Hey everybody - just wanted to let you know that, while NAILS doesn't have any events this Easter weekend, we will be having services at CenterPoint:

Tonight (Good Friday) - 7:30 PM
Sunday (Easter) - 10:00 AM

If you're in town during the break and looking for a place to go, we'd love to see you there!  The church is at 7750B Green Meadows Drive in Lewis Center (just off of Orange Road) - about a 15 minute drive from campus.  Join us this weekend as we reflect on Christ's death and resurrection together!

Posted by Eric Frisch

"All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer.  A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders.  And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had.  They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need.  They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity — all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved."

-Acts 2:42-47 (NLT)

This is one of the passages that we looked closely at on April 3.  One of the things that always strikes me about these verses is how many times they mention sharing food (whether in the context of the Lord's Supper or as another meal).  There is no question that sharing a meal brings people closer together faster than almost any other activity.  There is just something about breaking bread together that draws us together as humans.

This Sunday at NAILS, we'll be celebrating the Lord's Supper together in the form of Communion.  We haven't done this before at NAILS, but as we head into this Easter week, we encourage you to take a step back and reflect on Christ's sacrifice with us for an hour this Sunday night.  Join us at the CenterPoint Westerville Offices as we worship our God!

Posted by Eric Frisch

Community is a word that gets thrown around a lot in the church, and for good reason.  After all, that's what the church is supposed to be - a community of believers.  But so often we miss the mark.  We turn inward, or keep our relationships with others superficial and surface level.  Without question, this is a safer way of traveling through this life, but is it what we're being called to as followers of Christ?

This question has been heavy on my heart for the last few months.  As I read the Bible, and particularly the descriptions of the early New Testament Church, one message speaks to me loud and clear: we were not meant to live this life alone.  I'd like to invite you to join us for NAILS this Sunday evening (April 3) as we talk about this idea of community and how we can move towards a deeper fellowship with each other and with God.  All are welcome, and I can't wait to hear your thoughts and questions!

Don't forget that this will be our first gathering at our new location.  Check out the "About Nails" page for more details.  You can also check in with us on Facebook and let us know you're coming.

Posted by Eric Frisch

Let's face it - trusting God can be hard.  Heck, trusting anybody can be hard.  In the fast paced, live for today, self-reliant world we live in, the idea of stepping back and trusting someone else to know what's best and have things under control can seem almost foreign at times.  And yet, the Bible clearly calls us again and again to trust God for His guidance and provision, rather than relying on our own strength.  Not an easy task, but an important discipline to practice.  When a few of us started talking about a new worship experience for Otterbein students called NAILS last summer, we knew we wouldn't be able to do it alone.  Sure, we had grand ideas and goals, but ultimately, we knew that if we were to have any hope of success, we would need to trust God to show us the way forward.  The last 6 months have brought with them many different feelings, ranging from excitement and joy to frustration and discouragement.  There have been mountaintops and valleys, but through it all we've seen God move in amazing ways, and a small but vibrant community of worshipers has sprung up in Uptown Westerville.

Of course one of the most difficult things about trusting God for direction is that things very rarely end up looking quite the way any of us imagined!  And so, as time has passed since that first service in September, we've watched NAILS grow and change into what it is today.  It has been a wonderfully challenging adventure, and it is still just beginning.  Which brings me to the actual point of this little note - NAILS is moving!  God is doing some exciting things right now, not just for NAILS, but for CenterPoint Church as a whole.  Through His provision, we've been able to lease a new office space for our upcoming Westerville campus.  This space is located at 3 West Main Street (right across the street from the Old Bag) and will allow us to have a new, more accessible home for NAILS as well!  The room isn't large, but it will meet our needs for the time being.  We're very grateful to the Old Bag of Nails for their help in getting this new ministry off the ground, but we're also extremely excited about the opportunity to have a new 24/7 space right in Uptown!

One other big change that you might have noticed is this website and blog!  We hope you like the new look, and want to encourage you to interact here on the blog as much as you want.  We're going to be updating it very often with NAILS news and resources for topics we've discussed in the past, so stop back often and see what's new!  As always, we'd also love to hear from you with your thoughts about NAILS, the web site, ideas for discussions, and just about anything else, so leave a comment or send us a note through the "Contact Us" page above!

Finally, I'd like to invite everybody to join us for NAILS next Sunday, April 3.  We'll get together in our new space and kick off the new quarter!  God has big plans for NAILS, and I can't wait to see where He leads us next!

Posted by Eric Frisch