A Great Weekend

So, today was my first night back at theadvance after a month’s hiatus. I can’t believe it’s been 4 weeks since I was last there! It was a great night. A bit full for me but nothing too crazy. I had my message done well in advance so having some last minute curve balls was easy to handle. I ended up leading worship and doing a ‘fireside’ chat as well. Matt Nazarenko did a great job at welcome and announcements, and was even funny! Ha ha.

We announced tonight our plans to move theadvance from 7pm to 4:30pm. So far, the response has been positive. A lot of people are seeing the potential of such a move and the more I think about it and now that it’s out there, the more opportunity I see. This means that having a house chill is much more realistic any week because we could be out of the house by 10 at the latest. It means that we can schedule sports, bbq’s, movies, outings, whatever we want, for that 7-9 block without overwhelming students or parents. I am trying to find a downside, an unforeseen problem. Not to throw a damper on the whole thing but to be prepared for it. So far, nothing.

One of the potential opportunities this presents is that we may be able to partner more readily with the Ethiopian church to provide student ministry support as their service is right at 4 or somewhere around there. If they are interested, that could be a huge benefit to them and help them grow as well.

Anyway, I spoke our first message in the GodView series and I think it went ok. Our students seemed to really be grappling with the content. Usually when I look out I can tell when I’ve got their attention and when I don’t. This time around I guess I did. Our high schoolers and our university students. God answered prayer on that one. My prayer for this series is that for many of our students it’s a revival/refreshing type experience for them. We have a habit of ending on a low in hs/ya ministry here at Cedarview and I am hoping these changes will help us to end on a high instead.

If you’re interested in getting the notes from this week’s message you can do so here.  It gets archived so eventually the link may be broken but just look us (theadvance Community) up on YouVersion.com.

Other than that this weekend has been pretty nice.  I spent some time with a few students in Kemptville.  That was a great time and they always make me feel so special.  All three of them have words of affirmation as a love language and they are great at expressing themselves.  I always feel loved and appreciated when they are around.  Afterward, Lindsey and I went downtown and hung out in market.  We ate at Zack’s Diner and picked up the Blu-Ray version of LOTR.  I’ve been waiting for it for like 2 years so it was nice to finally get them!  After that we came home and hung out for a bit, watched some survivor and then went to church the next day.

So, like I’ve said only a million times, a great weekend.  It was nice hanging with Matt & Sarah Naz as well on Sunday, it’s been 4 weeks since we were able to do that so that was nice.  We were able to get caught up and things are moving in a great direction here at Cedarview.  I am so excited.  Now, after a 16 hour day, I am ready for bed.