Saturday, May 31, 2008

Sean Richey and his Guitar

Last night I had the pleasure of watching our Catalyst guitar player play with his jazz combo. He is a graduating high school senior and is going to the Manhattan School of Music under scholarship. Basically he's won 5 or 6 major awards this year including best composition. Mark my words...in about 5 years everyone in the jazz world will know who he is.

Oh yeah and his twin brother, Justin, plays the bass. He's going to Berkly on scholarship. Your might hear his name too.

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Creative Chaos 13 // New Harvest is...

This post is part of ragamuffinsoul's Creative Chaos blog carnaval.

This video was made by Jim Weaver for our church. It answers some basic questions of who we are and what we're all about. Enjoy.

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Wednesday, May 28, 2008

The Summer of Parables

We have decided that our adult worship services will be focusing on the Parables of Jesus this Summer. I'm speaking July 20th in our main service on the Parable of the Great Banquet. I'm super excited about it and I'm getting fired up over the text. We are canceling student services that day and inviting our students into main service. In fact we're going to have Sean Richey (local guitar legend) and Kaleb Smith (Catalyst drummer) play in main service on that day. Basically we're going to keep it lively and engaging.

*Side note: You should read the article on Sean in the Fresno Bee. Just click here.*

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Tuesday, May 27, 2008

One Invite - That May Be All It Takes

Remember to Invest & Invite:

This is Ryan Smith. Ryan is a volunteer in Student Ministries, a small group leader and communicator. He is a gifted story teller and has a passion for drama. His relationship with God is as real and dynamic as I've ever seen. Ryan walks with God. Ryan isn't perfect. Ryan is a sinner washed by the blood of Jesus Christ. Ryan is a good man. Ryan is my brother in Christ. Here is a snippet of his story.

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Thursday, May 22, 2008

Creative Chaos 12 // Twittering = Networking and Team-Building

This is a Creative Chaos blog post.



I recently went to lunch with my Lead Pastor, our Communication's Director and a neighboring church's Worship Pastor.

The purpose of the meeting was to talk about our website challenge. The challenge is that it's no good. Our website is outdated and needs a major overhaul. We're working on it, but we've been using Pat as a consultant on the issue.

But we ended up talking more about web 2.0 than our main church website. We talked about the possibility of every ministry having their own blog, of every staff member twittering and our Communication's Director has already began the transformation. She's tweeting now! Pat talked to us about how his team is communicating well because of twitter.

This is the first face-to-face interaction I've had with Pat. We've been twitter/blog buddies for a while and he works about 2 miles from our offices! I think the light went on in Mitch's head about web 2.0 and how real connections can be made when we told him this was our first meeting. We had all that "history" before because we had read eachother's tweets and blogs. Mitch was also very attracted to the idea of someone on his team asking him a question in 140 characters or less.

I think we're on the verge of a revolution. We can only hope to aspire to the web 2.0 Buckhead is enjoying. But we're getting there. Give it some time and I'll provide you with some twitter and blog links that help you get to know our entire New Harvest team.

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Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Watercooler Wednesday // Student Blogs

This post is part of the Watercooler Wednesday blog carnival.

Recently I've come across some student blogs. That means students in our ministry have started to blog and they are really using it as a public journal. Here are three students I've recently RSS subscribed.

Emily Silveira, a Catalyst Senior that serves on Sunday mornings.
Kelly Chandler, a Catalyst Senior that serves on Sunday mornings.

David Wisar, a Catalyst Junior that is going to start serving in Turnpike on Sunday mornings.

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Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Kristian Stanfill Answers My Question

Last week I discovered hidden away in the depths of the blogosphere that Kristian Stanfill, worship leader and song-writer, has a blog. You may have heard him from his EP called Hello, which is available on iTunes or from a Passion CD or even from the Northpoint Live CD's. I commented on his blog. This is how he responded to my question:

"Micah asks:

are you working on any new songs? any new stuff coming out soon? 

micah…thanks for asking broseph.  i LOVE writing songs and am constantly working hard at it.  i’ve got a large handful of songs that im trying to finish up right now.  we’ve also been writing as a band and have a few songs that we are all really excited about.  we are hoping to get in the studio in november to start recording our first full length record."

Check out the post for yourself and RSS him.

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Saturday, May 17, 2008

Blast from the Past // One Way

Long ago, in a land not-so-far-away, Paul Haugen and I were in a boy band called One Way. We sang such great hits as "Turn Right at the Light" and "Mold Me." We went through a few member changes in our couple of years together, but the four pictured here were the constant.

We sang mostly in churches, at some conferences and a few local concerts. We opened for LaRue, Solomon's Wish, Rici, and others. We had some awesome choreography and in light of The New Kids on the Block's recent attempt at a come-back...you might be looking at a reunion tour soon. Enjoy the pictures.

Spring Celebration 2008: Highlight Video

As promised, here is the some raw footage from our day at Great America.  The video is a little long, but I think you'll find some pleasant surprises while watching, so keep watching. I especially like it when I say, "I'm about to get smooshed" in an Alvin-esque voice. You'll know what I mean when you hear it. You might also enjoy a little Switchfoot footage.

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Friday, May 16, 2008

Looking Back: Family Ministry Recruitment Video

Almost a year ago we decided to create a video that would communicate our Family Ministry strategy. We gave out this video on DVD to potential volunteers. Again,  it's fun to look back and see what we've done, how far we've come and strive toward an excellent future.

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Thursday, May 15, 2008

Creative Chaos 11 // Spring Celebration 2008: Highlight Video

This is part of the Creative Chaos Blog carnival from Ragamuffinsoul.

As promised, here is the some raw footage from our day at Great America. The video is a little long, but I think you'll find some pleasant surprises while watching, so keep watching. I especially like it when I say, "I'm about to get smooshed" in an Alvin-esque voice. You'll know what I mean when you hear it. You might also enjoy a little Switchfoot footage.

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Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Watercooler Wednesday // "Light Work"

This post is a part of the "Watercooler Wednesday" blog carnival.

Today Ethos challenged us to think about how electronic devices are taking over our driving. I am right there with you! I frequently find that I'm "tweeting", txting, snaping photos, calling, reading email, replying to email and blogging from my phone...while at red lights. My solution, let's get rid of all personal transportation and go public only. Wow, what would happen if we did that? Less pollution, more interaction, decrease in traffic accidents and road rage. I think we'd all get along much better. That's what I think.

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Looking Back: Senior Video 2007

Last year we started a tradition of creating a high quality senior video to honor our students. It's strange to look back and see those faces. We're part of the many churches attempting to bridge the gap between graduation and college ministry. We're still working on it.

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Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Doves

There are two doves that keep trying to build a nest on my porch fan. They keeping pooping on the fan and leaving a pile of sticks behind. I tried air soft and it doesn't seem to faze them. Any suggestions?

Re:action Wrestling

After Re:action (New Harvest Church's College ministry) Shane Funk and  Stephen Moranda decided that they should wrestle. Why? I don't know. But here's the footage.

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Monday, May 12, 2008

Scurdy Cat Meets Cooper Dog

The other night Paul, Jenn, Erica and myself decided to introduce their cat (which is up for adoption) to our dog. Here's Paul's blog. Here's his youtube account. And here's the video...

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Spring Celebration @ Great America

Family Force 5
Barlow Girl
Hawk Nelson
Dizmas
Mark Stuart
Switchfoot!
@iamkida
Fearlessgearonline.com
And a video to come...

Friday, May 09, 2008

Student Impact Video

This video is from January of last year, 2007. We made this video to advertise what our volunteer students (Student Impacters) do on Sundays. We showed it in our main adult services as well as in our student ministry service.  It's crazy to look back on being a mobile church. All the shots are from when we met at Clovis West High School. Thanks to Mark Royce for his work on this project!

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Thursday, May 08, 2008

Creative Chaos // 10

This is part of the Creative Chaos blog carnival.



Recently we held an event for our Family Life Ministry Volunteers. Here are two videos we made with the help of Jim Weaver for the event.




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Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Watercooler Wednesdays: Web Apps

Today, as a part of Watercooler Wednesday, Ethos (Randy Elrod) put out the challenge, "What are your favorite web apps?"

I'm a twitter guy. I use Twhirl while I'm at the desk, otherwise I text it most of the time. But I was just introduced to Jott as well. It's awesome because you call a number on your phone and it says, "Who do you want to jott?" You reply with the name of the person...or the synced web app. Then you can say anything and it will text, email, create to-do lists, and sync to google calendar (which you can sync to your Mirosoft Outlook Calendar). I'm also a fan of blogger, as you can tell. I use sitemeter, technorati, myspace (I have 3 different ones), facebook (I create facebook fan pages and groups to help connect groups of people and ministries) and I'm sure there are a myriad of other things I use. But that's all I can think of at the moment.

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Tuesday, May 06, 2008

DRIVE Conference

So, I'm lookin' at my stats and realizing that there are a lot of people leaving my page annoyed. I'm getting a lot of hits from the DRIVE conference, but I'm not there. Here's a link that will provide you with some visual candy from DRIVE...since I am unable to provide anything else for you. Sorry to dissapoint you.

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The Winner's Circle Raw Footage

Here's some footage I took from my flip camera. I know it's not great quality, but at least you can see a bit of what went down last Friday night for our Family Ministry Volunteers here at Hew Harvest Church.

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Friday, May 02, 2008

The WINNER'S circle has started.

Catalyst Student Ministry - Just a Taste

Here is another video from this past Sunday, April 27th, 2008. Just wanted to share some clips with y'all again.

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Thursday, May 01, 2008

I Want Old Lady Faith

I came across this video on EMI Recording Artist, Vicky Beeching's, blog. I thought I'd share the story.

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Pastor Mitch

Someone gave him some shorts today. I don't think that's how you're supposed to wear them.

Creative Chaos 9 \\ Upgrade




The school year is coming to a close and I know students are gettin anxious to UPGRADE to their next ministry environment. Here at New Harvest Church we move 6-12 graders up at the beginning of summer and birth-5 at the end of summer. So, I'm inviting the incoming 7th graders to come hang out in Turnpike and our incoming freshman to Catalyst and our graduating seniors into Re:action. Andy Stanley, Reggie Joiner and Lane Jones co-wrote a book called "The 7 Practices of Effective Ministry" and one of the principles is "Think Steps, Not Programs." Thinking this way has allowed us to narros the gaps and even attempt to create some overlap between our steps. We want to create an environment that is a step between the steps, a micro-step. We'd like to have kick-off parties and visiting Sundays where students can get a glimpse of what it's like in the next step. How do we do this? It's not all ironed out and we definately don't have all the answers. But we're getting creative and you'll want to keep checking back for updates on UPGRADE. Do you have any ideas? Let me know.

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