Starting this Monday, CFCOG will welcome our newest staff member, Aaron Schwindt.  I have known Aaron now for a couple of years and let me just say that he is the real deal.  Here’s a little bit of background info so you can get to know him better and the role he will be playing:

• Aaron is a twin.
• His brother Alex is also a worship pastor.
• Aaron is married to Ashleigh and they have two kids…Chloe (7) and Colin (3).
• Aaron first started serving in worship ministry back in 1989 and since that time has been in numerous bands, owned a recording studio as well as served on staff at churches throughout the country.
• Aaron and I first met in 2006 when I did some consulting at the church where he previously served.
• I was very impressed by not only his musical talents, but even more so by his video producing/editing skills and his genuine love and care for the teams he leads.
• When I stopped consulting there to come on staff at CFOCG, we vowed to stay in touch and dreamed of a day that we might possibly be able to work together again.
• In the past 2 years he has been guest worship leader for us twice, he helped produce and edit some video’s for us and he; consulted for, helped design and helped install our lighting system at United.
• He and Ashleigh are both huge fans of what’s been happening at CFCOG, the past few years, so not only is he a known hard worker to us, but our vision is something he fully embraces.
• After an extensive search, the hiring team of Senior Pastor Earl Mills, Galen Bricker, Ray Hughes, Sam Kauffman and Cathy Puhl decided that no one fit the job description better than Aaron and that we’d be foolish not to offer him the position.
• I couldn’t have been happier!  While we have a great team at United, we are burning some people out and we have some people filling roles that they are not best gifted for…long term Aaron will help to ease that pressure and tension.
• Short-term though we may not see a lot of him.  We have hired him to oversee the Creative Arts for the entire church and we’ve all decided that the first priority is to get the Sanctuary services running at a higher level.
• This will not mean a change in style so much as it will to do things in a more effecient and excellent way.  Aaron’s main task will be to train teams of people for both the onstage and behind the scenes roles that take place there.
• Intially for United he will help with some of the behind the scenes stuff that takes place during the week and will help me with brainstorming for creative ways to communicate the main point in each week’s Experience.
• Long-term as teams in the sanctuary are firmly in place, we will see Aaron take on a more visible role as the worship leader on Sunday mornings for United.
• In all our entire church will be a much better place because of the entire Schwindit family being a part of it.
• Please make Aaron, Ashleigh, Chloe and Colin feel welcome in the next few weeks as they make the transition into our and now their church family.

Hard to believe that it’s been 7 years since 9-11.  I was on my 2nd day of a two week vacation and we were going to use the day to get some errands done before heading out of town on Thursday. 

We had slept in late and I was going to get my emissions test done in my car when I heard the news on the radio.  I still drove out to the emissions place anyway.  It was once I was there that the reality hit me.  They were shutting down all state and federal buildings and offices so my emissions test would have to wait.

From there I drove to my grandparents house which was just down the road.  On the way I called Lisa and filled her in on what was going on.  I arrived at my grandparents house right before the 2nd tower collapsed and stayed long enough to learn that a man by the name of Osama bin Laden was claiming responsibility.

Lisa and I still ended up taking our vacation but it was one of the worst one’s ever.  A lot of business’s were still closed so there wasn’t a lot to do except for watch TV…which of course every channel was gloom and doom.  Luckily the resort we were staying at had plenty of outside activites that at least passed some of the time.

9-11 changed me in that I once again realized that our lives are short and we need to not waste time getting the message of Christ out there.  It taught me to appreciate the freedoms we have as Americans and as Christians.  And finally it gave me a new sense of appreciation for the people who serve us in uniforms of all types.

So how about you?  What’s your 9-11 story and how has it impacted your life?

• Not really the weekend, but I was disappointed in the Redskins on Thursday night.
• The NFC East is going to be tough so I don’t have my hopes up.
• I’ve eaten at Panera Bread about a billion times in the past week.
• Their new Tomato and Mozerella Panini is pretty good.
• Spell check is still not working on the site, so I’m pretty sure I butchered that last entry.
• Friday night I decided to start playing a video game on the Wii at about 9:30.
• At what I thought was about 11:30 I decided to stop…turns out it was 1:30am.
• Saturday was my bad shoulder day…it’s got flexability now but is still pretty sore.
• No more hummingbird impersonations for me.
• I forgot to mention in the Inside Today’s Experiences the following…
• …at the 9:15 Experience I was back stage singing along to the special with everything I had.
• At one point I noticed that Gayle sort of looked back at me with a weird look on her face.
• When it was time for me to go back out to pray, I reached behind myself to turn my mic on…but OH NO…it was on the whole time.
• Turns out it was a false emergency….Chris had muted my mic on the sound board, but wow was I embarrassed.
• Guess I’ll have to ask Gayle tonight at small group why she looked at me weird…usually she reserves that for all other times.
• Got together on both Saturday and Sunday night for dinner with some other friends of ours.
• Just proves two things…1.  They are wonderful cooks.  2.  We make excellent guests :)
• Talked with our new Creative Arts Pastor, Aaron on Sunday night.  Sunday was his last official Sunday attending his church that he’s led worship at for the past few years.
• That’s always a tough thing, but I know that Aaron is looking forward to starting with CFCOG on 9/15.
• Having done some consulting at his old church in the past, I know that it’s a great church with great people and a new Senior Pastor who’s going to take them to great places in the future.  However, they are in a state of transition, so please keep them in your prayers.
• Yesterday was busy with sermon stuff throughout the day and then we had our Council Meeting last night.
• Today is knocking off a lot of little things off the to-do list and then tonight we’ve got small group!

I’ll make this quick because we’re getting ready to leave to meet a couple for dinner…

I just ran through this weekend’s message again and the Holy Spirit really clicked it in for me.  Wow this is going to be powerful…hearts are going to be impacted…people are going to be set free…lives will never be the same again.

Not only do you need to be there this weekend, but you need to make sure you have a car full of people with you as well.  I know I say that a lot but I truly believe that God is going to do something miraculous this weekend…don’t miss it!