Hello everyone!
I hope you've had a great week! It's Friday and I'm about to head down to Zachary to lead worship and teach a couple of workshops at the Awana Ministry Conference. Before I go I wanted to post something special that happened this past Wednesday night at Christian Challenge.
We are in the midst of a great transition at Christian Challenge. This past Wednesday night was a significant event as we are transitioning away from mid-week services to Community Groups that will meet in people's homes throughout the week. We held a "Community Group Kickoff" to celebrate what God had done in our lives throughout the years through our week-night services as well as to help set the tone for our Community Groups. (We had been meeting with our CG leaders for several weeks and had held two CG orientations for everyone on the previous two Wednesday nights.)
Our goal with the Community Groups is to provide an atmosphere for true spiritual growth in a safe atmosphere where people can ask questions and interact, truly growing roots into God's Word and each other's lives. In our corporate worship services all of our chairs are facing forward and most folks are looking at the back of someone else's head. In the Community Groups everyone sits in a circle facing one another, giving the opportunity for dialogue. This does not replace the important of the pulpit, teaching, corporate worship, etc. But it supplements these important aspects of our spiritual life with the opportunity to dig deeper into the Sunday sermons and learn personal application from God's Word. As you can tell, I'm excited!
Besides our Community Group Kickoff, there was another, ulterior, motive for our gathering on Wednesday night. My dad's 68th birthday was the next day and we decided to give him a surprise birthday party that night. And boy was he surprised!
My mom had found a song that she asked me to sing to my dad as part of the birthday celebration. It was written by Johnny Minick and sung to Howard Goodman to celebrate his life and ministry. With some help from Jenni Baier we modified the song a bit to fit my dad's life and ministry and I sang it to him at the close of our CG Kickoff. I'm not the best singer in the world, but I thought you might enjoy a tribute to my dad, Buddy Martin - a faithful man:
Direct link: http://www.youtube.com/v/kbtgQ6CllBQ
That song kind of says it all, it's definitely what I feel about my dad: "I know that I can always count on him. Lord I want to thank You for a faithful man." Thanks, dad, for modeling faithfulness and steadfastness to all of us throughout all these years. And thank you for being excited about what God is doing at Christian Challenge now and into the future! You're my hero!!!
Well, that's it for now. I've got to head down to Zachary and it's later than I wanted to leave. But I wanted to post this video before to much time got away. I hope y'all have a great weekend!
Blessings,
Nathan
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