Stickers

We made these stickers for our AMPLIFY event. I gave 150 of them out on Sunday and encouraged our students to give them to friends and put them on their binders. I told them not to put them on things at the school. However, I was doing a prayer walk through the Buchanan high school campus tonight and came across a trash can with a sticker on it. It's good and it's bad at the same time. Now I'm on my way to Clovis West to pray over there.

New Harvest Church Staff Retreat

Here's a little highlight video from our Staff Retreat. We went up to a nice getaway called The Shaver Lake Village Hotel.  An amazing couple from our church owns the place. Here's a little video from our time up there.

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Technorati tags: new, harvest, church, staff, retreat, shaver, lake, village, hotel

The Paul Haugen Band @ The Christian Music Awards

Here's my buddy Paul singing a  his song "Come Home" mixed with a bit of "Mighty to Save" last Saturday night. He was in a competition with several other bands and made it to the finals. In my opinion, he should've won the entire event!  He's going to be leading worship at Catalyst this Sunday night. Be there!

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Kick Off

Today is the first day of the new ministry year! Our services were packed and we had a ton of kids this morning! Praying for a big Catalyst turn out!

The Paul Haugen Band @ the CMA's

Who knew that the Christian Music Awards would be hosted in Fresno?!

More on this later...

BIG Announcement

We Hear, We See, We Care, We Act...

It has been over 8 months since we launched Catalyst, our High School ministry. One amazing thing we've seen happen is that a lot of students who have no connection with any church are starting to show up. But we've also found two hurdles for our own New Harvest Church families: 1) the time is inconvenient for a good portion of our families and 2) it has become too difficult of a step for the majority of our new freshman to make the transition from Turnpike to Catalyst. Some parents have voiced their concerns over this very issue and we have the same concerns.

So what's the action, you ask? We're moving Catalyst. Here's how a typical Sunday will be in student ministry.

• 9-10:15am - First Adult Service
  (Jr. High is encouraged to serve)
• 10:45am-12pm - Second Adult Service / Turnpike
  (High Schoolers are encouraged to serve)
• 12:15pm-1pm - Lunch is served
  (For Students and Student Ministry Volunteers - in
  Cafe New Harvest)
• 1pm-2:30pm - Catalyst

We're moving Catalyst and we're providing a "lunch and fellowship" time between Turnpike and Catalyst. We're hoping this time will attract new students, becuase they like free food, and create a greater sense of community within Student Ministry.

We are looking for some families to step up and adopt a lunch once a month. If you'd like to support Student Ministries in this way, please email Greg Zuffelato about that service opportunity.

The first Sunday for our new Catalyst time will be September 14.

In Him,
Micah J. Foster
Director of Student Ministries

The Nephews Came to Visit

Here's the line-up of our visitors from this past week.

Jason, my brother
Angie, my sister-in-law
Hugh, nephew
Micah, nephew
Will, nephew

Jason had a nice HD camera that he brought and shot some footage of our activities. They live in Vancouver, WA and we hadn't seen them in just over a year. It was great to hang out and see the boys in the water swimming around. (They don't have many pools in Washington, nor do they have a need for them.) Here's a taste of the weekend...

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Technorati tags: washington, california, fresno, clovis, heat, swimming, pool, family, youtube

Erica's Great Grandma

We are celebrating he 94th birthday today. Happy birthday Ethel Clark!

Foster Family Visit

Jason, Angie, Hugh, Micah and Will. My brother and his family came to visit us this past weeked. They arrived Thursday night and left this morning. We had a lot of fun just hanging out with them. We haven't seen them in about a year! Isn't that crazy?! Here are some pictures from their visit.



Thanks for visiting guys! We love you and we hope to come up to visit around the holidays sometime. I'll post a small video later.

Technorati tags: foster, family, visiting, fresno, jason, angie, hugh, micah, will, swimming

AMPLIFY EVENT - A NHC STUDENT MINISTRY OUTREACH EVENT

AMPLIFY - to make larger, greater, or stronger; enlarge, extend.

We want to AMPLIFY the name of Jesus Christ to the students in Fresno/Clovis, Ca. Go here for more details.

Technorati tags: amplify, event, a, current, affair, new, harvest, church, outreach, student, ministry, turnpike, catalyst, re:action

The Nephews Are In Town

Late on Thursday night our nephews arrived with my brothe and sister-in-law. I'm somewhat unplugged for the weekend, but here is a picture I snapped of Lil Micah and Will sitting on/by Erica.

Buckhead Music Project

Tonight Buckhead Church had a night of worship. They are constantly challenging me. These guys are the real deal and they are passionate about worshipping God. So here's the deal. They recently closed down 7|22 and decided to bring church to the people instead of hopping they'd come to church.

Watch the vision on this video. Go here for details.

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Technorati tags: buckhead, music, project, buckhead, church, 7|22, night, of, worship, carlos, whittaker, jeff, henderson

Twitter-Lunch Meet-Up

Last Thursday, the first day of the Willow Creek Leadership Summit, six Fresno tweets got together for lunch. Here are the people that are in the video:

@ericafoster
@haugenjenn
@redjester91
@kellycha26
@aronstrong

FYI: Thanks to @stacyws, New Harvest Church now has a Twitter account. (@newharvest)

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Technorati tags: willow, creek, leadership, summit, 2008, twitter, lunch, meet-up, fresno, new, harvest, church

Do you Want to Be Great?

What does it take to be great?

I takes a willing heart and a passion for Jesus. Can you say, like Isaiah, "Here I am. Send me?" (Isaiah 6:8)

If so, I'd like to encourage you to do 4 things:
1. Attend Sunday Worship Services
2. Get connected into a small group
3. Be a part of Strategic Service opportunities
4. Make giving a prioirity

If you haven't started to volunteer (challenge #3) I'd like you to consider the adults who made the biggest impact on your life as an adolescent?
Was it a coach?
A teacher?
A youth leader?
A parent?
A guidance counselor?
A club sponsor?
A mentor?
A grandparent?

I bet that person was there for you in a difficult time, or several. I bet that person was willing to help you when you needed it. You have the opportunity to be that person now. You can make a difference.

Just Say, "Here I am. Send me."

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Technorati tags: mentor, leader, volunteer, greatness, jesus, christ, adolescent, youtube, new, harvest, church, student, ministry

Shaving

I went 2 weeks without shaving. It all came to an end last night. But I took some pictures of the shave-journey. Enjoy!

I looked tired last night.

Willow Creek Leadership Summit 2008

Here are some highlight quotes:

"All I have to do is get the right people around the table." - Bill Hybels

"Leaders call fouls." - Bill Hybels

"We (the church) are God's plan for justice." - Gary Haugen

"Are Jesus and I truly interested in the same things?" - Gary Haugen

"God will not leave us with all things petty." - Gary Haugen

"Follow your compass and not your clock." - Bill George

"If you do too many things, you'll end up killing the organization." - Wendy Kopp

"How many sexually active-drunk-athiests do you have in your church?" - John Burke

"What are your potential barriers to grace?" - John Burke

"If you can't love across race, you can't lead." - Efrem Smith

"We had nothing, but we had IT." - Greg Groeschel

3 of the Qualities most often present when a church has IT:

1. Laser Focus
2. They see opportunities where others see obstacles.
3. They are willing to fail

"Failure is not an option, it's a necessity." - Greg Groeschel

"In order to reach people that nobody else is reaching, we have to do things that nobody else is doing." - Greg Groeschel

"We don't impose (our faith), we propose." - Chuck Colson

"God doesn't really need me, he just needs me to get out of the way." - Catherine Rohr

"I was willing to risk everything." - Catherine Rohr

"See what's good in people and pull it out." - Brad Anderson

"I believe in divine taps on the shoulder."- Bill Hybels

"Embrace calling without delay." - Bill Hybels

Ammunition Conference '08 Recap Video // Watercooler Wednesday

This is part of the Watercooler Wednesday Blog Carnival.

Here's a little video of the Ammunition Conference which was a youth conference within Spirit West Coast. Check it out!

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Technorati tags: ammunition, conference, 2008, spirit, west, coast, worth, dying, for, call, to, arms, youth, conference, watercooler, wednesday

Connor Williamson // Prayers Needed

In our weekly staff meeting Stacy, our Communication's Director, told us about how she recently found Facebook and was able to connect with some old friends. She then proceded to tell how a foreign exchange student she interacted with in high school had a prayer request on her facebook profile. That prayer request was for a high school student named Connor Williamson.

Connor was in a diving accident at Hume Lake Christian Camp earlier this summer and has been in Fresno at Community Regional Medical Center.

Last night at Re:action, our college ministry, I was asking our guys for prayer requests and one of our newest guys, DJ McKay, asked for prayers for his friend Connor. He then talked about how Connor used to lead worship and play drums and that eventhough Connor is now paralyzed and still in ICU, the first thing he wants to do when he gets out is go back to Hume Lake and talk to those kids about Jesus. He's not depressed. He's not mad. He just wants to worship God and give him praise. Connor sounds like an awesome guy. We prayed for him last night and I'm asking you to pray for him.

You can check out the entire story and get regular updates at www.connorwatch.org. The family needs financial and prayer support. Help them out if you can.

Technorati tags: connor, williamson, diving, accident, connorwatch.org, hume, lake, christian, camp, stacy, schindler, dj, mckay, community, regional, medical, center, worship, jesus, God, facebook, love

Is Louie Giglio Starting a Church?

I came across this blog post video from the Buckhead Church blog. I can not wait to see what God does through Louie and his entourage of amazing worship leaders.

“Is Louie Starting a Church?”

Technorati tags: louie, giglio, atlanta, georgia, passion, church, buckhead, chris, tomlin, matt, redman

We're on our way home.

Here are some pics from the camp.