The DARK Side will strike every man at some moment in his life. No man is immune. Men, the dark side may strike you in childhood, your teens, 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s. Make no mistake…it will strike you. The questions are, men, will you recognize it when it strikes? Will you be able to navigate thru it?

What is the Dark Side of men? The Dark Side of men is depression.
Not only did great men of the Bible battle depression, but consider these great men who left their indelible mark on history: Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela. They all battled the Dark Side. Charles Wesley, Martin Luther, and Charles Spurgeon…just to name a few.

I recently read that the emotional price for success is depression.

Has the dark side struck you? I will talk more about how you can know this week. Let me ask you…Why do you think it’s so difficult for men to discuss this?

This weekend, our Malta Campus will begin meeting with our Clifton Park Campus at 1208 Rte 146 in the North Country Commons Shopping Plaza. For those of you traveling from up North to the Clifton Park Campus for the first time this weekend, I thought I’d give you some directions…

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But, if you want to know a short-cut, you can also go this way:

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The DARK side will strike every man. No man is immune.

Moses had a DARK side.
Elijah had a DARK side.
David had a DARK side.
Solomon had a DARK side.
Paul had a DARK side.

This weekend, in the beginning of our 5 week series, Northway At The Movies…find out what the dark side of Men is and how to stop living life in the shadows…

June 21st & 22nd marked our last weekend in the Shops of Malta. The Shops of Malta is where it all began, but not where God will finish His work thru Northway Church. Looking back, we have had a lot of memories in that building. A ton of changed lives.

What is one of your favorite memories in the Shops of Malta or of Celebration Weekend?

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Don’t forget! Starting this weekend, June 28th & 29th, our Malta Campus will meet with our Clifton Park Campus at the North Country Commons shopping plaza at 1208 Rte 146 in Clifton Park. This is an exciting new chapter in the history of Northway Church!

New Service Times – Starting June 28th & 29th:
Clifton Park: Saturday @ 6pm | Sunday @ 10am & 11:30am
Colonie: Sunday @ 10:00am

Our location is not the only thing that’s new this weekend. Northway Church is going to the movies! To kick off the summer, we’re pulling out all the stops with this hard-hitting, 5 week series as we prepare to discover timeless truths from some of today’s blockbuster hits. So, grab your popcorn, sit back and relax as we reveal powerful insights in a way that will impact your life like never before! If you’re in upstate New York, we’d love to have you as our guest. Or, you can always catch the streaming video or download the audio podcast at www.northwaychurch.tv.

Playing it safe is not safe. Playing it safe is dangerous.

The reality is the cost of growth is always less than the cost of status quo. The cost of mediocrity is always more than the cost of growth. You may convince yourself otherwise…it may appear like you have more to lose by taking risk and you may feel secure with status quo, but I would argue you have already lost.

The past several months, Northway has invested more in strategic growth risk than in the past several years. How? Through a Capital Campaign, moving our main operation in Malta 10 minutes down the street, through this past weekend’s Celebration Event, and remodeling our Clifton Park location…just to name a few.

The cost? The tangibles are easy to quantify. The intangibles? Time, energy and emotion? Hard to quantify. However we have already experienced GROWTH. Our church is mobilized and energized! My staff and team, the VIPs; our volunteers have never shined brighter, and we are all stepping UP our game. These are just some of the short term benefits. Oh yeah, another huge benefit is you find out who is really with you. Long term, these hard decisions will enable and empower Northway to reach more people for Christ.

So let me ask you, where are you playing it safe? Where are you sedentary professionally? Where have you stagnated personally? What difficult decision are your procrastinating that you may have to take some short term hits to make some long term gains?

This weekend was absolutely incredible, and we wouldn’t have been able to do it without some amazing help. First and foremost, THANK YOU to God for such an amazing day and our miracle weather. With You, anything is possible! THANK YOU to all our VIPs for your inspiring dedication and hard work. I’m so proud to be your pastor. And, a special THANK YOU goes to all our vendors who helped support this unprecedented event. Please join me in supporting them!

For event set-up:
Total Events

For all of our amazing food:
Freihofer’s
DeCrescente Distributing
Faldoni’s
Price Chopper
Malta Diner
Reliable Brothers
Stewart’s
Cunningham’s Ice Service
McDonald’s
Subway

For the pony rides and petting zoo:
Bark Avenue Pet Grooming
Burnt Hills Music
Spa Christian School

For games & fun:
Malta Bounce N Party
Bounces by Sunshine
Funworks Fun
Mr. Twisty
Dream Ponies
Linda the Clown

As of this weekend, June 28th & 29th, Northway Church is moving! Why? We are planning to build an incredible new home for our Malta Campus on 12 pristine acres in the heart of downtown Malta, Saratoga County. Once completed, the Malta Campus will be the administrative and technological hub for all current and future locations! To help make this new home a reality, Northway is giving up its lease in the Shops of Malta, and the Malta Campus will be meeting with our Clifton Park Campus in the North Country Commons shopping plaza.

This is an amazing time in the life of Northway Church, and to get ready, Clifton Park has been getting a facelift. Countless volunteers have given of their time and energy painting, cleaning, dry-walling…you name it. THANK YOU for all of your hard work. Clifton Park has never looked better!

All services at Clifton Park will be LIVE, and the new service times are:

Clifton Park: Sat. @ 6pm | Sun. @ 10am & 11:30am

Colonie: Sun. @ 10am

This weekend is going to be amazing!

Job 37:5 God thundereth marvelously with his voice; great things doeth he, which we cannot comprehend.

God has a flare for the dramatic. If you haven’t had a chance to read yesterday’s post, please do…and this update will make sense. I was informed today that a tornado watch came thru Malta yesterday at 4:15pm, and it poured like crazy the rest of the night!

WARNING…longer post than usual…reading all of it could increase your faith.

For several months we have been planning for Northway Church’s Malta Celebration Day! Preparing for 2000 people from 3 locations coming together as ONE. Expectations were HIGH as we imagined celebrating on our future home on our 12 acres. From a cookout, to clowns and cotton candy…what we had planned would rival and beat any carnival or community day that I have ever experienced, period. Cooking 4000 Hamburgers and Hot dogs; setting up massive tents; arranging tables and chairs, preparing for a petting zoo; securing a rock climbing wall; getting bouncy bounces; finding kid’s games; doing face painting, making ice cream cones, and don’t forget the baptismal pool! The preparation, logistics and scope of this project would make Trump’s Apprentice look like Kindergarten.

We had HIGH hopes until this past week while repeatedly watching the dismal forecast for June 22. Thunder Storms! The haunting question…to cancel or not to cancel? We prayed and prayed and went for it…only to wake up on Sunday to a torrential down pour! Lightning, thunder, and dark clouds everywhere! Ironically enough, my message this weekend was titled…Lord I believe, Help Me Not To Doubt! When I saw the washout on the way to church and heard my kids ask me…”Dad what are you going to do about the picnic?”…I thought about changing my message to… Lord I believe, We should have canceled the stinking picnic!

Consequently, we still had two incredible unforgettable Sunday services! I believe our last services in the Shops Of Malta were our BEST in 5 years! Props to our worship team. You guys brought it…I thought I was at Catalyst. Communion was perfect and seamless as we reflected on ALL that Christ has done for us individually and corporately as Northway Church. Thank you, Jesus!

But what about the celebration on our property? What about all the people who had worked tirelessly? What about the 70 people that were supposed to get baptized? What about all the food? What about Mr Twisty the magician? Our event on our property was scheduled from 1:00-4:00 pm, and as I wrapped up our last service at 12:45…I kid you not, THE RAIN STOPPED! The Doplar radar said we had a window of an hour to seize the day…before another band of bad weather hit us. We didn’t hesitate, and we were grateful for that window. We fed the masses, and we started baptizing the 70 people as fast as we could before we all got baptized. After baptizing we…the church…began to sing…and sing and sing and praise God more. Get this…as we did…for the first time all day, THE SUN BEGAN TO COME OUT! Are you kidding me?! For all ages, young and old, it was obvious…Heaven was smiling on us, and we didn’t see a drop of rain from 1-4:15pm! Afterwards, thunder from heaven hammered Malta!

June 22. The Unforgettable Down pour. I will always remember ALL of God’s blessings that have rained down on Northway Church in the last five years…coming together in a dramatic and climatic day that ONLY GOD could write. God, I’m overwhelmed at Your goodness to us and your church! Thank you, God, for 5 years of miracles of changing our lives. Thank You for being You! Thank you. With You, ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!