It's still Monday!

Good evening Team,
Yes it's still Monday. It's been a busy day and I'm just finding the time to get to my blog.

Did you notice Dan Eash on bass in the second worship celebration yesterday? What a great surprise when Neil text ed me that his brother was in town and willing to play with the band! Thanks for adding to our worship experience guys!

Didn't you love the kids yesterday as they sang and did the motions for the Crocodile Dock program. It was a great time at Summer Bible Adventure and the best part is that 25 kids gave their hearts to Jesus. Woohoo!


CHRISTMAS! If you haven't picked up your CD of Rejoice!, our Christmas musical, they are on the front pew...still wrapped in Christmas paper. Start listening and enjoy.


Next week, I will be taking a few days away to get with God and plan for the year. My enthusiasm is growing as I get ready to see what's in store for the Owego Naz Worship Team. I would like to meet with our Worship Arts Team (Liam, Suzanne, Sue, Denise, Andy, Bob) at our house on Monday, Aug 10 and share! Lets meet at 6:30pm.

REMINDER! The OwegoNaz Worship Choir will be singing with Sweet Aroma next Monday night (Aug 3) at Muldoon Park in Waverly at 6PM. Let's meet at the church and take the van at 5:30pm.


We've been talking about getting real with God in our prayers. We talked about using normal language and pausing to concentrate on Him when we pray. Then we start our prayers with PRAISE. The next step in our getting real with God deals with giving Him our worries.

Philippians 4:6 says: "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God" (NIV).

Hmmm...do we really believe this? When we pray, trustingly, He hears our petitions. And notice the attitude we need when we petition the Lord...thanksgiving. Yeah baby! That's the ticket! Gratitude before the Lord is powerful. Keep that attitude at all times and see how many good things come your way!

Blessings,
Dave

It's Monday!

Good morning Team,
What a fun time we had Saturday at our OwegoNaz Worship Team Christmas Appreciation Brunch. Thanks to Coleen, Wayne and Darlene Cobler and Crystal Rutan for the awesome food...oh, yeah... and thanks to Sams Club for the pastries :)

We honored some of our team members:


Kyle Schreiner - Rookie of the Year

Bob Rutan - Techie of the Year
Sue Camin - Servant Heart Award

Suzanna Miller - Spirit Award



Our Christmas musical is here!! CD's are available now, so you can get an early start on Christmas. If you didn't get one on Saturday, you can pick one up at the church... they are on the front pew in the sanctuary...still wrapped in Christmas paper :)


Pastor Dennis continued his series on "Getting real with God" by sharing that we begin our prayers with Adoration for God. Praise is one of the best parts of being a worship team! Keeping our eyes wide open to the wonders around us is a great plan! Another idea is to pray the names of God. The names of God deal with His attributes. Rick Warren lists these:

• God is present with me.
• God is my Shepherd.
• God is my Provider.
• God is my Healer.
• God is my Peace.
• God is my victory in conflict.

Want more? Google "names of God" and see how many come up.

Have an awesome week with your
eyes wide open!

Dave

It's Tuesday!

Good morning Team,
Guilty! I let yesterday get away from me and got caught up in the Monday crunch of stuff I had to do. And I didn't get everything that I needed to get done accomplished...like my blog. Oh well...it's OK. There are more important things than the stuff we think is so important...

It was an emotionally draining week as we said, "good-bye" to Crystal Paris and did our best to comfort Thad and the children...and dealt with the tuff question of "Why?" Thank you, Pastor Dennis, for helping us with that on Sunday. Thank you, Owego Naz Worship Choir, for stepping up and helping our people to heal. Ethan Paris is continuing to recover and you can encourage him and the family by sharing a note at Caring Bridge... http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/ethanparis

Saturday, (yes, this Saturday) is our Owego Naz Worship Team Appreciation Christmas Brunch. If you haven't signed up...call or email me by Wednesday, tomorrow! Meet in the mini-hall at 10am.

"Be still, and know that I am God! I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored throughout the world" (Psalm 46:10 NLT)

Last week I talked about being real with God when we pray. Not the flashy, churchy, wordy stuff...the "it's me God...can we talk?" stuff. Another part of being real with God is one I have trouble with. I am a multi-tasker. You all know what that means. I don't like to do just one thing at a time and I like to get things done...NOW! That's a problem when it comes to talking with God. He's a jealous God and He wants all my attention when I talk with Him. That's tuff. I proved that at the openning of this blog. Guilty! Rick Warren says that when he prays, before he starts, he takes a deep breath and just lets the tension flow out of his body and then he can talk to God. Sounds like a plan. Next week we'll talk about "the quiet place."

Blessings,

Dave

It's Monday!

Good Morning Team,
It crept up on me after the morning worship service yesterday. It was not very noticeable for most of the day, but by midnight it was here with all its vengance...a COLD! Dr. Coleen diagnosed it as a result of flying back from Orlando last week. I don't know about that, but its got me real good. I will do my best to not pass it on to anyone, but I'm still going to Karen's tonight for our rehearsal with Sweet Aroma.

Let's continue with our thoughts about being real with God. Last week, your staff from Owego Naz was in Orlando, FL with 25,000 other Nazarenes at our quadrennial General Assembly. We worshiped with people from all over this globe and we were one in the Spirit of God. Some people wore suits and dresses, some wore jeans and T-shirts. Some wore native dress of their country. Here's a video I took in the Exhibit Hall from one of the Missions booths...

It didn't matter what we looked like on the outside...we were united by the Spirit of God. That's what matters to God, not our outward appearance, but what is in our heart.

Matthew 6 teaches us that God is not interested in the flowery speech that we associate with great prayers. Rick Warren puts it like this:

Imagine I walked in the door one evening and my kids said: "O, almighty procreator of our family. How wonderful thou art, who sovereignly deposits our allowance to us. Oh, the majesty of thy wonderful self! We beseech thee to come eat dinner with us." I'd check their temperatures to see if they were sick! I don't want to hear that. I want them to say, "Hey! Dad's home. Good to see you, Pop!"

One of our focal points at Little Church has been on being authentic with our prayer time...not flowery speech, but simple sentence prayers in normal language. Now some are admittedly very "smooth" pray-ers. Again, God is not interested in how we are able to connect our thoughts and words together in a flowing manner...He wants to hear our hearts. So when you pray, don't think about the next line you are going to pray...just tell God whats on your mind...that's what He wants :)

If you haven't signed up or emailed me that you are going to attend our Christmas Brunch on Saturday, July 18 at 10am...do it now! This is for all choir members, band members and tech members. Basically, if you are reading this, you're invited. We need to have the number by this Sunday so please let me know. Gracias!

Have an awesome week!

Blessings,

Dave