A41 Looks Forward
GREENSBURG – A41’s next venue for theWell is Greensburg United Methodist Church at 301 N. Broadway Street.
At 7 p.m. Sunday (Nov. 4) in the church Sanctuary, A41 will host an evening of praise music, a message, and Christian togetherness in their continuing mission of helping other not-for-profit organizations and bringing together the children of God outside the bounds of any single brick-and-mortar church.
Executive Director Alex Sefton seems to have calmed down a bit since he spoke to the Daily News about the High Point Orchard Evening of Worship in September.
Sefton has a great deal of energy and pride in his personal mission, and, like most everyone else, he said organizing events of the magnitude A41 undertakes can be, at the least, daunting.
“I get worked up a little before these events. There’s a lot to do to get ready for them, and I’m a little high strung at times,” he said. “I can plan indoor events all day, but with outdoor events there’s a lot of factors involved that you might not even think about, so that was challenging, but the temperature was perfect, no rain, and everyone had a good time, so it was a perfect evening,” Sefton said.
With the prediction of rain deescalating through the week of the Sept. 23 event, he admits that he still worried about rain on the day of the event.
“I know it was in God’s hands and there was nothing I could do about it, but I just worry. I have to say, though, that I think the High Point event was our best so far,” he said.
With easily 200 worshipers enjoying a perfect evening of food, praise and worship as well as a stirring message from guest talk show hostess and Christian songstress Carolyn Goad-Pankella, it was indeed a great event.
“Jose (Rivera, Chaplain for A41) announced that there would be someone at a back table to pray with people, and I didn’t plan on that, so when someone wanted to pray, I just prayed with her,” Sefton. “It was actually very cool, because she wanted to pray for people everywhere to find the kind of worship that we were providing. That she wasn’t praying for anyone specific, but just thanking God for ministries like us, was very validating.”
Alex admits that the members of the band Illuminate have fallen into place as well as High Point did.
“It’s been so cool how that band has really been behind the mission and that they all have a heart for this. Plus the fact that they’re just so ridiculously talented. We are considering writing. We don’t know how that’s going to look, but we’re exploring the potential we have to write good music. We’ve tossed around a few ideas, so we’ll see how that’s going to look. I’m anxious about it, but I’m excited, too,” Sefton said.
Sefton said that he is definitely pleased with the public response thus far, and that theWell and Illuminate plan to continue on the current path through 2018.
He told the Daily News that an idea being tossed around currently is a database of all church events somewhere on the internet to provide information about all the events happening at all the churches in Greensburg.
“Benefits to support charities, noteworthy speakers, chili suppers, those sorts of things. I hope to make contact with the local pastors and say to the pastors ‘Hey, if you have anything you’d like to do as outreach to other churches, send it to us and we’ll put it on the calendar, ‘just to further our mission of bonding different churches together outside of their home church,” he said.
At Sunday’s event, Steve Frensemeir will be delivering the message.
“Steve used to be a Youth Leader at Christian Church when Brad was going through at that church. He’s an outgoing guy and a great public speaker as well, so he’ll be good,” Alex explained. “We want to create an atmosphere where even our religious leaders are feeling comfortable to worship, because they might not get a good time to worship themselves.”
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Contact Bill Rethlake at 812-663-3111, ext. 7011 or email bill.rethlake@greensburgdailynews.com.