Uprising MEN!

I have an exciting announcement to make:   we’re adding a guys group!

Dale and Beth Phillips are AWESOME and they totally resonate with our vision for participating in a safe, transformational community where we can be real and learn more and more what it means to live in the freedom of God’s grace.  Dale will be leading this guys group. If you haven’t met Dale & Beth before, I promise that you’ll love them!  

There are a number of things that will change because of this exciting development. We’re not totally sure what shape Uprising will take this year, but this is where we’re starting:
 * We will continue to meet as individual guys and gals groups at the Phillip’s and Wenburg’s homes…for the most part.
 * About once a month we’ll get together with the guys group for gatherings that will include some teaching, but also be focused on small, mixed gender group interaction.
 * We are going to share our name! Rather than trying to come up with additional guys and a large group names, we decided that it works best in the interest of future students to call it all Uprising and have brother & sister small groups.
 * We are going to have a Co-ed retreat! The retreat will be a 24 hour(ish) retreat starting Saturday morning, Sept. 18th and go until Sunday the 19th.
 * Uprising, as a ministry, will focus on college students.
 * Dale, Beth and I have an office downtown and we look forward to having you on over!

To get the guys group off to a good start, we need your help. Please read the following note from Dale and pass along whatever seems appropriate to any guys you think might be interested.  You’re also welcome to invite or re-invite ladies to Uprising.  It will feel different this year, I believe, and I’d love for us to get off to a fresh start on 9/2!  Consider “Invite Friends” as the challenge implicit in this post!

 **Thursday, 9/9 will be our Kick-Off night when we meet all-together for food & fun. We’ll also introduce the Phillips’ & the Wenburg’s and just let people know about Uprising and the retreat.**

 I’m so excited to see what God does with Uprising and Hastings College this year!

Andrea

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Greetings Ladies of Uprising!
I’m Dale Phillips.  We believe, in answer to your prayers, my wife and I are being led to come alongside and begin an Uprising group for guys.   Beth and I live just a couple blocks from HC on East 7th. We have had a heart for and interest in our Lord’s work in the lives of students at HC for many years.
 To give you a quick glimpse into a bit of our journey:
 -we came to Hastings 31 years ago when God opened the door for me to pastor a church in town.
 -through the years of serving in that role, we were blessed to minister to students who came to the church;
 -for a number of years we were given the chance to lead a study on campus;
 -the Lord led us to step away from pastoring and to begin a ministry venture called CareActor;
 -through CareActor we have sought to communicate dynamic truths through the dramatic arts: to lift up the
 story of the CHRISTian faith by ‘standing before people’ to present stories;
 -one of the unexpected results of CareActor was that it pulled us away from opportunities to minister with
 and to HC students;
 -earlier this year we added a dimension to CareActor of ‘coming alongside’ persons to encouraging them in
 living out their life-stories;
 -with this dimension, we are being led to once again make ourselves available to students on the Hastings
 College campus by becoming a part of Uprising in launching a ‘brother’ Uprising group.
 On 9/2, when you’ll be having your first meeting with Uprising at Andrea’s, Beth & I are inviting men students from HC over to our place for food & to begin conversation meant to encourage each in living out our stories in relationship with our Maker through Christ.
 Then on 9/9 we will be getting the Uprising groups together for the first time at a time and location to be announced.
 Ladies we need your help!
 After being away from campus for basically 8 years, we’re starting over in meeting & building relationships with students on campus. Would you be willing to help us get the word out to guys you know who might be interested in deepening spiritual formation in and through community and in finding and fulfilling God’s dream for them in the living out of their life-story.
Please let them know they are welcome to come on 9/2 and/or invite them to come along with you on 9/9.
What Uprising for guys will end up looking like we can’t exactly say. Our desire isn’t to give it a shape and ask God to fill and bless it. We want more than anything to discover with you where our Lord is going in this and to join Him.
 Thank you so much for any help you can give us. We are looking forward to meeting you AND to Uprising HC 2010-2011!

 Seeking to Follow The Shepherd,
 Dale and Beth