Blowout Sunday!

Yesterday was a blowout Sunday for our Grand Re-Opening and All Together Sunday!

What can I say about this past weekend...outstanding, awesome, dynamic, spectacular, powerful...yet I can't find just the right word to describe this weekend! God blessed our united efforts to announce to Columbus, as well as to the world, that God brought us from the ravages of the flood to a re-opened sanctuary wing in three months. Yes, the rest of our spacious facilities await rebuilding, but we had to stop and celebrate God's goodness...for this one special Sunday! God is good...every time!

Saturday was a great day in preparation for Sunday. Sunday opened up with good weather. Each person entering our renovated foyer area sensed something special was about to take place. You could just feel God's presence...powerfully moving throughout the church building. Worship practice took place with an extra worship team from Franklin, Indiana. We combined groups, as well as 3 leaders, for this one extraordinary worship celebration. It was awesome. My friend, Gene Feasel, joined our church to help lift up some high sounding praises from our rebuilt sanctuary. Wow...it was seamless and unified. God was indeed glorified!

The sanctuary was full. The extra seating was desperately needed for this BIG DAY! Lots of guests attended at our invitation and call. Everybody was captured by a sense of awe by what we were witnessing unfold before us. A NEW DAY. A NEW HOUR. A NEW LAUNCHING OF NEXT LEVEL MINISTRY...God was transitioning us for a multiplication of ministry both to our own community as well as around the world through our missions programs.

Several presentations were made to our congregation:

• Dan Pongratz from the District Office presented CFA with a 1st Place giving plaque for Missions Giving given in 2007. Proud of our church for what they have accomplished thus far...so many visions for the future of our church remain!
• Chuck Boll from the City of Columbus presented us with the Mayor's Proclamation!
• Mark Andreasen from Lima First Assembly presented us with two checks for our Flood Fund.
• Tom Davis and Bruce Richardson from Grace A/G in New Whiteland presented us with a large check for our Flood Fund.

It was such an honor to have four churches represented in our gathering yesterday.

1. Lima First Assembly in Ohio who was concluding a week of missions ministry among flooded out homes in our community.
2. Northland, A Church Distributed from Orlando, Florida was beginning their week of service ministry and joined us for this special service.
3. Current Church in Franklin, IN was present to add to our worship celebration by bringing their worship band and joining in!
4. Grace Assembly of God in New Whiteland, IN joined us to make a special presentation with their sacrificial love offering.
   

Our evangelist, Chad Varga, ministered with such a passionate pursuit in his powerful message. He was set on fire before us and ministered under a special anointing. He used his personal tragedies and intimate stories to share the power of God's love and touch upon a 14 year old boy growing up in Michigan. God has strategically used Chad in these past several years all across the country in a variety of venues and ministry settings. He has spoken to groups in the teens as well as to groups in the multiplied thousands. When the altar call was given six individuals rose to their feet and came forward for God to change their lives. One of them was reached with a seed of HOPE planted from our HOPE Outreach Center. Now isn't that simply marvelous from the power of a seed sown! Thank you Jesus for the transformation of hearts and lives yesterday morning!

Following the service, while I hugged necks and prayed with people, a news reporter from Channel 8 in Indianapolis stopped me for a quick interview. She and the camera man stayed for the entire service. Trust that God touched their personal lives as well!

Check out the story and video @ WISH TV 8.

Two poster boards with architectural drawings of the unfinished facilities were stationed out in the foyer for all to see. Crowds stood by to get a glimpse of the future development of our regional worship center...so exciting!

The afternoon was extremely windy as the aftermath of Hurricane Ike reached our neck of the woods. Winds whipped up and caused some minor damage to our area. The All-Church Picnic convened in the park, although not with everyone from our entire church family present. Those that gathered enjoyed softball, fellowship, grilled hamburgers and hotdogs, great food and a wonderful worship time and devotional. Happy to have my brother Mark share some thoughts from the story of David and Goliath with us. The point he stressed was that an impossibility can be turned into a possibility when God is in the center of the equation!! Thanks Mark.

After playing some volleyball with many of the young people and some adults, I returned home exhausted and whipped. WHAT A DAY. A great and wonderful day that God had created just for us...and also the joy that we experienced to bring Him our worship in a deep and intimate way.

I've posted some pics from yesterday's festivities that were taken by my administrative assistant. Thanks Allison!

Thanks for your prayers prayed on our behalf!

Much love to all!

Work Day Completed for the BIG DAY!

Major work was accomplished today on our church grounds, landscaping, facilities and outdoor shed!

CFA was a beehive of activity on Saturday. We had a missions work team here from my brother's church in Lima, Ohio. We had about 25 volunteers from our church working hard getting everything in tip-top shape for our Sanctuary Grand Re-Opening Service in the morning.

Here are some of the things that we accomplished today:

• The entire area behind the stone wall in the fellowship hall was demoed by the hard-working team from Lima, Ohio. They removed the baptistery, stairs, steps, platform, plus the hot water heater and plenty of junk that had gathered underneath...even a bottle of honey too! It looks great...clean and neat for our new chairs and table storage area!
  
• The removal of about 10 large shrubs that were damaged in the flood...I think Pastor Joel kinda liked yanking them out with his truck!
• The entire landscaping on our property that flanks on 10th Street plus the other areas that face Iowa Street were mulched with four truckloads of mulch!
• The complete back row of bushes and weeds were removed with a team of energetic ladies and men...what a job!
• The dumpster was repositioned after the flood rearranged all the gravel underneath.
  
• A channel was dug along the northwest side of our parking lot to allow the rain water to drain off properly!
• The fence line around our outdoor shed was cleaned up from sucker shoots, branches, and then some limbs that had broken off and lodged on top of the roof!
• The shed, which the Royal Rangers uses, was completely cleaned out and organized. This was the first time that it received attention since the flood over 3 months ago! What a dried dirt mess!
• Lots of areas were weed wacked!
• Truckloads of removed trees, bushes and junk were hauled off!

As you can see, we got a ton of work done today. I am thoroughly impressed with our crew of volunteers that showed up to work today! Proud of each and every one that will receive rewards and treasures in heaven!

Tomorrow is going to be a POWERFUL DAY FOR THE KINGDOM OF GOD here in Columbus, Indiana. The chairs have been set up...the worship team has practiced...the church grounds have been cleaned up...the floors have been swept...the bathrooms have been freshened up...bulletins are ready...and the evangelist is ready to preach (talked to him tonight and he is pumped for Sunday!).

If you are in the area, join us @ 10 am right here @ 10th and Iowa Streets...in the heart of the flood zone that is being transformed by the grace and mercy of a Great God!

See you in the morning...bright and early...don't sleep in whatever you do!...get up and get here early for a good seat!

Pray for this service before you go to bed tonight. We want God to move in an awesome way!

Much love to all!

We've got seats!

The sanctuary is filled with seats...we're ready to go for Sunday!!

Since the pews will be a couple of more weeks before they are installed we have had to scramble for extra seating. The Lord has provided for us and we're good to go. Special thanks goes out to Northview A/G and Pastor Burton and also Memorial Baptist Church (our hosts for so long), and then to Jeff and the Cummins crew. All total we have over 280 chairs on the main floor...and then we've cleared several pews in our balcony for an overflow section too! Everyone who comes will have a seat to experience our Grand Re-Opening Service and God's favor extended to us!

There is still some time to pass out several invite postcards...or call a friend...or send an email...or text them an invite message...or drop by a friend's house. Everyone from CFA should be bringing someone to our BIG day! It's wonderful to see our people getting excited about bringing friends and special guests to our Grand Re-Opening Service. With over 320 seats (including the balcony) we are expecting God to demonstrate a "beyond all limits" attendance and then a powerful anointing upon the worship experience, and most importantly for the ministry from the Word from our guest evangelist! It's gonna be totally awesome this Sunday!!

My brother arrived from his church, Lima First Assembly of God - Ohio, to work with his missions team on flooded out homes. Tomorrow they'll join us at our church for the Church Clean-Up Day in preparation for Sunday.

I'll post some pics of our progress in the fellowship hall...

• Cutting through the stone wall in the baptismal area...
• Finishing the stage in the construction period...
• Repositioning the entry doors closer to 10th Street...
• Chairs, chairs, chairs in the sanctuary!

We enjoyed a good football game tonight over @ Columbus East Stadium. Our team is ranked #1 in the state and was pretty good tonight. One of our CFA boys was the opposing quarterback from Jennings County, Kevin Collinsworth, and played a scrappy game too! Very proud of him. Also, Devon was with his marching band and sounding great!

Don't forget to join us for the explosive service on Sunday @ 10 am right back home @ 10th and Iowa Streets! We're going home...

Love to all.