Dan Gould

Tag: Grace Community Church

  • Weekend Review

    giveThis weekend we started a new series called the big give.  Kinda stole the idea from Oprah.  My wife and I caught a couple of episodes of the show and as I watched I couldn’t help but think how students could get involved in something like this that allows them to see a need and meet a need. This weekend I challenged the student to do these three things

    What is required to get involved in the Big Give!

    1. You have to DREAM BIG!
    2. You have to LIVE BIG!
    3. You have to SERVE BIG!

    We will have some organized opportunities for students to get involved with but the general idea of the series is to look at the needs around us and to get involved.  This week we talked about Gifts of Grace.

    This is how Gifts of Grace- Toys for East Plano was started and where I need your help blog land:-) Please, Please help a child in need. All you have to do is 3 simple steps!!

    1. Cut out a tag provided on this pdf file.

    2. Purchase a toy.

    3. Mail your NEW toy with a securely attached tag by Nov. 30th to:

    Grace Community Church
    Att: Toys for East Plano
    4501 Hedgcoxe Road
    Plano, Texas 75024

    OR drop it by the Church on Dec. 7th.

    **Please mail gifts by November 30th
    You may send wrapped or unwrapped toys as long as you include a tag.

    Our goal is to provide 800 Toys for this community need. Please help us reach our goal and make a difference in a child’s life!

    For more information about participating churches please visit: www.findgrace.org and www.willowcreekfellowship.us

  • The Pulse – Fusion Weekly Update

    If you are a reader of this blog and would like to receive, The Pulse, our student ministry weekly e-mail update, please click here to sign up and it will be delivered to your e-mail address weekly!  Here is an excerpt from this week,

    The First to Know!!!

    We have been working hard on Summer Events.  Thank you for your input.  The general consensus was that cheaper was better.  Let me rephrase that, we are striving to provide the best camp experience for the least amount of cost!  Here is what we have decided.  This year Wild Week will actually take place in July at Camp WOW.  Camp WOW has a great facility that includes, water sports, blob, zip line, basketball, volleyball, ropes coarse and other activities.  Other Church’s in our area use Camp WOW also for summer camps.  I am excited about this opportunity and hope you will be apart of this great experience.  Ken Freeman, Kacy Benson, and Nick Thurmond will be back again this year to lead us!!!

    . . .

    If you would like to read more click here!

  • Weekend Review

    What a bust week into a busy weekend.  However, I feel like we have made some great progress in a short amount of time.  Last week I e-mailed every students that attended our weekend service and filled out a communication card, to let them know I am praying for there request and to follow up on some decisions they were making.  Several of our Students indicated that they wanted to grow spiritually but admitted that they didn’t necessarily have a plan to accomplish that.  Here is what I sent them,

    1.    Find a consistent time and place to meet with Him. I spend time with God early in the morning, but I used to spend time with God late at night before I went to bed.  The time doesn’t matter, what matters is that you find/make the time.
    2.    Read the Bible and Pray. When you read the Bible God speaks to you, when you pray, you speak to God.  Many times the question is where do I start, and how much do I read.  Even if you don’t like to read (I don’t like to read) its important, so start small.  Here is what I encourage:

    o    Pray – Ask God to forgive you of sin and to guide you as read His Word.
    o    Read a Bible you understand – NIV or NLT are great translations.
    o    Read 1 Chapter a day – A great place to start is in 1, 2, 3 John, James, or the Gospel of John, from there you may have developed a stronger habit and can pick a book from the Bible you would like to read.
    o    Highlight verses that impact you or seem to jump out at you.
    o    Think about what you read.
    o    Pray – Ask God for help, thank Him for the things in your life and lift up concerns to Him.
    o    Think about what you read throughout the day and begin to apply it to your life.

    3. Don’t Give Up! – If you miss a day, it’s going to be ok, just pick up where you missed and start there.  It will take a while for this to become a habit.  There will be days that you forget, or even days that you don’t want to read.  In those days still try to read but admit to God that you are tired, or feeling lazy, or stressed and ask Him to give you the strength you need to meet with Him.  It’s ok to be honest with God!  This will get easier the more you begin to have consistency, I promise!

    The services this weekend were awesome.  Great worship, the talk seemed to connect on personal levels and the Illustration about the family really allowed us to see the way it was supposed to be, and James a 9th graders shared his story and brought it all together.  It was so powerful.  Following the services we went to celebrate baptisms with three families.  It was awesome seeing Dads baptize their kids.

    Last night I was able to connect with Connor and Nick at Chili’s.  I learned a lot about them and had a great time hanging out.   Dash from “The Incredibles” (AKA Josiah) was there also!

  • Weekend Rewind!

    What a day!!!  We continued our series “Family Matters” which is 3 week series that deals with the family.  Worship was off the chain in both services.  I thought the talk went better in Middle School than in High School for a couple of reasons:

    • More students –  Last night was Homecoming and it took a toll on our HS attendance
    • More Energy – It seemed like the MS had more energy than HS, even though the MS service is earlier
    • I felt flat in HS – I realize how much I feed off of the energy in the crowd.  It makes a difference in the way the talk goes.  I like the interaction.

    The general question today was, “Am I part of the Problem or Solution?

    We showed this video to kick off the talk.  It really brings it home when you look at it from a child’s perspective.

    It’s easy to look like a perfect family when the doors are open and people are peaking in, but when the doors shut the real family tend to come out, the good, the bad, and the ugly.  No matter the situation, even if it’s not our fault or something we have no control over, we can still add to the problem or be part of a solution.

    After Church went to Razzoos – Cajun Cafe . . . It was awesome, and the kids plate was only $4.00.  We had a great time as a family hanging out with Will, Rachel, Ryan, Tyler and Jenn.  It was good to eat some good fried food and hang with students and staff!

    Took Joe to watch Wills soccer game for as long as Jackson could take it.  We lasted 45 minutes just enough time to see a half.  Wills team was winning so it was easier to leave!  Hope they won!  will find out tonight at small groups!

  • Costume Party Fun!!

    Last night Josiah and I joined the Jr/Sr small group for their costume party.  We had a lot of fun.  The students went all out with their costumes I was pretty impressed.  Josiah and I went as ninjas.  All day he asked if it was time to go to the party, literally every 15 minutes.  He was so excited and I think he had fun hanging out with the older kids!  Here are some pics from last night!

  • Weekend Review

    Well last week was a week of sickness in the Gould home.  It seems like this month has just been an unhealthy month for us.  On Monday Night Jackson was throwing up, Wednesday Night Josiah, Thursday should have been me, but I hate throwing up, but Saturday takes the cake.  I felt like death.  Couldn’t even move without wanting to vomit, then Sunday, guess who, yep Mom (aka Stephanie was sick)  So all of us have had it and hope it stops there because I don’t want a repeat!

    However, the weekend services must carry on and they did.  Lucky for me, we are developing a teaching team in Fusion and I was able to pass the baton to Marti late Saturday Night and she did an awesome job!!!!  We started a new series on Habits encouraging students to start some.  From what I have been told is everything went well.  Worship was great and students paid attention for the most part.  I’ve been told there were two that were really a distraction. If you are reading this you should feel bad and repent!  You know who you are!!!  🙂  Anyhow, attendance was up and God is moving!  Its so awesome!!!  If you are a teenager you should come check it out, if you are a parent of a teenager, you should encourage them to check it out, if you are a random reader of this blog, well, pray that God would give our ministry a passion for Him like no other!

  • B2S Retreat Video

    We have set up a youtube account to start posting our video since more of our students are blogging now.  Our hope are that you will post them on your blog also!  This is the latest one from our B2S Retreat all of them can be found under the user name: thefsmshow enjoy

  • Small Groups

    Tonight, we officially started small groups for grades 6-10th.  I have the privilege of being the 9th grade coach.  Tonight we had 15 ninth graders at our host home.  Here are their pictures as they walked in.

    What a good night!  The topic was Guilt.  Guilt is a hard topic to talk about and makes us feel uncomfortable because it hinges on actually having to share our faults with others.  We asked these three questions in Small Groups

    • How do you deal with guilt?
    • Are there signs that you are ignoring?
    • Have you asked God for forgiveness?

    Doug Fields shared two things about guilt that I think are pivotal to overcoming it.  If we aren’t proactive in temptation we will live our life being reactive toward guilt and situations.  Here are some steps to take.

    • Go to God with the situation. (confession)
    • Go to others with the situation. (accountability)

    If you will do these things you will be able to experience freedom from your current situation!

  • Weekend Review – B2S Retreat

    What a great Weekend!  Yes we had some challenges but everything seemed to work out.  Ken Freeman and Nick Thurmond kicked us off in a great way.  Here are some Highlights:

    • 6 student accepted Christ Friday Night
    • Ken Freeman really did a great job connecting with all of us and challenging us to be evangelistic.
    • Nick Thurmond led us in great worship.
    • Host Homes – Awesome!  This weekend couldn’t have happened with out them
    • Small Group Teams – Coaches and Small Groups leaders did an awesome job on not a lot of sleep!
    • Great discussions in homes and then at the church
    • The Game – fun, tiring, stressful, glad to see the 11th and 12th graders win finally!
    • The Food – Lasagna for dinner Saturday and a full breakfast Sunday Morning, how can you go wrong with that.
    • The first – Tyler leading worship for the first time with our group, Josh and Lisa both speaking for the first time to a large group!!  Major highlights for me
      • Don’t forget the Friendship Evangelism Challenge!!!
        • Reveal you are a Christian!
        • Extend and invitation to church or event!
        • Ask if you can share your story!
        • Communicate how/why you became a Christian!
        • Help them to know Christ!
    • Lastly, seeing the student building full!

    This truly was a great weekend but lets not let it be something we look back to as and event but as a start to a great journey of reaching our friends for Christ!

  • Mexico Mission Trip Pictures

    Well, it’s been over a month but here they are . . . Mexico Mission Trip Pictures from Fusion.  I was hounded this weekend at our B2S Retreat, which I will blog about tomorrow after I get some rest, to post these pictures.  I will tell you this much about the B2S Retreat, it was an awesome weekend!!!!!
    Enjoy the pics!