I just found out that a classmate of mine from high school’s three year old daughter was diagnosed with Leukemia this past Sunday.  Her name is Ellie Kate Herberghs and she is currently in Akron Children’s and has begun treatments yesterday.

There is a Caring Bridge website set-up that you can follow along on how little Ellie is doing as well as leave words of encouragement for Ellie, Chris (former classmate), his wife and their entire family.

Please just stop what your doing right now and lift up a word of prayer for this little girl and keep her and your family in your prayers.

Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us.  – Psalm 62:8

So, Beth and I made a fun little announcement video for this week and next week’s services.  Me being the techie that I am was supposed to put it into the script this morning.  Me being the forgetful man that I am….forgot.

SO, here’s the announcement that was supposed to run this morning (and WILL run tonight).

If you are interested in attending you can still sign-up on-line at Rittmanumc.org – It’s October 10th starting at 5:00 pm.

Oh, and her’s all the “bloopers” that we had for your enjoyment.

WOW!

Right now that about sums up my day.

So, if you’ve been following my blog recently you know that tonight was the first official Sunday Evening Connexions service.  We’ve been preparing for months and tonight at 6:00 pm the first prayer was said and the first chord was strummed and GOD WAS THERE!

I really was an amazing night.  We had a very nice turn-out for the service.  I had a surprise visit from some good friends from Medina UMC and some good friends from the Wadsworth praise band who came out to support the new service and worship with us.

We opened with “Glory to God Forever” by Steve Fee and Vicky Beeching.  I love this song and will be putting it into the main worship set VERY soon.  After a few brief words from Pastor Chuck and myself we went into our worship set which consisted of

“Come, Now is the Time to Worship” (Brian Doerkson)
“Marvelous Light” (Charlie Hall)
“All Because of Jesus” (Steve Fee)

One of my favorite parts of this set is the transition from “Marvelous Light” into “All Because of Jesus”.  We do both of these in the key of B and as I hit the last chord of “Marvelous Light” our drummer bangs out a four count and we go right into “All Because…”.   It’s a great flow from a tempo, energy and message perspective.

We also came together at the Lord’s Table for Holy Communion tonight.  We set-up communion by using a video called “Suppertime” by Quick Flick Ministries which I really like as I feel it gets you thinking about communion in a different way.  I sang Brian Doerkson’s “Broken and Beautiful” during communion.

We closed out the service with the new arrangement of the old hymn “Jesus Paid It All”.  Can I just say – I LOVE this song.  The way the hymn is laid out with the reminder that everything we need is in Jesus, that it’s HIS power that can do the miraculous and that one day we will be standing before the throne in victory praising him!  And it’s because he paid the ultimate price that we can do this.  The additional bridge of, “O praise the one who paid my debt and raised this life up from the dead.”….just proclaiming that at the top of our lungs.  Great stuff!

A huge thank you to Kayla, Dave, Andy, Connie, Thomas, John, Ryan and Pastor Chuck for all the work they did to make tonight a success.  Thank you to everyone that lifted us up in prayer…I know we had a lot of people praying and I am so thankful for that.

I also want to say how awesome and special it is for me to be able to lead worship beside my son, Taylor.  It is such an amazing thing to look beside me and see him worshipping.  The car rides back and forth from the church have also become a nice time for him and I to just talk about things which is also really cool.  I can’t wait to watch God continue to work in him.

Two final thoughts – both comments from others that were there.

The first came from one of the Wadsworth team members who realized how nice it was to be able to just worship without having to worry about what song was next, when to move, what was going to be said, etc.  So if you’re currently serving someplace and would like a place to come and just worship your Lord and Savior then I’ll invite you to join us any Sunday evening at 6:00 pm in beautiful Rittman, Ohio.

The second was from Doug from Medina.  He just smiled at me after the service and said, “So, did He come?”  My response…”Oh yeah, He came”.  Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Here’s a few pics from our pre-service run through for you (thanks to John for taking these).

You can also visit Fredmckinnon.com for other worship leader’s Worship recaps.

In exactly 72 hours we will be beginning our first Sunday Evening Connexions service at the Rittman United Methodist Church.  I’m about to head off to our final rehearsal with the team in preparation for it and am really looking forward to it.

Unfortunately, we are without our youngest two members tonight – Thomas, our bass player is at the final night of the fair selling some of his animals and Taylor, one of our vocalists (and my son) is nursing a sore throat.  Praying that we all get healthy – or stay healthy – by Sunday and that things go smoothly.

Don’t forget, if you are looking for a place to worship we would love to see you in Rittman, Ohio at 6:00 pm on September 20th.  Directions can be found over at the Rittman UMC website.

So, I’ve been a little quiet on the blog front lately. There’s a reason for that. If you’ve been following my blog you may remember that one of the reason’s I’m now at the Rittman United Methodist Church is to begin a new contemporary worship service.

Well, the time is almost here.

This Sunday evening at 6:00 p.m. we will be coming together as the body of Christ to praise and worship God at our first Sunday Evening Connexions Service.

This is a big step for the Rittman community and one that I am very excited about.  I will also admit that with less than a week left I’m wondering what all I’m forgetting about.  I think we have the bases covered.  Of course, the biggest base is God and Prayer – everything is based on that and without that nothing is possible.

So, if you are looking for a place to worship or would just like to support this ministry then let me officially invite you to head out to Rittman, Ohio this Sunday at 6:00 pm and join us as we worship our awesome Creator and come together as the body of Christ to hear his Word proclaimed.

If you can’t make it or are too far away I would ask one favor – can you pray for this ministry.  I would appreciate prayers for the leadership, the volunteers and especially for those in the community that may walk through our doors on Sunday evening.  May God’s truth be proclaimed and may the hearts and minds of those in attendance be open to hear the Gospel.

So, I came home from work one night last week and Beth had a mischievous little smile on her face.

She said, “Guess what I got us today?”

She then told me that she got us floor seats for the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert in Cleveland this December.  Yes, I was excited.

There are a few shows that I’ve always heard great things about…this is one of them.  Check out the promo below for a taste.

Is there a concert you’ve always wanted to see?

This past weekend was the Malone Invitational.  Malone is known as a difficult course as it has a couple of nice hills.  Taylor finished in just over 20 mins.  Here’s some shots from his run.

Now he’s got a time to beat for next year.