That Time Of Year...

Ahhh, Fall.  The time of year you take the children to a fruit farm to pick apples...whether they want to go or not:-)
This has been a tradition for the Spoelstra family for years and years.  Beyond the few sibling squabbles, it really is an enjoyable time.

This year we bumped into our long time friends from Grace Church, the Bowers, whose twin girls were born one week after ours.

So far the apples have been used for five homemade apple pies. Yum!  Melissa is sooo good at making them.

Tough workout @ Shred!

This morning was one of the toughest workouts ever at Shred Fitness. It's Labor Day Monday and 24 of us showed up to be put through the ringer. Often our workout time is under 20 minutes but this one took over an hour! The workout was called "Small" and Marcus, our trainer, partnered us up with a workout buddy.

The picnic was awesome!

More than 20 families came to the picnic after our church service today. The food was great and it was so fun to see all the relational connecting going on.
The tug-of-war competitions were a real hit too:-)
Click on this link to Encounter's FB page to see all the fun that was had: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.10151096284909350&type=1

Encounter Church Picnic

Can't believe summer is almost over!
For some of our families school starts this week others the week after. As a fun way to end the summer we're having an all church picnic Sunday, August 19th.
Burgers, dawgs, salads, sides and desserts - yum! 
And for your entertainment there is horseshoes, a fishing pond, volleyball, basketball, corn hole and a classic tug-of-war competition:-)
These are such fun and easy times for us as the Body of Christ to connect relationally and spiritually all the while having a blast.
Hope you can make it:-)

Tuesday Morning Men's Group

For the last three years there has been a group of men meeting on Tuesday mornings to connect over coffee and discuss a chapter out of the Bible. We've gone through the book of Matthew twice and are now in the book of Ecclesiastes for the second time. We've changed locations three times, seen men come and go but the one thing that has stayed the same is Matt Jacobs. He started the group and continues to faithfully call/text men to meet. Thanks for your leadership Matt:-)
(he took the picture, that's why you don't see him in it)

My Gals in the Color Run

For months now Melissa, Abby and Sara have been training to do Columbus' 5K Color Run.  Today was the big day and we met some friends and neighbors downtown. I believe there were around 12,000 people entered in the race. Enjoy the pics. and video.

Back from Guatemala

Yesterday, our team of 22 people from Encounter got back on US soil from our week long trip to Guatemala. It was a fantastic time of deepening relationships with the children and Vision Trust staff in Cruz Blanca. This Sunday we will be sharing testimonies in the service about it.
If you would like to see pictures from the trip click on this link to my FB page.
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3774704000725.222049.1070553470&type=3

Attempted Coup of Encounter Church

PUNKED!!!
Mark Artrip warned me he was up to something. I go on vacation and have him preach for me and what does he do? He breaks into my home with a video camera and drives around in my jeep!
I guess at the end of the service yesterday he showed this video:

Enjoy a good laugh at my expense. He did a really good job. I sent it to a few people I know know and one Creative Arts Director in Chicago put it on his blog: http://www.ericbramlett.org/2/post/2012/07/finding-the-funny.html

Mark Artrip Preaches on July 1st

Knowing I wouldn't be back in town for Sunday, July 1st, I asked my buddy Mark Artrip to preach for me. He and his wife Kristin are the couple who will be leading the Movement Church plant to Hilliard in February 2013.  The plan is for him to join me on staff on August 1st for six months. We call it a leadership residency. It will allow he and I to spend tons of time together (sorry Mark) and also for him to teach, train, dream and pray with his launch team before launching.
I got a few pics. from people during the service which made me a little nervous.
You see, Mark and I have been friends for over seven years and we enjoy playing pranks on each other.
This pic. sent by one of our members concerns me most.

2012 Encounter Church Campout

This past weekend was our annual campout. I look at it as our best opportunity for Encounter families to connect with each other. Spending two full days talking, boating, fishing, swimming and eating together.

Sunday's service also saw eight people get baptized which was really special. 
You can view all sorts of pics. on our church's FB page. 
Just follow this link: http://www.facebook.com/groups/encounterchurch.us/

Warrior Dash

Yesterday was a crazy fun day! 
Ten of my workout friends at Shred Fitness and I did the Warrior Dash in Logan, Ohio. It was a 3.5 mile cross country race with 12 obstacles throughout the course. It all ends with a mud bath under barbed wire. You gotta go to my Facebook page to see the pics. of the event:
 http://www.facebook.com/sean.s.spoelstra#!/media/set/?set=a.3576107995949.217453.1070553470&type=3 

I'm On Twitter Now

Ugh! I said I wouldn't do it but the pressure from @markartrip was just more than I could handle. Especially since he was the one who set it up for me and Melissa as well. She's @melspoelstra and I'm @SeanSpoelstra.

I've entered 2012.

Daniel Wallace guest speaks @ Encounter

I love it when my far-away friends can stop by long enough to speak on a Sunday morning at Encounter:-)

This Sunday, Feb. 12/12 my kindred-spirit Daniel Wallace, Director of Gull Lake Ministries, (http://www.gulllake.org/) is preaching week #2 in our February series, "Love At Last Sight". His message title is, "The Art of Intentionality" and will be teaching from Luke 15.

I love my small group

Last night our small group Bible study had it's Christmas Party.

We did the typical white elephant gift exchange when you open the present and can steal others gifts and by the third owner it's frozen. We also played the board game, "Battle of the Sexes". The women won this year...but just barely:-) There was so much laughing and connecting, yummy food and drinks. It makes me really appreciate the fun we can have as the body of Christ.

Last LC of 2011

Today was a super time together with our leaders of Encounter.
We small group leaders met at 8:00am to talk about how each of our groups are doing and to get some training from Kyle Mielke, Encounter's small groups coach.
Then at 9:00am everyone else rolled in for coffee, muffins and conversation. Rob Dubois had to break up the awesome connecting everyone was having to start are time with some worship.
Having my buddy Bacho Bordjadze, CRU's director at OSU, as our guest speaker went really well. He's a very intelligent man with the ability to communicate heavy concepts in an easy to understand way. Once he was done speaking we had a short time of open Q & A with the elders and then broke into ministry groups.

LC #4 for 2011

Saturday, November 12 is our last Leadership Community of the year. We've moved our LC's from Eli Pinney Elem. to the home of Matt & Chrissy Jacob's. I like having it in a home. My good friend, Bacho Bordjadze is our guest speaker on Encounter's core value multiply. Bacho is OSU's Campus Crusade for Christ Director and is an excellent speaker.
As a group we will also sing, give some ministry updates, have a Q & A time with the elders, pray, and break into our various ministry groups.
It's 2 1/2 hrs. with some of my favorite people in the world:-)

Great time hang'n with fellow pastors

Today I got to be with about 40 other pastors in our fellowship of churches. We heard a brief story from two guys about how they got into the ministry; talked about church planting; prayed together and had lunch together.
Some great things are happening in our churches across Ohio - being intentional about planting churches is one of them.

Orphan Sunday 2011

This Sunday we are remembering and praying for orphans all around the world and more specifically in Cruz Blanca, Guatemala, where Encounter people have 36 children sponsored.

My good friend and president of Vision Trust International, Matt Storer, is speaking and bringing with him more children for our people to sponsor.

Next summer, Lord willing, we will return to Guatemala and I'm excited Matt is able to make it to our first planning meeting this Saturday night. He is also planning on being on our July 10-17 trip with his daughter Olivia.

Elder / Leader Retreat Update

This past weekend was a bonding time for Encounter's leadership. Once a year all our elders & wives, small group leaders and their wives, ministry coaches and their spouses and all ministry apprentices gather to look back at the past year and look ahead to the year to come.
It was a time of great camaraderie and laughter for the team as we ate sweet and salty snacks together.
First up on Friday night was hearing a report from each ministry coach about their ministry wins, things we could pray for and what they're dreaming about for 2012. After each one shared I asked if people had any questions or words of encouragement for the coach. I took about 10 minutes to remind the team that we serve a good King whose Kingdom is worth looking forward to and read out of Matthew 6:31-34. Then we went over church financials and had an open Q & A time with the elders.
We ended Friday night with a good time of prayer and then some of us stayed later to play Encounter's unofficial cult game: Settlers of Catan. A few of us even slept over b/c we were meeting at 9:00am the next day anyway. (only a few people teased me about wearing the same shirt:-)
Saturday was our time to look back over 2011's calendar and begin planning 2012's calendar of events. Then we spoke a little about the survey we had given to the congregation back in the Spring and that we would like to continue evaluating how we are doing in living out our core values and the metrics we put in place to do so.
The morning ended with a short update on how the elder in-home visits have been going and that Encounter is still more than ever committed to sending out a group of people to plant a church in the near future.
Our time ended with an extended time of prayer.

Dublin Pastor's Gathering and Tutoring

Today I had the opportunity to hang with about a dozen pastors that shepherd congregations all over Dublin. We got together to share what is working to reach people for Christ and offer resourses to each other.
After my time with the pastors I headed over to Wright Elementary School to read with my second grader. There are five of us from Encounter that are spending our Wednesday lunch hours with these students who need a little help with their reading skills. The four of us in the pic are me, Jean Griffith, Elizabeth Preininger and Greg Blatt. Tanya Heath had left just before we took the picture.