Watershed Schedule

I heard that a rumor is circulating about Watershed's schedule with Christmas and New Year's approaching. So to set the record straight, here is when Watershed is and is not meeting over the next couple of week's:

12/20 YES, we are meeting! Nate Ndjerareou will finish up our "Faith, Hope, Love" series.
12/27 NO, we are not meeting! Enjoy the break with family or friends (or both!).
1/3 YES, we are meeting! Bring your questions for a Spiritual Q&A
1/10 YES, we are meeting! This will be the start of a 4-week series called "Baggage: Who We Are In Light Of Our Pasts"

So, I hope to see you tomorrow night, Dec. 20th, for our Christmas Watershed gathering.

No worship gathering tonight due to snow!

For several reasons that all came together in the past 5 minutes, we have decided to cancel tonight's Dec. 6 Worship Gathering.  So plan to come next week to hear Sarah Ndjerareou (Nate's wife) continue our Christmas series "Faith, Hope, Love" with a talk about Hope, and then the following week to hear Nate close up the series with "Love."

Again, there is NO worship gathering tonight.  Enjoy your evening!

-E 

Thursday MP3s are Posted!

If you've been hoping to download an MP3 of a Thursday night message, you're in luck! Mike has all the latest recordings on the Watershed "listen" page.

We're still working out some technical issues regarding the podcast feed, but that should also be coming to the new website soon.

Make sure to thank Mike for taking care of this!

Knowing Your Neighbors

I just learned about a new tool called ZipSkinny.  If you want to "get the skinny" on your neighborhood, you simply enter your Zip Code, and ZipSkinny pulls all sorts of data from the Census Bureau website, and even compares it to other Zip Codes in your areas.

So for fun, I thought I'd enter 52402 since a majority of our Watershed audience lives and works within this zip code.  And I was surprised to see that while the Median age is 33, the largest age range (percentage-wise) was those in the 20-29 age range.  It's nice to know that Watershed is aiming for the right target audience...

Blood:Water Mission - another way to help

Some of you might remember two years ago when we took an offering for Blood:Water Mission. You guys gave an incredible amount, and it was a joy to send such a huge check to provide clean drinking water for African villages. Well here's another way you could help out.

I got an email yesterday asking me to join Blood:Water Mission's group on a new action-oriented social networking site called Razoo. If Blood:Water Mission gets enough members, they could be selected as winner of the Change Your World Contest, which would award them $10,000.

Blood:Water Mission is doing great things helping Africans get clean fresh drinking water from wells right beneath their feet. I'd encourage you to join Razoo as well, and after you confirm your email address, click on http://beta.razoo.com/groups/bloodwatermission to join the group and help them out.

New Watershed website

In case you hadn't seen it yet, Watershed is sporting a new website.   Thanks once again to Sam Otis for lending his awesome talents in the creation of this site!

Now that the site is live, would you enjoy maintaining the site?  It doesn't require much time, but is a necessary element to keep the website current.  If interested, email me at erin.bird@newcovenantbible.org.  You don't have to design, but you do need to have a knowledge of HTML (or the software) to make changes (without messing up Sam's great design).

Oh, and if you look at the site in Internet Explorer 7, the site is all messed up.  Go with a good browser like Firefox or Safari (or stick with Internet Explorer 6) - they know how it is supposed to look.

Tonight's Staff Meeting

Hey everyone,

Had someone call asking if tonight's staff meeting was at New Covenant where we have been meeting for Staff Meeting or if we were at our new location for this fall, Maranatha Bible Church. The answer is: we will be meeting at Maranatha at 7:30 pm. And on the agenda for tonight, a tour!

For a map/directions to Marantha, click here. If that doesn't work for some , do a Google Map search for 701 25th St. NE.

Thursday Informal Activity: Volleyball at Thomas Park

After discussion with a few others, the consensus is that we should round out our "informal" activities for the summer by having an evening of volleyball (maybe even a tournament) at Thomas Park in Marion. We'll plan on meeting at 7pm by the courts.

If you want to come earlier and enjoy a picnic in the park, that would be cool -- maybe leave a comment here if you intend to do so, and try to convince the rest of us to join you in picnicking.

Hope to see you there. :-)

Thursday Informal Activity: Nature Hike (Indian Creek Nature Center)

Hey y'all. One of the activities that was popular on our summer survey was a Nature Hike. So... let's have a nature hike. Wear some comfy shoes and some bug spray and come join us. We'll meet at the Indian Creek Nature Center (click title for a Google map) at 7pm this coming Thursday evening, Aug 2. Also click here for driving directions (from the nature center website).

Hope to see you all there, and if you have comments, feel free to post them here.

Camp Courageous Pineapple Sale

We Need You!

Are you familiar with camp courageous of Iowa?!? If not, please visit their website. It is a wonderful, nonprofit, organization that provides weekend respite care and week long retreats for people with disabilities. The camp and its volunteers are an inspiration and the joy the campers get from attending the camp is truly incredible.

Every year the camp holds pineapple sales leading up to their annual pineapple gala, held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in downtown Cedar Rapids. On Friday august 10 and Saturday august 11, volunteers will be selling pineapples at area Hy-Vees (Cedar Rapids, Marion, Coralville and Iowa City). Money handling skills are not required, as the pineapples are purchased through Hy-Vee, and all proceeds go directly to Camp Courageous! All you need is a smile, a friendly attitude, and a desire to serve! Volunteers are need to cover in 2 hour time blocks (minimum) in groups of 2-3 per store, from 4-7 on Friday and 10-6 on Saturday. The pineapple displays will be put together by Hy-Vee, all you have to do is show up and smile!

The following weekend (Saturday August 19) is the Pineapple Gala, held at the Crowne Plaza. Details about the tickets can be found on the website. There is a silent auction for some wonderful options, a dinner, followed by a live auction. Tables of ten can be purchased, or individual dinners can also be purchased. All proceeds go directly to Camp Courageous, including dinner prices and all money raised by the auctions. This would be a great social event for some outrageously awesome fun!

These are both great opportunities for individuals, friends,and families of any size! If you are interested in any of the above opportunities, please contact John or Nichole as soon as possible. This is a great chance to be a part of our community, and help raise money for a truly honorable cause.

What: Camp Courageous Pineapple Sales
Delmonte Gold Large Pineapples for $4.00
When: Friday August 10, 2007 4-7 PM
Saturday August 11, 2007 10AM-4PM
Where: Area Hy-Vee Stores including-
Cedar Rapids, Coralville, Iowa City, and Marion

Since you're reading this, I know you're interested in helping. Please contact Nichole or myself to sign up for a specific location and time.

John - kngdmwarrior@hotmail.com

Nichole - aquathlete13@yahoo.com (319-431-5332)

July Worship Gathering

Come join us this Thursday (the 26th) at Palisades-Kepler State Park for our July Worship gathering. If you came out to our gathering last month at Bever Park you know how much it was to be outside for a change. Unlike last time, we won't have food beforehand, but we will have smores and a fire afterwards, so stick around (no pun intended :-)) for awhile.

Here is a map showing how to get to the park, which is off US 30 going east toward Mt Vernon.

Here is a map of the park. We have reserved Shelter #1. We plan on starting at 7:30pm, but feel free to show up anytime beforehand and enjoy the beautiful park.

Staff Meeting #2

Just a quick reminder here that Staff Meeting #2 is tomorrow night (Thursday, July 19) at 7:30 pm. It will be held once again at New Covenant's building in Room 143 (the same room as last time). If you don't know where that is, stand in the foyer facing the worship center where we used to meet on Thursdays, and go to the end of the hallway on your left.

Thursday Informal Activity: Thomas Park

Hey Watershed. This is really late notice, but for those of you who read this, let's get together Thursday evening for another "pseudoWatershed" activity. Let's meet at Thomas Park at 7pm. It's not really a picnic, but bring some food if you want to eat. Then at 7:30, we'll walk on the trail some, or play some volleyball (rumors of water balloons...). No fixed schedule other than that, just an informal get together. Hope to see you there. :-)

Bike Riding: Thu, Jul 5

Hey all you bike riders (the nonmotorized kind, that is). Since we are not having a normal Watershed gathering this Thursday, let's meet for bike riding instead. The plan is to meet at Cedar Lake Park (just west of the H Avenue exit on the Interstate) at 7pm. From there we'll travel either north or south on the trail for an hour or two...should be a nice relaxing evening ride. Hope to see you there.

July 4 Young Life Fundraiser

Andrea S made us aware last Thursday night of an opportunity to help one of our local organizations, Young Life. They are looking for volunteers on the 4th (just a couple short days away) to help man a vendor stand from appx. 6pm - 10pm, and then help with cleanup from 10pm - 1am. Anyone can work one or both shifts.

If you're interested in helping out in this way, let me know (or post a comment here), and I'll forward that info to Young Life.

June Worship in the Park

It's June, and that means being outdoors. That's why Watershed is meeting outdoors this Thursday, June 28, at Bever Pavilion in Bever Park. That's the pavilion by the east entrance to Bever Park--so if you're coming from First Ave, driving on Bever Ave, it'll be the second entrance to the park.

Now, you can come at 7:30 and worship with us. But better yet, come at 6:30 and eat with us! There will be a potluck, starting at 6:30. The hot dogs, buns, plates, napkins, and plastic-ware will be provided. Your job is to bring a side dish to share, and your own beverage. We do have electricity available, so crock pots are welcome. Someone suggested (very cleverly) that y'all could post the side dish you plan to bring so not everyone brings the same thing, because really, who wants 30 platters of lutefisk(*)?

Lutefisk aside, I'm really bummed that I can't be there. But you can make up for it by inviting a friend to come with. And let me know how cool everything I missed was.

The short version:
Thursday, June 28, 6:30PM, potluck at Bever Pavilion in Bever Park.
Thursday, June 28, 7:30PM, worship at/near Bever Pavilion in Bever Park.
Come, and feel free to invite a friend!

(Disclaimer: Not that there's anything wrong with lutefisk. If "fish jello" offends you, please imagine I said "Baked Beans", "Potato Salad", or "Great-Aunt Millie's Roast Asparagus Poppers", whichever is most palatable. Further disclaimer: The author of this post hereby disclaims all knowledge of any great-aunts that may be named Millie, whether they roast asparagus or not.)

Winning

In our staff meeting last Thursday, we talked about winning and Watershed. A win is any time a young adult goes deeper with Christ, be it coming to a Thursday night gathering for the first time, or coming to Christ, or getting involved in their church. We discussed ways that we've seen "wins" occur at Watershed, and some of the things we need to do to continue seeing wins in the future. Here are some of the things you brought up...

• Organized small groups/mentorship groups (possibly meet on Thursdays)
• Bring back the group that met after Thurs night gatherings to discuss the message
• Social events geared toward deepening relationships
• Once a month organized events that might be more comfortable for seekers
• Give people an outlet for their Spiritual Pathways
• Calendar on website for anyone to post events on
• White board in the entry-way to the gathering that lists upcoming activities
• Have someone available after each service for prayer
• Greeting team
• Everyone is a greeter!
• Identify the target audience? Are we trying to reach the churched or the unchurched?

Looking over that list, 3 areas stand out to me: welcoming new attenders (ankle deep), fellowship (knee deep), and small groups/iron-sharpens-iron activities (waist deep).

We also discussed some ways to get the word about Watershed out to the community...

• Letter to area churches
• Vision partner of 89.1 The Spirit
• Ads in the Gazette, Penny Saver, Christian Business Directory
• Contact Christian businesses
• Community service outreaches and events
• Laundromat bulletin boards
• Personal invites
• College campuses (beginning of the year fairs)
• Location (be where we want to minister)

Please discuss the ideas listed above. Are there any other things you believe we need to to do in order to see more wins? Can we focus on all these or are there certain ones that stand out as more urgent than others? We'd love to hear your thoughts.

Summer Activities Survey Results

Many of you took a "Watershed Summer Activities Survey" in May before we took a break for the summer. I have compiled the results of that survey, and you can download the Excel spreadsheet by clicking the title link.

We'll try to organize some informal favorites from this list during the "off" weeks of Watershed in July and August, so... stay tuned.

Marion by Moonlight -- Jun 14

As mentioned briefly at our last Watershed meeting in May, we are going to try and arrange some informal activities on the "off" weeks during the summer.

For this week, I'd like to invite everyone to "Marion by Moonlight" at the Marion square this Thursday night. The music goes from 6:30 - 9:30 pm. Let's plan to meet at the square at 6:30.

Hope to see you there. If you have comments on this, feel free to leave them below.

Thursdays and Texting

I must admit, it felt a bit strange not having a Worship Gathering tonight. Instead, I was hanging out with John, Matt, Amber, and Bill working on the June 21 staff meeting, the June 28 Worship Gathering (we almost have a park secured!), and the new location (several good options, I must say!). While I missed worshipping and hanging with all of you, I am excited about this summer and gearing up for next fall.

The main reason I am posting is that I just read a blog about text messaging among young adults. You can read it here. I don't even own a cell phone, so I am obviously not contributing to any of these numbers, but I'm curious how many of you text someone daily? While in your car? And how is your life different because of text messaging? And would you say life is better because of texting?

Comments are open!

Rethink the Website

Tonight we start our summer teaching series called Rethink. I'm excited about it! This evening we'll look at the idea of rethinking our faith (can you do that?). I am hoping that many of you will be challenged in your own faith through this 4-part summer series.

You might notice a few changes to the main website. We've scaled back the site just for the summer, with a new site hopefully launching towards the fall. We'll put announcements right on the home page, as well as on here. We left up the About Us stuff so that any visitors can learn a little more about Watershed before they check out a gathering in June, July, or August. We'll also keep the Listen page up since several of you download the mp3s.

Keep watching the website and/or Waterblogged for info about our June, July, and August gatherings, including locations and directions.

Summer Activities Anyone?

Some of us Watershedders are thinking it would be fun to schedule some informal gatherings on Thursday evenings when we are not having normal Watershed or staff meetings this summer. The dates that these special events might happen are: 6/7, 6/14, 7/5, 7/12, 8/2, 8/9, and 8/23.

I came up with a list of ideas, and I'd like your input. Click here to download or open the Word document with the survey form. Fill out what you think sounds the best, and email the form back to me. I'll also bring some copies of the survey to Watershed on Thursday.

Staff Meetings

Tonight's "Major Announcement" was the schedule of "staff" meetings. If you are on volunteer staff, or are interested in being on staff, then come to our meetings this summer on the third Thursday of each summer month at 7:30 pm. The specific dates are:

June 21
July 19
August 16

These meetings will not have times of worship through song or a 30-minute teaching from the Bible or any of the other elements typically found at a Worship Gathering. Rather our times together will be focused on the discussion of the "relaunch" of Watershed in the fall and how we can all play a part in its success. And of course praying together about these things!

We have assembled an email list from people who have submitted their addresses to us regarding staff stuff. If you would like to be on this list to stay informed of staff-related issues, then email me at erin.bird [AT] newcovenantbible [DOT] org.

Four Oaks Service Project

If you are the kind of person who loves playing with kids and getting involved in the community, we have an opportunity for you. We recently found out about a Mexican-themed event hosted by Four Oaks for underprivilidged and hurting children. They are looking for volunteers to help with games (pin the tail on the donkey, bean bag toss and more), serving food, helping with crafts, and just playing with the kids. Erin just spoke last Thursday about giving of our time and energy by helping out with children. They love it when we play with them because they just think we're cool!


Date: Sunday, May 20
Time: 11:30 - 3:00 *
Place: Smith Center (map)

*The event starts at noon, but volunteers need to arrive at 11:30 to receive instructions.

I realize the event is this Sunday, and the last thing we want to do is pull you away from your normal Sunday church service. So if you would normally be attending church at this time, please don't skip church to do this instead. But if you attend an early morning or evening service at your church, and are interested in participating, please let us know!

If you are interested, please contact Joe with your name and birth date at joeclark@joeclarkia.net ASAP, as Four Oaks needs to know how many volunteers are coming for planning purposes.

Gather.Grow.Give.Go in Proverbs 11

If you have attended a Thursday Gathering in the last 3 weeks or listened to the podcast of the messages, you know we are in a series about the vision of Watershed called "Gather.Grow.Give.Go".

Well, Andrea Sandoval just dropped off a sheet of paper here at my house with verses on it from Proverbs 11 that fit perfectly with the stuff we are learning from Ezekiel 47, especially this last Thursday as we talked about the fruit and the leaves in verse 12 and how those signify what we as Christians are to give. These verses are so good, I thought I should share them here on Waterblogged, so here you go:

verse 25 : "A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed."

verse 28 : "Whoever trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will thrive like a green leaf."

verse 30 : "The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise."

If you have any other verses you know of our find in the Scripture relating to the images and ideas in Ezekiel 47, feel free to post them here in the comments.

All Scripture from the New International Version, Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society

Major Announcement #3

Tonight the third Major Announcement was made as part of the Gather.Grow.Give.Go series. And here it is:

We are looking for a new location for our Thursday Gatherings! We'd like it to be somewhat centralized in the city, possibly free, and a room for childcare. Churches, bars, store fronts, whatever you find. If you have any ideas of where this place might be, please send an email to erin.bird@newcoveREMOVEnantbible.org.

Being Entish...

Tonight, during the "Grow" talk, I mentioned some Bible reading plans to help those of you not faithfully getting rooted in Christ through the Word. But I failed to have the website on the PowerPoint for those who wanted to go to the web and check those out themselves. So here's the link:

http://www.heartlight.org/devotionals/reading_plans/

Also, I mentioned ideas to help you remember to pray. I thought it would be fun to open up comments on this post and hear ideas some of you have to help you to remember to pray.

Going Deeper...

I got the following email from someone who missed last Thursday's Worship Gathering and caught up with the message via podcast. I thought it might encourage some of you to know that God is calling some of you (hopefully lots of you!) into deeper places with him. So that the attention is on God and not this individual, I've edited (with permission) the text so that the email stays anonymous:

Erin,

I just listened to the message you gave this last Thursday on Gathering. Something that always amazes me is God's timing. Just in the last few days I've felt a pull to go deeper with Christ. It's not necessarily a new pull, but a renewed one. I feel like I've been trying to do things to get to Christ but missing something. A friend put it best when she explained it last night: it's like I've been striving to get close with Him. I think I need to abide in Him and realize that His presence is already here.

When we go deep in the river that is Christ, he pulls us wherever he wants. I feel like I've been wading for a while now and wish that the river would pull me into the deep as it pulls those who are already there. What can I do to loose the grip on whatever my toes are wrapped around? Or maybe I'm wading in the wrong direction. Either way, I've again realized where I'd like to be and that I'm not quite there yet.

Tomorrow night's talk will be on "Grow" and we'll address for a bit what it looks like in the Watershed context to go knee deep and begin to go deeper in the river (to let our toes loose their grip!). I'm excited that God is not only working in this person's life, but yours as well!

Passion coming to Chicago!

Passion is coming to Chicago! I (Amy) have been to the Passion Conferences the last 2 years and I am so excited to know they are coming so close and over a weekend! I will be organizing a group to go with me from Watershed. The only details I know is that it is the weekend of October 19 and 20th. It will be a Friday and Saturday. I do not know time information, or any other details. But stay tuned because I will be staying on top of it!

If you are interested in coming, let me know and I will definitely keep you in the loop!

Passion is a young adult conference that is an amazing experience and both years I have went, I have been amazed. Having so many young adults in the same room, worshipping Jesus is soooo amazing you will not want to miss out! You will not be disappointed!

If you want to read the Passion blog, you can find it at www.268blog.blogspot.com and if you want to know more about Passion Conferences, you can find that at www.268generation.com.

MORE TO COME!!!!

Paul Rivera Frias: A Life Transformed!

I just received this email from CURE International, so I thought I would share with everyone so you can see just how your donations are helping!

--------------------------------------------------

Passion07 challenged you to “do something now” to actively live your life for Christ. You took that challenge to heart. Your partnership with CURE is not just doing “something”, it is doing incredible things. It is changing lives. The following story of a child who was healed by a Passion07 sponsored surgery is proof of that.
Paul Rivera Frias will never have to grow up with the stigma of being disabled. He probably won’t even remember going through treatment for his disability. The chubby, little two-year-old is fortunate, he was able to get help early on in his life so that he won’t ever experience the trials that other individuals with disabilities in the Dominican Republic endure. Paul has you to thank for that. It was through your commitments at Passion07 that Paul was able to avoid the heartache and difficulties of being disabled in the developing world.
Born with scoliosis, Paul was referred to CURE for surgery by a hospital near his hometown of Los Alcarrizos, a remote village 30 minutes north of Santo Domingo. The surgery to strengthen his spine was a success. He soon will be able to crawl, and eventually walk, like other toddlers. Although, Paul may never realize or understand the transformation he received at CURE, his mother, Maria Frias, is more than aware of the profound affect his surgery had on his life. “We now have the hope that he is going to grow just as any normal person,” says Maria. For such a little guy, his family already has high hopes for his future. “Our biggest hope is that he could study and become a good professional,” Maria says with a smile. Maria and Paul Frias already attend church with the rest of their family, but say that their faith has grown through their experience at CURE.

Thank you,
CURE International

Stand Tall Performance at Cornell College

Many of you will remember the drama performance by Stand Tall (FYI: that's an old website) from Cornell College during our "Worship Through the Arts" series in February. Maggie, one of the student leaders, just emailed me this, and I wanted to share it with all of you:

Hi Erin!

It's been awhile now since Stand Tall performed at Watershed and we've been busy. We loved performing for you all! We just wanted to let you and everyone at Watershed know that we have our large campus performances coming up this Monday and Tuesday, April 16th and 17th. Our performance is called "Quo Vadis...where are you going?" and is comprised of new skits, poetry, music, monologues and choreography written almost entirely by members from our group. The material covers a span of emotions and questions that are faced by both Christians and non-Christians, although we are centering our performance on living joyfully and trustfully in God's truth in order to answer the question "where are you going?". We would love to see members of Watershed there at one or both of our performances. Here's all the information you should need:

What: Stand Tall Christian Performing Arts presents "Quo Vadis...where are you going?"
When: Monday, April 16th and Tuesday, April 17th at 7pm-9:15pm (no intermission)
Where: Cornell College - Black Box - Armstrong Hall (this building is right of the Commons when facing the Commons. To get to the Black Box, enter the doors on the left-hand side of the building, go down a short flight of steps, and directly ahead is the small theatre. People will be there handing out programs)
Other info: Admission is free! Bring your friends!
For more info: contact m-obermann@cornellcollege.edu or Maggie at 970-405-3787

If you could pass on this information, it would be greatly appreciated!
-Maggie

Technical Difficulties

For those of you that gave to CURE International, I thank you again! However, it has come to my attention that some of you might not have saw a confirmation page after you submitted your donation online. There might have been some technical problems with the laptop, specifically the one on the right side (Windows computer).

So, if you did not receive a confirmation page, I would suggest keeping an eye on your credit card account to see if anything posts in the next couple days, if not you can use the link posted in the previous blog that I posted earlier.

Thanks so much!

The 2007 Maundy Thursday service in review

Last night's Maundy Thursday prayer night was a great event in my opinion. First, the generous giving that Amy talked about in the last blog post absolutely overwhelmed me. I am so proud of all of you!

Second, watching so many of you praying inspired me to pray. I had already gone through all the stations in a sense during the preparation, but I was so moved watching so many of you spend serious time with God, contemplating the Scripture passages and what they mean to your life, it motivated me to go through each station again, but this time not as prep but for genuine prayer and reflection.

Third, I was impressed that so many of you just rolled with this completely new method of worship. I expected a few more people to have negative reactions (anytime you implement big change like this, even for a one time event you can expect criticism and negative response), but so many of you were amazingly flexible and sought to connect with God.

I don't know that we'll ever do this again, but if we did, I would change a few things. The scented oil, for one, was too strong. I thought the scent was very nice, but I never imagined it would not only take over the whole worship center, but the whole building! I had a slight headache by the time we were doing tear-down, and I think the scent was partly to blame. My apologies to any of you that are sensitive to smells. The goal was to just have the scent in the area of that particular prayer station concerning the woman and her sacrifice of her embalming perfume.

The other thing I would change is the preparation time. I WAY underestimated how much time it would take to put things together. A HUGE thank you goes to my administrative assistant, Gina Green, here at New Covenant. I try not to bother her with Watershed things, but she got all the books folded and stapled, the various elements collected (communion stuff, props, candles, etc.), and more.

Also, thanks to John Connelly for writing three of the stations' notes and suggested prayers. I wish he hadn't gotten sick so that he could have written more of them - his thoughts and prayers really touched me.

Thanks also to Amy Arp for giving all of us the opportunity to give as part of our worship.

And lastly, thanks to Matt, Mike, Nate, April, Daniel, Ida, Steve, and Heather for their help in set-up and/or tear-down. Without them, the evening would have been a flop.

I've opened up comments on this blog for those who want to share their thoughts about the evening. What did you like? What weirded you out? What would you have done had you planned something like this?

And for those who missed the evening and would like to know what it was all about, I have made a PDF with the content of the prayer guides that were handed out at the door as well as the Scriptures that were at each prayer station. All you'll be missing is some bread, juice, a couple of laptops, and a whole lot of smell!

CURE International Total

I am so overwhelmed by the generous giving of everyone last night at the Maundy Thursday worship service. I am so excited to tell you that we raised $1861.25 last night! That includes the cash and the online donations! Thank you all so much for helping out! Lindsay and I are so excited about it!!!

If you were not able to attend last night and still want to give here are 3 ways:
#1. let me know via email (amyarp@gmail.com),
#2. or you can give by clicking on Sponsor Me! on the left side of this page: http://www.curenetcomm.org/NETCOMMUNITY/Page.aspx?&pid=363&srcid=362&frsid=45
#3. or at watershed next week.

Thank you all again so much!
Amy

Maundy Thursday Worship Service

Join us on Thursday, April 5, at 7:30 pm for a special Maundy Thursday worship service. The night looks to be unlike anything we have ever done before, so come with no expectations except to meet with God and worship Him.

CURE International Offering

Because we are in the middle of a teaching series on practical Christianity during our Thursday Gatherings, we want to follow through with what we are learning. James 1:27 tells us to care for widows and orphans, in other words, the underprivileged who perhaps feel unloved. We want to reach out to some underprivileged people who might feel unloved because of a physical deformity.

On April 5, the night of our Maundy Thursday Worship Service, we will be taking an offering to raise $2,000 to sponsor one surgery through CURE International, an organization that is helping kids in third world countries have a new lease on life through life-changing surgeries. If you have any questions about CURE International, visit their website, or talk with Amy Arp.

If you want to donate online ahead of time, please use this link, and click on "Sponsor Me" so we can know how much of the $2,000 we have raised.

Most popular young adult websites

I just saw this morning on the Church Relevance blog that Facebook is the most popular website among 17-25 year olds. Even if you aren't in this age range, what is your most popular website?

Mar 1 Gathering - CANCELLED!

As you can see on the Watershed home page, tonight's Worship Gathering has been CANCELLED due to the weather. Even though it is just wet right now (I was just out on the roads and thought we should be able to go tonight), Kirkwood has cancelled all classes after 5:00 pm (we have used them in the past to help us make cancellation decisions), plus the radar at this moment seems to be showing the storm to be swirling back to the south as it heads east, meaning the part of the storm that has closed down I-80 between Omaha and Des Moines is headed our way.

So enjoy the night tucked in at home. Stay warm, and get ready to hear Andy next week on the topic of "The Heart of God".

The Heart of God

Tonight (weather permitting) and next Thursday we have the awesome privilege of having Andy K share with us a two part series on "The Heart of God".

Andy has spoken for us before, way back in the day when we gathered in the New Covenant basement. If you have never heard Andy speak, do whatever you can to get to tonight's AND next week's gatherings. Andy shares passionately from his heart and from the Scriptures. Our hope is that some of Andy's passion oozes onto you and you will leave each Worship Gathering moved to have your heartbeat get in sync with God's.

Andy is on staff at Parkview Church in Iowa City, helping out with 24-7 and outreach. He is a popular workshop speaker at the Main Event conference every fall as well as a speaker for Perspectives. He is the husband of Jamie and father of 3 (one who went to be with Jesus before birth, and new twins (a boy and a girl) born last summer).

The Next Young Adult Generation

Erin here. I will try not to do this very often, but I thought some of you might be interested in some recent surveys that have been released in the past couple months that I posted about on my personal blog. The only reason I am linking is because it has to do with the next generation of young adults and I don't want to recreate the post over here. Some of the survey results were startling to me and might be to you as well.

As I said on my blog, these results concern me, but also motivate me. And I am glad that God has Watershed here in Cedar Rapids at this time to help address the issues raised in these reports. But it is going to take a group of people moving in step with the flow of the Holy Spirit to help reach the young adults of Eastern Iowa for Christ. Will you step into the flow with us?

Life For God forum

For those of you missing the "good old days" with the Watershed forum, you might want to know that Joe Clark and some others have gotten a "Life For God Cedar Rapids" forum up and running. If you enjoy discussing theology, sharing prayer requests, playing games, or just interacting with other young adults online, then join the Life For God forum.

Thanks, Joe (and whoever else helped), for getting that forum going!

Looking for Angels

Last night, Amber and I went out and to use up a gift card I got for Christmas. We picked up Skillet's newest album, Comatose. I listened to it today (the verdict: it's good), and was struck by the last song, Looking for Angels.

The song ends:

...
Angels show up in the strangest places
Going through this life, looking for angels
People passing by, looking for angels
Walking down the streets looking for angels
Everyone I meet looking for angels

I may have "missed the point" of the song (part of the last verse goes "smile as you turn the other cheek/Pray for your enemies, humble yourself"), but after the song, I wasn't thinking about all the nice/holy/helpful things I could do for other people. I was thinking "What if I looked for the good?" So often, I look for the problems, the flaws, the bad. What if I looked for angels, for good things, for reasons to smile and praise?

I hope to find out. I'm going to try it.

Josh Bales is coming!

Hey everyone. Just wanted to remind you all that Josh will be back with us again this year THIS Thursday night (Feb 8) at our normal time and place (7:30 pm in New Covenant's worship center). Not only will you not want to miss this night of Worship Through the Arts #3: "Song", but you will want to grab two or three friends to come with you.

Not only can you hear some of Josh's songs on his main site, you can also hear some over at his MySpace site. But just a heads up - he will be doing slightly different music on Thursday than you'll find on his albums.

What We Learned on the Retreat

Erin posted already about the great time that we had on the retreat. I wanted to share a bit of what we did and learned, so that those of you who couldn't go can get a taste of what you missed.

The short version of what we learned: not everyone worships God in the same way.

Yeah, the long version is way better. The inspiration for the weekend was a book called Sacred Pathways by Gary Thomas. The book describes nine pathways that people take to connect with and worship God:

• Traditionalist: Someone who approaches God through ritual and symbolism
• Intellectual: Someone who approaches God through thought and study
• Sensate: Someone who approaches God through the use of the senses (sight, touch, smell, taste, hearing)
• Enthusiast: Someone who approaches God through excitement and celebration
• Activist: Someone who approaches God through involvement and working to right injustices
• Ascetic: Someone who approaches God through solitude
• Contemplative: Someone who approaches God through adoration
• Naturalist: Someone who approaches God through nature
• Caregiver: Someone who approaches God by loving others
  

These definitions are all based on memory, so feel free to clarify/discuss in the comments.

One of the neatest things about the retreat was that after a brief teaching session about each pathway, we tried them out. Some were very easy and fulfilling (I could have walked outdoors enjoying the Naturalist session for hours), and some less so (I enjoyed the Sensate session, but didn't strongly feel that I was drawing closer to God during that time). If you liked a pathway, the practice session was great, but ended too soon. And even if you absolutely weren't compatible with a pathway, you knew the practice session would be over eventually.

As a result of the retreat, God gave me (and almost certainly others) some insight into some of my brothers and sisters in Christ. Not everyone connects to God like I do (which is good, because I tend towards the ascetic end of things). Even though I might not be able to understand how some of you connect to God, it doesn't mean that your pathway is any less than mine (many of the pathways came with a caution against judging others). In fact, Jesus illustrated most or all of the pathways, so they're all pathways that God in the flesh followed.

For those of you that went to the retreat: what session(s) did you enjoy? What's your pathway? I already mentioned I'm a bit of an ascetic, and I have naturalist and caregiver tendencies. Were there any pathways that just didn't make any sense to you?

And for those of you that didn't go: what do you think your favorite pathways are?

Retreat Wrap-Up

Wow! What a retreat! I have wanted to post about the retreat for the past three days, but haven't been able to find a good time to do so until now. To sum up my opinion of this past weekend: I've been on lots of retreats in my life (and get to go to a men's retreat from my church this weekend), many of them very good, but this one might be the best one I've ever been on. I'm not prone to exaggeration or hyperbole, so I say that with all seriousness and joy.

A huge thank you to everyone who went. You were GREAT participants and engaged in the wide variety of worship styles and activities with wonderful attitudes which allowed me to also worship freely despite being focused on teaching.

A few other thank you's...
Thanks to Steve and Rod for so ably leading us in worship through song. Thanks to Amber & Matt for buying all the food and overseeing the cooking. Thanks to Christina for the great games. Thanks to John for leading us all weekend and keeping us on schedule. Thanks to the Boy Scouts for letting us use the Allsop Center despite having a busy weekend hosting a Boy Scout conference. And thanks to God for the sunny day on Saturday and the great weekend.

If anyone has pictures from the weekend, email them to me at erin.bird@newcovenantbible.org, please!

Watershed website down

Yes, we know - the main Watershed website is currently down. We are working on correcting the problem.

For those of you wanting directions to the Allsop Center for tonight's retreat, Joe has bailed you out with this post. Thanks, Joe!

Maps to Retreat

I believe an email will be sent out about this later today, but for those like me who've been wondering how to get to the Boy Scout Camp/Allsop Center in Waubeek for the retreat, here are the directions.

For you Google fans, here's a Google map of the same general area.

See you in Waubeek. :-)

John Stackhouse is blogging

Some of you may remember our Nov. 2, 2006 worship gathering at Coe College to hear John Stackhouse speak about "Jesus, Buddha, and Muhammad: What's the difference?"

Well Prof. Stackhouse is now blogging! I just happened to stumble upon it this evening and thought some of you might be interested in his thoughts.

Free Bible Software

Just heard about Bible Explorer, a free full-featured Bible software program. Thought some of you might be interested.

Thursday Serving Opportunities

We could use some happy-hearted servants in the following areas:

1) Childcare: A huge thank you to those of you who stepped up last month to help with childcare. We are still in need of 2 to 4 more childcare workers. We currently have a team of workers, and would like to keep a full team so that people serve once every 6 weeks. If you would enjoy playing with infants to 7 year olds, then please talk Erin Harlan. It's a great way to help the single moms and married-with-children couples in our midst!

2) Greetings Central: If you enjoy meeting people and making others feel comfortable, then we would love to have your help. We are hoping to put together a small team that will rotate serving at Greetings Central. It’s super easy and super fun, plus you get to meet lots of new people at our Thursday Gatherings. Talk with Amber Schouten if interested.

3) Worship Team: If you like to sing or play an instrument and have a desire to lead people in worshipping God through song, talk with Steve Adolphs.

Women's Summer Retreat

With the annual Watershed Retreat coming up, some of you females might be interested to know that Nichole DeKlotz is working on putting together a Watershed Women’s Retreat to The Boston Mountains in Arkansas this summer. If you are female, enjoy hiking, and discussing life as a God-fearing woman, then come to an informational meeting Thursday, January 25th, immediately following the Worship Gathering and learn how you can get involved in the preparations.

Retreat!

We will be having our 4th annual Watershed Retreat starting 7:00p Friday night (registration begins at 6:00p), Jan 26, and ending the next day at 5:00p on Jan 27 (but could use clean-up help until 6:00p).

This year's topic will be Spiritual Pathways and promises to be deeply spiritual, wonderfully refreshing, and highly practical!

Cost is $25 for the whole retreat, which includes lodging, meals, and a copy of Sacred Pathways by Gary Thomas. Registations can be downloaded here (and the pretty cover for the brochure can be downloaded here if you so desire). Registrations and payment can either be turned in at a Thursday Gathering or mailed to:

Erin Bird
New Covenant Bible Church
1800 46th St. NE
Cedar Rapids, IA 52402

Checks must be made payable to New Covenant Bible Church. If you have any questions, direct them to Erin at 395-0021.

Podcasters Wanted!

For quite a while, we've been recording the message from Watershed's Thursday night gatherings and posting the MP3s to the "Listen" page. We've even started podcasting. But we've done all that kind of on the side, with various people (mostly Erin) chipping in some time to edit MP3s, update the listen page, get the podcast feed set up, and so on.

We want to make sure that if someone can't make it to a Thursday night gathering, they can still hear the message. It's not a huge time commitment, but it's something that needs to be done regularly. Ideally, we'll have a team of at least two podcasters, so one person won't have to do all the work.

Do you want to serve the Watershed community as a podcaster? Do you want to know more? Talk to Matt, Erin, or Steve, or leave a comment here. (Updated to allow comments - sorry about that!)