Confessions of a Conn Man

Best Staff Ever!

2009-09-25T14:56:00.001-04:00

We just finished our annual staff retreat and it is safe to say that we have the best church staff ever! I’m so proud of our team. I feel so blessed to be a part of them. We had a great time of learning to “Guard our Hearts” which was our theme. Enjoy the pictures!

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Go ‘09 – A Huge Success!

2009-08-02T18:55:00.001-04:00

Wow, what a day!!! Over 1500 NewPointe volunteers serving throughout many, many communities. That’s why we call it “Community Impact Day”! It rained a bit, but that didn’t stop us. What a fun day of being the church together in our communities!!

Below are some pictures of where my family, our small group, and others (30 total) served at Skyview ranch. We tore out fence, made new fence, hauled mulch way into the woods, painted, ran new electric to some cabins, mowed, and weed eated. The best part was our friends at Skyview fed us snacks and then lunch!! We had a lot of fun working together and got a bunch of stuff done.

Please Welcome…

2009-07-23T17:37:00.001-04:00

Wes Feldner, our new Creative Arts Director at NewPointe!

Yes, you can see the brilliance brewing!

When Office Space Gets Tight…

2009-07-16T10:11:00.001-04:00

Wow, you thought you had it bad. Try 7 people in an 8x8 office!

No, its not really that bad, but there are really 3 people sharing this space. The rest of the name cards just got added for fun! And we are truly out of office space already in this big new building!

This has been a really, really busy summer for the NewPointe Staff. But, hey, its exciting and fun to join God in His adventures!!!

Can You Guess Where I’m At?

2009-07-14T17:24:00.001-04:00

This is a picture of my foot. I’ll give you a hint. My foot is 103 stories above the street below. Being the astute reader that I know you are, you have already discerned that if my foot is 103 stories above street level, then I am too!

The only thing separating me from my demise is 1” of Plexiglas.

Here’s another hint/picture:

Okay, I’m sure by now you have guessed the “Sears Tower in Chicago” and you are correct.

Last weekend we travelled to Chicago for a basketball tournament that Braden was in. One day we took the train downtown and saw the sights. It was a lot of fun. Chicago is a really big place!

Its a nice place to visit by i wouldn’t want to live there!

Leadership Scuds

2009-05-10T08:13:00.001-04:00

If you are around NewPointe for any amount of time you will soon learn that we focus on 3 things:

Leadership!
Leadership!!
Leadership!!!

So we are always tracking people we value as great leaders. One of those is Andy Stanley from North Point church in Atlanta. Andy is simply a phenomenal individual. He recently spoke at a conference and below are some leadership scuds that he dropped.

“Leadership is not about making decisions on your own. It’s about owning decisions once they are made.”
“The leader shouldn’t make all the decisions. The leader should just make sure the decisions are good ones.”
“Leaders who refuse to listen will eventually be surrounded by people who have nothing important to say.”
“You are probably not the smartest person in the organization. You’re just the leader.”
“Fairness ended in the Garden of Eden. Never shoot for fair. When you shoot for fair you will be unjust. Shoot for Right.”

Wow, that’s just a few of things he said!

Leadership is tough. Personally, I think leadership is more about your character than your ability. Give me a “humble person with the courage to do what he/she knows is right” and you will have a great leader. It sounds simple but few really achieve it.

My goal is to become a better leader at NewPointe. Every day I pray for God to make me a better leader by giving me clarity, confidence, and courage.

What 3 things do you need to lead better in your life?

Katie’s Graduation

2009-04-27T16:35:00.003-04:00

Wow, its really, really hard to believe that my precious little daughter, Katie, has just graduated from college! It really just seems like yesterday that we dropped her off at Indiana Wesleyan for her freshman year.

I’m so proud of Katie. Let me brag about her for just a bit because she has accomplished so much. Katie has:

Finished at the top of her nursing class of 80 students.

She was one of only 2 nursing students to graduate summa cum laude which means her GPA was > 3.9

She received a special award during her pinning ceremony for her academic achievements and her leadership qualities as a nurse.

Her senior year she worked 12 hr shifts as a student nurse in an ICU at Ball Hospital in Muncie, IN.

She has recently accepted a full-time position in a large ICU at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Indianapolis. They only hired two people and Katie was one of them!

So as you can see she has accomplished a lot in her 4 years at college.

We had a great weekend celebrating this time with her. I was surprised how sad I was to see her leave IWU. We really have grown to like that university. It is one of the few “Christian Colleges” that is still “Christian”.

This is Katie’s roommate, Kayleigh. She has been a great friend of Katie’s and is like a daughter to us. Its hard to see them start new journeys in life without each other. This is yet another emotion to deal with! However, I’m sure they will stay connected somehow!

So if you have kids, don’t take any short cuts to keep from spending quality time with them. Time cannot be replaced and you don’t want to regret not spending it with those you love! It really does fly by!

A Picture is Worth a 1000 Words

2009-04-15T10:33:00.001-04:00

This is a picture that we took on Easter morning. The entire hallway from end to end looked like this.

When we built this church 2 years ago we designed this hallway WIDE so that it could always handle the crowds. I never dreamed I would ever see it this full!

I’m excited! Not because we have lots of people in our church. I’m excited because we are hearing story after story about how this church is changing people’s lives. That’s why we do what we do – LIFE CHANGE!

This Sunday are service times are 9:00, 11:00, and 12:50. If you plan on coming and are flexible, please come to the 12:50 service. There will be plenty of seats available and we guarantee you it will be the same experience as 9:00 and 11:00!!!

God is doing some pretty amazing things at NewPointe. Its His gig. We just have the fun of being able to participate!

Easter Recap

2009-04-13T16:32:00.001-04:00

Wow! Another amazing Sunday at NewPointe.

Dwight kicked off a new series entitled, “He’s Still Got the Whole World in His Hands”. It was a terrific message on hope which is much needed in these uncertain days of a failing economy.

The bottom line is that God is still in control and He always keeps His promises! Now that’s something you really can “take to the bank”.

It was also the official launch of our 3rd service which starts at 12:50pm to “Make Room” for more people. (Which, btw, is a good thing because we had 4516 people on Sunday!)

So major kudos to the staff for putting together a plan to handle 3 services and 4500+ people. And mega kudos to the volunteers who pulled it off!

Who would have ever thought a church on a farm in Tusc County would host 4500 people on a Sunday morning? God is doing some really amazing things. The best news is that we get to join Him!

That is just sooooooooooo cool!!

DIY - #1 - Changing Oil

2009-03-29T21:10:00.004-04:00

Welcome to "Do It Yourself" project #1.

Lately I've been on a kick to try and do everything I can instead of paying someone else to do it. One reason is that I like to try new things and have the great feeling of accomplishing a challenge (you can learn to do anything on Google and You Tube).

Secondly, as a family we have been trying very hard to adhere to our budget and saving money by "Doing It Yourself" always helps when the money is low at the end of the month!

So yesterday both my car and Jeff's car were due for oil changes. So we headed out towards Millersburg to the Quick-Lube - estimated cost 2 x $30 = $60.

On the way Jeff gets the notion to try changing the oil ourselves. We often due car projects together on a weekend. Its fun and provides lots of father-son bonding time!!!

Well, I used to work at a gas station when I was 16 so of course I felt fully quallified to tackle this one (no YouTube necessary today for those of you keeping score at home.

So we pulled into Autozone to get the supplies. Jeff looked up the numbers in the book, we pulled the filters and oil off the shelf and walked out of there paying only $20.

Below is a picture of Jeff's first experience under a car. It was also fun to watch him pull the oil filter off and see all the oil run down his arm. Needless to say we used alot of rags.

Hey we even took out the air filters and blew them clean with an air compressor. It was a lot of fun and we saved some money along the way. Next time I'm sure it will go a lot faster!

Grounded in Hickory, NC

2009-03-26T16:11:00.004-04:00

Well, it started out as an adventure. Jeff had been wanting to fly to Florida for quite some time since he got his license. So things were working out for us to try it on his spring break.

The week before he spent many hours planning the flight - how high to fly, where to refuel, which air spaces to avoid, and where to land in Ft Lauderdale. The night before was full of excitement and anticipation (and very little sleep!)

We took off early in the morning on Saturday. It was really beautiful to see the sunrise from about 10,000 feet in the plane. We cruised over the mountains in West Virginia and Virginia. They started to clear in North Carolina. So it was time to stop and get some fuel.

Unfortunately, the clear skies had been taken over with a dense patch of clouds. So rather than stopping where we had planned, we picked another airport that was close to a hole in the clouds where we could descend.

After we refueled we got back in the plane but to our dismay the plane would not start. It seemed like a dead battery. The nice people at the airport tried to jump us but it didn't work. So we called the "mechanic on call" and waited for the prognosis. After about 4 hours of waiting we heard that dreaded news, "Your plane needs a new starter which will take about 4 days to get here."

Well, we were 12 hours away from our destination of Ft. Lauderdale. Our only option was to rent a car and drive the rest of the way. We actually had to rent a car in Hickory and drive to Charlotte to pickup another rental car that we could drive one way. We rolled into the condo at 2am instead of 1pm like we had planned.

Well it is now Thursday and we are ready to fly commercially back to Pittsburgh (arriving at midnight). We'll have to find a way to get back to Hickory, NC to pickup the plane and fly it home.

This has been a pretty big disappointment. Jeff really wanted to fly all the way to Florida. Well, he got half way there. We'll have to try it another time.

It was an adventure alright... an adventure in PATIENCE!

Tourney Trail Ends - But What a Ride!

2009-03-24T11:23:00.004-04:00

Well, the Hiland boys lost their first game (24-1) of the year last week to a very tough Lutheran East team in the regional semi-finals. Of course everyone was really disappointed. The goal for Hiland every year is to make it to "state". I heard many comments about how this last game could have been a state final game and would have been easier to handle had we lost there. But, that's the luck of the draw and shows just how tough it really is to get to state.

Lutheran East was just too good of a team last week for Hiland to overcome. They took everything we could throw at them and still kept cruising. I believe they have a very good chance of winning it all.

Here is a good link that summarizes the game and the year for Hiland.

I'm really proud of this year's team. It had unusually great team chemistry and senior leadership. I'm also really proud of Braden and the growth he showed this year both on and off the court. He's already making his plans for workouts for this spring and summer.

There are a lot of benefits to being on a successful sports team. Winning is just one of them!

What a great ride this year was for the Hiland Hawks! Congratulations!

Tourney Trail Update – Sweet 16

2009-03-17T16:10:00.001-04:00

Well, the Hiland Hawks are still rolling along on the tournament trail as they enter into the top 16 teams in division 4. This is a team picture after their district final win at Meadowbrook on Saturday. They defeated a very determined Shadyside team for their 25th victory.

Tonight the Hawks will face their toughest challenge of the year when they play Lutheran East at the Canton field house in the first game of regionals.

The Hawks have had some very memorable and magical games at the Canton field house. I’m hoping that magic returns again tonight. We’re really going to need it as we enter as the underdog! (Read this article for a preview of this tough upcoming game)

(Lutheran's latest upset win over Beford Chanel)

Tourney Trail Update

2009-03-11T16:43:00.001-04:00

This is a picture of my favorite player on the Hiland Hawks basketball team – my 16 yr. old son, Braden.

So far he and his team are having quite the season. They finished their regular season undefeated at 20-0.

Now they are in the middle of tournaments.

So far they have defeated 3 teams, each for the 3rd time. (Connotton Valley, Strasburg, and Malvern) All 3 were in their conference.

On Saturday they play for the district title against the winner of Shadyside and Frontier.

The tournament trail is one of my favorite times of the year. There’s lots of excitement, lots of miles to travel, and also lots of nerves! But it doesn’t get any better than seeing your kid playing the sport he loves at tournament time.

Expectations are high for the Hawks. They have a really good team this year. However, you sometimes need a bit of luck to keep advancing in the tournament.

So good luck to the boys on Saturday as well as the girls who play in regional’s this Thursday!

GO HAWKS!

Not your typical 3-Pointer!

2009-03-11T13:53:00.001-04:00

Check out this video for an incredible 3 point shot… talk about having range! :)

Making Room

2009-02-24T09:01:00.001-05:00

At NewPointe we are right in the middle of a short (but VERY IMPORTANT) message series called “Making Room”. It’s hard to believe but after two short years of being in our new church building we are out of room! We have almost doubled in attendance. This is unbelievably fantastic!

Even though it means lots of challenges for us as a church, what it really means is that we are doing a great job of fulfilling our mission of “Leading people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.”

So what kinds of things are we looking at:

Parking – we need more spots
Traffic – our goal is to get people in and out without gridlock or congestion
Kids space – our classrooms are getting full
Auditorium – we are routinely going over the 80% capacity mark in our main auditorium which may start to deter 1st time guests.
Volunteers – more people means we need more help in all areas

As a staff we have been working hard to figure these things out. Dwight will be sharing some of our ideas this coming Sunday. One thing for sure, we need everyone’s help. I’m sure you’ll be challenged when Dwight lays it on the line this Sunday. So don’t miss it!

Staff Show up Big at Online Service Recording

2008-12-18T15:27:00.001-05:00

As many of you already know, on Dec. 28th we are having a special "Online Church Service". This is a special day we have dedicated to all of our NewPointe volunteers who faithfully serve every Sunday. (Did you know that we have over 1200 volunteers at NewPointe?) So in order to appreciate them and give them a day off at the holidays, our church service on Dec. 28th will be an online service over the Internet.

So, in the ultimate show of teamwork and unity, our entire staff showed up last night to participate in the recording of this service. Some helped with the production, but most of us were just there for support. We wanted Danny and Dwight to have someone to sing to and talk to!

Here is a picture of some of our team worshiping (sorry the quality is not high - it was dark)

It was a lot of fun. It was also great to worship together as a staff. We have an incredible bunch of people who represent NewPointe on our staff. It has been a terrific year and I am so proud of each person. They work really hard on bringing our best for the Lord every Sunday!

Speaking of working hard, here's a quick-pic of David D. working hard on his rock concert expressions!

Tune in Sunday, Dec. 28th at 9, 10, 11, and 12 to see what happened here! www.newpointe.org

3 for 3

2008-12-04T09:15:00.001-05:00

It started with Braden, then moved to Jeff, and ended with Katie. All 3 kids got a nasty stomach virus.

Braden came home from the alumni basketball scrimmage and was sick along with 3 other players on his team. Jeff called from college at Mt. Vernon 2 days later and see he had it. In fact, he was throwing up so much he was getting light-headed. So at 2am Wed morning Becky and I drove to Mt. Vernon and took Jeff to the ER. They gave him some medicine to relax his stomach and some fluids to re-hydrate him. Below is a picture after the treatment. You should have seen him before the fluids!

Then on the way home Katie called and said she was sick. Since she is in college in Indiana she had to tough it out on her own.

Today, all 3 are on the road to recovery. Becky has had a very busy time providing her wonderful nursing care. She has also been sterilizing everything in sight. I've never washed my hands so much in my life!

A Better Way to Blog

2008-12-03T18:53:00.001-05:00

Ahhh, it was like finding a cool drink of water on a hot summer day.

Better than that, it was like a Cleveland sports team winning a championship.

Wait, I will even say it was as good as Ohio State beating an SEC team in a bowl game!

Its called Windows Live Writer to create your blog posts!!!

I have always used Blogger to create my posts. But I got so frustrated with:

not being able to upload pictures without the format getting all messed up
blank lines magically appearing that you couldn't get rid of without editing the html code
picture uploading being slow and tedious
etc., etc., etc.

If you use blogger I'm sure you feel my pain. So I did what every good American does when they have a problem they want to solve... I "googled" it. And that's when I found Live Writer.

Windows Live Writer, developed by Microsoft, is a desktop blog-publishing application that is part of the Windows Live range of products. It features WYSIWYG authoring, photo-publishing and map-publishing functionality, and is currently compatible with Windows Live Spaces, Blogger, LiveJournal, TypePad, Wordpress, Community_Server, PBlogs.gr, JournalHome, the MetaWeblog API, the Moveable Type API, and all blogs that support RSD (Really Simple Discoverability).

Basically, it is a much easier way to edit your blogs.

Just for fun I took a picture of what it looks like as I was creating this post and pasted it below.

The coolest thing is that 3rd parties can create plug-ins for it. So you can extend the features and functionality. There are hundreds of plug-ins for it on the web.

So if you are tired of the same old, same old when creating your posts. Then switch to Live Writer. It just may be the best advice you ever get from me!

Funny Signs we saw on Vacation

2008-11-23T09:55:00.001-05:00

We are definitely in a different culture here in Grand Cayman than back home in Berlin, Ohio. Here are some funny signs we saw here:

This is for "fine dining" in Vivines (a local woman) back porch.

Here's one of my favorites. It is their way of saying "Yield". Notice the traffic in the circle going to the left instead of the right. Driving on the left side was not hard until you got to the intersections... then it got really confusing. Your instincts get you in trouble!

Use whatever paint and wood you can find!

I agree!

You don't see this one too often!!

My Favorite One!!!!

Vacation Tracker - Final Days

2008-11-23T08:51:00.001-05:00

Well it's hard to believe but today is our last day on Vacation. The week has really gone fast. Grand Cayman has been a great vacation spot. The people are so friendly, the ocean water is incredibly beautiful, and the relaxed pace is just what we needed (and you can drink the water!)

Below are a few more pictures. We did some shopping, walked on 7 mile beach, and I got to watch Ohio State kick Michigan while also seeing the beautiful ocean out the balcony! What a treat.

It is Sunday so we are going to watch the 9am church service online before heading to the airport. The weather in Millersburg is 12 degrees... yikes!

Vacation Tracker - Wed & Thur

2008-11-20T22:16:00.001-05:00

Well things are still going really well on our vacation. The weather has been around 80 degrees but really windy. On Wed we went to the port in downtown Georgetown and hit the shops. I hit every store that was selling Tortuga Rum Cake so I could sample it. It is sooooo good. I must have had about 15 samples! We ate dinner at a place called "Over the Edge" which overlooked the ocean. I had Wahoo fish (first time ever). It was really good. We are trying to eat whatever the locals recommend.

Today we went back to Rum Point for the day. It was beautiful. The water has so many colors. I found a shady spot and took a long nap while Becky read. We then went out on the end of a narrow point and watched the sun set. You can see the pictures of this in the slide show below.

Our end of the island is very quiet and peaceful. There are very few people around. Just the beautiful ocean and beach. Becky has been collecting conch shells when we walk on the beach in the morning. She has a nice collection going. Tomorrow we are going back to the west side of the island where the 7 mile beach is. This is an unbelievably beautiful place!

Here are some new pictures.

Grand Cayman Photo Album

2008-11-18T23:24:00.001-05:00

Hey, I got tired of trying to upload pictures to my blog. So I've created a photo album that we will be updating throughout the week. Feel free to check it out if you like. We're having a great time!

Relaxing in the Cayman's

2008-11-18T00:22:00.001-05:00

Vacation Tracker – Sunday & Monday

2008-11-17T21:45:00.007-05:00

Becky and I are celebrating our 25^th wedding anniversary in Grand Cayman! Becky's dad gave us a timeshare week that we traded about 2 years ago for a resort in the Cayman Islands. This is the week! We are here in a Caribbean paradise for an entire week (without our kids). My sister,

Dawn, and her husband Tom came along, too. They just celebrated their 26^th anniversary this year.

Grand Cayman is a British territory established in 1670. It relies heavily on tourism (especially from cruise ships). It is a great international location because they speak English and you can drink the water! Here is a map of where Grand Cayman is located. It is directly south of Miami and between Cuba and Central America.

We left Cleveland airport Sunday morning – flew to Charlotte – and then directly to Grand Cayman. It was a great experience. The Grand Cayman airport has just one runway and one gate. Customs was a breeze. We rented a car from Andy's Car Rental and headed for our first adventure… DRIVING ON THE LEFT SIDE OF THE ROAD!!!

Believe me when I say this is a challenge. The first time we came around a curve and saw a cement truck on the right side of the road we just about passed out! Your normal reaction is to think it is on your side of the road!

We did a lot of "Giving Way!"

On Monday the weather as cloudy and 80 degrees. So we spent the day touring the island. Here are a bunch of pictures from today's trip.

This is the swimming pool at our resort. It is completely full of sand from the storm surge in last week's hurricane. There are piles of sand everywhere.

More to come later…