John Markum

The Awakening turns 2!

This week, two years ago, Edgewood launched it’s first ever Saturday night worship service, “The Awakening.” We had a ton of ideas and dreams, and the opportunity to add a new worship experience to one of the most exciting churches in the Quad Cities. The leadership of Edgewood stood beside us and gave us the chance to begin something that few other churches are willing to take the risk on.

As a result, we have seen God move in incredible ways. We’ve experienced growth in numbers of people coming to Christ, getting baptized, families joining us, and we’re just getting started. The vision to see people far from God awakened with life in Christ beats strong in our hearts and we commit ourselves again to reaching people in the Quad Cities with the Gospel.

Two years have been amazing! Year three… you’ll just have to stick around and see what God does (although I suspect there are some soon-to-be-released posts that will give some hints)!

Join us at Edgewood this Saturday night, 6 pm, for our two year celebration.

To find out more about our Saturday night service, visit our website at www.qcawakening.com

Blessings,

John

Things that make me happy…

  1. My wife’s smile.
  2. My kids running to see me when I come home.
  3. Getting to baptize people.
  4. Seeing someone trust God in a big way.
  5. Seeing my leadership team’s passion.
  6. Hearing people in my ministry geek-out over what God is doing.
  7. Cooking for my wife.
  8. Rocking out to some music and drinking Mt. Dew while brainstorming in my office.
  9. Winning at RISK over xbox live.
  10. My kids laughter.

What I want to say to The Awakening this morning.

Good morning church!

A few things I want to remind you about this morning as you go about your day:

  1. First of all, your pastor loves you and is praying for you today. I do not take for granted your faithfulness to our church, and to our service. The highlight of my week is worshipping  with you every Saturday night. I can’t wait to be with you all again tomorrow!
  2. Last week we gave away free Prayer Journals that we had made for everyone. They include a 2011 calendar, tips on prayer and Bible reading, pages for keeping track of your prayer requests with encouraging scriptures on each page, and space for taking notes from sermons. There are several left and you are welcome to grab one this Saturday if you missed last week.
  3. This week we’ll have Connecting Point immediately after our worship experience. Connecting Point is a short meet-and-greet where you can get connected with other Saturday night attenders. We’ll have food, a short video, and a chance for you to find out more about The Awakening and how you can get connected to what God’s doing on Saturday nights at Edgewood. It is open for anyone wanting to get more connected, whether this week is your first time with us, or you’ve been coming a few times. So invite someone to come with you!
  4. Church Business Meeting: This Sunday night at 6 pm. This is open to everyone who has made Edgewood their church home. This is our annual meeting and there are a variety of thing to be dealt with and voted upon. The meeting does not take very long (I love our church!).
  5. We want you to help us make an impact! Over the next few weeks, we want to encourage you to find a place to serve on Saturday nights. We have multiple places where you can use your talents to bless others including tech team, band, children’s service, nursery, greeting, and hospitality table. Help us make The Awakening the most exciting thing to do on Saturdays!

We continue teaching from our series, Retro, this Saturday at 6 pm, with a message from Genesis 25 on stew. Yeah, stew. Trust me. It will change your life. See you all tomorrow!

Blessings,

John

The phrase no pain, no gain has been a mantra for athletes and fitness junkies for years. And what they understand about physical pain needs to be broadened to a much more general use in all of our lives. Pain hurts. That's the whole problem. No one enjoys it, and if someone does, we rightfully

The Premium of Pain