Monday Again

The denom youth leaders training event FUEL was held in Indianapolis last week. The pic above is of Kingswood students, alums and youth leaders in our tribe who were in attendance. They look pumped!

Last Sunday when returning from the Havelock MI Weekend, Peter and I stopped in for a meeting with the Metro LBA concerning pastoral transition matters. Peter is fully guiding this process and there were three members of the LBA in the room and a fourth member present virtually thanks to Face Time.

• Our own Jerry Wurnig has accepted the position of Interim Lead Pastor at Faith Community Church in Milford, NS (near Halifax). Congrats Jerry.
• Kathy Shanks has resigned as Children’s Pastor at Fredericton Journey and is open to the Master’s leading in the new church year.
• Mike Agrell, who has been serving as Assistant Pastor at Maple Ridge, has been unanimously recommended by the LBA to become the Lead Pastor there. The congregational vote will be coming up soon.
• Our prayers are with Lower Brighton Pastor Jacob Ebbett and his wife Nikki who are travelling to Syracuse, NY where Jake will officiate at the funeral of his brother-in-law who passed away suddenly and unexpectedly last week.
• I met with the LBA of The Lighthouse on Grand Manan last week as the first month of merged ministry was reviewed and pastoral search matters discussed. Very encouraging start to the new church – onward and upward.
• Brazil Lake recently hosted our Maximizing Impact Team and the following came from Pastor Kevin Myers re the recommendations of the Team: “Just wanted to drop a note and celebrate the last few weeks. We have entered the new year unveiling a missions statement and plan (connect, grow, go)….. kicking off the plan with a “connection event” this morning.   It has been energizing to sense the excitement and anticipation to see this come to life…. there are new people that are getting involved: this morning introduced a “connection centre” for the first time ever, greeters at the door and in the parking lot…. a new and exciting concept for us as a church. Last week as I introduced “the plan”, we had 75 in attendance, and today for our connection event, we had 90 out to church (LYA 60) and 95 to a turkey dinner after.  We had a dozen brand new faces! God has always been faithful …. and I am honoured to serve.”
• Gloria and I worshipped with the Brown’s Flat Fellowship yesterday morning after a weekend break at the cottage.  All good.

Work is underway to cut a new road and provide additional RV/trailer sites at Beulah. This will respond to the growing interest from RVers to be part of the Beulah experience and will alleviate the waiting lists that we have had in recent years.

Last week, I had the responsible privilege of facilitating  a group of 9 that met in Toronto – 4 from Atlantic (Peter Moore, Denn Guptill, Brent Ingersoll, Kevin Campbell) and 4 from Central Canada (Peter Rigby, Estherlita Griffiths, Bert McCutcheon, Mark Parker) – as we grappled with the amazing possibilities for the newly formed National Conference of The Wesleyan Church of Canada. This was a follow up to a meeting held at Beulah in November involving the full district boards of both districts. Good work was done and we are moving forward. Keep dialled in……
THOT: “All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.”  – Charles M. Schulz – just a helpful reminder that Valentines Day is coming……..
ON SECOND THOT: “Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.” – Marcus Aurelius
BONUS THOT: “If you think an unborn fetus has more of a right to live than a refugee child, then you need to stop pretending that you’re pro-life.” – Nicholas Morley

Click for more info.

Click graphic for more info.

Kingswood’s Master of Arts in Pastoral Theology’s Upcoming Course Announcement:
Speaker:  Dr. Bob Whitesel (D. Min., Ph.D.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZrSXKqJsB4
Course: “Missional Pastor: Evangelism and Discipleship”
Where: Kingswood Campus
When: May 1-5, 2017
Who can attend: MAPT students and anyone can take up to two MAPT courses for credit or audit without enrolling in the MAPT program
Want to know further details? Contact Dr. Ken Gavel at gavelk@kingswood.edu.
https://www.kingswood.edu/academics/programs/master-of-arts-in-pastoral-theology

Click graphic for more info.