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uOttawa Rejoice!

So, here's what's cooking for uOttawa.

There's a move on campus to get all the Christian clubs together one night and worship Jesus together. The Catholic people, the Orthodox people, the Anglican people, the Asian people, the Intervarsity people, the Campus for Christ people, and all the other clubs and Christian people on campus.

Monday, November 30th, we're going to be in the Alumni Theatre starting around 7 and going till 9:30 or so.

Our theme is Light.... Jesus is the light of the world, You are the light of the world, the light of the righteous shines brightly, and You shine like stars as you hold out the word of life.

So, would you pray for us? Would you pray for Jason and I and the rest of the team that are planning this thing? Would you pray for the light of the gospel of Jesus to be lifted up on the campus of Ottawa U?

Sunday Recap - November 8, 2009

Some random thoughts from yesterday...

First Sunday to have the youth in the service with us, I hope it was a smooth transition, I haven't gotten any feedback from that yet.

I'm loving how Jon's team with Matthew and Jason is doing such a great job each week getting us set up and torn back down. You guys are a huge blessing!

Anyone notice anything different with the coffee? Equator sent us whole bean this time, and Joe had to make a last minute substitution...

We started Philippians! We're in a partnership! and partnership equals joy!

I had an awesome time with Jon praying with Jesse at the end of the service. I love the fact that Phil 1:6 is totally true, He that began a good work in you is faithful to complete it!

And Sunday night discipleship groups are VERY encouraging!

2010 Men's Conference

Wanna know who I've been talking to about speaking at next year's Men's Conference?

Reply to this post by:
Commenting on the blog
Commenting on Facebook
Commenting on Twitter
Replying by email
Calling me
Texting me
Asking me in person

All those options make me look accessible!

uOttawa Update - News

Big News here...

I resigned last week from being the Protestant Chaplain at Ottawa U. I've been volunteering part-time over there on Tuesdays since the beginning of the semester.

It was a big decision, a sad decision, but I think will end up being the right decision. Here's why...

I've overestimated my time. It's been a difficult couple of months with Gen being back and forth to Montreal recording, being a dad of 3 kids, pastoring the church, and just keeping my head above water. I had to take a hard look at what I'm committed to, and why I'm doing stuff. I want to do more mentoring and less front line ministry. I'll share more about that in a later post.

The biggest reason is that there's another pastor who has been volunteering there and I think he's better equipped to do it. His name is Jason Byers, and we've become good friends at uOttawa. He's got more experience, way better ideas, more energy, resources, passion and time than I do. I really feel like the best thing for the chaplaincy is for me to get out of his way! I really like Jason, and have asked him to come and fillin in for me in November when I'm going to be in Florida. Jason pastors Celebration Church which is very involved in campus ministry here in Ottawa.

I know that it's going to be disappointing for some people. I've really gotten to know and like the CCO people, the OCF people and of course my peeps at C4C. I'm still going to be there for a while, while we make a transition, and I'm planning on continuing to help with student ministry as much as I can.

So, would you pray for uOttawa? for the students? for Jason? for the people that will be disappointed?

thanks...

Sunday Recap November 1, 2009

Where do I start?

I think there's going to be a bigger story here, but it was really cool to have Al Dagenais come and lead worship for us yesterday. He used to come back in the spring of '08 and lead for us but has since become part of another church. It was good to have him, good to worship with him, and I hope he enjoyed himself.
BTW - probably shouldn't have, but I told him to consider switching churches... :-)

We finished the book of Ephesians yesterday, what a great book, a great study, learning what God's will is for these various parts of life. God's will is for us to be strong! What a way to finish!

Someone after the service told me that they have really enjoyed the last couple of messages. They've been in church a long time and heard many messages on these passages, but these have been different, there's been something new and fresh in them. They said it was like hearing "the no-bull version" of these passages. I liked that... the no-bull version!

A couple of big news items from yesterday:
1. It was the last youth church meeting for a while. Jon Ruby is going to slide out of the youth leader role into a different role. We don't have a new leader yet, but we do have some ideas and some options available to us, but nothing we can put in place right away. In the meantime the youth will join the adults in the service, and I'm hoping that the lunch times after church will be a great time of discussion for parents and teens.
2. I think I found a web guy! A young man talked to me about it at the end of the service, and I'm hoping to meet up with him this week and talk about it a bit. He's a fascinating guy, I can't wait to get to know him more.

Sunday night was awesome. I'm really enjoying these discipleship groups and what I'm seeing happen in the hearts and minds of the people that are in them. May we all 'grow up in our salvation!'

Great Pedro Garcia Quote

I heard a great quote from Pastor Pedro a while ago:

If the board of the church approved 3 more pastors added to the staff next week, who would those people be?

Of course the answer would be the people that are functioning in those roles without the title and without the compensation...

Jon Ruby - Camp IAWAH messages

Hey guys,

Check this out... Jon spoke this summer at Camp IAWAH for one of their camps and did a great job and they recorded it! They gave him a nickname... "Bulldog!"

There's actually 5 messages, one for each day of camp, here's the first one...

The rest can be found here

Church Planting Boot Camp - Nov 21-22, 2009

It's been interesting. People have asked me over the last week about my relationship with CC St. Pete and CC Palm Harbor.  I don't know for sure, maybe one of those guys will read this and correct me. But, I don't think anyone guessed that I would ever do anything in ministry. I think they were hoping that I would just stay out of Gen's way! LOL... But, anyway, there's a church in Ottawa, a great church, and God once again proves that He has chosen the weak and the foolish to do His work.

So, what's the relationship? Well, without a doubt, outside of Jesus Christ, Brett has been the one that has believed in me the most and invested a lot of time and resources. As I'm writing this, I'm realizing how much my parents have invested as well! Danny and CC St. Pete have been a great example to me of what a church is and how to go about doing things. I'm very grateful for the love and the support and the example that all these people have given... and I'm grateful they take my calls!

Anyway, Art invited me to come down next month and speak at their first ever Church Planting Boot Camp. It's humbling, and I hope that I'll be able to be a blessing to them. I only know a couple of the other people that are speaking and I'm looking forward to meeting the rest and learning from them. Kristian's going to come with me, which I'm excited about as well.

Here's the details...
Thursday the 19th - arrive, check in, I'm speaking at C2 (CC St. Pete youth) that night. Kristian is going to share at Chris Moeller's Life Group.
Friday the 20th - some appointments (a burrito for sure), and a BBQ with a bunch of missionaries and their families that night.
Saturday the 21st - all day Boot Camp. I'm speaking first, which is awesome, I won't have to be nervous all day, and thinking about how to top the sessions that have already happened. I'll get 'er dun, and enjoy the rest of the day. I'm looking forward to worshipping at CC St. Pete that night at 6pm.
Sunday the 22nd - I'm teaching at Calvary Pasco in the morning, and doing a Q&A panel with Brett at 2pm at CC St. Pete. We fly back to Ottawa that evening.

Kristian has some open spots in his schedule, and I would love to see him get a chance to share what the Lord is doing up here, what he's learning, and of course encourage the church out of God's Word.

So, would you pray for us? Pray for us as we prepare for these different speaking opportunities, pray for Kristian as he'll be trying to keep up with me, and meeting a bunch of new people. Would you pray for the Boot Camp, that God would send out workers into the harvest fields? Would you pray about coming out to one of these meetings and inviting someone to come with you?

Sunday Night Recap

Sunday morning was great...

Sunday night was cool too!

At 5pm, I started a Discipleship group with some of the younger people in the fellowship. We're going through "Growing Strong in God's Family" which is a 10 week discipleship course published by the Navigators. We had our first meeting and I'm so very excited about what's going to happen in our hearts and lives through this group. There's a lot of energy with these guys, all of them seem to be very focused on their relationship with God and are involved in ministry. It was cool to hang out after and get to know them more, and just be available for questions and conversation and all that. It's a priviledge to minister to these guys.

At 8pm, I have another Discipleship group with some of the not as young people in the fellowship. We are going through "Deepening Your Roots in God's Family" which is Book 2 in the same discipleship course published by the Navigators. We are a couple of weeks into it now, and we are the same group that did book 1 earlier this year. A couple of the guys are leading Book 1 groups on Tuesday nights, and one of them is going to start a group later this month. Multiplication is an amazing thing, and what is happening through these groups is the multiplication of ministry, of discipleship and of the love of God being poured out all over this city. I'm humbled to be able to minster to these guys.

So, maybe you could just take a minute and thank God for what He's doing here. We are all so very excited about it. And maybe you would ask God to continue to give me wisdom to minister and love these awesome people He's brought...

Sunday Recap - October 25, 2009

It was a great day...

We were talking about God's will for marriage... Ephesians 5, heavy at times, comical at others. There were tears, I think there was some new thoughts and new thinking and a new perspective, and I think there was surrender. It was a big day.

Colin and Monica did worship, what a blessing! I love the new songs, and I hope that they continue to come. I also really appreciated the time at the end of just extending the worship time past communion, and praying for one another. The Holy Spirit was present and helping people.

One of the highlights from the morning for me was when JC and Linda came up during htat time at the end of the service and asked if they could pray for me. I'm very grateful for them, for their prayers and for how they encouraged me.

I got a lot of feedback from this message. Much more than normal. Almost all of it was positive, in the sense that there was growth and change.