Tag Archive - Church! at Bethany

Exponential Conference

April 18, 2010 in Church Planting, Faith, Ministry with 8 Comments

Once a year, our church leadership at Church! at Bethany flies to Florida and invests time and money into attending Exponential.

We want to continuously be learning how to be better leaders for our church and community. What better way than to connect with other church planters from all over the United States?

So, six hours of flying and three hours of time difference later… here we are:

ORLANDO, FLORIDA!

It’s been pouring down rain since we’ve been here. Like, DOWNPOUR… not Portland rain… but I have to say, I like it. It’s soothing.

I’ve already gotten to meet some really amazing people but I’m most looking forward to my time here to reconnect with God’s purpose for me, refocus ministry goals and just soaking it all in… whatever “ALL” is. The only downside is I already miss Brian and my boys DESPERATELY. It’s hasn’t even been two days yet. *sigh*

What’s the last conference you were at?
THOUGHTS?

Worship Confessional -Easter 2010 Edition

April 4, 2010 in Church Planting, Faith, Ministry, Music, Worship, Worship Confessional with 6 Comments

HAPPY EASTER!!! He is Risen!

Today’s Sunday Setlist was:

  1. Holy Is The Lord – Chris Tomlin
  2. Rain It Down – Carlos Whittaker
  3. How Great Is Our God – Chris Tomlin
  4. O The Blood – Hillsong version
  5. Nothing But The Blood – Robert Lowry
  6. Hosanna – Brooke Fraser

I don’t know why we don’t bring our camera to church more often. We document just about everything else in our lives. Anyway… took some photos this morning:

I was just making my way through the crowds saying “Hi” when Brian took this.


During the worship service.

And to prove how short I am when everyone stands to worship. I know, I know… go ahead… crack a joke in the comments section. The best one gets a prize… of… a HUGE SMACK IN THE FACE! Yeah… ninja that!

Anyway… I digress. Back to church service stuff.

Part of being a church plant means you have to set up church from scratch every Sunday.  I like to call it “Church-in-a-Box” because we LITERALLY build church out of boxes EVERY WEEK. We don’t get luxury items like a baptismal because of the set-up time, not to mention the crazy high cost of one.

Well… thanks to my friends (and church attenders), Sean & Faye Whitacre… today was the first time in Church! at Bethany history that we had our OWN baptismal in our service. Well… let me clarify, we’ve had baptisms… but always at other locations. The Whitacre’s built our baptismal basically from scratch and did an AMAZING job at it. Check it out!

We had seven baptisms today:

  1. Dave Blauer
  2. Nate Blauer
  3. Bethany Gibbs-Blauer
  4. Diana Graalum
  5. Alex Graalum
  6. Kristian Thackery
  7. Jensen Thackery

I’ve posted pictures below of some shots Brian got.

We also “closed-up-shop” for our church’s IMPACT Offering Challenge today. Our total today ended at $5,500. That’s over 5 times what we handed out 7 weeks ago. Though we didn’t make our goal of $7,500, we’re still EXTREMELY pleased at how this turned out. If you feel you’d like to contribute to our IMPACT, I’m going to keep the donate link (in the right column of this blogpost) open for a couple more weeks. Please feel free to give if you feel led.

How was YOUR Easter?

Prodigal Son – Part Four

March 25, 2010 in Church Planting, Faith, Ministry, Worship, Worship Confessional with 0 Comments

This past Sunday, we continued with the second part of Mikey’s story.

The prodigal son chose humility when he returned. There was nothing easy about coming back with nothing, knowing he had wronged the people he turned his back on. This week at Church at Bethany, we talked about accountability, small groups, and choosing to be intentionally integrated within a community. These are all things Mikey has chosen to do after falling away. This is the opposite of what most people do when they’re trying to heal.

Here’s Mikey’s Story – Part Two:

Our Sunday Setlist was:

  1. Forever – Chris Tomlin
  2. Not To Us – Chris Tomlin
  3. We Will Worship You – Carlos Whittaker
  4. Healer – Mike Guglielmucci
  5. Devotion – Marty Sampson
  6. Hosanna – Brooke Fraser

This was the second week I got to lead with my sister, Helen. That was fun… and reminded me of times we would sit around the piano and sing when we were younger. Looking at my baby sister is a great example of the Prodigal Son story. She was the son who never left, while I was the one who ended up feeding swine. She rebelled by being good… and well… I just wanted to run away from home.

My past has passed. All that matters now is where I am… and that’s HOME.

Are you home?
If not… how do we get you here?

_____

To read and watch the stories from the past weeks, click below:

Prodigal Son – Jessica’s Story.Part One
Prodigal Son – Jessica’s Story.Part Two
Prodigal Son – Mikey’s Story.Part One

Prodigal Son – Part Three

March 14, 2010 in Adultery, Church Planting, Faith, Friends, Life Experience, Marriage, Ministry, Music, Worship, Worship Confessional with 3 Comments

Today was a great day.

I got to lead worship with my sister, Helen, today at Church at Bethany. I haven’t gotten to see her in 2 years and have really looked forward to her weeklong visit for quite some time now.

Our Sunday Setlist:

  1. God With Us – Bart Millard
  2. All We Need – Charlie Hall
  3. Indescribable – Laura Story
  4. Heart of Worship – Matt Redman
  5. My All In All – Nichole Nordeman Version
  6. We Will Worship You – Carlos Whittaker
  7. From The Inside Out – Joel Houston

Today’s set was pretty fun not only having Helen with me, but also having Charlotte on keys and Mark on drums. It was a good matching set to go with the sermon today.

Matt continued our series “Finding Our Way Back To God” and we finished Part Two of Jessica’s Story.  Please watch the second part of Jessica’s story below:

So… question:

When will it be YOUR turn to come home?

Prodigal Son – Part Two

March 7, 2010 in Adultery, Church Planting, Faith, Friends, Marriage, Ministry, Worship, Worship Confessional with 2 Comments

Our Sunday Setlist was:

  1. Glory to God – Steve Fee & Vicky Beeching
  2. O Worship The King – Chris Tomlin Version
  3. King of Glory – Chris Tomlin
  4. Hallelujah – Tenth Avenue North (Response)
  5. We Will Worship You – Carlos Whittaker, Jason Ingram & Mia Fieldes
  6. Mighty To Save – Reuben Morgan

Despite one new song (Carlos’) and another “newer” song, it felt as though people were really singing out, worshiping together and praising the One who made this all to be. I was also extremely pleased with how the music pieces fit in well with the sermon.

Today, at Church at Bethany, we continued Part Two of our series, “Finding Your Way Back To God” (CLICK HERE for last weeks’ story). Matt’s talk today was titled, “This Isn’t What I Want” and it featured my good friend, Mikey, who finally got to share her story with our church.

Mikey has always been the “good girl” so when her life started to unravel, to her own doing, she was unequipped to handle it.

She ran.
She hid.
She ignored it.

Then… she found her place of safety. Watch the first part of her story below:

Mikey is in a COMPLETELY different place in her life now. Her realization that she DIDN’T have to live a life she didn’t want overruled the lies that told her that she was doomed to the consequences of her choices. Truth spoke loud and clear. She lives not only with integrity and strong conviction now, but she lives in search of REAL LIFE accountability.  She repented of her mistakes, turned 180* from them and willingly chose to start over… which is more difficult to do than to just SAY to do.

I’m SO proud of her for sharing her story so boldly. I know it was one of the scariest things she’s ever done… but she did it anyway, in hopes that she can help even ONE person find their way back to God.

So how about you?
What in YOUR life do you NOT WANT?
And when are YOU gonna start over?

Prodigal Son – Part One

March 1, 2010 in Adultery, Church Planting, Faith, Friends, Marriage, Ministry with 9 Comments

Matt wrote about the series we’re going through this next month.

As most of you know… I, too, am one who’s found my way back to God… and am constantly finding my way back to God.

Everyone is looking for something… we ALL want to find that “something”. And if you say you’re not, well… you’re either extremely unaware of yourself or just flat out lying.

We’re hosting 3 different stories from people at our church in this next series.

This first video is of Jessica… a woman (and now friend) I had been praying for LONG before I ever saw her face, met her in person, or embraced her.

Have you ever run?
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