New Video and Photos of Hannaford Worship

Though you might be interested in some photos and a video of worship at Hannaford. Check it out on my ecpowell.online website (click here). Also of interest is another video we produced for the youth group here at Hannaford (click here).

Powell Family Update?

Like I said in my last post, I haven't been very faithful to blogging. When I let so much time go by, it's hard to remember how much has happened. We'll here it is...

If you remember, Christmas was very busy and so we were really needing some time off so we took a two-week vacation back to SoCal. While there, we tried to take some more time and do less. Mostly, we got the opportunity to go to Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, and visited two churchs: Crossroads Christian Church in Corona and North Hills Community Church in Claremont (Upland). They were both different from each other, but great. The music really led us into worship and the messages spoke to our lives. We also made it back to Helena, safe and sound (no deer incidents). Unfortunately, the time-off didn't have a lasting effect because of a number of issues back home in Helena.

Some of the other events that have happened are:

• Kellin had his 6th birthday (at Godfather's Pizza again).
• You may not know that Andrea has been working a 3-day 5am-9pm shift at Target since August. Well, she quit last week.
• Andrik went skiing for the first time with his 5th grade class on a field trip. In school, he almost got all A's on his report card (one B).
  
• Construction is coming along at Hannaford, but we don't have any new photos, yet. (1) We've expanded, roofed, floored, walled, and painted our fellowship hall. We still are expecting to put in some room dividers. (2) We've also had new siding put up on the remainder of the church including the in process sanctuary expansion. (3) Finally, we've added windows to the sanctuary. It really gives it a different feel and a lot of light (no more lights-down worship session, projector screen is pretty faded).
• We got the dog a new toy. It's a rope with a little "tire" on one end He loves playing "tog-o-war" with any of us!

I really haven't been taking a lot of photos, but I'll try to post a couple.

These Blogs Are Worth A Read

It seems that I'm not very faithful to this blogging thing, but I've been inspired by some great bloggers. It's not just a geek thing anymore. I've been pretty captivated lately by a few blogs that have really gotten me thinking.

CHURCH MARKETING SUCKS
I've mentioned one before called Church Marketing Sucks. They have a lot of great thoughts for churches to make them think about how they are perceived by congregants and their communities. I would check it out. I love their peer reviews of potential church literature and websites. While you're at it, check out this hilarious radio spot for St Andrew's Episcopal Church in Birmingham, Alabama.

TONY MORGAN
Another great one is Tony Morgan's blog. He's one of the pastors at Granger Community Church in Granger, Indiana. He posts the weekly stats for Granger, relevant quotes, current trends in church culture, and even some personal thoughts. I love his experience buying an HP all-in-one printer (read here). I was on the floor laughing when he posted photos of some other uses for his failed printer!

EBAY ATHEIST
Finally, I just started tuning into a blog called The eBay Atheist. Basically, Off The Map ministries hired an atheist offering his services in eBay. They've asked him to visit churches and write up a survey of each one. As of today, he's only visited 4 churches, but his posts are quite thought-provoking. It might make us re-think the way we do some things...

Anyway, I hope you have a chance to visit and digest some of these resources. If you do, I'd love to hear some of your comments. Leave them below so everyone can read them.