Oktoberfest Is This Weekend!

I'm looking forward to ClearView's presence at New Albany's Oktoberfest this weekend! This is a community event that runs all day on Saturday, October 3, from Noon-11p. The event features great food and drinks, all kind of activities for children and families, and Big Ten football on jumbo-tron-style TV screens. ClearView will be hosting a 10x30 booth space where we will provide free face-painting, colored hair spray (OSU colors!), crafts, Chulo the Clown, and the infamous "fish-bowl" game (where kids can win gold fish as prizes- we ordered 1,000 of them!). We are also providing two inflatable bounces houses for the event (thanks Special Event/Plane Things!).

• Please pray that we have great opportunities to put smiles on many faces and invite families to our Grand Opening Celebration (the next weekend- October 11).
• Please pray that we would find the staffing we need to make our booth run well.

Want to help? Contact Andy at 614.578.0676 or andy@clearviewgrace.com. We're looking for smiling faces anytime that day from 8a. (set-up) to 11p. (clean-up, etc.).

New Digs For ClearView!

In the my absence on the blog scene, one exciting change that has kept me (and our team!) busy is the fact that ClearView has a new location for our Sunday worship gatherings! As of Sunday, September 20th, we are meeting at the New Albany High School (directions)! The Gahanna YMCA was a great meeting place for us...and we love the staff there. We will continue to work with the YMCA in creative programming that will impact people's lives. Even though the YMCA was a great spot for us...something in my spirit wasn't content with our situation. As I shared this with our team, we spent almost 2 months praying for God's direction.

Over the course of this summer, God seemed to bring some factors to light that convinced us He was leading us to search for another meeting location. Here are some of the ways we sensed God moving as we prayed:

• God has opened up many exciting doors to serve in the New Albany Community. We enjoy positive relationships with the Events Board, Chamber of Commerce, and have coached, and served in the schools, etc. Since we are so active in the community of New Albany, it seemed to make sense to meet there. Pray that this move enhances our ability to invite people we serve at an event to join us on a Sunday morning at ClearView.
• We're making a major push over the next few weeks to invite the community to our Grand Opening. As we invest resources in mailings, a billboard, and newspaper ads, it made sense to use this media to also communicate about a new location.
• At some point, we will outgrow the limited space of the YMCA. At that point, a school in New Albany would have been our primary choice of location. So, why not make the change now and grow into a new space?
• Our people were of one mind about the change in venue. I was shocked (forgive me Lord, for my lack of faith!). Usually, any change means challenges from a leadership perspective. However, as we prayed as a team... people were excited and communicated positive impressions. God has given us great unity around this decision! Praise Him!

As we have moved ahead with meeting in the school, I have been thrilled with the:

• Increased space this gives us for our worship gathering (the mini-theater we meet in has seating for about 150- no setting up chairs!).
• Increased participation from our team. Moving has served as a catalyst for us- new people are getting involved in serving. This has been so thrilling for me to observe: people are stepping up to leadership and others are filling in needed roles. Our critical teams (KidView- children; Wow Factor- guest relations; etc.) are fully staffed and people are jumping into new positions to help us get sound and video capabilities up and running. God has been meeting our needs for human resources.
  

Praise God!

An Apology and An Update

Wow... it's been almost 2 months since I posted to this blog. I know the point of a blog is to keep it up-to-date with regular posts... or it quickly becomes irrelevant and people stop checking it.

I know we have some regular blog readers that are actively praying for our work and you check this site daily, or weekly, or monthly. If I were you, I'd be asking, "What is Andy doing?" :) So, to you that check regularly and you've seen no new updates in the past few months:

• Thank you so much for caring about the Wirts and the development of ClearView Church
• I'm going to post like crazy over the next few days and catch you up on what's been happening and what is coming in the next few weeks.
• I'm sorry I haven't done a better job of giving you information to celebrate and pray for.
  

God has been good to us. There is a lot of exciting stuff going on...and many changes we want to communicate. More to come!

Please Pray For The Jay Baker Family

Today I have the privilege of officiating at the celebration of life service for Jay Baker, 40, of Gahanna. Jay died unexpectedly this past weekend. I've learned much about him as I've met and listened to the family during the preparation process for the service today. I can honestly say he is a man I wish I would have known at a deeper level while he was alive. He was a special guy.

For those of you who follow our church development work and pray for us-- the interesting thing about this story is that I only met Jay, briefly, one-time. In the picture below, Jay is sitting to my right. This was taken on Friday evening, July 24. ClearView hosted a Family Fun Night in Gahanna and Jay, his wife, Michelle, and their two children, joined us for the event. We met there and enjoyed a good connection.


Then, Jay passed away about a week later. As Michelle was making funeral arrangements, she thought of ClearView and the funeral director called me this past Sunday evening and asked me to do the service. Of course, I agreed. We celebrate Jay's life today (Weds., 8/5) at 1p.

Would you pray with me for Michelle, her children, Jay's son, and their families? These good people are hurting and need our prayers for God's peace, comfort, and direction at this time. Please pray for me as I officiate the service. I want to be a visible presence of God's love and grace during this time of deep loss. Also, would you pray that ClearView would be able to wrap our arms around this family in the days ahead and show Jesus' love in a real way.

Blessings To My Heart

As much as I try not to allow them to, sometimes the challenges of our work seem overwhelming. It is easy to allow yourself to get discouraged. I counter this by reading and re-reading God's words to a young leader named Joshua (Joshua 1:1-9). God's expectations are clear- move forward with faith in the work HE is doing. "Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go" (1:9, ESV). So, I often find myself asking God to forgive my lack of faith and fortify my heart with His perspective.

Sometimes I also ask for signs of His movement. Probably a bit foolish...because He is moving whether or not He chooses to allow me to see. But, I long to see evidence of His blessing and presence with us. Faith us defined by moving forward with trust even if you CAN'T see...but I still like to see! :) So, this past Saturday I spent much time in prayer just asking God for evidence of His work on Sunday. I just wanted to SEE something happening.

Sunday came and there was much to praise the Lord about! Again- God is good whether or not He chooses to show His work to me...but I like to see! Here is what I saw Sunday:

• A full room at ClearView...even though it is summer and many are traveling.
• A "Yes" from a couple I have been recruiting to join our team. They will be a BIG help to our effort to prepare for Grand Opening in October.
• A good response to our July series: God and Country. I challenged our people on Sunday to envision themselves...the Church...as the greatest hope for real change in America. Our people were/are energized by this challenge.
• A friend mentioned praying about a sizable donation to ClearView. This would move us forward in launch planning and maybe even be seed money for future church plants. Exciting. Pray they say "Yes!" :)
  

God is good all the time... and I'm thankful to SEE His good work when He sees fit. Praise God!

ClearView Is Gaining A Reputation...

...and I think it is a good one. I've been excited about some recent conversations I've had with community leaders. Here are two examples:

ClearView is a member of the New Albany and Gahanna Chambers of Commerce. We've learned that there is an open door into the community by serving. Community leaders and event planners are ALWAYS looking for willing volunteers. We're trying to fill that void with smiling faces. A visible sign to us that we are accomplishing this segment of our mission is when people come to ClearView to help make community functions work. We volunteer wherever we can and work hard to muster the manpower to fulfill our promises.

I was attending a New Albany Chamber task force meeting a few weeks ago. This group is working to plan for the Chamber's largest fundraising event, coming up on August 18, called the Taste Of New Albany. On that day, several thousand people will fill the Market Square area in New Albany for good food, a fun community event, and a free concert by the Columbus Jazz Orchestra. ClearView is volunteering to help set up, empty trash during the event, help host, and help clean up afterwards. It will be a long day...but fun...and with many great opportunities to serve people in our community.

I was surprised at this meeting when another task force member raised her hand, stopped the flow of conversation, and said in front of everyone (in my paraphrase), "I'm not sure if you know it or not, but this new church, ClearView Church, exists to serve. They want to bless the community." I was so thrilled- people looking in from the outside can see the first level of what we want to be about. We want to love people... that begins with service.

On another note, ClearView has been the source of much positive conversation during local Events Board meetings. Our work in helping run the parade and provide activities for children at the 4th of July festival is recognized by others. It was my joy to begin our gathering this past Sunday by reading a thank you note from the Events Board thanking our people for their help in making New Albany's July 4th celebration a success!

Praise God that people are seeing these visible acts of love and associating them with our movement! Please pray that God would use these acts of kindness to open up doors for spiritual impact.

Thanks Powell Students!

Last week we enjoyed a visit from a group of middle school students from Powell Grace. These sharp kids are studying leadership and theology and also serving at local churches this summer. We decided to get them out in our community and help us hang some door hangers in some neighborhoods where we have not done so before. In a little over two hours, this group of 10 or so was able to distribute around 700 door hangers and make new contacts for ClearView!

At the conclusion of the afternoon's work, ClearView provided a spread of ice-cream and sundae toppings as a small token of a appreciation.

Please join us in thanking God for these students and pray that the door hangers they distributed will land in the hands of spiritually receptive people. Thanks!

Important Meeting

On June 30, we hosted our first ever ClearView team leaders meeting at our house. This was a connection time for those that are championing each one of our key areas:

• Wow Factor (guest relations)
• KidView (children's ministry)
• Community Impact
• Sunday Morning (teaching, music, audio/visual)
• Set-up/Tear-down
• Administration

We have identified these 6 areas as critical components for a successful grand opening. One of the main tasks of beginning a church is finding people to drive these areas and developing simple systems to help us impact people through these components.

At this initial meeting, we enjoyed visionizing around the concept and importance of our launch or Grand Opening Celebrations. We used the illustration of a flower (plentiful with landscaping around our patio...where the meeting took place). Before it blooms and displays it's beauty- it has to be planted, take root, be watered, and grow to the point it is ready to open up and impact those who smell it and see it. A new church is like that flower-- we are in the stage of putting the people and systems in place to be ready to bloom. We also updated each other on what was happening in our respective areas, what needs had yet to be met, and prayed together about these needs. We closed with some homework. Each team leader is to:

• Find someone to partner with them as an apprentice in their area. We want to be about reproduction.
• Gather their team for a time of vision, discussion, and improvement in their area sometime in July.
• Recruit some of our newer people to join your team.

I also asked our leaders to pray about some key questions I'm asking. Namely, are we in the right location (YMCA?)? Should we adjust our service time? How do we deal with storage issues (trailer?)? If you'd like to pray about these important questions with us, we're seeking wisdom from the Lord in these areas. Thanks! Please also pray for these important people on our team- that God would use us to successfully launch ClearView Church.

Special Announcement!

YOU'RE INVITED!

ClearView is excited to host Operation Barnabas (a traveling team of high school students) on July 24 and 25. The team will be helping us tell people in the New Albany and Gahanna communities about ClearView during each day and then putting on two programs- one on Friday evening, July 24 and one on Saturday evening, July 25. Both programs are at 7 p. Friday's will be in Gahanna at the Creekside Rotary Stage. Saturday's will be at Wexner Community Park in New Albany. Each program will feature FREE sno-cones, popcorn, games, and a program featuring puppets clowns and singing. This will be a FUN NIGHT FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY.

If you are in the Columbus area (or want to make the trip!) PLEASE JOIN US AT ONE OF THESE EVENTS. If you can't make it, please PRAY THAT OPERATION BARNABAS WILL HELP CLEARVIEW LOVE AND SERVE OUR COMMUNITY WELL.

Fun Day and Big Impact

Thanks to all blog readers that prayed for our July 4th work in New Albany. We had a great day! God provided plenty of help (see all the smiling faces in the above picture) from several churches to allow us to:

• Hand out 1,950 balsa wood fliers (wood planes for children to put together with ClearView logo and website) to children along the parade route
• Hand out over 900 invitations to ClearView's July message series: God and Country
• Assist the New Albany Events Board with organizing parade participants and carrying community banners.

It was fun to walk along the parade route and see many familiar faces. People now call our names and look forward to see what ClearView will be doing during the parade. We had positive interactions with many people throughout the parade route.

God also worked through our team and friends at the pre-fireworks festival in New Albany on Saturday evening. We had a great time interacting with people and serving with love through face-painting, balloons, colored hair-spray, 4th of July related crafts, and tattoos for children. I particularly enjoyed talking with neighbors and other contacts we have made about our work at ClearView and inviting them to come and experience a Sunday morning.

There was much positive feedback from people about our involvement in the community. One mom said, "My kids spent the whole time at your booth." There were times when the line for face-painting was 50 people deep (and we had 5 people face-painting!). God is using us to lay the foundation for ClearView... loving people to a clear view of Jesus and His mission. Since it starts with love... July 4th was a great opportunity to go where people are and serve.

Please pray with us that God will use these efforts to lead us to people that are looking for a church or that are searching spiritually. Much thanks!

ClearView Father's Day Talk

We haven't figured out the best way to podcast the talks at our weekly worship gatherings... so I'll settle for posting the manuscript I spoke off of here. This was a fun message to put together...because it is straight out of my heart on what God is teaching me about being a parent. I'm completely imperfect...but God is shaping me and this talk is what I want to become. I encouraged anyone present that influences children (biological or spiritual) to do the same.

Take a minute and see what you think: 3 Traits Of A Great Parent.

Have Some Fun AND Make An Impact on July 4th!

Just wanted to let you know about a super opportunity to have fun and put a smile on people's faces in New Albany!

ClearView will be assisting the New Albany Events team with the parade on the morning of July 4th and then handing out toys to children along the parade route (10:30a.-Noon). That evening, we'll be serving kids and families at the pre-fireworks festival with free face-painting, colored hair spray, crafts, and balloons (6p.-dusk). Fireworks follow the festival.

Would you be able to help us at the parade? Festival? Both? Please let me know (post a comment here or e-mail: andy@clearviewgrace.com)- I'd be glad to get you more details...and I have a free t-shirt with your name on it for helping!

Want To Know What We're Up To This Summer?

On June 14, I shared my heart with our group in our worship gathering. God laid some specific things on my heart that I feel we should be concerned with this summer. When you have a moment, take a look, and pray with us for God's great movement. Thanks!

Talk: A Vision For Summer (ClearView Church 2009)

Fun Way To End The Year

We got a whim early last week- it was something like- "Let's host an end of year celebration party" for Seth's Kindergarten friends. So, we put together a list of every kindergartner we know- neighborhood, kids I've coached in the past, Seth's class, etc. and invited them to a party at our house last Friday evening. We want to try and create opportunities to expand our friendships with people and serve people in whatever way we can. The end of a great year seemed like a good gathering point.

It was a fun evening! About 10 families came out...almost 40 people. We did a cookout, played some games, and ended the evening with some Sm ores. It was so fun to see all the kids playing together, mostly classmates, and parents connecting. God is good and has blessed us with the opportunity to get to know some great people in our community!

We Have A Graduate!

Last week, Seth "graduated" from Kindergarten. His class was part of a multi-class performance and then they read each graduates name and the teachers gave out certificates to each child. The ceremony was followed by a reception for kids and parents in Seth's classroom. It was really fun for us to celebrate this milestone with Seth.

We have much to be thankful for in Seth's first year in New Albany schools. He had a good, safe year of learning and social growth. In God's perfect sovereignty, He provided a GREAT teacher for Seth who, as it turns out, grew up in a sister church of ours. She cared for Seth well and brought the best out of him. God also gave Seth some great friends. It has been fun to watch him develop relationships with his classmates, and especially three other boys that have been affectionately dubbed "the posse". We have enjoyed connecting with the parents of children in Seth's class at birthday parties and school functions.

As we look back on it, sending Seth to public school was a real tension point for us. We want him to grow up knowing how to build relationships with diverse people of any faith. We also want him to have the foundation of a biblical worldview. Anyone that parents with these values knows the tension of how to balance what happens at home, with school, with church, etc. to do the best you can as a parent to produce a kid that loves God and loves people. It is a challenge...maybe one of the greatest as a parent. We know the environments we choose to allow Seth to spend time in are key to his development. All that being said, we are so thankful that God gave him, and us, a great year in Kindergarten.

Founder's Day Weekend A Win!

Please join me in giving a big shout out to God for a great Founder's Day weekend (May 16-17)!

On Saturday, God brought just the right amount of people to hand out over 1,400 frisbees during the parade. Through a great brainstorm from God late last week, we decided to have an impromptu pizza party at our house on Friday night and attach our invite post cards to the frisbees. This allowed us to only hand out one thing instead of two during the parade. Obviously, this cut our labor in half and allowed us to get out all the frisbees sufficiently (without holding up the whole parade). It was fun to see children clamoring for something they wanted- one of our frisbees! This opened the door to give out invites to our Sunday gathering...and more importantly keep communicating to the community that we are here, we care, and we want to be a force for demonstrating the love of Jesus in practical ways.

After the parade, we hosted a booth at the Founder's Day festival. We again sponsored "Chulo" the clown (much to hundreds of children's delight!), painted hundreds of faces, and gave away many balloons. The most important part of this time was numerous positive interactions with people from the New Albany area. ClearView is becoming a fixture at community events...and people are noticing. One man said, "You guys are so community minded, I think that is really neat." A friend of mine commented, "ClearView has sparked some healthy controversy in our church leadership about why we are not more involved in the community." Perhaps God will use us to spark further mission and draw others out to where people are already gathered.

On Sunday, we hosted our May key gathering (a rallying point for our team to work extra hard at inviting guests) around the theme God's Stimulus Package: Real Hope For Turbulent Times. We had a great time together with 55 people in attendance. This is the largest gathering in ClearView's short history. We had great turn out from our team and several guest families. The mood was great, we enjoyed a good time of worship together, and people seemed to respond well to a talk from God's Word based out of Matthew 6:25-34 where Jesus talks specifically on worry and how to overcome it through focusing first on God's agenda for our lives.

Specifically, I am thankful to God for:

• Our ClearView team. These are busy weekends...many of our people gave significant time and even responded on short notice to help us assemble frisbees/invites. They are moving our work forward with less and less dependence on outside help.
• Friends of ClearView that came to assist- friends from our neighborhood, other local churches, and even the mom of one of Seth's schoolmates! Special thanks to Jen, Emily, and Beth (each came from out of town and painted faces for 5 hours!).
  
• Very positive interactions with people along the parade route and at the festival. Each appearance at community events seems to spark deeper interaction with people we've met through various contact making streams- coaching, school involvement (PTO), community events planning, etc.
• A strong Sunday at ClearView. Our team was encouraged and I believe God was pleased.

Would you keep praying with us for spiritual movement from our involvement in the community? Only God can move someone from parade contact to Christ follower. But, we long to be part of that journey with those God calls. Pray with us for movement...

New Sport, New Team...New Contacts

I've enjoyed watching Seth try something new this week- he started practicing t-ball for the first time. This has given he and I something new to do together. He loves for me to pitch to him while he learns to hit and we've spent much time in the last two weeks tossing the ball back and forth in the back yard. Last Saturday was Seth's first formal practice with the t-ball Athletics of New Albany's Little League. This was a great opportunity for us to meet 7 or 8 families, only one of which we'd ever met before. I'm not coaching this season, so I have the opportunity to hang out on the sidelines and interact with the other parents.

I'm thrilled that Seth is enjoying this new sport, is trying something new, and that we get to spend time working on new skills that both of us enjoy. Also, this is a new outlet for ministry relationships. Pray that God would lead me to spiritually searching people. We're studying Colossians 4 tomorrow at our ClearView gathering- pray Colossians 4:2-5 for me as I interact with the other parents of children on Seth's t-ball team. Thanks!

A Milestone For ClearView...And Our Family

Last Sunday (5/3) was a real joy! ClearView celebrated it's first baptism. We baptized three people...of varying ages and with unique stories of how they came to follow Jesus. It was a thrill for me to see us carrying on an important function as Christ-followers- seeing people publicly express their faith by being immersed in water (meaning of baptism). Baptism is special because it is more than a ceremony or ritual...it is a physical means of obeying Jesus that doubles as a symbol of a powerful spiritual reality- heart transformation!

The first person ever baptized at ClearView is Kayla (13). She is a special young lady that visibly loves Jesus and others. It was a joy to have her family with us to witness this special day. Kayla shared that she was facing some deep challenges in her young life when her mom, Melissa, explained to her about Jesus' love and forgiveness for her. She has been learning to follow Jesus ever since.

Patrick came to know Jesus in his mid thirties. I had lunch with him the week before and was thrilled to hear his story. Patrick is a deep thinker and God used some key friends in his life and the writings of people like C.S.Lewis (Mere Christianity) to answer significant faith questions and lead him to a point where one night, he simply couldn't sleep. Patrick knew he needed Jesus to forgive him and lead his life, so he got up in the middle of the night and cried out to God, inviting Jesus into His heart. Patrick and his wife, Anne, have become an integral part of our ClearView team and family...so it was a joy for me to play a small part in his spiritual journey by baptizing him.

Sunday was also a thrill for Trish and I in that I got to baptize Seth! He has been asking us to be baptized for months. After talking with him more about it and seeing him grasp what it means to be baptized and why we do it, Trish and I decided he was ready to take this step in his spiritual journey. Jesus commended a child-like faith and we see this in Seth. From the perspective of a six-year-old, he fully understands who Jesus is, what Jesus did, his need for Jesus' forgiveness. It was fun to see his faith symbolized by him being baptized and I am so happy that I got to do it! :)

Praise God with us for this good day at ClearView. And, pray with us, that God would continue to shape Kayla, Patrick, and Seth into His followers and ambassadors. Thanks!

Help ClearView Impact People At Founder's Day (May 16)!

Dear Friend,
Thanks for your interest in helping in the development of ClearView Church. God has opened amazing doors for us to be involved in our community. The next opportunity for large-scale contact making is coming fast, New Albany's Founder's Day parade and festival on Saturday, May 16.

I'm looking for people that might be willing to walk in the parade with us, smile, and give out 1,500 logo frisbees and hundreds of invitations to our next key gathering (May 17). The parade runs from 10a-Noon. I'm also looking for people that can help us put a smile on people's faces with free face-painting, balloons, crafts, colored hair spray, etc. at the festival, which runs from 12-5p. Anyone that participates at any time gets a free ClearView t-shirt (it would help me to know sizes up front).

Thanks for your help in finding volunteers. We want to have a major presence on this key day...we want to reach people where they are already gathered and show Jesus' love in practical ways.

Can you help? Bring a friend! Feel free to bring your kids and walk in the parade together! Let me know and I'll be glad to get you more details (timing, locations, etc.). Thanks!

Blessings,
Andy Wirt
ClearView Church
PO Box 629
New Albany, OH 43054
http://www.clearviewgrace.com
614.578.0676

A Strong Sunday at ClearView

I was very thankful for our gathering yesterday. There is always such a good spirit among our ClearView family and I just enjoy being around everyone. There is a genuine care for one another and a willingness to love and serve that is contagious. Our worship, prayer time, and discussion around Colossians 1 moved me. We also had a strong attendance and several guests, three separate family units, which is always encouraging. I was particularly excited about a friend of mine from the community that came, enjoyed her time with us, and said she'd be back! I had an exciting conversation with her last week- the best kind of interaction- talking about who Jesus is and what He has done for us. I always find my own journey with Jesus is enriched when God gives an opportunity to talk with someone else about the complete love and hope we find in a relationship with Jesus.


Thanks for praying for the development of ClearView. Please pray that God would bring us like minded people to help us bring our vision to reality and allow us to love on spiritually sensitive/searching people. Good things are happening! Praise God!