Hey all, Pastor Jason here....
I am so excited to announce that today our faith community agreed together to enter into an exciting new venture...that of having a co-pastor leadership model. I am thrilled to say that we unanimously voted to bring Ms Gina Pollard on as New Hope's (and my) co-pastor. Co-pastoring is an awesome new modality of leadership that many churches are beginning to recognize the value of: the value of more creativity, more gifting, more collaborative work (I could go on and on!!). Gina brings a tremendous amount of gifting in a wide variety of areas and I am excited to combine the gifts the Lord has loaned to me with hers! I truly believe that together Gina and I will be able to provide exemplary leadership and pastoral care to our community. I am excited for our community, myself, and for what this will enable us to do in our greater community for the sake of the gospel.
So welcome Gina!!! I look forward to working with you for the glory of God's kingdom!!!
Jason Powell
Co-pastor
New Hope Covenant Church
Sunday, June 23, 2013
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Well Hellooo out there!
Jaime here. I've never written for a blog before but when Andrew set this up and asked if I would be interested, well, here I am I suppose! Let me just jump right in...
This morning was a good one! I met with Brandi for coffee. She's our admin. guru on staff, Women's Ministry leader extraordinaire, Mending the Soul coach...you get the idea. She rocks. As if she wasn't already doing enough, one more important role that she played this summer was that of fearless Kid's Camp cabin leader. For some, this may not seem like any big deal...but let me assure you that these folks that volunteer to go to camp and be in the trenches with the kids are absolute saints!
Anyway, back to coffee. The purpose of our meeting this morning was to talk over Kid's Camp. I'll be honest with you...when she asked to meet I couldn't help but feel a bit nervous. Not everything was like clockwork this year at camp and I was hoping that it wouldn't be one of those, "it was great James but I'm never doing that again..." type conversations. It most definitely wasn't! In fact (thank you Jesus) she's hooked! There really is nothing quite like going to camp. And for me, there is NOTHING like Kid's Camp! If you have been before, then you know what I mean. If you have never been, then I urge you to go!
As we sat talking over the weekends events, and laughing over silliness, and tearing up (ok, that was just me) over the victories in each of the kids' lives I was reminded of this blog and that I never got a chance to stop and share anything during camp. Not enough down-time at camp to write the "in the moment" experiences like Andrew (thanks for doing that, by the way!). But I didn't want to get too far from it before sharing a bit about what God did that weekend.
Our verse for the weekend was 2 Timothy 1:9 - "He has saved us and called us to a holy life - not because of anything we have done but because of His own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time...”. As one might deduce from the verse...the whole weekend was about Grace. We looked at it through one of the most grace-filled stories I know - The Prodigal Son (from Luke 15). I believe that the kids all benefited from hearing that God's Grace is for them and that it's never to late to receive it. More than that, however, I know that our kids each had victories of their own throughout the weekend. Whether it was conquering fears, or learning to have God's grace for one another in real-life ways, or coming out of their shell and learning how getting silly or messy can break down walls...each one took a step forward in their relationships with Jesus in their own way. And THAT...my friends...is what it was all about!
There are SO MANY things I could say about camp...but I find that often, pictures speak volumes so here are a few from the weekend...
This is the worship band that I was blessed to be a part of. (Shout out to Andrew - fellow NH blogger there all the way on the left! And then Andy, Joe, myself and Ed...great group!)
Jaime here. I've never written for a blog before but when Andrew set this up and asked if I would be interested, well, here I am I suppose! Let me just jump right in...
This morning was a good one! I met with Brandi for coffee. She's our admin. guru on staff, Women's Ministry leader extraordinaire, Mending the Soul coach...you get the idea. She rocks. As if she wasn't already doing enough, one more important role that she played this summer was that of fearless Kid's Camp cabin leader. For some, this may not seem like any big deal...but let me assure you that these folks that volunteer to go to camp and be in the trenches with the kids are absolute saints!
Anyway, back to coffee. The purpose of our meeting this morning was to talk over Kid's Camp. I'll be honest with you...when she asked to meet I couldn't help but feel a bit nervous. Not everything was like clockwork this year at camp and I was hoping that it wouldn't be one of those, "it was great James but I'm never doing that again..." type conversations. It most definitely wasn't! In fact (thank you Jesus) she's hooked! There really is nothing quite like going to camp. And for me, there is NOTHING like Kid's Camp! If you have been before, then you know what I mean. If you have never been, then I urge you to go!
As we sat talking over the weekends events, and laughing over silliness, and tearing up (ok, that was just me) over the victories in each of the kids' lives I was reminded of this blog and that I never got a chance to stop and share anything during camp. Not enough down-time at camp to write the "in the moment" experiences like Andrew (thanks for doing that, by the way!). But I didn't want to get too far from it before sharing a bit about what God did that weekend.
Our verse for the weekend was 2 Timothy 1:9 - "He has saved us and called us to a holy life - not because of anything we have done but because of His own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time...”. As one might deduce from the verse...the whole weekend was about Grace. We looked at it through one of the most grace-filled stories I know - The Prodigal Son (from Luke 15). I believe that the kids all benefited from hearing that God's Grace is for them and that it's never to late to receive it. More than that, however, I know that our kids each had victories of their own throughout the weekend. Whether it was conquering fears, or learning to have God's grace for one another in real-life ways, or coming out of their shell and learning how getting silly or messy can break down walls...each one took a step forward in their relationships with Jesus in their own way. And THAT...my friends...is what it was all about!
There are SO MANY things I could say about camp...but I find that often, pictures speak volumes so here are a few from the weekend...
Some of our kids dancing during worship! I can't think of many things that I love more than helping to lead 175 kids in praising the Lord!
One of my favorite memories was Sundaes from Heaven. In a metaphorical sense, this event was to help seal in the kids' mind that all good things come from our Father in Heaven. In a very practical sense...we literally rain down every kind of ice-cream topping you can imagine from the roof and the kids become human Sundaes...oh...and some of it lands on their ice cream. I love it!
Then there was Messy Mania...mud pit + bubble machine = good times!
That's me in the middle (oh hello!), Becky on the left and Brandi on the right. They were amazing cabin leaders hand-picked by God for these kids this year. So thankful for their willing hearts!
And a special (read: personal) thank you to my amazing hubby for coming and hanging with the baby boy all weekend so I could have him close and fulfill my roles at camp!
Our small but mighty New Hope group. What a fantastic weekend with a great group learning about and serving an amazing God!
Until next time...
Jaime
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Pastor's first post!
Hey New Hope family,
Pastor Jason here. I'm so thankful to Andrew Olson for setting up our church blog. It's great to have people in our community who give of their time and talents in so many ways. I am looking forward to posting here...but now that means I have to start racking my brains for something intelligent to say! I'll do my best. For now I'll just say welcome and God bless you!!
Pastor Jason here. I'm so thankful to Andrew Olson for setting up our church blog. It's great to have people in our community who give of their time and talents in so many ways. I am looking forward to posting here...but now that means I have to start racking my brains for something intelligent to say! I'll do my best. For now I'll just say welcome and God bless you!!
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Kids Camp 2013 In Review
So we're all back in the Valley again. The kids were awesome. The worship was awesome. Camp was awesome.
Overall, I don't have much else to say. God is great.
Andrew
Sunday, June 9, 2013
Kids Camp Day Three & New Writers
The weather is gorgeous up here. But I'm still sunburned.
So I ran the zipline for the kids yesterday. They were all so excited to jump into it. And the smiles at the end of each run were amazing.
The evening's event was the best part though: glow in the dark capture-the-flag. The camp ordered a ton of glow-sticks and we set up the field with little glow-sticks for boundaries, two giant glow-sticks for flags, and necklaces for team markers. Now it was cool when we started, kids running around all over the place, screaming and having a good time, but it got awesome once the sun went down. It looked like something out of Tron. There were just blue and green circles zipping around the field. I have to say, running that game was a total blast.
On another note, I've found a few people that are interested in writing for this blog. I'm excited to announce that New Hope's Tracy, Jaime, and Pastor Jason will be putting out posts soon.
Anyways, new day, new challenges. I'm ready, Lord.
Andrew
So I ran the zipline for the kids yesterday. They were all so excited to jump into it. And the smiles at the end of each run were amazing.
The evening's event was the best part though: glow in the dark capture-the-flag. The camp ordered a ton of glow-sticks and we set up the field with little glow-sticks for boundaries, two giant glow-sticks for flags, and necklaces for team markers. Now it was cool when we started, kids running around all over the place, screaming and having a good time, but it got awesome once the sun went down. It looked like something out of Tron. There were just blue and green circles zipping around the field. I have to say, running that game was a total blast.
On another note, I've found a few people that are interested in writing for this blog. I'm excited to announce that New Hope's Tracy, Jaime, and Pastor Jason will be putting out posts soon.
Anyways, new day, new challenges. I'm ready, Lord.
Andrew
Saturday, June 8, 2013
Kids Camp: Day Two
So I'm up in Prescott right now for Kids Camp 2013! There are several other New Hopers up here with me. We have five other churches up here with us as well and there are kids everywhere. But we're all having a blast and I think it's awesome to see so many kids willing to learn about Jesus.
I'm mainly up here for music. Since I play keyboards for Sunday morning worship, I got asked to play for the worship team up here at camp. Our first chapel session was last night and I have to say, it was so cool to see all of the kids shouting praises to God as we play our hearts out for Him. I'll admit though, I'm a little shaky on my chords for keys right now, but the music is still awesome and the kids are still excited to dance, scream, and sing out to the Lord. Our band rocks. Seriously.
I can't repeat enough about how amazing it is to be up here for church. I can't think of anything else I'd rather be doing. I'm so thankful to have been chosen for this position and I can't wait to help the kids see (if they haven't already) the glory of God and how incredible his loving grace is.
I got a solid four hours of sleep last night and I'm ready for the day! Let's do it.
Andrew
I'm mainly up here for music. Since I play keyboards for Sunday morning worship, I got asked to play for the worship team up here at camp. Our first chapel session was last night and I have to say, it was so cool to see all of the kids shouting praises to God as we play our hearts out for Him. I'll admit though, I'm a little shaky on my chords for keys right now, but the music is still awesome and the kids are still excited to dance, scream, and sing out to the Lord. Our band rocks. Seriously.
I can't repeat enough about how amazing it is to be up here for church. I can't think of anything else I'd rather be doing. I'm so thankful to have been chosen for this position and I can't wait to help the kids see (if they haven't already) the glory of God and how incredible his loving grace is.
I got a solid four hours of sleep last night and I'm ready for the day! Let's do it.
Andrew
Friday, June 7, 2013
Welcome
Hi there!
My name is Andrew and I am a Christian. I attend a fantastic church known as New Hope Covenant Church. I love music and I love God. I also deeply love my church.
So the purpose of this blog would be to highlight what we do at New Hope. Not necessarily to publicize or anything like that, but to share insights and events that go on every week. This may seem like a bit of a journal of my own accounts and whatnot, but my goal with this blog is to get other writers on as well so that it's not just me going on and on and on. That would get boring.
So anyways, I mainly just wanted to introduce myself and my idea. This is a blog about a church, written by an amateur writer. Nothing more, but hopefully nothing less.
Andrew
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