give it anyhow. That's grace. I know. Sometimes that seems impossible. The great thing is we don't count on our own strength to do it. We count on God's strength. The angel Gabriel told Mary: "Nothing is impossible with God."

My encouragement to you: The next time you find yourself short on patience and grace, ask God to give you the perspective that Christ shows us in Mark 6:34. Look at "the crowd". Have compassion on them, then give them more patience...more grace.

Pressure Release

This is an excerpt from an article written by by John Andrew Schreiner in "Worship Leader Magazine":

Lately I've come to the opinion that we are working too hard. As worship leaders, it's easy to feel the weight of expectations from the pastor, staff, congregation, other musicians, and ourselves. We want to be our best (nobody wants to be pro-sloth), and we want to provide music that will lift up the church and glorify God. Still, it seems we might have lost sight of a few things along the way. One is the presence of God. We know that when two or more believers are gathered in His name, He is present in the midst of us, regardless of any of our efforts. If we are a little out of tune, it doesn't mean that the Holy Spirit won't join us; He's already there. Are we acknowledging and enjoying the mysterious presence of God in our midst? Worship is far more than a human work, it is the work of the Holy Spirit. As Hughes Oliphant Old stated, "When we worship, having our minds enlightened by the Spirit, our lives cleansed by the Spirit, our wills moved by the Spirit, and our hearts warmed by the Spirit, then our worship is transformed from being merely a human work into being a divine work." God is present, His Spirit moves in our midst, and we can respond with thanksgiving and without pressure. [...read the rest in the Mar/Apr edition of Worship Leader.]

Our team is full of worship leaders, or as we've said in the past, "lead worshippers". Does this article resonate with you as a lead worshipper? Are we allowing God's presence to be the motivator of our worship? Hope to hear from you.

Living a Circus?

The circus came to town this week. My kids are getting older so it hadn't occurred to me that they might still enjoy seeing a circus. But there we were, buying over-priced cotton candy and watching wide-eyed at the three rings of high-flying flambouyance. It wasn't Cirque Du Soleil, but we had a great time.

As I watched, my mind suddenly re-connected with the reason why - in our workplaces, and in our lives - we sometimes look at the craziness of some situations and say "man, what a CIRCUS!". The three-ring circus is designed to give everyone something to watch at any given time. No breaks. Multiple viewing options. Jaw dropping heroics. If you watch one ring too long, you miss what just happened in the other rings. If you try to watch all three...well you're just getting a small sample of each.

Sometimes our lives become a circus. And we FEEL it. We're tired. We're trying to keep all the "acts" going at once, making sure everyone is happy and contented. So we aren't able to focus on caring for our families or carrying out our responsibilities at work or studying for the next exam...or worshiping God. "God, I can't spend time with you today because I've got elephants falling over in ring three, Ricardo lost his grip on the trapeeze in ring one...and the circus clowns...well, they're just OUT OF control!".

Here's my encouragement for you:

For the Lord is God, and he created the heavens and earth and put everything in place. He made the world to be lived in, not to be a place of empty chaos. “I am the Lord,” he says, “and there is no other. I publicly proclaim bold promises. I do not whisper obscurities in some dark corner. I would not have told the people of Israel to seek me if I could not be found. I, the Lord, speak only what is true and declare only what is right. - Isaiah 45:18-19 NLT

“So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today." - Matthew 6:31-34 NLT

What about you? Are you living a circus? Got any thoughts or encouragement for us? Leave a comment.

Until next time...Slow it down. Seek Him today. Find comfort in His word. Ask him to "order" your life.

God bless.

Dave Schwarm at camp

I'm posting this for Dave Schwarm, who's been away this summer working as a program team member at a Bible camp in California. He's working with a team of people ministering to young kids. Here's some of his story.

Hey dude just writing to say whats up? Things are going great down here. This week was awesome and I had a ton of fun. For our "walkon" skit (the continuous skit we program teamers do every night) was about these two very poor secret agents and two criminals stealing things from camp all week. I was a criminal and my name was SCHWARM.. but all drawn out like SCCHHHHWWAARRMMM! The kids loved it and all week long whenever they saw me they would try to emulate my voice saying schwarm. Super fun kids this week with hardly any problems. Last week I sent a kid home the last night for peeing on another much smaller camper. He was such a punk and we almost had to fight him to get him to leave. My friend curtis and ivan had to pin a kid to the couch cuz the kid was swinging at them. After they pinned him the kid (11 years old) proceeded to spit in their faces. These kids are dealing with some really hard things in their lives so if you think about it pray for them. Pray that we would be able to touch their lives in a way that will enable them to lift themselves out of the tough situations they are in.
By the way I'm a little upset you are playing "all because of jesus" without me. :) jk.. keep it real!
Dave

New Songs?

Heard any good songs lately? Not just songs we can use in our worship services, but just plain good songs. Post them here (or send them to me if you can't post) ...I can put them in the blog "player" if I can find them.

"Your Love Is Strong"

Hope you'll check this out: One of the songs on the playlist for this blog is called "Your Love Is Strong". I wanted to post the lyrics...it's right out of Jesus' teaching in Matthew 6. If it's not playing right now you can go to the bottom of the page and play it and follow the lyrics.

Heavenly Father, You always amaze me
Let your kingdom come In my world and in my life
You give me the food I need To live through the day
And forgive me as I forgive The people that wronged me
Lead me far from temptation Deliver me from the evil one

I look out the window The birds are composing
Not a note is out of tune Or out of place
I look at the meadow And stare at the flowers
Better dressed than any girl On her wedding day

So why do I worry? Why do I freak out?
God knows what I need You know what I need

Your love is
Your love is
Your love is strong

The kingdom of the heavens Is now advancing
Invade my heart Invade this broken town
The kingdom of the heavens Is buried treasure
Will you sell yourself To buy the one you've found?

Two things you told me That you are strong
And you love me Yes, you love me

Our God in heaven Hallowed be Thy name above all names
Your kingdom come Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven Give us today our daily bread
Forgive us wicked sinners
Lead us far away from our vices
And deliver us from these prisons

Team Lunches

I really have enjoyed these lunches...this one was at King Tin. We also had a potluck in the Brown House, Pizza at Woodstocks and most recently a BBQ at the Lampi's. Great times, great food, great people. Our goal is to meet the first Sunday of each month, after 2nd service. Hope you can plan to come to our next one...

Tutorials for Musicians and Singers

There are tons of great tutorials online for worship musicians and singers. I love getting new ideas from other musicians/singers. Check some of these out, and post new ones if you find them.

From CCLI TV:
All - Creaing "Ambience" or "Atmosphere"
Role of the Drummer
Role of the Bass Player
Keyboards
Keyboards 2
Blending Vocalists
Vocal Style

From Hillsong:
"Mighty To Save" Drums
"Mighty To Save" Guitar
Hillsong Guitarists Insight

From WorshipFrequency (Chris Tomlin and guitarist Daniel Carson)
Worship Frequency Menu