Jonathan Herron

Phriday is for Photos 03.26.10

iPhone rendered shots from last week's Ohio visit:

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Comments are open and welcome today!

Confessions of a Pastor

Understanding that Easter is one of the rare times of year when someone far from God might be looking to darken a church door, we're launching a message series aimed at building bridges of grace.

As far as the branding goes, I had fun on this photo shoot; one of Colwood's digital artists came up with the final design.  Love the raw transparency flavor.

10,000 of these postcards are hitting area mailboxes in the coming days.

An additional 2,000 invite cards will be personally handed out in coming days, including to guests as they leave our Easter Egg Helicopter Drop.

Our Story

God has been teaching Amber and I a great deal over the past year since we walked away from our dream of a thriving church plant in Ohio.  We succesfully merged Catalyst with Western Reserve Church.

Chuck Swindoll once said, "When God wants to do an impossible task, He takes an impossible person and CRUSHES him."  The key is to embrace the crushing.

So true. 
We are now in a season of blessing for our family and our ministry.  And we do not take it for granted having endured many seasons of heartache.

My trip to Unleash a few weeks back was truly redemptive.  Culminating in Perry's kind words, God unmistakably whispered to my soul that this journey has been for a reason bigger than we can imagine.  The opening words of 1 Peter ring true.

All this to say, my friend Ben Arment for the first time shares our story today on his blog.  Sometime soon I'll take time here to unpack in greater detail how God has been leading and shaping us for this moment.

Phriday is for Photos | 03.12.10

Complete Unleash Conference photos here.

More photo adventures at Flickr.com/FollowJon.

Random shots at Twitter.com/FollowJon.

Unleash 2010 Remix

No, I did not know that Perry Noble and Steven Furtick were going to talk about Colwood Church in their breakout session.

Amazed, humbled, honored, and a little bit silly.
That's how I felt sitting there as Perry spontaneously shared about our journey and what God is doing in Michigan. 

I wish our team could have been there to witness an auditorium full of senior pastors from around the country breaking out in applause at what's happened at Colwood over the past 5 months.  Unbelievable moment.

Unleash 2010 was a tremendous experience for our team of ten.  God whispered courage and confidence into my soul. 

Feel free to grab my complete conference notes and see trip photos.

A few highlights:
Jason Moorehead, NewSpring's Chief Operations Officer and the go-to for this leadership conference, personally welcomed Team Colwood to Unleash.  Gracious guy.

Perry gave us invite-only passes to a senior pastor's luncheon.  It was great catching up with Chris Elrod and others.  Ryan Englemann (pictured right) from our Executive Leadership Team joined me.

Truly appreciated Perry carving out time to personally encourage our team of ten from Colwood.  Knowing that leaders around the country are praying for them and cheering them on was huge for our team.

Key Conference Quotes:
"Church people want safe and predictable.  But our God leads us to uncomfortable places!"

"Every church person loves the idea of progress; its the sacrifice factor that hurts."

"How many of you would be willing to give up your LIFE for your kids?  Then why won't you give up your worship style for them?"

"Leadership is simple: Listen to God.  Do what He says.  Don't trade strategy for the supernatural."

"The Unspoken Lid of Leadership is Fear of Betrayal.  Remember that in football, all the greatest players play hurt."

"God's promise is BIGGER than your perhaps."

"Listen to your coaches, not your critics.  Great football players NEVER listen to the bleacher talk; they take cues from trusted coaches."

"When Satan wants to stop a movement, he always goes after the leader."

"If God is using you, its because you're barren.  It you're that good, its because God is that good!!"