Archive for the 'My church' Category

Big Banner Background

Published
by
Michael Comfort
on June 3, 2008
in My church, Projects and Proud parent
. 7 Comments

As part of our church’s 6-week fast, Gregg asked me to make a banner as a focal point and to help illustrate a theme. Found near the end of the book of Joshua (Joshua 24:14-28), the story tells about the commitment that the people made to follow God, and the marker stone Joshua placed at the base of a large oak tree, to remind the people of their commitment. We at NFC are corporately and personally renewing our commitment to follow and serve the Lord, so these are exciting times!

After thinking about this opportunity, I decided to do something unusual. Something big. (At 17.5 x 3 feet, this is the biggest banner I’ve ever made!)

It was a fun project! The best part being that I got to spend half of Saturday (including a Subway lunch) with my daughter Alison… Together we enlarged it, painted it, waited for it to dry, and hung it. I’m SO glad she helped me. Without her it would have taken twice as long! Plus she’s a great painter and good at mixing colors!

The drawing:

First, I made the simple sketch with the pen tool in Adobe Illustrator at 1/12th size (1 inch = 1 foot). Then I applied a “charcoal” stroke to the lines, colored them, and filled the areas with simple colors.

Trade secret #1 (how we enlarged it):

We used the church’s projector to enlarge the file directly onto butcher paper that was taped to the wall. We traced the outlines in pencil. Then we painted in the colors, sort of like “paint by numbers” with tempera paint. So cool!

Notice the re-purposing of the projector on the left side of the next photo. We used its cooling fan for a while to help dry the paint! It was pretty slow so we eventually took it outside into the sunshine. A gust of wind overturned part of it, and it did smear in a couple of places (if you look REAL close you may see them), but thankfully no major damage was done!

I brought my Dad’s long ladder with the extended arms to get to the top of the arch, and I taped clean rags on to its arms to keep from scuffing the walls.

This domed structural feature is somewhat like an apse in cathedral architecture. Whatever it is called, there was an amazing view from up there!

Trade secret #2 (how it is held up):

Finished!

A Bird’s Eye View

Published
by
Michael Comfort
on April 17, 2008
in Just for fun, My church and Technology
. 0 Comments

Microsoft has a very cool site called Live Maps. You can look at your property or other sites from 4 different satellite angles! Google Earth is very nice, but with this you can view from 4 different angles—not just straight down.

Tip: Type in your city, in the upper right search window, or just zoom way in. Click “Bird’s Eye”, then rotate (Oooo!)

Here for your enjoyment, is Newberg Friends Church, and Friends Center (from the east):

nfc from space

Dundee’s famous Purple House (from the west):

purple house

And Dundee’s famous traffic bottleneck (from the east):

Newberg Friends Church

Published
by
Michael Comfort
on April 5, 2008
in Faith, Family, Friends, My church and Thoughts
. 1 Comment

I go to church with my family every Sunday in a large historic brick building in the center of the older part of Newberg.

I know that “the church” is really the people, and that we would be the church even if we met in a school gymnasium or a coffee shop, but when I think of my church, I think of this building. It has been a large part of my life and I am extremely thankful for it.

nfc-building.jpg

Here are some memories and important events that have happened to me at Newberg Friends Church:

  • In Junior High I sang in the youth choir led by Dennis Hagen. We got to wear those awesome purple choir robes!
  • In the early seventies I remember the older high school kids “rebelling against the establishment” by daring to wear Levis to church. I remember wondering what was going to happen to them…
  • I loved to sit with my buddies in the back row of the balcony. My dad often sang in the choir, and when his eye caught mine—that was enough for me to start paying attention!
  • I knelt at the alter as a young high schooler during some special evening meetings, responding to God’s voice. I was already a “believer,” but I made an important commitment to Christ there.
  • Also as a high schooler, our youth group was in charge of a service one Sunday, and believe it or not, I preached. Really! My sermon was from John 3—Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus on being “born again.” (It was a pretty short message! :-) )
  • I listened to my pastors’ sermons through the years, Fred Littlefield, Richard Foster, Ron Woodward, Dick Sartwell, Gregg Koskela and many others. They preached, taught, warned, encouraged, reminded, guided, and overall just pointed me to Jesus.
  • I have sat in silent open worship well over 1500 times there, and gazed at the beams, the stain glass windows, and the woodwork, as I listened to Christ… or just sat… and waited.
  • Deanne and I said our vows to each other there on March 22, 1986, in a ceremony that brought together many friends and family. My grandfather, Oscar Brown, and Deanne’s pastor from Hillsboro friends, Earl Perisho, officiated.
  • Deanne and I had each of our kids dedicated to God publicly there.

I often wonder how those early Friends pulled it off over 115 years ago. How did they decide where to build and when to build? How much to spend? What it would look like and how big it would be? They certainly had a vision for the future.

I have a great love for NFC, and am excited about what God is doing among us, the people that meet there these days.

Here is a list of things I am thankful for today:

  • We have an incredibly gifted, committed and caring staff
  • We have many wonderful people from a wide variety of backgrounds and places
  • We have all ages well represented—babies, children, youth, young adults, young families, middle-agers, and retired people
  • Our focus is on following Christ. We are His friends.

Thank God for NFC!