Hymn of Praise

So, I'm trying to find something that will work for the Easter Season as a "Hymn of Praise" - something that lifts up the glory of God as it's theme. I'm working on finding something modern to fill that spot. Who would've known that I might be drawn to a Twila Paris song called "Glory and Honor." This song is on her album House of Worship released in 2003 was here first worship project since 1991.

Recording "Blessed Be You Name"

A few weeks ago, I set up our portable recording system and spent some time recording our rehearsal. I got a pretty good take of "Blessed Be Your Name" and I mixed it down in GarageBand. I added a couple of instruments (bass and electric guitar), but everything else is a live take. Very fun.

Have a listen. Blessed Be Your Name

Our Beautiful Day | April 19

“Our Beautiful Day” April 19, 2008
Reaching out with compassion to our community.

Dear Pastors and friends of “Beautiful Day”,

Thank you to all who have given us names of volunteers from your churches. If you haven’t done this yet, please send us the names of those who could be church liaisons and prayer leaders ASAP.

What we need now is to identify project leaders for each of the following projects:

(Cambridge Elementary)

1. Blacktop for basketball courts 2. Inventory and collect items for up to 40 “safety” backpacks.

(Oak Grove Middle)

3. Landscaping & irrigation 4. Collect items for kids to buy at school store.

(Ygnacio Valley Elementary)

5. Landscaping 6. Provide sturdy no-fabric chairs for office waiting area.

(Meadow Homes Elementary)

7. Electrical work 8. Replace carpet in faculty lounge with tiles. 9. Landscaping.

Please announce these needs to your congregation this Sunday, Feb.24, if possible, and on Sunday March 2. Ask that people who have skills appropriate to these tasks commit to being project leaders and send their names and contact information to Tom Patitucci by March 3. If you have other means of communicating these needs to your people (email, through small groups etc.) please use those as well.

Thank you for your participation in what we pray will be a “Beautiful Day” of service to our community in the Name and Power of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
Peace,

The Compassion Task Force
Kurt Holm kurt@creeklife.org
Layne Kilbreath layne@faithfellowship.com
Ron Musch lighthouse2you@aol.com
Tom Patitucci tpatitucci@hopecenter.cc

Holy Week Schedule

This year, Easter is extra early. Actually, it's about as early as it can possibly be. Julie Gibson, the Director of Worship and Music at Saint Matthew wrote an interesting article for our newsletter about how the date of Easter is determined.

Julie writes, "Easter could occur as early as March 22nd, but that hasn’t happened since 1818 and won’t happen again until 2285. And the last time Easter fell on March 23rd was in 1913. That won’t happen again until 2228. The latest Easter can occur is April 25. Next Year, Easter is on April 12th."

For those of you who are primarily concerned with THIS YEAR'S Easter celebration, the Holy Week Schedule for Saint Matthew is as follows:

March 16	Palm Sunday - "From Obscurity to the World Stage" 8:30, 11:00
March 20	Maundy Thursday - Valley Wide Worship Service 7:00pm at Walnut Creek Presbyterian Church.
March 21	God's Friday - "From Safety to Sacrifice" 7:30pm | Special Program for children will be available in the Fellowship Hall, nursery care available.
March 22	Easter Eve - "From Death to Rebirth" 6:30pm | Baptismal Service for all ages
March 23	Resurrection Day - "From Darkness to Daybreak" 8:00, 9:30, 11:00 | Nursery Care Available

Many Things in the Valley

COMMUNITY WIDE EVENTS
Here in the Contra Costa Valley, there are many things happening that we, as the Church, can get plugged into to be inspired and empowered to live lives fully devoted to living out the Great Commission.

- 40 Hours of Prayer begins week of March 17
- Community Wide Communion Maundy Thursday: March 20
- Walk for a Cure - CF Team Sierra: April 19
- Our Beautiful Day - Compassion in Our Community: April 19
- Celtic Way of Evangelism Conference: May 3
- Doing Justice Conference: May 9-10

U2 Craziness

I've got three brothers who live in the Pacific Northwest. One is an aspiring writer, one is a systems administrator for a software company called OmniGroup, and the other is a professional musician living in Seattle. Two of the three have formed a band called u277, a U2 Tribute band and they play regularly in the Tacoma/Seattle are. I happen to think they could be the best U2 Tribute band out there, even better than Zoo Station, the Bay Area's premier U2 Tribute band.

And in addition to this battle of the bands, we now are able to see U2 (the actual band) peforming in 3D! www.u23dmovie.com. I'm planning on seeing it down in Dublin at the IMAX soon!

Lenten Journey

The season of Lent is fast approaching (starts Feb 6th). This year, we've partnered with churches all over the valley in a project called iLent (www.ilent.org) - starting Feb 6th, you'll find devotionals and videos that should encourage you on the 40 day journey through the season leading up to Easter.

For the iLent project, I recorded a song with my friend Dave Foster from the Vineyard Church in Concord. He's a great guy and wrote a great song called "Iron." Here's a video.


You'll be able to find out more about valley-wide events and the valley churches at www.churchwithoutshoes.com