It's Monday!

Good Monday Team,
I'm still basking in our time of worship yesterday as we lifted up praise to our Creator and shared in the awesomeness of nature. Thank you for all your encouraging comments about the music this week. Our team works very hard to offer up excellence to the Lord. It was great to have Kyle Schreiner on drums and Neil on bass this week. We miss you guys when you are not with us. I'm so thankful for our praise teams and what they bring to our worship celebrations. Thank you all for sharing your gifts with us and the Lord. And Owego Naz Worship Choir... awesome this week! You are such a highlight to me personally. Thanks for your commitment and contribution to our worship. I clap my hands in thanksgiving for you!

Tonight the Worship Arts Team is meeting at our house at 6:30. We will be discussing our August 2010 trip to Brooklyn Tab as well as looking at our overall worship arts ministry. We want your thoughts too! Send me ideas or comments: worship.pastor@owegonaz.com

PODCASTS ARE AVAILABLE!
Check out our site owegonaz.com

Finally, sing to the Lord a new song today. What can you do differently today to allow you to focus on the Lord? Take time to look out the window at work... walk to lunch somewhere new... pray for someone you haven't thought about for a long time... send an encouraging email to another worship team member... LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU COME UP WITH!

Blessings,

Dave

It's Monday!

Good Monday Team,
It's almost 4pm and I'm just now getting around to my blog. First thing...wasn't it great to have some of our college students home this weekend? Thanks Janel, Stephen and Phil for joining our worship team this week.

Four months ago, our Leadership team embarked on the journey to update our church's website. We recognized that reaching our community for Christ was going to take all the resources we can use and since 85% of first time church attenders visit a church's website before attending, it was time to move forward. Yesterday, we announced that http//owegonaz.com was online. I'm also excited to announce we will have our podcasts operational by next week. Thanks to all who stepped up! So what do you think? I'm interested in your comments about our new site...

Now that the website is up, my attention is going to be focused on Christmas... specifically, REJOICE! Here's the dates for it:

Friday, Dec. 11 - 7PM
Sunday, Dec, 13 - 11AM

A special performance will be on Saturday, Dec. 12 at Davis College for the Andrews Good News Christmas Party. We will share excerpts from REJOICE! for more than 4000 people sometime between 4:30pm and 6:30pm. It will be an awesome chance to share the love of Jesus.

It's not too late to join us for this great experience. Choir rehearsals are Wednesday's at 6:15pm. A special REJOICE! rehearsal will be on Saturday, Nov. 7 at 10am.

Make a difference this week...

Dave

It's Monday!

Good morning Team,
Our worship arts team left for New York City at 7am yesterday to experience the noon worship service at Brooklyn Tabernacle. We sat in the balcony...we didn't get there in time to sit on the main floor! The reconverted theatre main sanctuary seats 3200 and it was full at the noon service. We will be sharing some of the experience on Wednesday night at choir rehearsal. Here's a preview:

Pastor Jim Cymbala's message continued Pastor Dennis' theme of sharing our love for Jesus with those around us...starting with loving Jesus ourselves. Then we have to show that love through our actions of helping those in need. It's awesome when we realize that God's word for us in Owego matches up with what's being preached in Brooklyn and around the world. We truly serve the God on the universe.

I'm looking forward to rehearsal Wednesday night! I trust that this week will be amazing for you. Bring a Jesus story with you to share! Blessings, Dave

It's Monday!

Good morning Team,
I am still pumped up after our worship celebrations yesterday. The challenge that pastor Dennis shared with us to commit to being ready to share the reason for our hope and your response was exhilarating. Be sure to keep your yellow ribbon list in front of you daily. This Sunday will be the final week of this current series and promises to be a memorable worship experience.

I want to thank all of the worship team for your commitment to serving the Lord with your talents. I feel like the choir is back in gear after our summer break and you were awesome this week. "At the Cross" set the stage for an awesome prayer time! And the Band...woohoo! Thanks, Karen, Mark, and Janet!

This is an important week for us:
Tuesday @12:24pm - Coleen returns to NY
Wednesday @ 6:15pm - Choir rehearsal
Saturday @ 9am - Tech/Media/Video team workshop
Saturday @ 10am - Rejoice! Christmas rehearsal
Saturday @ noon - Pitch in Lunch for the entire worship team
Sunday @ 11:00 - Choir sings "Orphans of God" in the second service

Make this week special to someone you come in contact with as you are the aroma of Jesus in your world.

Blessings,
Dave

It's Monday!

Good Monday morning Team!
And it is a good Monday. More about that in a minute...

So what happens when your strings break? What? OK... This week, my guitar needed to have its strings changed (I have to do that about every 3 weeks or so) and I decided to use some new, expensive, beautiful sounding strings that I had used before, but had a problem with them breaking on me. I thought, "This time will be different! Maybe these new ones are better than before." It had been several months since I had tried them so I was hopeful. Well, as you saw yesterday, I broke a string on the second song. Fortunately, I had a chance to quickly replace the broken string during the announcements. But after we began singing again, I broke another string. Guitars have 6 strings, so what if only one breaks...there are 5 more. Ha! It doesn't work that way. Every string is important and when one breaks, the guitar will not function properly. And its not just because one part of the chord is missing, but because when one breaks, all the others go out of tune.

Sounds like our lives sometimes. There are sins that have haunted us in the past and we sometimes think that if I go that way again, the results will be different. Nope. Sin doesn't change over time and its results on our lives will be the same...broken strings and a life that is out of tune and therefore, useless. And fixing only one of the strings and not the others doesn't work either. It wasn't until I replaced all the bad strings that my guitar functioned properly. Our lives will never be in tune until we give it all to Him. Are you hanging on trying to play music with a broken string? Replace it and make sweet music!

And that leads me to Monday... it's a great Monday, when we are in tune with our Lord. Go make sweet music this week!

See you on Wednesday at 6:15!

Blessings,
Dave

It's Wednesday!

Hi Team,
I heard this on the radio and want to do it next Sunday in our contemporary worship celebration. Unfortunately, Michael Robert hasn't released the album yet (I think you might want to get this one) so here is the video from his site:





You can check out more about Michael Robert at

http://michaelrobertmusic.com/

Blessings,

Dave

It's Monday!

Good morning Team,

"We will shine like stars in the universe
Holding out Your truth in the darkest place
We'll be living for Your glory
Jesus, we'll be living for Your glory!"

I have been challenged by pastor's message to begin living outside the Christian bubble. A friend of mine has done that by participating in a local theatre group, only to take "friendly" fire for being worldly. I wonder if I am strong enough to take that risk. Then God graciously reminds me that its not my battle, but His, and my job is to be obedient. Guess that excuse is shot down. Anyway, I'm still looking for ways to step outside the bubble...let's see what God has planned...

Speaking of stepping outside the bubble, the Owego Naz Worship Choir has a ministry opportunity that I'll ask you about on Wednesday...6:15PM. It was so good to have you back leading worship this week. There is a freshness and excitement that you bring to our worship celebrations and God uses that to bless His people and speak to everyone present. Thank you for stepping up for the Lord. He was pleased with our offering this week and my heart leaps for joy when we please Him. Well done!

Have a great week living outside the bubble!

Dave