Wrapping up in the Windy City

Pastor Sam called in today to update everyone on how the missions trip is going:

The team is preparing for the last day of Kids Club this afternoon. Pray specifically for this time, as it is the most evangelistically-focused lesson of the week. There have been 30-40 children every day, and today they will hear about the righteousness of God and how it compares with our human lack of righteousness.

They'll be playing with water balloons too :)

As we mentioned before, the kids club has met each afternoon...the team has managed to keep busy in the mornings as well:

Tuesday morning, they went around local neighborhoods passing out material as well as helping to pick up trash. Yesterday morning, they stuffed 100 back-to-school bags that the church there will use for part of a big outreach on Sunday (after our team has returned home).

Pray for a lady named Belinda that Sam had the chance to have a good conversation with during the trash removal/canvassing project. He said he was able to invite her to some of the church events and pray with her; pray that the Lord uses this divine appointment in her life.

One funny story: the teens have started calling Sam and Jeremy (Jeremy Hudson is the Fellowship youth leader) "Bob" and "Larry". I guess when Sam was bent over working on something one day (in the bright red team t-shirt), he looked like Bob the Tomato from VeggieTales. And since Jeremy is tall (like Larry the Cucumber)...the names have stuck.

"Senior Pastor Bob" anyone? :)

The team is planning to head out tomorrow morning (Friday) and hopefully return to Springfield by late Friday afternoon/early evening. Pray for traveling safety, and we'll try and update this blog one more time when we hear the team has arrived safely in Ohio.

It's Tuesday in Chicago...

...okay, so it's Tuesday here too. :) But anyway, here's the latest update from our missions team in Illinois:

The group enjoyed worshipping on Sunday at the church where they're staying. Pastor Sam said the diversity of the group made for a very dynamic worship experience, and it sounds like that's been one of the highlights so far.

Monday morning was spent canvassing the neighborhood passing out flyers for a Saturday carnival in the park. Even though the group will have headed back to Ohio before this event, they're helping to invite people to the outreach.

Yesterday afternoon was the first day of kids club. The children show up around 1:00 pm and leave just after 3. This club will run Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and the teens help run everything: teaching Bible lessons, playing games, and working on crafts. There were about 30 kids that attended yesterday.

It sounds like this schedule (canvassing in the morning, club in the afternoon) will be pretty typical for the next few days. The evenings are a good time for everyone to catch their breath and discuss together what they've learned, how things are going, what God has been doing, etc.

Specific prayer requests: Pastor Sam asked that we always pray for safety and unity. He shared a praise, as the groups from Cornerstone and Fellowship seem to have gotten along well and are working great together, and he prays that unity will continue.

Pray also that the team will be able to develop good relationships with the kids they're ministering to...that the lessons and truths they share from God's Word will accomplish the Lord's work and change lives for His glory!

Check back for another update in the next couple days! Thanks for faithfully supporting this missions outreach of CBC in your prayers!

The team is in Chicago!

Pastor Sam and the teens arrived safely in the Windy City late Friday afternoon (no thanks to the GPS system in the other van, it sounds like).

There are 14 people (12 teens and 2 leaders) traveling all together, from Fellowship Christian Church as well as CBC. The Cornerstone portion of the group is: Michelle Cave, Kristen Heintz, Sarah Stephens, Jenny West, and Pastor Sam.

Anyway, Friday night was spent buying groceries, getting settled, and enjoying dinner at a local Mexican restaurant.

The church that the team is staying at is a good-size church (over 1,000). Everyone is being housed in the church's outreach building, a brownstone building next door to the actual church.

Saturday was the team's scheduled free day. They went downtown, did some shopping and sightseeing, and had dinner at the world-famous Navy Pier.

Today (Sunday), the team will be attending the early worship service and a youth group Sunday School. The church actually has two main church buildings, one on each side of town, so this afternoon, they will head across town to attend youth group at the other church.

Pastor Sam said from what he has been told, the church is very international, with people from every culture and race imaginable. He's looking forward to a "small taste of heaven on earth", with people from every tribe and tongue worshipping together in the Lord's house today.

The team's ministry will start in earnest Monday morning as they pass out invitations and tracts at bus stops in Chicago before beginning their Kids Club/VBS program.

Continue in prayer for this trip, that the Lord will use it in a great way! Check back in the next couple days for another update from Chicago...

Missions Trip Updates!

News flash: Pastor Sam will be calling in with regular updates from the teens' missions trip to Chicago, Illinois! His reports will be posted here on the pastors' blog, so check back regularly throughout the next week to learn specifically how God is using our teens to minister for Him! Be praying for the group as they leave Springfield tomorrow (Friday the 25th).

NEW SENIOR PASTOR!

This excerpt is taken from an e-mail that Deacon Chairman Paul Gathany sent out to the CBC family today:

"The Pulpit Committee/Deacon Board is pleased to announce that Sam Bryant has accepted the call to be the Senior Pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church. He will assume the pulpit duties on August 24."

Let's be praying for our church during this exciting time, as well as for Sam, Megan, James, and Lucas as their family transitions to a new role at Cornerstone!

Back from Nashville

I had a great time last week at Christ Church in Nashville, attending their 10th annual Music and Worship Conference. For those of you that remember our worship choir singing anthems like "Sound of the Round" or "End of the Beginning", you know the great quality of music that comes out of Christ Church.

My favorite part of the conference was participating in the mass choir. When we first arrived on Wednesday night, all of the conference attenders participated in a choir rehearsal. Members of the Christ Church Choir helped teach us three different songs that we then performed in the final concert on Friday night. Hearing hundreds and hundreds of voices singing their hearts out to the Lord is awesome!

I was very excited to run into two friends I went to college with at the conference, so it was neat to hang out with people I knew and to catch up on how the Lord is using them!

Other highlights (outside of getting to see an incredible choir sing a bunch of times) included hearing great musicians like Bill Gaither, Avalon, and the Voices of Lee. There was a group from Norway that I had never heard before called Voice of Joy - they were great too!

What else happened in Nashville?

Well, I went to breakout sessions like "The Five Mistakes a Choir Director Makes", "The Spotlight of Leadership", and "Choral Singing Technique."

I got to pick up tips and pointers from Landy Gardner, who has led the choir there for thirty-two years.

I also sat in on a "Fine Arts Sampler", watching what goes on in Christ Church's drama department.

And of course, I loved watching the choir's piano player/arranger/music director/orchestrator...maybe I'll be able to play like that when/if I grow up ;)

It's great to come home to Ohio energized and with fresh ideas...please pray for me as I try to put them to use with our Worship Choir in 08-09...and please consider joining us in September to see firsthand what I've learned! We'd love to have you as the newest CBC choir member!

Tim

Summer Cleaning

One of the main things on my to-do list after the Summer Spectacular was to re-organize and clean my office. When your workspace doubles as a backstage area for a music production, anything that's in the way gets piled anywhere else it can possibly go.

This is a very good idea until the day after the show.

Then it is a very bad idea -- because I can't find anything anywhere.

Sooo....now that over a week has passed, I've decided it really is finally time to buckle down and start picking up the pieces...I mean piles.

That's the nice thing about summer...with worship choir not having rehearsals for a few months, things are a little calmer and I have time to do things like organize. Of course, organizing isn't really all that fun -- I like being busy and having lots to do...do I sound like I'm rambling or stalling?

Maybe I am stalling.

:)

I thought I'd give you a quick update on my summer plans -- I am headed to Nashville next week for a music conference. I'm really looking forward to it....I try and go to a conference about once a year and get some fresh, new ideas. One of the great things about life (and a job in music like mine) is that we can always be learning...conferences are a great way to do that!

Other upcoming events include the quarter-century anniversary of my birth, a few days camping with the Carys in Michigan, and vacation with the Earleys to Hilton Head.

Enjoy summer! I will!

Tim

It's over...

A few random thoughts from the desk of the worship pastor:

June is over...which means July is here and I'm trying to think ahead and plan for fall and Christmas at the same time! Whoever said summer should be..."relaxing"? :)

The Summer Spectacular is also over...which means I'm not nearly as stressed as I was last week! Thanks to each of you who attended and/or gave -- I really appreciate how the people of CBC got involved in this great cause. I've got an update and some pictures up at www.TimCary.com.

We ate at TGI Friday's twice yesterday...for the Dabrowski Benefit. It's nice for a day to stuff yourself with great food and not feel too guilty ;) "Gluttony for charity" or something?

We also had a great time last night hanging out at a friend's house. I got some good ping-pong work in (it's always more fun to play when Pastor Sam's not around because then I have a fighting chance ;)

I'm kidding, Sam :)

Anyway, when I'm playing ping-pong, I sweat more than you could even imagine. It's true. My mom (the best ping-pong player in our family) always used to laugh at me because I'd be running from one side of the table to the other, diving on the floor or the couch, red-faced, huffing and puffing...whatever it took to hit the ball...

...and she'd be standing perfectly still making me run and enjoying it.

Maybe that's why I don't play ping-pong very often anymore!

Speaking of Pastor Sam, I'm excited that he will be the senior pastor candidate here at CBC. Please be praying during these next few weeks especially for Sam and Megan...and also for Cornerstone.

God bless!

Tim