Sermons and Music online

I've had a couple inquiries lately about Dewey's recent sermons on the website, and things are now up to date! Visit our website, www.newhopeconnection.com, and click on the Sermons, Etc. menu button to find all our recordings.

Unfortunately, the sermon from October 14th is gone due to a crashed computer and other technical difficulties (alas!), but the Anniversary Message from the 21st and "Gray Areas, Part 1" from last week are both ready to go.

In addition, Steve Myers got a few good recordings of three songs from last Sunday (Sweet Mercies, Just a Closer Walk, Your Name Is Holy) and you can hear these on the website as well. Enjoy!

Women's Bible Study

Women's Bible Studies got under way today, one in the morning and one in the evening. Tommy Janssen (or "Mom" as I like to call her) is leading this six-week study about the second coming of Christ.

I don't have any pictures to share, but rumor has it there were 9 ladies in the early study and 6 in the later one. There's still room in both, and it's not too late to jump in! For more information, see the announcement on our home page, or call Tommy at 1-805-717-1157.

Media and your kids

The other day I ran across a practical article that has some helpful hints about how to protect your kids from media content that you've deemed inappropriate. If you'd like some ideas, check out Technology that Protects: A Parent's Guide.

Quick Quote

“What I believe about God is the most important thing about me”

--A.W. Tozer

Sparrow Recording

A couple Sundays ago Dustin sang a song he wrote called "Sparrow" (see my earlier post for the words). Steve Myers recorded it that morning back at the sound board, and he's uploaded that recording to a New Hope MySpace page that he's created. So if you'd like to hear it, click here!

Coming Soon: A New Home for New Hope!

If you were one of the 165 folks at our special First Anniversary Worship Service last Sunday, then you heard the exciting news...New Hope's shepherds will soon be signing a lease for our own space!

The property is located at NE 3rd and Kirby, right where 3rd Street turns into Three Mile Lane (click here for a Google Map). It formerly housed the employment office. It's right across the street from St. James Catholic School, and a block east of Golden Valley Brew Pub.

There are two buildings on the property. The smaller one that's closest to 3rd Street (and looks like a bank to me) is will soon be a new family restaurant. Our space will be in the longer building behind it (along 4th Street), and we'll be leasing about half of the 10,000 square feet available.

Here's the view from 3rd Street. The building at the far right will be a restaurant. How 'bout that parking lot!

Here it is from another angle (from the car lot on Logan St and Three Mile Lane)

This is a picture of the worship space I took through one of the windows.

And here's the view from behind (4th and Logan)

There are so many great things about having this new space
- We'll have it all week
- It's big enough that we can all worship together in one service
- No more complete set-up/tear-down on Sunday morning
- Lots of space for our youth group to grow mid-week
- Great for our Awana club children's program
- Room for offices
- Plenty of parking
- More opportunities for special events
- Lots of room for New Hope to grow!

Of course there will be some new challenges to the new place, too. This is a step of faith for us--it will require more monthly rent money, plus some new one-time expenses like chairs, tables, church signs, etc. There will be opportunities for folks who are handy with tools or cleaning or yardwork to use their helpful gifts for our ministry. And it will challenge us to keep a mindset that we are moving forward, not just content to stay where we are as a comfortable, safe church.
And speaking of moving forward, we are also working on an even better location for sometime next year. But I'll save that for another post!

One year today!

On Sunday, October 22, 2006, about 35 people met for worship at the ESD building, and New Hope Christian Fellowship was born!

Yesterday we celebrated our church's one year anniversary with a special service and a potluck brunch. What a real joy it is to belong to this fellowship of people who love God and love each other! God bless New Hope as we enter into an exciting 2nd year!

"Hat Night" at Awana

Here are some of the crazy hats I saw at Awana last night!

Quick Quote

"The past is a guidepost, not a hitching post."

- L. Thomas Holdcroft

Men's Retreat

I was gone this weekend to the first ever New Hope Men's Retreat, held at Aldersgate Conference Center in Turner, Oregon. We had a good time of worship, teaching, eating and just being together. There's nothing like an away trip to get to know people better, and that was what I was looking forward to the most. I wasn't disappointed--I got a chance to talk with some men I didn't know very well and really enjoyed it!

Dave Bertolini and Gerry Clark both did great in their teaching times. We had excellent food at the conference center (I ate a LOT), and the lodgings were really comfortable. Between meetings there was lots of talking and playing pool, and (from what I hear) basketball and frisbee golf.

So it was a great weekend! I got to know some of the guys better, and I also have some thoughts to ponder about spiritual vision, change in the church, and even our sex-driven media culture. Plus I took some pictures...here are some photos from the weekend (from myself and my co-photographer Repko Bruinsma).

For more pictures, visit our photo gallery page on the website!

Sparrow

I asked Dustin Blumenstein, our New Hope Band drummer, to sing one of his songs for us this Sunday, and he chose one called Sparrow. I happen to know this song was inspired by an incident a while back where Dustin felt sad about accidently killing a small bird while driving down the highway.

Hopefully you'll be at church to hear it with the music, but I thought you'd enjoy seeing the lyrics, so I've posted them below.

In Matthew 10:29-31 Jesus says, "Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows."

SPARROW - by Dustin Blumenstein

I confess that once or twice
I question my place, I question my right
To a place beneath the sky
And I wonder why
Why bury me here
Cast away in the night?
What am I worth
Is a half penny worth the fight?
I just don’t know
I just don’t know

Then the truth comes winging its way on speckled wings
From every meadow there comes a song that mercy sings
Not a sparrow falls
Not a sparrow falls
Not a sparrow falls beyond Your love

I confess that once or twice
I lost my way, I lost the fight
When I stumble and fall
Do you hear me at all
Why carry me here
Why give me Your name
‘Cause I’m so weak
I’m so ashamed
I just don’t know
I just don’t know

Not a sparrow falls
Not a sparrow falls
Not a sparrow falls beyond Your love

Remind me, pursue me
Come find me, cut through me
Burn away the empty shell and weigh me as You will
Remember Your servant
Refine what was worthless
Count me as Your chosen son and don’t cast me away

‘Cause not a sparrow falls
Not a sparrow falls
Not a sparrow falls beyond Your love

"Hippie Night" at Awana

Childcare on Sunday Morning

In case you didn't get the news, we now have childcare available (nursery-preschool) during our both of our Sunday morning worship services at 9:15 and 11:00 a.m. Children's Church for elementary age kids is still during the second hour.

So if you're a family with small kids, you've got options!

Airplane joke

The photographer for a national magazine was assigned to get photos of a great forest fire. Smoke at the scene was too thick to get any good shots, so he frantically called his home office to hire a plane. "It will be waiting for you at the airport!" he was assured by his editor.

As soon as he got to the small, rural airport, sure enough, a plane was warming up near the runway. He jumped in with his camera equipment and yelled, "Let's go! Let's go!" The pilot swung the plane into the wind and soon they were in the air.

"Fly over the north side of the fire," said the photographer, "and make three or four low level passes." "Why?" asked the pilot. "Because I'm going to take pictures! I'm a photographer, and photographers take pictures!" said the photographer with great exasperation. After a long pause the pilot said, "You mean you're not the instructor?"

"Sunday" Article

I just read an interesting article about the history of Sunday, from the birth of the Church to about 600 A.D. It's not exactly life-changing, but it covers some church history stuff that I had never heard or considered before. Maybe you'll find it interesting, too:

The Son's Day to Sunday - by Craig Harline

Some Youth Group pics, 10-4-07

Awana Pics, 10-3-07

October 3rd was "Hiking Night", so after a hike (and a little play time) in Wortman Park, the kids came back for Bible verse time and games.

I've included a few pictures below, but if you want to see more, check out the photo gallery on the website! By the way, I just noticed that Rebecca put up some pictures on the web of last week's Western Night, and you can see those in the galleries as well.

What a week!

It's been 5 days since I posted anything, and as I look back on the last week I am encouraged about New Hope's ministry. That's because I've been there to witness first-hand some of the ministry that goes on in our fellowship!

Wednesday night we had another great Awana Club meeting. The weather was beautiful, so the kids spent time outside in the park singing and hearing a Bible lesson during "council time." It was Western Night, so it was fun to see the kids in their cowboy hats and neckerchiefs! I am very impressed with the group of volunteers Ashley has assembled to lead the club, and it looks like the kids are having a great time!

The next night I got to see our youth group who was meeting at Debbie Johnson's house. The students enjoyed pizza, basketball and "hang out" time in the backyard, followed by worship, prayer and God's Word inside. What a great group of students we have! It's challenging for us to have a growing youth group without our own building, but the shepherds are actively considering how to expand our reach to youth. It is no accident that 4 of our 6 New Hope shepherds are involved with the youth on Thursday nights--our youth are incredibly important to us.

Then Friday night I crashed the party at Henry and Sonja Mullian's house where they were hosting a hamburger feed for the college students. The food was awesome, and it was really fun hanging out with the dozen or so students who navigated the winding route to the Mullian homestead. We talked about everything from majors and course work to exciting motorcycle crash stories! I so appreciate the Mullians--their hospitality was wonderful and so is their family.

(Saturday was football day for me. Oregon, Oregon State and Linfield all lost. I don't want to talk about it.)

What can I say about Sunday? Our worship times as a church are a weekly highlight for me, and yesterday was no exception. I love praising our great God with my church family! And even when Dewey's preaching about church discipline it's still an encouragement and blessing to us all! Our teaching shepherd is joyfully using his gift each week, and we all benefit. But he's not the only one. All kinds of people, young and old, are using their gifts to benefit our church, whether it's running sound or running a vacuum cleaner, providing childcare for families or providing breakfast burritos for the band, playing piano with the worship team or playing blocks with a preschooler...church is not a spectator sport for us. As we sang in one of our songs yesterday, "New Hope Christian Fellowship's the place to be!" I can hardly imagine being anywhere else on Sunday morning.

And finally, tonight I met with the rest of the shepherds for our weekly meeting. As we mentioned yesterday, we are seeking the Lord's will in where our meeting place will be in the short- and long-term. We would really like to have a place we can use all week long, and we appreciate your prayers as we pursue a few possibilities. I'll be honest, as soon as we start talking financial stuff, my eyes sort of glaze over--but it's so neat to me to see how God has gathered six men with completely different personalities and gifts, and how that diversity benefits us as we tackle something different every week. I could say a lot more about that, but maybe I'll save it for a future post.

And so it goes. Since my last post last on Wednesday, I've had the opportunity to really see our church in action. I hope you are encouraged by the good things happening here, and I hope you'll jump in and be a part of God's work here at New Hope!

p.s. Sorry I don't have many pictures to share. I've got a new camera coming in the mail this week!

We have a new shepherd!

The Bible teaches that churches are to be led by a group of godly men who meet certain spiritual qualifications and aspire to take on the responsibility and accountability of leadership. Scripture refers to this church office with several terms: elders, bishops, overseers, pastors, shepherds, etc.

Here at New Hope we've decided to use the word "Shepherd" because it seems to best communicate the loving, guiding leadership we aim to provide.

With all that in mind, yesterday morning in our worship services we officially recognized Toby Carver as the newest addition to our Shepherd team!

Toby and his wife Dawn have three kids, and for his "day job" he serves as a police officer here in McMinnville. Toby has already been active in lots of ministry here at New Hope, as a teacher in our Men's Bible Study and our Youth Ministry, and as the game leader in our Awana Club on Wednesday nights.

We are grateful that God has put it on Toby's heart to serve in this way, and the rest of us shepherds are thrilled to include him as an equal partner in our leadership task. Tom, Rich, Ken, Dewey, Toby and I all want to lead this church with loving hearts and steady hands. We appreciate your prayers and input and encouragement!