Blog posts from Alvin
Since January, we’ve experienced an Avalanche, a Blizzard, a Today’s Teens Conference, a compassion experience to the Dominican Republic, a Centre Court and an office move. You would think after all that, we’d take a break. But there’s still a lot more to come in the next three months. Here’s a brief recap of what’s up next: Our redesigned website is launched so we’ll be working to keep that up
Toronto Raptors games are one of the hottest tickets in Toronto right now! On March 20, almost 500 students and leaders gathered at the Air Canada Centre to witness a Raptors victory. What happened afterwards was even more significant. As part of our post-game program, 80 students gathered on the court for our 90-second layup contest. All the churches were represented. Each contestant won a Raptors drawstring bag or a
Today, the CBOQ staff settles into our new work home. Moving to 5 International Blvd brings an exciting sense of a fresh start. But, as with any change, there are a few things to keep in mind. Very rarely will it go according to the original plan. No matter how many times you’ve moved and no matter how meticulous you are in preparations, there are always unforeseen details that impact
Last Saturday, over 1300 students and leaders gathered at the Meeting House for the 32nd edition of the Today's Teens Conference. The key speakers featured Dr. Chap Clark for youth leaders and Dr. Dave Overholt for students. They posed one key question: Are you all in for Jesus? With the help of an army of volunteers and over 25 workshop speakers (including Tim McCoy, Karra Overholt and Sam Lee), students
Two weekends ago, we hosted our latest Blizzard retreat and with 772 guests plus 61 staff, we had Muskoka Woods busting at the seams! Even so, one of the most common responses to the weekend was, “With so many people, it ran so smoothly!” It was great. Even great events require debriefing, however. Here are the lessons applied and lessons learned from this weekend. LESSONS APPLIED Communicate any potential
What happens when almost 840 people converge onto Muskoka Woods? You have the BIGGEST BLIZZARD EVER! While there was a mixture of excitement and anxieties heading into this, God had his plans already in mind. With Mike Gordon as our speaker and Life Support leading worship, we explored that foundational question we all wrestle with: Who am I? More importantly, who does God say I am? Mike used the story
Continuing education is vital for people in all walks of life, and this includes those involved in youth ministry. While paid staff are more intentionally encouraged to pursue professional development, it's also important to recognize the need for volunteers who give their time and energy for this call to also have opportunities for professional growth. Professional growth and development comes in various forms, such as conferences, workshops, podcasts, books, and
For the first time in our winter retreat history, we had a power outage that wasn’t just isolated to Muskoka Woods but affected about 10,000 people in the Muskoka area. With guests waking up to no power, texts started to fly my way. So our team went into action. We had a lot of decisions to make in a short period of time. Here are some of the steps we
Avalanche turned 16 years old this year. Yet there has never been an Avalanche like this one before. With 547 guests and our retreat staff, we looked to discover who we are, asking God to reveal our identity. Avalanche began like many others before it, with a session of worship and some initial thoughts from our speakers Laura Bronson and Tim Teakle. But then, at 3am, all the power went
With the Christmas holidays over and the cold weather starting to settle in, many of us experience the winter blahs. Many youth ministries find that January till March Break is one of the hardest stretches. How do you navigate the winter blahs? It’s important to have some kind of catalyst to help catapult your ministry through these weeks. While a youth ministry shouldn’t be solely dependent on events, having experiences
