Good morning everyone. Another windy fall day here in Saskatchewan- why do some of us seem surprised by wind in Saskatchewan? That’s kind of like being surprised when the Roughriders lose. Kidding, kidding, just settle down.

I am anticipating an exciting service this Sunday as I have the honor and privilege of being ordained. I hope that you can make it and celebrate with us. We’ll also be having a potluck after the service which I would hope that you can stay for as well. Like I tried to share before, it is as much of a recognition of what is happening in this church as it is a recognition of what God has been doing in my life. I don’t lead in a vacuum. I am surrounded by great elders and leaders and by a congregation that has been loving and supporting us since day 1. I would really like to have as many of you here as possible to celebrate with us as it’s not just about me, but about all that God is doing here in and through all of us!

This Sunday Mike Zorn is leading worship so please be in prayer for him and also for my father, Dave Wicks Sr. who will be leading the service. I am privileged to have a dad who baptized me years ago who is able and willing to be leading my ordination. Proud of my dad and his strong leadership in the district. I’m also honored to have Andrew and Monica Switzer with us, the pastors from the Kipling Church.

A direction for your prayers over the next few days. Who has God placed in your life that he wants you to pray for? This could be someone who doesn’t know Christ or someone who has walked away from God. I think for some of us, that person will jump right to the front of our thoughts. For others, it may take some time for God to reveal this to us, but I believe that each of us has someone in our life that God want’s us to be praying for and lifting up on a regular basis. Someone that God will give us a burden for.

That’s about all I am going to share with you this week. Have a great weekend!

Pastor Dave

I hope you all had a good thanksgiving and enjoyed time with your family if you were able to. We had my mom and dad stop in sunday afternoon and enjoyed a good thanksgiving ham for monday’s supper as a family. The ham has found its way into some soup later this week and that is not a bad thing- oh how I love soup.

This week we will finish up the series on prayer and I’ll be sharing on perseverance in our prayer life from Ephesians 6:18-20. We will be launching a podcast very soon and the series on prayer will be the first thing we post. So if you did miss one of the messages, you’ll be able to download or listen to it online. Rachel Drinnan will be leading this Sunday and so please be in prayer for her and for her team. That they would feel strengthened and anointed and filled with God’s courage to lead us into worship.This sunday would normally be our potluck but we have moved the potluck to the 22nd to coordinate it with the ordination service, so please be aware of that.

This morning we had 8 men in our sanctuary praying. This is something I think that bodes well for our church and our community. Men of God coming together to seek God and intercede on behalf of our church and our community. Men, we have a special role to play in leading our families and being the protectors of the weak- what better way for us to begin doing that than praying together. Men, let’s rise together and lead our church into a season of prayer!

Saturday night is Second Saturday (we meet at the church the second saturday of each month at 7:00pm). This month we are going to focus our prayers on any students connected to our church and pray for each one by name. Parents, please come and join us as we pray for your kids.

Tomorrow night is a junior youth gym night at the elementary school at 7:00pm. Please pray for Pastor Lindsay as he continues to minister and reach out to the youth of our town.

God Bless,

Pastor Dave

Hey everyone,

This week we are going to take a break from our series on prayer. We’ll finish up that series next week. The reason is we wanted to have a Thanksgiving themed message and this year we’ll be having communion and my sermon will focus on being thankful for the work done on the cross. I’ll be sharing from the story in Genesis 22:1-14 which covers the time Abraham was commanded to sacrifice Isaac. It is a many layered story that only shows its richness when it is looked at in relation to the entire narrative of scripture. Feel free to read it before Sunday.

Also wanted to make you aware that we will move this month’s Pot-Luck Sunday to the 22nd of October. We felt it was a good idea to move the Pot-Luck to that day as part of my ordination service. I’m really excited to share this with you and so please make that Sunday a priority as I would be honored to have you all there for it. My being ordained is not just about me, I feel as though it is an honoring of this church and our people and the impact that we have made and are going to make in this community. Come and join with us.

Men’s prayer will be tomorrow morning at 6 am here at the church. For those who can we’ll have breakfast after.

I had a thought the other day about baby dedications. I want to make sure that the door is open for people to request or have dedications. Liz and I have had each one of our children dedicated and have felt as though each one was significant. It’s more about the parents determining to be intentional about loving and raising the child in a God honoring way than anything else, but there is definitely something spiritually significant to it for the kids. If you would like to discuss this with me, let me know.

That’s all the big news for this week. Please be in prayer for our service this Sunday, for myself and for the worship team led by Lisa Osiowy. We need you prayers!

God bless and have a great weekend.

Pastor Dave

This weekend is going to be a great service. Pastor Lindsay is speaking on The Armor of God from our passage in Ephesians. He and I were praying this morning about it and he shared some of his thoughts and where he feels God leading him and I am sad I am going to miss it. Please be in prayer for him as he prepares for this Sunday as well as being in prayer for the movie night they are having outside this Friday for youth group. His wife Stacey is also leading worship this Sunday and so please uphold her in prayer as well. Isn’t it wonderful having Lindsay and Stacey and family with us!

I will be in Kipling this Sunday at Andrew and Monica Switzer’s ordination service. We all felt it would be special if we could share in each others services, supporting and cheering for each other. My ordination service will be on the 22nd of October here in Grenfell. Merv Switzer will be sharing a few words, which is pretty cool since he dedicated me as a baby.

Normally, this Sunday would be communion, but I wanted to move it to the 8th because for a couple years now I have been wanting to have communion for a thanksgiving service. What could we be more thankful for but the work that Christ did on the cross?

Another opportunity to serve that I would like you to be aware of is the once a month service at the Pioneer Home. It’s a really important part of what we do as a church to serve those who cannot be here with us on Sunday, but it has been getting increasingly difficult to find someone to do the music part of the service. This involves leading 3-4 hymns from their hymn book. After the music I usually share a brief devotional thought. I am not only looking for people who would be willing to lead the music a few times a year, but for a person to be a coordinator to make sure that the music side of things is getting planned out. If this is something that you would like to join me in making happen, it would be great to hear from you.

Parenting takes up a lot of my time – and I love it! I can’t imagine life without my kids. One of the things that Liz and I have learned is how much our kids need one on one time with us. So we’ve set up a schedule so that each kid gets a "date" with mom or dad at least once a month. Kid’s need that one on one time to feel important, loved and maybe most importantly, heard. They need to feel that focused love from each parent, because let’s face it, there’s lot of other people and things that draw our attention away. Each time we do it we realize how good it is not only for the kids, but for us as well.

Have a great weekend and enjoy the fall weather. Proud to be your pastor and to serve this great church.

God bless,

Pastor Dave

This Sunday we are going to continue the series on prayer from Ephesians 6 and will be looking at verse 12 and 13. The title for this week is "The Reality of Evil." I’d like you to consider how you might like to start getting involved in prayer. In the coming months I’d like to see a number of prayer cells starting up. Handfuls of people getting together on a regular basis, praying for specific things in our church body and in our community. I’d also like you to consider how you might set aside specific time in your week to pray. Lastly, I’d like you to make our monthly prayer meeting a priority. The Second Saturday of every month at 7pm we have a corporate prayer time set for us to pray as a body. We often get anywhere between 4-6 people come. I’d like to see that number grow. It’s only an hour out of your entire month.

But I don’t want you to pray just because I said so. Well, let’s face it, most of you are not going to pray just because your pastor said so – God has to speak to you. And sometimes God speaks to us through us opening our eyes. My hope is that this series opens our eyes. Last week we looked at opening our eyes to see God’s power. This week we are going to consider the reality of evil. I also hope that you will begin to see some of the needs in our church and in our community and that God will call you to prayer. Will you listen to God as to where and how he wants you to pray?

Speaking of prayer we have decided to move our men’s prayer to 6am – 7am on Thursday mornings. For those who can we’ll grab breakfast after. Come on out.

In the past a small group of people called our visitation committee has organized care for those who are no longer able to come to church. They have been doing a great job visiting and caring for these people. In the coming months we’ll be reorganizing this team because some of them are no longer able to continue. If you would like to help with this it is a great opportunity to be a blessing, so please let me know. It’s one of the ways that we can function as a body and love and care for each other. It’s the job of the entire church to care for those who are struggling; it’s not just the job of the pastors!

Please spend at least 5 minutes praying for the service this Sunday and for the worship team. I send this email to 75 email addresses. If each email means 5 minutes of prayer, that is 375 minutes of prayer or just over 6 hours of prayer! If each prayed for 10 minutes, that would be 12 and a half hours of prayer. Don’t you think that sounds significant?

God bless,

Pastor Dave

This week I’d like to get you thinking about one thing – prayer. This is something that has really been on my mind for a long time. It’s something that I want to see our church grow into. I want to see prayer become not just an add on in church, but part of our regular church rhythm, and a vital part of each believers personal life.

So starting this weekend we’re going to focus in on prayer for four Sundays in a row (taking a break on Thanksgiving Sunday) taking ideas from Ephesians 6:10-20. So here’s what the next 5 Sundays look like:

• September 17th: The Power of God; Ephesians 6:10-11
• September 24th: The Reality of Evil; Ephesians 6:12-13
• October 1st: The Armor of God; Ephesians 6:14-17
• October 8th: Thanksgiving Sunday
• October 15th: The need to Yomp it; Ephesians 6:18-20 (and yes you will need to look up that word)

My hope is that you will begin to see the need for prayer in your personal life, your life in community with friends and with family, and as a corporate body. Pastor Lindsay and I have some other things up our sleeves to help us all be thinking about prayer and making prayer a regular part of our lives.

I’d like to remind all the youth parents out there that this Friday is the Youth Kickoff for the new school year. They area meeting at the church at 6:30pm to head out to Circle Square Ranch. It sounds like they are going to have a lot of fun!

Speaking of prayer would you please uphold me in prayer for this Sunday. It really does make a difference. Would you also pray for Rachel Drinnan as she and her team lead worship this week. We are so privileged to have so many talented worship leaders who give of their time. Please pray.

God bless,

Pastor Dave

I was out of town for the better part of two days this week and so I missed getting this out earlier. There’s a handful of important things I’d like you to be aware of.

Tonight is Second Saturday at 7, our monthly prayer meeting. My wife Liz will be leading the prayer while I attempt to put the kids to bed 🙂 Please feel free to join us in prayer for our church and for our community. If you have a prayer request you’d like to be covered tonight, please respond here or text me at 306-589-9020.

Tomorrow I will be sharing a few thoughts from Philippians 4:5-7 regarding anxiety. It seems at least for myself there are seasons where I need to check my level of anxiety and evaluate my level of stress and how I am handling it. Even this morning I needed to follow some of the principles that this passage lays out for us. If you have struggled or do struggle with anxiety this is an important passage to memorize and meditate on.

We will also be praying for our key Kid’s Church leaders tomorrow. Waylon and Rachel Kardash (pre-K), Tamara Speidelspach (K-2) and Liz Wicks (grades 3-6) have all agreed to take on an age group this year for Kid’s Church. They’ll be teaching regularly and coordinating teachers and volunteers for the age group they cover. They will need our support and prayers throughout the year as well. These kid’s we have attending are a treasure!

I’ll also be sharing a few thoughts regarding the way Kid’s Church will be run this year. We have written a very important document this year called the Grenfell Apostolic Child Protection Policy. It provides some basic structure on how we will care for our kids and keep them safe but it also provides safety for the workers in this day and age. I am attaching the document to this email. If you are thinking of volunteering or planning on volunteering you must read it. For those of us who can’t handle the heavy read (it’s only 4 pages), I’m also attaching a short version. One of the things you have already heard about is the police check and application. You will not be able to volunteer unless you have done this. Please ensure that the police check includes the vulnerable sector check. Just tell them you want that done when you apply for it, they will know what you mean. I know it will mean some changes and adjustments on our part, but I think that they are all for the better.

One of the changes that has happened because of the way we want to do Kid’s Church is that we have had to relocate the quilters who come in every Tuesday. They have had to move out of a room that has been their long time home. We were sorry to have to move them but they have been gracious enough to try and find a new home in the church. They have also agreed to make a special quilt to hang on the wall in our kid’s wing – so hug a quilter today!

As always, pray for the service tomorrow, for our worship teams and for me as I share – and if you are able, please come and pray with us tonight.

Pastor Dave

Protection Policy Revised June 10th 2017 (1).pdf

Protection Policy Revised June 10th 2017 – SHORT VERSION.pdf

The last day of August. Hard to believe. But it has been a great summer. Sort of seems like it has been going on forever! Lot’s of farmers are busy right now putting in long hours as this summer comes to an end. You know, we are so privileged to be living in a community where we can see God’s kingdom principles illustrated year after year, right before our eyes.

On monday morning my dad and I went for a little dirt bike ride around the country. At one point we followed a quad trail up onto a rise where we could overlook Crooked Lake. It was beautiful. For those who think there is nothing to see in Saskatchewan, man they are so wrong. There is something majestic about Saskatchewan that points my heart to the Majesty.

This Sunday we’ll be finishing up the last chapter of John, chapter 21. It’s a pretty short chapter but please come having read that. My sermon title is "Feed My Sheep" and I’ll be answering the question, "What is the most important thing in life?"

There’s been a few questions about the Kid’s Church assistant position, so I’ll try to clear that up. The assistant’s job is to be a helper/floater between the three classrooms. Our policy requires that no adult is ever left alone with children so rather than have 2 teachers per class, we will be installing some windows in the three classroom doors and the assistant will be a floater who can move between the classrooms and provide assistance where needed and sort of be a "hall monitor," distribute snacks, and help with potty breaks. That way, for each of the classes the assistant functions as that 2nd adult. Next Sunday I’ll be sharing a bit more about our program and our policy to hopefully make all of this clear. We really are making some significant changes to the way we handle Kid’s Church this year.

One exciting thing that I will mention again about our kid’s program is the curriculum we have chosen. You can learn more about it [youtube http://youtube.com/w/?v=V6YRed10Pgg] that explains a little bit about it. Everyone who has seen the curriculum has gotten really excited. I think it will streamline a lot of things. I’m excited!

On Tuesday night I was in the church and a handful of people who are helping to shape our Sunday morning worship were with me and we were praying and talking together about worship. For me there was a strong sense to ask God to mercifully move us along (not only in worship but in all the things we do) closer and closer to His will so that we can see His kingdom here in Grenfell. I prayed that God would gently remove or push aside anything that was hindering Him from moving. Would you join with me in prayer on this? That God’s will be done in Grenfell. That His kingdom would come to Grenfell.

Please also pray for me this weekend and for the worship team. I can tell when people are holding me up in prayer.

God bless,

Pastor Dave

We’re back! We ended up having a tonne of fun on our little holiday. The waterpark in Edmonton, camping, Galaxyland, the Zoo and more. It was a really refreshing time as a family to just get away and enjoy being together. We only had a few "moments" after being in the car together for hours on end. Thanks to all of those who had been praying for us while we were on our holidays.

In my journal I have a list of things that I pray for every day. Some of them are personal and some are for the church and some are for my family. One of the things that I pray for is that God would give me more of a prophetic voice. We are told to eagerly desire spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 14 and this is something that God has laid on my heart to pray for. I am not totally sure what it would look like, but it’s something I am waiting on God for. What gift are you praying for or seeking God about? I think spiritual gifts can sometimes be forgotten but they are an important part of what makes us "apostolic."

Another thing that I pray for is that God would increase my capacity to lead teams and to be better at bringing people together to complete a task or to create something. I’ll be honest, there are times when I don’t know what to do or how to make something happen. I have felt handcuffed at times by my own inadequacy or by fear or by ____________ (go ahead and fill in the blank because I know you have felt similar at times, I think we all do). It’s in those times that we have to lean on God and trust him that as we move forward, we’ll be able to do the things he’s called us to do. And so this is something I regularly pray for.

This Sunday we’ll be covering John 19-20. So please come prepared for that. Go ahead and spend some time in those two chapters. Chapter 19 especially is very sobering, but it’s a passage we should not skip over lightly. Next week we’ll finish up John with chapter 21.

One more reminder about Kid’s Church which will start on September 17th. I’d like each of you to consider if this is something you’d like to volunteer for. If this is something that you feel a tug at in your heart please let us know. There is a sign-up procedure this year because we are moving into a bit more of a structured program with the increase in kids so please begin the process as soon as possible.

Youth will be kicking off on September 15th! Pastor Lindsay will be meeting with his team of key volunteers tonight. I think we should all be praying for the youth of our town and for Pastor Lindsay and his team. The youth of today do not face an easy world to navigate. They need a personal and deep relationship with Christ!

God bless!

Pastor Dave

We are just getting into holiday mode and will be out of town starting this morning. We are sure appreciating having some holiday time together. This Sunday Mike Zorn will be speaking so I would ask that you please uphold him in prayer and the worship team as well. Mike will be sharing something that God has placed on his heart. We sure appreciate Mike and BreAnn’s leadership! I’d encourage you to read John 14,15 and 16 this week and keep doing SOAP!

Next Sunday (the 20th) my father will be speaking and he’ll be speaking on John 17 and 18. So please come prepared by doing your reading and reflection ahead of time.

I plan on being back in the office on the 22nd. Until then God bless!

Pastor Dave