For Those With Ears - Entries written by Eutychus

Loved, loved, loved being with my Harvest family again on Sunday. Seemed to me that people were here early and in the room ready for worship. Lots of anticipation for what God is doing these days. Did I say that I just love being with my Harvest family?! ‘Cuz I do!

I was wandering down the Harvest Kids hall and saw the grade 4, 5 and 6 class taking part in a meal. Heard it was a Seder Dinner. Checked that out online and found out that the Seder is a meal on the first night or two of the Jewish Passover. Each aspect of the Seder and the Passover point to Jesus and the kids were hearing how everything relates to him being the Saviour. At the end of the Seder, the children were given the opportunity to nail a sin they are struggling with to the cross. This is a big deal for the children and I know they look forward to the Seder every year.

 

As for the service, worship was a little simpler (I think Jordan’s going to make sure it looks a lot bigger than that for Easter next Sunday!) with just four in the worship team. Those four delivered big time though. It was such a great time of worshipping the Lord and lifting high the name of Jesus!  

The message was number six in the seven part Things Not Seen series. Pastor Todd took us through six whole chapters of Genesis! He walked (or maybe ran) us through the “Power of Faith” with the whole issue being that of forgiveness. Seems there are a ton of people struggling with issues of being able to forgive offenses committed against them. This message hit the spot for many. If you weren’t there, the video is up now, so check that out.

With Easter coming up fast, we have a lot going on at Harvest this week. On Thursday night the worship team will be working on things and the rest of us have been invited to come and pray for all God will do over the weekend. Good Friday services are at 9 a.m. and 11:15 a.m. and Easter Sunday at the same times. The e-invite is available to send to your friends and family and to Tweet and post on your Facebook page.

One of the great things we’ll see on Easter Sunday will be the baptisms of a bunch of people who have come to faith in Christ. On Sunday morning, as we were in worship, a woman professed her faith in Christ right in the baptism prep class! Now that’s cool! Praise God!

Can’t wait for the weekend!         

Eutychus

I didn’t get the memo, but apparently there is a Community of Purple that attends Harvest!  There are also a lot of people that belong to the seedy sports sub-culture called the Leafs Nation, as well as a lot of Scots that attend first service.  Not so much at second!

I’ve been thinking about all the various communities I belong to.  Communities based on place, people, (Jewish for me!), passions and participation.  The community that is most significant for me is the community of believers but I just had to wonder how that is impacting all the others.  I was pretty convicted about being different by just not complaining.  I really am thankful for most things, including my job but I have to admit I get caught up in the negativity sometimes.  It’s hard to rise above that isn’t it?  How do you do it? 

Speaking of the negative, I saw that our elder chair, Terry Codling, took up the challenge to “tweet that!”  It reads “We don’t experience uncommon community, because of our own uncommon selfishness masquerading as righteousness.”  That was based on the five negatives that we often bring to church:

What does it say that the prize went to a kid that wasn’t joining the cry?  I think Pastor Roger set us up, but I’m glad not to be the guy that got that prize!

I noticed some very interesting things happening down the Harvest Kids hall on Sunday!  Our grade four/five kids are getting into character as they continue to work through their study "The Footsteps of Jesus".

 





If you missed Sunday, you can listen to the message online. It was great to see that even in January Erich and Val Koroschetz made it down from Timmins. If you know someone in that area who might be interested in our Timmins small group, have them check out the info and get in touch with Erich and Val.

It was sweet to end with communion and the understanding that it isn’t just following Christ that makes us an uncommon community but the reality we are all in him.  “We share Christ!”  I do think we’ve got that going!  Here’s to more of that! 

Peace,

Eutychus

Another great Sunday together! Passionate worship, a solid message from the Word and great news about what God is doing around here. LOVE IT!

It was great to have Chad Ballantyne leading worship for us again. The team sang a great new Paul Baloche song called, “Same Love”.  I found the official video on YouTube—pretty cool. I like it so much that I downloaded it from iTunes and added it to my playlist. You should too.

Just before he preached, Pastor Todd gave a report on our end of year giving in 2012 and a few other praiseworthy notes. I’ve heard that the full report in print and audio will be posted in this blog tomorrow. The First Things campaign brought in a little more than $84,000 toward retiring the mortgage on the office facility. That’s something to be thankful for! 

As part of that same report we heard that we’re starting a video ministry. The elders had identified this as a vision initiative for 2013 and budgeted $20,000 to buy the equipment we need and get it going. Near the end of the year, a donor from outside our church family who heard about it stepped up and wrote a cheque for the entire amount! Now that’s cool!  If you want to be involved in this ministry, . He’s building a team.  Watch for video podcasts soon!

While we were meeting for worship, our senior high youth and their leaders were up in Muskoka for their Winterfüse retreat.  From what I hear, some young people are coming back changed. Word is that something pretty powerful happened up in Muskoka this weekend. Pray for our youth as they work at keeping commitments made while back at their high schools this week.

Pastor Todd’s sermon was the second in this Connect@Harvest series that is all about us—what makes Harvest Bible Chapel distinctive. He had us looking at Matthew 28:19-20 to hear all about our mission. I love what he said near the end, “The specific mission serves the greater mission. The specific mission is to make disciples; the greater mission is “to him be glory in the church”. Let’s get on that.  If you missed it, you can listen to it here.

At the end of the service we were told that next Sunday is one of those “do not miss” ones. The elders are making an announcement, he said, that will be a blessing to our church. Can’t wait for that!

And next Sunday is also a baptism service. We heard in the sermon a strong point that being baptized is a big part of what it means to be “making disciples”. If you haven’t been baptized as the Bible teaches, that you want to make that right this Sunday.

And it is our week of prayer! I’ll be at TCS on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. for the Worship & Prayer Night. Hope to see you.  And don’t forget to sign up for the 24 Hours of Prayer starting Saturday at 1 p.m. We believe firmly in the power of prayer! Let’s show that we believe that.

Talk to you next Monday!

Eutychus

Whoa!  I mean, Whoa!!!  

I really can’t say what pulled that out of my soul and through my lips the most!  

Was it the sound and light display Saturday night that just seemed to be made for preparing us for the message?  Was it that we imported a storm into the worship center when it was so nice outside?  Was it that I was left shaken through the last song?  Who can stand?  

I fully expected to open my eyes to see everyone on our faces.  Don’t take that as a criticism that we weren’t, (I was still standing also), but I think I caught what might have been a bit of a glimpse of something that might have been something from outside of time!  

Whoa!

I can’t wait for the message next week.  If the first refrain was that powerful, what will the next one be like? If you missed yesterday's message you can listen online.

I was pretty blessed to see how many people signed up to hand out Timmies cards to bless our veterans and service personnel.  I heard from one person that they were well received.  Thanks to those who served us this way, to bless those who served us so well, and those who continue to do so! Jim is a veteran and Monique serves us now.  Glad they are part of our body with many others.

I‘m pretty pumped about our global partnerships.  So cool we had Canadians helping launch a Harvest Bible Chapel in Nicaragua!  Also, I’m buying a basket to bless the kids in the orphanages.  I really like that my dollars will bless the local economy there, give our partners influence and impact, and meet the exact needs of the children.  Now that’s a Christmas present!

I think a great Christmas present to oneself is to be and stay debt-free.  I am considering carefully how I can help our church to get there with my gifts to the year-end campaign.  I hope you are too!  (I learned just recently that giving is another part of our overall worship.)

Last night was also an amazing gathering of our Harvest family for worship and prayer. Honestly, if you haven't come to one, you do not know what you're missing.

 

I’m still not sure how I feel about thunderstorms but I better get used to it because apparently there is a lot of that going on in heaven.  I downloaded a sound bite I can play full volume to practice!  Boooom!!!

Whoa,

Eutychus

I was already so excited about the Vertical Church tour on September 18.  Now that I have this book, I’m more than excited!  I have already read the blurb about Barrie on page 297 and the “Read this first” starting on page 27.  Yes, I read all the little “things people are saying about Vertical Church”!  There are even resources to access on the web.  (I’ve seen some of them already but they are sooo good I’ll watch them again.)  Spoiler alert: there is a soul-piercing tool on page 90!

You can tell I spent some time yesterday afternoon not getting a nap or anything much else done!  So thankful to the elders for making this book available to us all.  I think it will really encourage us.   

     

I also spent some time thinking about the kind of man of faith Jonathan was and what a guy like that would be like now.  I decided he is like a lot of people I know.  They aren’t all leading nations but it's always surprising where you find them.  And Pastor Roger is right, there is something that is different that attracts us.  I’m going to write out all the times I can remember that happening and I’m going to make a list of people my heart is “knit together” with because of Christ.  I think a hint is that my first thought when I think of them is great thankfulness that I know them! If you missed yesterday, you can listen to the message online.

Summer is fast coming to a close.  I am looking forward to a social event with my small group and then kicking off the new ministry year with prayer on September 4.  Then launch Sunday!  That’s when everyone will find out the theme.  I’m trying to talk Pastor Todd into giving hints on Twitter.  Send in a comment if you want to help put on some pressure!

Peace,

Eutychus

I have to “confess” that Pastor Scott did not disappoint! I love the accent and love that he likes ours. More than that, I loved the message. I don’t know about you but I haven’t taken much of my leisure time this summer to contemplate. I plan to do it now and I have some great questions to ask myself. You can review the message here and see the small group questions here. 

Pretty cool to have Jordan’s best man here leading worship with him. Makes sense to pick a guy that big to protect you! Thanks Gooby! Really cool that Jordan shouted down the devil during first service too! He was out-singing a wayward amplifier.

I noticed a lot of visitors this week. Summer must be in full swing. Pastor Todd said he met someone from Texas and from other Harvests. (Besides Glasgow!) I love that our folks greet people they don’t know. I am trying to do that and have met people that are going to make us their home. They might end up in my small group!

Just saying, by the way, last night was off the charts! Worship was great and hearing from our team was so good. I appreciated the comments from Pastor Scott and Jeannie to the parents of our team. They really did do us proud! The true effect of the trip was in the building of faith in them and in us so the results are still coming in. And now Pastor Scott has me thinking – when will Mission-2 happen?
   

I wish I could bottle Jeannie’s energy. She is also excited about Day Camp and so are a lot of helpers! It’s happening July 30 – August 3. Check out the video here!

Peace,

Eutychus

Where do I start?

Sunday’s worship had a lot going on. So where do I start? The Sudbury group in the 11:15 service? The child dedications for the Faris, Siebert and Holmes families? The not-quite-what-we-do-normally sermon by Pastor Todd? The interview with Kathy Pedersen? The testimony by Hilary Shewfelt?

Let’s go in reverse order sort of and start with Hilary. With one global intern already “out there” serving in St. Vincent (Chad Freeman), we have now commissioned another to serve at our partner church in Glasgow, Scotland. Hilary leaves Friday and will spend the next six months serving alongside the wonderful leaders and servants in Glasgow. She spoke well on Sunday morning during the worship time (and then went right back to playing keys), and is admittedly eager to get going and experience all God has for her over the next months. I know she was moved by the time of prayer following each service. Watch for reports from Hilary in the blog.

We also heard from Kathy Pedersen, the director of the Barrie Pregnancy Resource Centre which is in the midst of their annual major fundraising drive. The Baby Bottle campaign started on Mother’s Day and ends next Sunday on Father’s Day. Get those bottles filled and bring ‘em back so this Harvest compassion ministry partner can continue doing the great work they do.

As Kathy left the stage, Pastor Todd told us a bit about Motion 312 that is going before the House of Commons in Ottawa. Members of the Steingard small group are working on a petition to give to our MP Patrick Brown that calls for the creation of a parliamentary committee to examine the definition of life in the womb. Over a hundred signatures were gathered on Sunday. You can also sign this petition online.

The “life” theme continued as three families brought children to be dedicated in the two services. Nathan and Crystal Holmes brought their daughter Kaydence, Joel and Deanna Faris brought their newest daughter Lilah and Ian and Nicole Siebert brought their son Owen. It is always a blessing to witness this, and it was nice to see the babies all take it easy on Pastor Todd as he and Emilie subbed in for the vacationing Mike and Angie Armstrong. 

    

As for our time in the Word, it was a bit different. First, the pulpit was out. That’s pretty rare. Second, we weren’t in Hebrews, which now seems weird after a full year of working through it pretty much every Sunday. Third, he had us looking at a bunch of passages…I think I counted about a dozen that we looked at or were referred to. Lots to chew on this week. And the things he raised about how God’s glory as been shining in our church this year are giving me a lot to be thankful for. And as he prayed at the end, I had no trouble saying “AMEN!” to the desire for EVEN MORE of God’s presence and power among us! If you had to miss church for some reason, take the time to listen to the audio.

And it was just cool to have a bunch of people from Sudbury worshipping with us at the 11:15 service. They are praying and hoping for a Harvest Bible Chapel in their northern city. We gathered with them post-service for prayer too.

It was announced that next Sunday is a BIG DEAL with baptisms happening. I love baptisms! I’ll be up at the front taking it all in! Hope to see you there.

In the meantime, have a super-blessed week in Jesus! To him be glory, eh?!

It was a beautiful day inside and out on Sunday!

But before I get to that, let me just mention that Amy Fotherby, our Director of Welcome! and Integration at Harvest, was married on Saturday to Kevin Passafiume. It was a real blessing to be at the ceremony and reception and celebrate with them. God was glorified in how everything came off, I’d say.

As for that beautiful Sunday God provided, it was fun to start the service off with that video of the kids wishing their moms a Happy Mother’s Day. If you missed it that’s because you weren’t in the worship centre on time! Ha! But I’ve included it here in the blog so the moms can see their little cuties again.

The worship was powerful and passionate. I’m sensing a freedom in worship each week that just draws me in. I have the worship music rockin’ my iPod all the time, but getting together with the church to sing these songs to the Lord is just something else entirely. Love it!

We also heard Pastor Todd bring a strong word from Hebrews 12:1-3. The message was “Faith endures” and our time together in worship ended with a time of seeking God for endurance so that we would not grow weary or fainthearted. It was so cool to see all those small group leaders up front ready to pray for us to have greater endurance in the midst of the often-difficult circumstances of life.

And I’m taking some time this week to think about who is in my “cloud of witnesses.” Who are the ones I’m looking to as my examples of enduring faith? You should take sometime to do that too.

The worship aside, because it was Mother’s Day, we also launched our effort to raise funds for the Barrie Pregnancy Resource Centre though their annual Baby Bottle Drive. The BPRC is one of our partner ministries here in town that we actually had the privilege of founding in 2007. Now dozens of churches and many individuals in Barrie and Simcoe County support the ongoing work of the BPRC. So fill those baby bottles you picked up on Sunday and bring them back full on Father’s Day. If you didn’t get one, they will be available again this Sunday in the lobby.

Some big things are coming up in the next few weeks! On Tuesday, May 22 we’ll be getting together as the church to pray for the special celebration weekend with Pastor James MacDonald and Meredith Andrews. That happens May 26 and 27. If you don’t have your concert tickets, get them before we sell out. And plan on inviting friends and family to come to the three celebration services planned for that weekend.

Have a super week!

Wow. What a Sunday. Amped up worship and a great message from Pastor Cristian Barbosu (listen to it here). I think the only thing that we lacked were people with cool accents…oh wait, not true at all.





Between Cristian and Jim Beattie, the church just looked so stylish yesterday, not even taking account of how great they sounded. It seemed to me that Jordan had picked a bad day to dress down. At least Pastor Todd and a few others got the purple memo…

   



It was truly a blessing though to hear and see all that the Lord is doing through Harvest Bible Chapels around the world. So often we can feel closed off here, like we are the only ones doing what we do, but what an encouragement to see that the Lord is working in some amazing ways. The video with all the people from different countries singing the same song in their native tongues was so amazing and touching, just a taste of what heaven may feel like!

The Duffs' video was amazing too, a great example of a strong faith through some big trials. Jordan’s challenge was so real to me…could I truly worship the Lord when ALL is stripped from me? Themed in so well with the message, hearing story after story of people who lost everything to follow Christ.  (We'll post the storylines video later this week.)

We don’t face much difficulty at all compared to our brothers and sister’s around the globe. Let’s really take the challenge ahead and take a stand for Christ wherever and whenever. Also remember to be praying for Chad Freeman as he’s on his way to St. Vincent now to serve the Lord for six months and also keep in mind Pastor Mike and the youth team that’s headed to Scotland soon!

Where to begin???  With incredible excitement and anticipation we stepped into a jammed packed worship centre at Harvest Elgin on Monday morning and it kinda felt like a family reunion.  Hugs, tears and a whole lot of love were shared by many, as our huge Harvest family from all over the globe greeted one another. 

Our day started with an incredible time of worship – and I mean – amazing high impact worship with 2,000 brothers and sisters all lifting high the name of Jesus together in song.  Hey, I just read that we are going to be recorded as we sing the song “We’re United” together – how cool is that?

We were blessed as Pastor James began teaching us from John 1:19 about Authentic Jesus – full of grace and truth.  I will never again think about grace without truth when meditating on who our Saviour truly is.  I can’t wait to hear the rest of this powerful message on Wednesday.

The rest of our day consisted of attending the first two of five workshops in our desired ministry track.  As our Harvest Barrie team met together over dinner, Pastor Roger invited us to share highlights from what we had learned.  It was amazing to hear how people were blessed in so many ways by the strong teaching.  We have team members involved in a number of different tracks – Communication, Preaching, Student Ministry, Compassion & Missions, Biblical Soul Care, Children’s Ministry, Leadership, Women’s Ministry, Elder Topics, Worship – and more.  I love how we’re striving to be excellent in these areas and how willing our Harvest family is to be used by God for his glory.

We also met together as regions.  So cool to see all of the leaders and people from the Canadian Region gather to share, plan and pray together...and to know that the same thing was happening throughout the campus with the other regions around the world.

The day didn’t end there!  Remember when our own Pastor Todd was esteemed as ‘Senior Pastor of the Year’ in 2011?  Well, he received the honour of preaching at HU 2012. 

While this task may have been daunting for some, he looked right at home proclaiming the authority of God’s Word in Elgin, Illinois.  It was a message we all needed to hear – but especially encouraging to those enduring difficult and dark days.  In walking us through Genesis 40, we learned that;
a) no situation should trap you;
b) no injustice should crush you; and
c) no loneliness should consume you.
Wish you all could’ve been there – it was a great time for our Harvest Barrie family.

Todd presented HBF executive director, Kent Shaw, with his own Team Canada jersey, commemorating 10 Canadian church plants in 10 years.

God is at work at Harvest Bible Chapel and it’s clearly evident at Harvest University 2012.  If you didn’t make it this year – plan on it next year.

P.S.  Four of the Harvest Youth at HU, enjoying this incredible opportunity. 

The Sunday after Easter Sunday picked right up where we left off last week…passionate worship and a powerful message from God’s Word. It was a no-holds-barred message…like we walked into church and got slammed with a piece of rebar across the forehead! Especially for husbands and fathers.

From three pretty non-descript verses in Hebrews 11:20-22, we learned that Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, with all of the ups and downs of their faith, still managed to pass on a blessing to future generations. We even started by just defining what a blessing even is. I know I sometimes use that phrase a little flippantly. It was hard not to be convicted by this one. If you weren’t in the room for it, check it out online.

Toward the end of the message it got real practical when Pastor Todd built off of some reading he was doing in John Trent’s book, The Blessing. I thought it would be helpful for you to have this. We heard that the formal aspects of The Blessing include loving touch (laying your hands on your son or daughter) and making sure you actually say it; verbalizing the blessing in a clear way. The content of the blessing itself has three elements: (1) Personal Commitment (The Blessing of Love) - “I am here for you”; as you share your unconditional commitment to him/her, to be there for them, as God gives you strength, for the duration; …and that’s going to flow from you knowing that God committed his Son to die on your behalf and that he mediates for you as your advocate before the Father; you know you’re loved and cherished by him; (2) Affirmation of Worth (The Blessing of Identity) - “You are valued”; as you let them know that out of all the children in the world, you’re grateful God gave them to you; affirm their worth and identity in Christ; …and you have to know your value in Christ as his sons and daughters if you’re going to do this for your sons and daughters; and (3) Expression of potential for the future (The Blessing of Purpose) - “You have so much ahead of you”; you see potential in them for a great future, and that their strengths and gifts are things God can use to help their own family, the church and others; …and you have to know what your potential is in Christ (not pie in the sky nonsense, but a faith-filled expectation that God is with you to do exceedingly, abundantly above all you could ever ask or think.

Pastor Roger is going to contribute some further resources for any moms and dads who really want to get on this and make some changes in their homes to ensure they’re passing on a blessing as the patriarchs did.

As far as modeling it…well, you couldn’t miss Brian and Boaz Langford serving on the parking team before the 9 a.m. service. There’s a dad showing his son something good…passing on a blessing to future generations, for sure! Wondering if we can get orange vests to fit the junior parking attendant.

And is was modeled too in Pastor Todd’s interview just prior to the message.  It is always exciting to have people from our church family sense the call to serve in ministry vocationally, and Pastor Todd introduced us to Chad Freeman on Sunday. He’s heading to Harvest Bible Chapel St. Vincent for the next six months to serve as an intern and continue the process of figuring out God’s will and direction for his future ministry. He shared a couple of solid, Scripture-based prayer requests, and many of you pledged by raising your hands to pray for him. As a reminder, here’s what Chad asked us to pray:   

-     Luke 12:31-32  But seek His kingdom, and these things will be provided for you.  Don't be afraid, little flock, because your Father delights to give you the kingdom; and

-     Ephesians 1:17-19 I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, would give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.  I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the glorious riches of His inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power to us who believe, according to the working of his great strength.

Powerful! 

Between services there was great Welcome@Harvest meeting with about a dozen newcomers to Harvest who are checking out whether or not God is leading them to be part of our church family.

I thought I’d mention too that on Saturday members of our Summer Glasgow Team as well as men from our two MIA groups (Men in Action) did an extensive trimming of the brush that was choking the woods behind our Bayfield Street office. The woods are part of the YMCA property and the crew did this to make the view from the office better as well as to help the Y out with its annual property clean up.

It was a great day together.  And like Pastor Todd said, it just seems to be such a long time between Sundays! Talk to you next Monday from Harvest University in Chicago!

God bless you…and I mean that!

Eutychus

Every time we get together as the church, I just love it. Can’t wait for the next Sunday to roll around after the last of the chairs are packed away and the storage units stowed.  I saw a couple of post-service tweets that nailed it for me…

@hshewfelt Another amazing Sunday @HarvestBarrie!! Run hard: Faith obeys...exactly what I needed to hear!!

@johncoros LOVE WORSHIPPING WITH OUR CHURCH @HarvestBarrie The only thing better will be when we are before His throne #cantwait

Captures my heart exactly!

That amazing Sunday started with great worship. It was so great to see Steve Dobbs up there leading again. And did you find our worship director Jordan? He gave the drummers a Sunday off and climbed into the drum room himself. After the service he told me that he said he got a whole new perspective from in there!

The service closed with Luke on keys and Jordan singing “Holy (Wedding Song)” by The City Harmonic. What a powerful little song. Pastor Todd said that we’d be hearing the song again on Good Friday. It bridged the theme of this past Sunday’s message perfectly into thinking about the crucifixion of Christ and the reality that because of his sacrifice, death’s sting has been removed. So grateful for that! If you want to hear that song, you’ll have to get it from iTunes. No YouTube link to it.

Pastor Todd’s message shredded me as usual. We opened to Hebrews 11:8-19 and heard about the four signs of faith-filled obedience. He was right, we don’t like the notion of having to obey, and his five objections were on the mark for me. And the whole idea of being ready to be in heaven with the Lord, no matter how good it might be here and now, really struck me. We’re made for that better, heavenly country. If you didn’t hear the message, you really need to check it out online.

Sunday was also a pretty big day from a technical standpoint as several pieces of audio equipment that were overdue for replacement got…uh, replaced finally. The audio techs were all geeked-up on Saturday putting everything in place. Aside from a few small glitches, everything went incredibly well. And I know that Jordan and the staff are super grateful for the audio tech guys who put a ton of work into making the sound great each week. Among other things, the new equipment gives us greater capability in quality recording which will improve our radio and online presence and will eventually give us the ability to live-stream to the web as well as produce video for campus sites. So cool! 

While we were meeting in the worship centre, our grade 4-6 Higher Ground kids were having a Seder or Passover meal as a way of better understanding the account of Jesus’ last week on earth and the message of salvation that is pictured in that meal. So grateful for Devyn and Caroline who put so much into their teaching. These kids are blessed! Check out the pics.

 

 

There are only a few short days left to get those Good Friday and Easter invitations into the hands of the people God has put into your life. As Pastor Roger said, they will often come if you make the invitation personal. If you can’t get a print invite into their hands, use this link.

By the way, I just signed up for Twitter (@EutychusBarrie) …so start following me, k?

I’ll be blogging again next Monday. It’ll be, “The Monday Blog about Good Friday and Easter Sunday”. What a weekend we have ahead of us as we remember the death of Christ and celebrate his resurrection to new life!

To him be glory!

Eutychus

It was an amazing March day as we gathered together on Sunday morning. Seems bunches of people were still away for March Break, and yet we had a good group of people worshipping the Lord Jesus together.

The worship was great as usual. The song line up took us vertical in a big way. So grateful for our worship teams and Jordan’s leadership. He introduced a new song that we will be singing together on Easter Sunday. Paul Baloche’s “We are Saved” is not on YouTube, but you can download it for free here and also watch the video by Baloche for the song, “The Same Love”. Very cool!

And about Easter, Pastor Todd let us know that we will have invitations in our hands soon to give to people to invite them to Good Friday and Easter Sunday services. This is the best opportunity in the year to have your loved ones join you at Harvest. Let’s take advantage of their willingness to come and boldly invite them!

Back to the service. With Pastor Mike preaching at Harvest Muskoka, Pastor Todd filled in on child dedications with his daughter Emilie helping out. Pierre and Trina Ouellette brought Chloe to be dedicated at the 9 a.m. service and Daniel and Leanne Roberts brought Crystal at 11:15 AM.  The Ouellettes' dedication was done with a little French and a little English to recognize Pierre’s first language and hopefully one Chloe will speak someday! Emilie read this as Chloe’s verse: Psaume 139:23, “Sonde-moi, ô Dieu, et connais mon coeur! Éprouve-moi, et connais mes pensées!”

We were also strongly encouraged to get our Meredith Andrews concert tickets before they’re all gone! Stop by the office this week and don’t be left out. We were rightly called out for our “late-to-sign-up-ways” and Pastor Todd doesn’t want any of us crying on his shoulder when we can’t get tickets!

The message in Hebrews 11:1-3 was powerful as we considered what faith really is. God does call us to “run with endurance the race set before us” (Hebrews 12:1), and that has to be done even in the face of how hard life is. If you missed the message, check it out here.

I’m looking forward to seeing you on Tuesday at 7 p.m. for our evening of prayer and praise. This is going to be a great time of worship and Word based prayer.

Have an amazing week!

Eutychus

The worship team had a bit of a different look and feel with a more acoustic set. They even took the drum surround down and “uncaged” Woody.  Ben was playing a sweet acoustic bass, and Luke was using a micro-synth and midi-keyboard connected to a Macbook (does that qualify as “acoustic”?). The sound was great and the team led us to the Lord in heartfelt worship. Loved singing, “Give Me Jesus” as we closed the service.

There were also mics in the aisles and Jordan opened things up for us to go up and read a passage. So many great things we heard. So true that when you know the personal stories of some of those who shared a Scripture passage, it makes it so much more impactful. 

Pastor Todd’s message in Hebrews 9:15-28 had us considering and eagerly waiting for “the promised eternal inheritance”…an inheritance that is already being poured out in some significant ways to his children. If you didn’t make it yesterday, you should listen to the message. Check it out online. The sermon notes and small group study questions are all available to you.

Todd also made an announcement just before he preached about a certain staff member who got engaged on Saturday night… Amy Fotherby, our Director of Welcome and Integration will be married this spring to Kevin Passafiume, who has recently come to us from Harvest Bible Chapel York Region. Congrats, Amy and Kevin!

During the service we also witnessed three families (two at 9 a.m. and one at 11:15) bring children to be dedicated to the Lord. The Langford family (all nine of them!) brought Jubilee and Tehillah to be dedicated, the Barrett family (all seven of them!) brought Asher to be dedicated, and Mike and Stephanie Marsh (all three of them!) brought Paisley before the Lord. What a joy it is for us to celebrate the gift of God in these precious children! Pray for these families as they rear their children for the glory of God.

That’s it for me.  Have an amazing week! Hope there’s an eagerness for the things of Christ in your heart all week long.

Eutychus

Pastor Todd felt a little uncomfortable, it seems, letting us know he and his wife Cheryl were in Orlando last week. They were blessed to be part of the Harvest Bible Fellowship senior pastors and wives retreat and then to tack on some vacation days. He evidently came back fired up to preach! More about that in a sec.

Sunday morning set up—from an audio point of view—didn’t go very well. Still not sure why, but the worship team didn’t really get to practice until about 8:30. That’s late. There were some as yet unexplained technical issues that kept some critical components from working.

As the clock ticked closer to the start of the 9 a.m. service, the prayer team (they walk the halls and rooms prior to the services lifting their prayers to the Lord for all that will go on in the facility that morning) was sent off to another room to pray in light of the technical issues we were facing and the subsequent lack of rehearsal time for the worship team. Within minutes of that happening, suddenly what wasn’t working worked.

In light of the fact that we set up and tear down each week, it is remarkable that we don’t have more issues with our audio equipment. And I know that the church is grateful for the behind the scenes effort that goes into making our worship such a great experience week by week.

All in all, the worship was very capably led by Chad Ballantyne and team and the audio equipment gave us no more trouble for the balance of the morning. What do you say we praise God for that!

As for the message (I said we’d get back to this), it was a tough one; a pronounced warning about being in the church without actually being saved. Pastor Todd was "no-holds-barred" taking on multiple church traditions including our own, citing his greatest fear being that people in our own church might someday hear the words of Jesus from Matthew 7:21-23, “Depart from me, I never knew you.” At the same time, we received such assurance as he pointed to Hebrews 7:21 and let us all know that God’s not changing his mind about us. His love for us is sure. If we are called as his children, no one is ever snatching us out of his hand (see John 10:28). Love that!

If you’ve missed out on any of the Truly Epic series messages in Hebrews, you can listen to them here. I’m certain there’s going to be some great discussions in small groups this week as we digest this one!

Meanwhile, our junior highs and their leaders were off at their Winterfuse retreat in the Muskokas with kids from the other Ontario Harvest Bible Chapels. Pastor Mike reports that little sleep was had and many decisions for Christ were made over the weekend.  Praise God for that! The decisions, that is.

That’s all I have in my notes. Have a great week!

Eutychus

I was coming to church really hoping that there would be huge “JESUS” sign on stage.

I was also hoping that Todd would “hijack” the announcements from Roger for a financial update.

Special offering (last six weeks of 2011) - $40,500
"If they were mine" and Awana baskets  - all 72 children cared for; total given $5,582; money also used for water purification and to help other needy families living around the orphanage  
Ways to Give:
1.  Pre-authorized offering (automatically withdrawn from your account according to your schedule)
2.  Online giving (donate through Canada Helps or through your bank)
3.  Offering envelopes (available in your Friendship Register or from ushers)
More info: www.harvestbarrie.ca/giving

I was also hoping for a great time of worship and the Word too…

And who would have thought that all my hopes and dreams would come true January 8, 2012!

If you missed this Sunday, you’ll notice that you missed quite a bit of action. All of the above was true of the service, and if you picked up a theme of hope in my phrasing, it’s because it was a central theme of Todd’s message. We were challenged to really search where our hope is grounded in.

It’s so easy for us to say we trust in God and that our hope lies in him, but when it comes down to it we lack so much faith in that area. We hope for better things ahead but so often turn to quick fixes to help us cope with the difficulties that come our way.  "Biblical hope is a confident expectation and desire for something good in the future. I expect it to happen. It will happen." (John Piper)

Jesus Christ is a steadfast anchor. He will not be moved. We won’t be moved when our faith and hope lie firmly in him. So fitting when Todd used Trevor Peacock and his family’s situation with his daughter Hope to hammer in this point. Todd shared a quote that Trevor tweeted before all of the medical complications occurred - such a powerful line in and of itself.

“God’s will is exactly what you would desire if you knew all the facts.” (Bill Thrasher)

Meditate on that for a while as we head into next week's message, “Jesus: King of righteousness; King of peace”.

Looking forward to then!

Well, it was a bit of an unusual weekend in that Harvest didn’t have a Sunday service for the first time in 10+ years! Instead, the church gathered for two powerful Christmas worship services on Friday and Saturday.

The house was pretty packed both nights, and those who came experienced passionate worship and a strong presentation of the good news of Jesus Christ through songs, readings and preaching.  Seeds of the gospel were planted in the hearts and minds of many, many guests both nights.

One of the highlights of the service was definitely the Storylines video testimony of Chris and Angie Harrison.  You can listen to it again right here.

It was cool to see the room set up in a different way allowing us to see and hear each other better as we worshipped. It caught people a bit when they came through the doors to find their usual seat was not in its usual place! So many commented on how cool it was to have the chairs arranged that way.

I know it took a bunch of volunteers to make the whole thing happen, not the least of whom were the those on the worship team, those serving in tech roles and the set up guys who were stretched to think and work a little differently this time around.  There were also extra Welcome! Ministry team members (parking attendants, greeters, ushers) and workers in Higher Ground who cared for the youngest of the children.

The people who do the head counts say that there were more than 900 in attendance over the two nights. And we praise God for that! We have never had a Christmas Eve service attendance even close to that before.

In that number were, as I said before, many, many guests. Maybe you invited someone and they came. Maybe they didn’t. But you asked. Pastor Roger wrote in Friday’s blog that,

An invitation is a game-changer!  It redraws the lines of communication.  It opens up a new topic of conversation; or re-opens it.  It’s an opportunity to identify with Jesus and – lets. be. clear. – it changes the expectations others may have of you. 

Now, if the people you invited didn’t come, that’s cool too. He went on to say, “Because even an invitation refused has opened up the conversation.” And that’s where the mission continues. The passion of those services should compel us on to invite them again and to keep the conversation about Jesus Christ going.

Pastor Todd said in the services that his intentions were clear. He wanted unbelievers in the room to become believers.  He hoped that no one was confused by his intentions.  In fact, I’m thinking none of us should be confused about that being our #1 mandate as Christ-followers…live for Christ and speak for Christ.

I’m looking forward to Pastor Mike’s message next Sunday. I hear there’s only one service at 10 a.m. on Sunday, January 1.  Maybe I’ll see you there!

Grace,

Eutychus

“Surely God is in this place!” That was the first thing Pastor Todd said as he got up to preach Sunday’s message. And he was right.

Up to that point we had engaged in some amazing worship that included our kids and youth choir.  It was so good to see them up there bringing it to the Lord along with our worship team and then singing All the Poor and Powerless during the offering. I was definitely meeting with the Lord on Sunday and by what I saw around me, others were pretty engaged in worship too.

And it was so cool to see Jeannie Coros, our children’s ministry director up there doing the welcome and announcements. I appreciated so much her heart as she prayed.

The sermon was titled, “We feel sure of better things” and came out of what Pastor Todd called the most controversial passage in the entire Bible, Hebrews 6:1-12. I saw a Tweet by some small group members who said how eager they were to get together Sunday night to talk it all out. They are savouring the solid meat of the Word!

As the sobering message closed, Pastor Todd appealed to those who were not yet saved to give their life to Jesus Christ and in both services (I always go to both services), seven people stood to their feet! Praise God! The pastors were able to connect personally with each person following the services and have confirmed that at least two of those were rededications. The rest, it seems, are brand new followers of Jesus Christ! Again, praise God!

The Lord is at work at Harvest and you can sense that each Sunday as we arrive to worship. There is an anticipation and eagerness to be together and to see what God will do next. There are so many new faces each week and even some who have heard about Harvest through our new radio ministry, Time to Change.  

The last thing we heard on Sunday was an encouragement to use the invitations to get our friends and family to the Christmas worship event happening Friday, December 23 and Saturday, December 24. With all that has been happening lately, I’m pretty sure these are going to be two amazing nights of worship.

I’ll watch for you next Sunday! Hope your week is filled with better things!

Eutychus

We’ve been hearing about The Valley of Vision off and on for a bit now. Pastor Todd talked about it several weeks ago and he tweets a few excerpts several mornings a week for those who follow him on Twitter or Facebook. As we quietly prepared for worship on Sunday, Jordan read an entire prayer from this powerful collection of Puritan prayers and devotionals. For those who are into e-books, you can get the Kindle version of The Valley of Vision from Amazon for $0.99. 

Pastor Todd took us through Hebrews 1:4-11 where we heard that nothing (not even angels) should stand in the way of our worship of Jesus Christ. Like a lot of you, I wrote down something at the end of the teaching time that I’m eager to get rid of in my life because I know it keeps me from worship at times. 

The message helped us see that Jesus is much superior to angels—as cool as they are to us. We went through that “job description” for angels pretty quickly, so if you are one of those people who might want to study that part again this week, here’s the list he worked through:

The unnamed angels who appear most often in Scripture carry out a variety of tasks—all designed to serve God…

• Worship and praise - This is the main activity portrayed in heaven (Isaiah 6:1-3; Revelation 4-5).
• Revealing - They serve as messengers to communicate God's will to men. They helped reveal the law to Moses (Acts 7:52-53), and served as the carriers of much of the material in Daniel, and Revelation. 
• Guiding - Angels gave instructions to Joseph about the birth of Jesus (Matthew 1-2), to the women at the tomb, to Philip (Acts 8:26), and to Cornelius (Acts 10:1-8).
• Providing - God has used angels to provide physical needs such as food for Hagar (Genesis 21:17-20), Elijah (1 Kings 19:6), and Christ after his temptation (Matthew 4:11).
• Protecting - Keeping God's people out of physical danger, as in the cases of Daniel and the lions, and his three friends in the fiery furnace (Daniel 3 and 6).
• Delivering - Getting God's people out of danger once they're in it. Angels released the apostles from prison  in Acts 5, and repeated the process for Peter in Acts 12.
• Strengthening and encouraging - Angels strengthened Jesus after his temptation (Matt 4:11), encouraged the apostles to keep preaching after releasing them from prison (Acts 5:19-20), and told Paul that everyone on his ship would survive the impending shipwreck (Acts 27:23-25).
• Answering prayer - God often uses angels as his means of answering the prayers of his people (Daniel 9:20-24; 10:10-12; Acts 12:1-17).
• Caring for believers at the moment of death - In the story of Lazarus and the rich man, we read that angels carried the spirit of Lazarus to "Abraham's bosom" when he died (Luke 16:22).

Prepared by Dr. John Bechtle

And if you want to dive head first into “angelology” (yup, that’s a real field of study), you should check out Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology. After the service, one couple told me they were pulling out their copy of that book to go deeper into what angels are all about.

Pastor Mike prayed with thanks for the tenth anniversary of Harvest Bible Chapel Barrie…actually the tenth anniversary of Harvest in Canada since we were the first one planted outside of the Chicagoland area. Pastor Todd mentioned at the end that this past Sunday marked the official launch of the church back in 2001. He also let us know that while this past Sunday was pretty low key about that, celebration Sundays are coming up in October, November, February, April and June with some great preachers coming in to help us give glory to God for all he has done.

Some reminders that have been passed on to me to pass on to you while I’m writing…

-       Don’t forget the Memory Project (Get it? Fon’t forget the memory project!). Sign up to receive a weekly reminder by text to your cellphone. We’re still working on Hebrews 1:3 this week;

-       Last Sunday, September 11, Pastor Todd and Pastor Roger took about eight minutes to talk about our new ministry year launch and a bunch of things related to it. You can listen to that short update below.

-       If you’re in a small group already, you’ll be starting the book, Transforming Prayer this week. Everyone is pretty pumped about what this will mean for our church as we live out the pillar, believing firmly in the power of prayer;

-       And finally, (this was a long one!), we have a night of prayer coming up this Sunday, September 25. Our Clearview campus prayer group will be joining the rest of us at Timothy at 6:30 p.m. to begin practicing the things we will be learning in Transforming Prayer.   

That’s it for me for now. Hope you have an amazing week!

Eutychus

1. I don’t have much to offer (fear of what others think);
2. I’ve been burned in the past (fear of being burned again);
3. I don’t have time (fear of being too busy);
4. I won’t be very good at it (fear of failure); and
5. I might be good at it (fear of success/it may require more of me).

• Be specific v7c
• Face to face v7d
• Make an appeal to
  • the conscience v8
  • sense of community
  • to their worship of God v9a; and the mission to make disciples v9b

• Have a specific action plan v10-11
• Establish accountability v12b
• Seal the deal with a formal prayer of commitment v13a

• “My life before Christ: chaos. I am a follower of Jesus Christ. He is the only way.”
• “I was saved at a grade eight youth retreat.”
•  “I came to Christ at Camp Mini-Yo-We.”
• “My life before Christ was all about getting more and more things.  I can't explain why but I started reading my Bible. I realize how important baptism is.  I'm testifying that I am a follower of Christ.”
• “I didn't have a personal relationship with God. I was spinning in circles.  I didn't have things figured out.  I couldn't fix it.  The message was speaking directly to my life and I don't even remember going down to the front.  I accepted Jesus as my Saviour.  I've made drastic changes in my life.” 

• Jason and Angela Brooks
• Dannielle Prince
• Hilary Shewfelt
• Jim and Ethel Beattie
• Chris Mason
• Victor and Corinne Pereira
• Collin and Michelle Hartwick
• Steve Gallant
• Phil and Robin Radford
• Dan and Fran Courtemanche
  

• Acts 1:8 – We have the Holy Spirit
• Psalm 119:105 – We have the Word of God
• Acts 2:42-47 – We have the people of God
• Matthew 28:19-20 - We have purpose