new service times, service opportunities, celebration C

Hello everyone,

It is now official, we will be going to a new Sunday schedule on June 1. For all you late sleepers, this should be great news. Of course, there are many many reasons for the schedule change and we will go into those in more detail in the future. In a little over a month, we will start an evening service that will be geared specifically to young adults and young families. Needless to say, we are thrilled to see what God has in store for Northpark in this new missional opportunity.

A couple of chances for young adults to serve are:
1. Help is still needed for food servers and set up/tear down for an FCA dinner at the Insco’s on May 17th around 6:00 pm.
2. Summer Camp counselors needed. From Dave Hartley:

“I”ll be a dean at a week long jr. high camp this summer. we are always looking for counselors, especially guys. i’d love to see some of the YA’s helping with HS and JHigh; maybe this could be a lead in. dates are july 12-19. no cost, but no pay either. training provided. it’s a blast, but lots of (particularly emotional) work. if you have anyone who may be interested or particularly suited, please let me know.”
Directly contact the camp at i dig camp.com/

Remember, this Thursday is our Celebration C. During the last weeks of spring heading into summer, we can all use something to celebrate. We’re praying that Thursday’s meeting will be refreshingly fun and encouraging to us all.

New Service times! BBQ off Celebration C

Hey everyone, it’s the end of a long week for me and I should be sleeping instead of watching The Colbert Report but I wanted to let you all know that we are changing our Northpark Sunday schedule and adding a brand new gathering on Sunday evenings. Our 5:00 pm service will have the same talk as the Sunday mornings but a whole different atmosphere and style. It is our hope that we will be able to reach out to new/different people. Much more on this in the coming weeks.

Our Freedom BBQ has been postponed. Silly Ryan, didn’t you know that May 10 is prom night for millions of high schoolers. No, no I did not know that. My prom ended with two sprained ankles and an emergency room visit. Stay tuned for a new date and time.

Celebration C is coming and all you seniors are invited. There will be pizza, music, monopoly, sing star and maybe even guitar hero. See you then.

Weekly Update April 22nd

Do you need exercise? Don’t we all. Well, fear not, because Northpark Co-ed Soccer is back! 5:00 pm this coming Sunday at Buchanan High School. Anyone and everyone is invited to come and play, and all skill levels are welcome… For more information, contact Erin Munster via her email.

We are a little over a week away from our next Celebration. Stay tuned for additional programming updates. Also a major announcement is coming very soon…so I’ll cut it short for now.

Weekly Update April 15, 2008

Wow, today is our (Bekah, Ryan, Amelia) one year anniversary at Northpark as young adults pastors…it’s amazing how quickly it’s gone and even more startling has been the growth and transformation that we’ve witnessed in so many lives. It has truly been a case of ‘Christ in us’, because neither Bekah nor myself (OK, maybe Bekah) are smart enough to mastermind a program that would yield such phenomenal results. Thank God that his economy is so mysterious, so far removed from our western-derived understanding of cause and effect!

There are so many things to share, my right brain-leaning self sometimes struggles to remember them all and put them all into context but I will do my best here to list all of the opportunities that are upon us as summer approaches.

1. This coming Friday night (Fresno State, 7:00 pm) and Saturday morning (New Covenant Community Church) there is going to be A Debate and Symposium entitled “In Defense of the Faith”.
This is a great opportunity to learn to effectively defend your faith to a culture that demands evidence or, if you don’t identify as a believer, a chance to listen and participate in further conversation. On Friday night and Saturday, Dinesh D’Souza, respected aithor and apologist, will particpate as well Michael Shermer of Skeptic magazine. Both events are free for students and Friday is free for everyone, follow the link above for more information.

2. Here’s an important need for volunteers aged 21 and over:

We are putting together a chapter for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes up in the foothills (up 168 about 20 minutes or so from church). We have been establishing student-led clubs in both our junior high and high school. Since we are working hard on getting the ball rolling, we thought we’d put on a coaches appreciation dinner of sorts for our local community and school coaches and those involved in our sports programs here in the foothills.

We determined the date for this dinner, Saturday, May 17th with a start time of 6:30 p.m. Pup agreed to be our speaker, which is great. It will be at my house which is up 168, about 25 minutes from church. We anticipate that we may have as many as 120 people here (gulp!) and we also decided, as I mentioned to you, that we would serve wine at this dinner, and that sort of eliminated any thoughts of having any under 21yo students involved. So, as we talked about, if you have any college-age, 21 & up young adults that would be interested in volunteering their time for this event, we would be thrilled.

Basically, what would be involved would be to come up slightly prior to the start time (not sure yet on exact times), help us set-up, serve & clean up. We plan on having dinner as a buffet line, so perhaps we’d have people standing behind the buffet making sure all is going well there, people helping us clear tables, and serve cake for dessert. I am not sure if we will have the wine & sodas just set out, or whether we would actually have someone serving, but that is not really that crucial at this point. At the end of the evening, we would want to clear everything, clean up everything, and get all the rental items ready to return to the party rental place. I don’t imagine it would go that late. We plan on serving appetizers only from 6:30 to 7 p.m. and having dinner at 7 p.m. and having Pup speak during the dinner, so it wouldn’t be a terribly late night.

If you available to help please let me know and I will get you connected with Lauren Insco, who is organizing the event.

3. This coming Sunday, April 20, is a big day at Northpark. There’s a Mexico Mission meeting after 3rd service, with lunch served this time (hopefully, Mexican food Dave?) and then an All-Congregation meeting at 5:00 pm to discuss the new building project. As the youth voice of the church, I would highly encourage you all to come to this meeting and it doesn’t hurt that there will also be dinner served! and childcare provided!

4. We have two major events coming up that both have the potential to see us connect with more students, young adults and young families. Here at Northpark, we try to keep numbers in holistic perspective because we realize that bigger does not necessarily mean better. However, our goal for Celebration C on Thursday May 1 and for our Freedom BBQ for graduating seniors (May 10) is to connect more young people and help them grow spiritually in community together. Meaning, please join in praying that God brings people in need (just like you and me) to our events and then, that God helps us to identify and equip leaders so that we can continue to add small groups/house churches because people grow BEST in relational community. As some of you remember from last time, it takes PEOPLE to do these events and so, I am asking for you to consider being a part of one of these teams…

Freedom BBQ Task Force or Celebration C task force.
Those sound all scary but really, they aren’t at all. We just have jobs like setting up, tearing down (really important so I can go home before 1:00 am), sound, food, childcare, roadies (we’ve just confirmed that we will have a live band at the Freedom BBQ), etc. So please let us know and if it seems like we keep reminding you and reminding you about these things it’s only because we recognize that they are important.

thanks for sticking with me long enough to get to this point, I am so grateful to be serving God together with all of you and may we continue to grow in Mission and Relationship together.

Celebration C May 1, 2008

This flyer is my homage to the film Be Kind Rewind…I basically sweded a wallpaper they used to promote the film. But more importantly, I hope you are all making plans to be there already…

Happy Wednesday,

Ryan.

Weekly Update March 26, 2008; Rescue Mission, Easter Recap, Date nights

Hey everyone,

Easter was a surprising and startling success, praise God, we had over 1600 people come to our Easter Weekend services, including around 250 on Saturday night. Thanks to all of you served in any capacity, we had young adults greeting, working with children, working with youth, playing in the band, directing traffic/parking and a whole bunch more jobs that I’m surely not even aware of.

This week, we’re gearing up for two opportunities come Friday and Saturday. There’s still time to register for the 8 Great Date nights, whether you have kids or not. Don’t miss this opportunity… if money is an issue, please drop me a note. The date nights begin this Friday and run for 8 consecutive weeks and the cost is only $50 ($10 for couples only). Try finding a babysitter that will watch kids for $7…(if you know one, please contact me, haha).

Also, Saturday, we are heading out to the Rescue Mission to “redo” a family shelter room. We still need more help with this project, so also drop us a line if you’re down for helping.

Small groups are meeting this week as usual and I’ll be at the Axis group tonight, so see some of you then!

Community and the Poor

This past weekend, at the Non Con (or non-conference for the uninitiated), I was confronted with the reality that I don’t have many meaningful relationships with poor people. I often advocate for the poor, I practice activism on behalf of the poor and support causes, but I don’t take enough time to get to know individuals or to get involved in their lives. It didn’t use to be this way when I used to be one of the poor, as opposed to one of the educated lower middle class struggling to hang on to what I’ve got.

I used to spend a lot of time working with teenagers who’d suffered abuse and neglect. I used to spend time talking with homeless people. Now, I spend more time talking to other people about working with poor people, foster children and the homeless. Clearly, it’s not an either/or proposition but a both/and. And if our little community cares for the poor the way Jesus did, than we can’t just serve the poor but we need to worship with them as well. They need to be at the center of our community instead of benefiting solely from times of intentional outreach. Ministry (what we do inside the church) need not be separated from Evangelism (what we do outside the church) because they are both part of Mission.

Community can be hard though. It requires a lot of each of us. Maybe the hardest part being that we have to accept others if they are to accept us because if we don’t accept them first than we will never be open to allowing them to know us, which is the first step toward acceptance.
“God’s love sets me free to enter into community with other people—even when the community is a very limited one and is not the total communion that my heart desires. Only when I live in communion with God can I live in a community that is not perfect. Only then can I love the other person and create a space in which we might be quite distant or very close, but we can still allow something new to be born—a child, friendship, joy, community, a space where strangers and guests can be received.”

- Henri Nouwen
Lecture at Scarritt-Bennett Center

Thanks to Sojourners Verse and Voice for pointing me to this quote.

What’s next? Opportunities to serve, opportunities to celebrate

A couple of weeks ago, a bunch of us young adults gathered together to celebrate as a larger group for the second time … I have to admit, I did not know what to expect exactly. But I knew that we could depend on our small group leaders and our leadership team (I know, I wish I had a better name for them-let me know if you think of one) and we wound up having over 70 people at one very loud party…

So now, we have to ask ourselves, what do we do next? First, of course, we continue to do what we’ve already begun doing: building lives through relationships and taking part in God’s mission to save the world. Second, I believe, it’s time to reach outside of our community more intentionally. God wants to do more through us, in many ways it’s more of the same things that are already happening (so many of them unrelated to me but coming from all of you!) within our Northpark church faith community. With that in mind, I’d like to let you know about some opportunities to serve more, on all fronts. It’s clear, in the Bible, that God has a design for us as people. A design for our WHOLE being. Therefore, as a young adult ministry, it’s important that we strive to be holistic in our approach to reaching out and growing spiritually. With that in mind, this spring and summer, we have (or are starting with) four separate service opportunities:

1. Serving our local church. Easter Sunday, March 23, is usually the busiest weekend of the year for congregations, will be an opportunity for Northpark to have four services, one on Saturday along with the usual three on Sunday. We need parking attendants, extra childcare workers, greeters, help with snacks, and more. It’s also important that each and every one of us attend a weekend gathering and go out of our way to be welcoming to visitors. If you’d like to volunteer in any capacity, please contact Kerry in the office, kerry@northparkchurch.org

2. Serving our city. On Saturday, March 29, we are partnering with the Beacon Society to Adopt a Room at the Family Shelter of the Fresno Rescue Mission. When families face emergency situations that leave them homeless, this is where they go. Many of these family rooms have not been updated or painted for years. We are going to paint, renovate and redecorate one of the rooms. We will be meeting at the Mission at 8:00 am and should be done around 4:00 pm. At least 10 people are needed for this project and we can use more because there are many aspects to redoing a room in one day. Email me, ryan@northparkchurch.org if you are interested in knowing more or signing up.

3. Serving internationally. This summer, we are planning on taking a group of 160 people (30 from Las Vegas) to Ensenada, Mexico. In addition to building 6 homes for families in need, we will be hosting a sports camp for kids, training pastors and church leaders, visiting homes to deliver groceries and hosting at 4 VBS sites. The cost per person is only $160 and this includes travel, food and lodging for the week of June 15-20. We are having a meeting for everyone remotely interested in serving in Mexico on Sunday, March 30 but if you are interested, don’t wait until then. Go ahead and contact Dave, dave@northparkchurch.org right away.

4. Serving ourselves. This sounds selfish but it’s not. It’s important to take care of ourselves and to invest in our own spiritual growth, otherwise we’ll be in no shape to give. In addition to spiritual growth-focused classes and curriculum in small groups we are offering a program for parents called 8 Great Dates. Beginning Friday, March 28 and running for 8 consecutive weeks, Northpark will provide the childcare and a short presentation to help your relationships and then set you loose for a great date night together from 6:00 pm to 8:30 pm. There is a small cost involved (if finances are a struggle please let us know and we will help) and pre-registration is necessary. Contact Larry, larry@northparkchurch.org to sign up. And I know, we need to find something like this for single people to invest in themselves as well. We’re working on it!

As always, feel free to contact any of at the church office 559.322-7200.

See you soon,

Ryan.

Mexico Mission 2008

This coming June 15-21, we are hoping to take 160 people (130 from Northpark) to Ensenada, Mexico to build six houses, host a sports camp, teach children and give some leadership training. The group that we are going with is called eocYUGO and they made this video recapping the year 2007.

Celebration B video footage

In case you missed it, we had a phenomenally good time on Thursday night in Room 202/206. I’ve got this shaky/dark video to share, see if you can see yourself there, it looks like everyone is having a great time…

Thanks to all of you who helped out, thanks to our guest house church (Kathy Humphrey and crew), thanks to the band, but most of all thanks to God for bringing our little community together in such a short time and for everything that he has planned for our future together.