Curt Coffield

Proof and Passion - Part 1 in the Back in the Day Series

2011-01-10T16:07:00.000-05:00

Revisiting Seasons Past - The Peaks of the Seasons and the Seasons "In Between."

2010-10-02T11:42:00.001-04:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv6wo1MzteA

It's Fall ... And Jenn and I are in the one of the most wonderful seasons of our lives! Every Autumn I revisit this song. This live version is from the Autumn of '06.

This year I have three amazing children that I am savoring every second with! I have had a fulfilling journey towards the launching and pastoring of our new church community in the this village that I have grown to love very much. What a season! I am ever mindful though of our painful seasons “in between the seasons.”

Jenn and I wrote song together in the Fall of '02 when we lived in California. We had been married over eleven years. We were in the most difficult time of being "In Between the Seasons."We had been praying and hoping to have children for nearly eight years back then. It's hard to explain how painful that season was. The tears we cried were too many to count. In the context of our hopes to have children, our hearts and hopes were running out.

We were trying to sell our home in the Chicago area. We had built that home and lived in it for less than a year. When we moved to California, we shipped about five boxes of our things - mainly books and clothes. Everything else stayed back in our home back in Chicago until we sold that house about 8 months later.We were living in the small guesthouse of a wonderful retired couple in Pebble Beach. It was furnished with all these old antiques and two twin beds that we had pushed together. Most mornings were foggy and somewhat dreary, but by the afternoon you could see the Monterey Bay in the distance through the front windows.

We were part of a new church with new friends that we grew to eventually know and love much. But in the Autumn of that year, we felt very alone - very much “In Between.” Our year and a half long season at the church prior had become a difficult and painful fit. We were probably a bit hesitant that Fall of ‘02, wondering how the fit would be in our new place of serving.

We wrote "In Between the Seasons" together on a Saturday in October in the Hopkin's guesthouse. We were missing the seasons in the Midwest. We were missing prior seasons, where we soared more than we sorrowed. We were hoping and yearning for the peaks of the seasons to come.

It was in this season, after years of miscarriages and surgeries, that WE became pregnant with our daughter Gabrielle. Jenn spent 6 weeks on strict bed rest in that little guesthouse. But, signs of the better seasons to come were starting to appear.

Our daughter Gabrielle Ashton was born the summer of '03. The start of a season of peaks! I have welcomed and embraced that Gabbi has made a wonderful, terrific wreck of my heart.

We did sell our home back in the Midwest early in ‘03. And we moved into a wonderful home in Monterey that saw the coming home of our first child, the late night cries of Gabbi, the first readings of favorite stories, the first steps and the first Christmas mornings

And our season with our church in California grew to be wonderfully memorable and magical. We grew dramatically as the church did the same. Jenn and I found our soul’s ‘north’ again there on the Central Coast of California.

The next seasons were to amazing peaks! Peak after Peak... And likewise, with every season there were to be additional moments in between.

We returned to Resurrection Life in the Grand Rapids in ’06. In that season I started wading into teaching more than singing. It was a safe and wonderful place to ready myself for seasons to come. It was another seasons Peak!

Our son Chantry Dirk was born May of '08. Peaks of the Season! ... I wondered if I would feel as much affection for a son … my love for him shocked me!

Then this year we moved to PA to become part of North Way family. In the holiday season of ’09, we had a wonderful surprise. Jenn was pregnant once again! Our second son Asher Curtis was born in August. I wondered if I would have equal love for another child. I watched as an entire additional ‘wing’ opened in the in halls of my heart.

It was yet, another season’ peak. Our new church launched with great enthusiasm in September.

And so ... This Autumn, Jenn and I do not take for granted this amazing season we find ourselves in.

As we cherish our three children in our new home in the enchanting village of Sewickley, where we now pastor this wonderful new church community, we are ever the more grateful that we have seen it to be greatly true that God can and does lead us well through every season - the wonderful peaks and often the painful seasons "in between.”

2010-08-19T17:54:00.000-04:00

I grew up in a home with five kids - five kids all given birth within seven years of each other. Let's just say that there was never a dull moment in our home during my 'wonder years.' My parents most assuredly deserve saint hood at the earliest eligibility.

My parents excelled greatly
in the practice of teaching
their children that
when we all pitched in,
difficult tasks became the far less difficult.

Take for example the daily task of doing dishes. In our family of five children, there were three girls and two boys. My mother, in her brilliance, created a system of 'boys night' and 'girls night' when it came to doing dishes. As a child, I always did dishes along side of my younger brother. On the off nights, I sat back delighting in the sight of my three sisters performing the after-dinner clean up.

In my home today, our evening routine fairs differently. My three children are still too young to contribute to the after dinner clean up. Nowadays, I do dishes all by myself most nights. Jenn, my bride of nineteen years, most wonderfully prepares the dinners for our family and then I simply do the clean up. It's a proven system that works well for us, and calls for far less from me than from my bride. We all embrace this system with gratefulness because of my horrific cooking skills.

I look forward to the days when my children are old enough to assist with dishes, because difficult tasks become far less difficult when all pitch in.

At North Way Sewickley Valley, we are about to settle into a weekly difficult task that will become far less difficult as 'ALL' pitch in.

Mostly likely, you have heard that our church will be a setup/teardown church. For our worship community, the benefits of this current system, in lieu of hastily building or purchasing a facility, are far too many to mention here. Each week, we will unload our trailers and setup the spaces that our community will worship in. Then, hours later, we will proceed to tear down those spaces and load them back into our trailers. This process will go well and will certainly not overwhelm as we pitch in together.

I am asking that you will commit to pitching in once a month, either in the early morning hours before church, or in the early afternoon hours after church. And I am calling on you to learn and practice day this process next Saturday, August 28th. We will meet at 8am in Osborne Elementary and practice setting up and tearing down the spaces until around 3pm that afternoon. If you are able to be there for that entire time, it would be greatly appreciated. However, if you are able to drop by for a few hours that Saturday, you would also be awarded your button that entitles you to all the perks that will come with being a part of the Setup/Tear Down Team. :)

Now a days, my brother lives in Florida with his wife and four boys. We rarely get to do dishes together anymore. I always look forward to those times at holidays and family gatherings where we stand in the kitchen doing our difficult task side-by-side. Someday, the North Way worshipers in Sewickley Valley will no longer find themselves in the practice of doing the difficult task in our 'kitchen.' I look forward to those days in the far future, but for now, I'm committed to savoring the magic of our 'wonder years.'

... To Prepare for the Days we are In

2010-08-12T19:51:00.000-04:00

Last week Jenn and I welcomed our son Asher Curtis into the world. He arrived weighing 9 lbs. 3 oz. and measuring 24 inches long! Asher is our third child, and we are embracing and loving the evolution that is going on in our home along with his birth.

We completely savored those years when it was just our daughter Gabbi. She received the sum of her two parents attention. Then five years after Gabbi's birth, we welcomed our son Chantry into our family. We were more 'relaxed' with our second, for after all, we were now 'experienced parents.' Our naïve confidence was much higher than with our first! Then our confidence met with the reality that it was now a 'boy child' that we were parenting. We have recently been practicing the discipline and celebrating the challenges of the seemingly endless energy of a two-year old male.

And now, alas, our third child is here and we are experiencing that all the clichés are wonderfully true! It's now 'zone' defense and the days of the 'tidy' two kids, five years apart are ancient history. Now it's two in diapers, and often in the middle of the night, two of our three are in need of a comforting parent. It's an exciting time in our home. We are not wishing for the next season; we are enjoying the one we're in - a season of enormous adjustment accompanied by a lack of sleep.

In the weeks and months leading up to the big day, Jenn nested - nested big time! She made lists - long lists of things to do. The hospital knew we were coming. The nursery was painted. Infant diapers were stacked perfectly in their place. The crib, which had been well used twice before, was adjusted back to the new born stage. The baby gear was dug out of storage to be disinfected and well placed. We coached Gabbi and Chantry on the welcoming of Asher. We nested - nested big time!

WE ARE GRATEFUL THAT WE DID ALL WE COULD DO
TO PREPARE FOR THE DAYS WE ARE IN!

In the weeks to come, we are about to welcome our new church North Way Sewickley Valley into the world. This community is going to be the third 'child' born to North Way in the last three years. North Way's Worship Cafe Community and Oakland Campus are the older 'children.' It's an exciting time at North Way as we all prepare for the changes to come. It's time to be 'nesting' - nesting big time!

My prayer and hope is that a few months from now,
we will look back at the launch of our new church and say

WE ARE GRATEFUL THAT WE DID ALL WE COULD DO
TO PREPARE FOR THE DAYS WE ARE IN.

Surprised by "The Imitation"

2010-07-21T01:59:00.000-04:00

My favorite thing about flying is the time spent in books. Somehow the energy and bustle of travel always helps me focus and well grasp my readings. I credit this liking to my growing up in a home with five kids, all born within seven years. We had no quiet in my home growing up. We had wonderful chaos and it must have been there that I fell in love with reading in the midst of flurry.

Today I traveled and faced a delayed flight, a missed flight, a stand-by 'rejection' and then finally the very last seat (the one by the restroom) on a completely full flight. I escaped a good bit of it all by diving ruthlessly into "The Imitation of Christ" by Thomas A Kempis. I recently picked up this edition in a used bookstore in the Pittsburgh area. For under five bucks, I scored on this 1937 edition from the Harvard Classics "Five-Foot Shelf of Books" series. The old pages are yellowed such that my bright yellow highlighter appears more subtly over the parts that captivated me.

The introduction reminded me that this fifteenth century work, originally written in Latin, was likely, though not for certain, written by Thomis A Kempis. The introduction boasted that "with the exception of the Bible, no Christian writing has had so wide a vogue or so sustained a popularity as this."

Here a few 'verses' that gripped me:

- For verily, it is not deep words that make a man holy and upright; it is a good life which maketh a man dear to God. I had rather feel contrition that be skilful in the definition thereof.

- Take counsel with a man who is wise and of good conscience; and seek to be instructed by one better than thyself, rather than to follow thine own inventions.

- If thou hast any good, believe that others have more, and so thou mayest preserve thy humility. It is no harm to thee if thou place thyself below all others; but it is great harm if thou place thyself above even one.

- We ought daily to renew our vows, and to kindle our hearts to zeal, as if each day were the first day of our conversion, and to say, "Help me, O God, in my good resolutions, and in Thy holy service, and grant that this day I may make a good beginning, for hitherto I have done nothing!"

- Thou knowest well how to excuse and to colour thine own deeds, but thou wilt not accept the excuses of others. it would be more just to accuse thyself and excuse thy brother.

- Jesus hath many lovers of His heavenly kingdom, but few bearers of his Cross. He hath many seekers of comfort, but few of tribulation. He findeth many companions of His table, but few of his fasting. All desire to rejoice with Him, few are willing to undergo anything for His sake.

- The prudent lover considereth not the gift of the lover so much as the love of the giver.

Thus ... my new devotional treasure that lands itself on my 'non-light' shelf. Thanks Thomas. Thanks Harvard Classics. Thanks used bookstore. Thanks airport all ado.

2010-07-08T23:41:00.000-04:00

This past weekend, I had memorable times of worship with two thriving churches in the Sewickley area. Since moving my family to the village of Sewickley three months ago, I had determined that I wanted to take a weekend and visit churches that I was hearing wonderful things about. Knowing that North Way Sewickley Valley is going to be doing the work of the Kingdom along- side other churches in the community, I purposed to be able to speak first hand of these other churches in my conversations to come.

I worshiped during the first service at St. Stephens and was immediately inspired by the visiting and the buzz of community going on before the worship service. It was apparent immediately that this church enjoys being together. The singing was vibrant and represented well St. Stephen’s heritage of faith that reaches well into the 19th Century. Geoff’s message from the Gospel of Luke was evangelical and pointed consistently over and over to Jesus. I fell in love with the community of worshipers at St. Stephens.

I worshiped during the second service at Christ Church at Grove Farm. The church was also an inviting flurry of people visiting and conversing when I arrived fifteen minutes before the service. As the Choir and orchestra led, I sang familiar songs and my heart and mind engaged in the prayers and scripture readings weaved throughout. John Guest, in his seventies, proved in his preaching, that he is as ever fervent in his passion and love for Jesus . I fell in love with the community of worshipers at Christ Church.

When I met with my wife at home that afternoon, she was quite ecstatic about the service that she had just come from at North Way. She preached half of Jay’s message to me right there in our kitchen. Being eight months pregnant, she ran out of wind before she could expound on the rest of the inspiring morning.

We then ‘sat’ and shared about our mornings in worship. We are thrilled that there are thriving moves of God in the Sewickley Valley. It stirs us even the more to be committed to bringing North Way’s different expression of worship to ‘The Village’ when we launch this September. We have great hopes that those who have not connected with one of the great churches in this community, will be drawn to North Way in Sewickley Valley. We have hopes that North Way Sewickley Valley, being true to the vision, mission and style of North Way, will be a great compliment to what God is doing in this area.