Bloglines Is Working For Me Again

For those of you who subscribe to this blog via bloglines, I believe the updating problem has finally been fixed. It should be updating for you now regularly.

Water Baptisms and New Members Class!

I'm pretty excited about our upcoming Membership class and water baptism service. These are always a great time for me. I love sharing with new people what our church is all about and what we believe. There is something that charges me up every time someone shares their testimony and is water baptized.

The membership class will be from 11am-1pm on Saturday, Oct 13, and the baptism service will be on Sunday, Oct 21 at 10am. If you are interested in participating in either of these send me an email here!.

Future AG Blog

Some of you may have heard that the General Superintendent of our fellowship of churches, Thomas Trask is resigning this year and we will be electing a new Gen Sup at this year's General Council in Indianapolis. This is a new blog facilitating a discussion about the election. It is very insightful if you are interested in this kind of thing. You can also see the results of a poll on votes for possible candidates.

Cleared Out

Our sanctuary is all cleared out as we're gearing up for carpet installation next week!

This has been a long time coming. It's really exciting for all of us since we've known nothing but old, somewhat ugly wood flooring.

This Friday night and Saturday morning, a handful of us are going to be filling the cracks in the floor and sanding it smooth. The good stuff goes down May 31st! Can't wait to see the finished product.

N Days Pics!

...As promised :)

Softball

We are now, for the first time in history, officially part of the Beaver County Church Softball League! We're off to a bit of a rocky start with a 0-2 record, but at least we're all having some fun and getting some exercise!

Coffee Tip

Many of you know that I love coffee and am a Starbucks frequenter. Through my experiences I've developed a stirring method which I would love to pass along. Because I like to stir in my cream and sugar for more than five seconds I've found it necessary to avoid using the wooden stirrer they provide.

In my experience, if you stir too long with the wooden stirrer, your entire cup of coffee tastes like wood. Unless you like that effect I suggest a different approach. Instead of using the wooden stirrer, I prefer to use one of the short, green, plastic straws for my stirring. This will enable you to stir for as long as you want without having to worry about your coffee tasting like wood.

I know that you will sleep better tonight now that you have this knowledge :)

Bush At Virginia Tech

Here is a quote from the President which he gave at a convocation today on campus. His comments were directed towards the student body and those affected by the tragedy.

"People who have never met you are praying for you, they're praying for your friends who have fallen and who are injured. There's a power in these prayers, a real power. In times like this, we can find comfort in the grace and guidance of a loving God. As the Scripture tells us 'Dont be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good'."

Weekend Reflections

This past weekend was awesome. Friday night we got to attend the Rochester High School play "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat." So proud to see Mike Winich, one of our youth students play Judah. It was a great show.

Had a great time Saturday night giving the prayer at the Beaver County Young Life banquet at Geneva College. Young Life is an amazing ministry reaching junior high and high school kids for Christ. At the banquet we got to hear a testimony from Neil Berger, a Sophomore at Ambridge High School who gave his life to Christ through the ministry of Young Life and is now actively involved in our church. My friend Jason Smith, Area Director of Young Life in Beaver County and his staff are doing a phenomenal job reaching teenagers with the message of Jesus Christ!

Church Sunday was great. We concluded the series "Fit To Be Untied" with a message called "Freedom Catalysts." We discussed how each of us are called to know God and make him known. Each of us were created to leave a mark in history. God has given each of us the calling and responsibility of spreading his kingdom. In a way, all of us are preachers because our lifestyles proclaim something. We looked at how God desires that our lifestyles would in every way proclaim his life-transforming power.

We saw from Matthew 9:35-10:8 that ministry flows from compassion, calling, and his power that we have received. Each of us are called to be catalysts, sparking a chain reaction of freedom in the lives of the broken and hurting people around us. The closer we get to Jesus the more of his compassion we will feel when we see people. Christ's calling qualifies us for ministry, not our abundance or lack of credentials. True spiritual authority comes not from paper, but from God. What matters is not education or titles, but a burning passion for Jesus and a love for people. We certainly shouldn't downplay education or training, but it can never substitute for relying on God's power. What a privelege we have been given, to freely give to others what God has given to us!

Pirate Game

I had a great time today at the Pittsburgh Pirates home opener on my day off! Today they played the St. Louis Cardinals. While I don't think the temperature ever got quite up to 40 degrees and the Bucs lost 3 to 0, I still had a great time :)

I even received a sweet fridge magnet with this season's schedule on it. Baseball is awesome. It definitely brought back lots of memories from my little league days. It also made me look forward to playing on our church softball team this year! Thanks Jesse and Chuck for giving me a ticket and letting me tag along! Had a great time.

ACC History

Pastor Jeff from Allison Park Church is currently writing blog articles about the various churches that they have planted. Ambridge Christian Center is the second of six churches they have started in the Pittsburgh area. Jeff does a really good job retelling our story. Check it out here.

New Website Up and Running

I'm pleased to announce that our new church website is finally up and running! You can check it out by clicking here. Special thanks to Jesse Wisinski, our graphic designer for the awesome work.