Kevin Presseault

Hard to believe just how much has gone on in the past 11 days...  Here's a brief run down. I had my last day as associate pastor at Woodside on Sunday, the 22 nd .  The elders prayed for Danielle and I and had us say a brief good-bye.  Cried like a baby in the first service... and was able to keep it together for the second :-) We were just BLOWN away by the outpouring of love during the goodbye party that evening.  The stories that were shared about the impact we had on people's lives really REALLY touched my heart!  We were so blessed to hear all of that. We kicked off our 2 week ministry break with a 3 day family vacation to Great Wolf Lodge in Niagara Falls, Ontario.  WHAT A BLAST! Doing a lot of praying for the ministry start-up at LifeSpring .  We're pretty pumped to see all that God wants to do there. Doing a lot of just relaxing!  Feels great to just relax around the house and get little odd and end jobs finished. Started working out with a personal trainer.  Gotta...

No... not of my ministry at Woodside (well, actually, I guess it kinda is, really) but tonight is the final episode of Battlestar Galactica! I'm SOOOO pumped to watch this! J ust please, please, please, please don't be lame! I hope there is no time travel that brings them to a healed and restored Earth. I hope that a new planet just doesn't show up out of nowhere. I hope they don't pull a Star Trek 2 "Genesis" bomb that the cylons have been developing to create planets. If anyone calls between 9pm and 11pm... well... NO ONE IS HOME! :-)

Hard to believe that this is my last day working in the church office... Still have one more Sunday, but that's going to be much more social then anything else :-) I'm at my completely cleaned off desk. Everything is completely packed and ready to be carried out of here. And I'm listening to the song "Voice of Truth" by Casting Crowns over and over again. Why? Because I'm nervous as all heck! This change is probably the scariest thing God has done in my life. No really! I'm sure some would think that resigning from a great career in the computer industry would have been harder... but it really wasn't. When we were moving to be a part of the ministry here it was to do something that I was very familiar with and very comfortable with. Sure, it was hard to leave friends and our church in Montreal... but I knew that I could do the ministry work here. This church was very similar to what we knew in Montreal; same size, same ministry responsibiliti...

Hey, Just before I went on my technology fast and then my crazy whirlwind announcement about me switching churches, I was looking for suggestions for changing the name of this blog. You can read the original ideal HERE . I've received a few suggestions... but with the fast and everything else that's been going on I have been able to really sit down and go over this... so I'm giving you all one last chance to suggest your name changes for the blog. You have until next Friday, March 27th. I'll pick the name that evening. The winner will get my last copy of the book IT by Craig Groeschel. Thankfully I haven't packed it up yet :-) So let those creative juices flow!

Ok... I'll admit it. I like change. I like trying new things and experiencing new challenges and meeting new people and going to new places. I guess that's why I so enjoyed being a consultant. I also figure that's how the spiritual gift of apostleship plays out in my life :-) Because I'm so comfortable with change I've developed a bit of reputation of being someone who wants to change the church simply for the sake of changing. Which is SOOOOO far from the truth! I don't believe in changing just to be cool and hip. I believe churches need to change because God is a God who is constantly transforming and changing his church. And he does that so that his church can grow and more and more people can come to know Jesus. Last week at Unleash , Perry Noble asked his audience some pretty tough questions. First he asked "Would you give up your life so that your grand kids will come to faith in Christ?" Everyone said yes. Then he flipped it on them and asked ...

This week my wife Danielle and I were watching the DVD of the book IT by Craig Groeschel . Have I happened to mention that I absolutely loved that book?? And the DVD made it even better... 9 short 10 minute sessions to watch with your leadership team and then go through the discussion questions to grow and strengthen the team. LOVE IT! One of the sessions brought me to tears... it was when Groeschel confessed that at one point in his ministry he realized that he had become a FULL TIME PASTOR and a PART TIME FOLLOWER OF JESUS! He was more concerned that his preaching would connect with people and grow his church then bringing glory and honour to God. What an incredibly humbling confession (just another reason why I greatly respect and admire this guy!) The reason for the tears is probably because at different times in my ministry I have felt exactly the same way. In ministry it is SOOOO easy to get swept up in the crazy busyness of it all... with so many different ministries to ov...

Just finished writting my article for the local paper. Guess this will be the last one... so here it is. Tired? By Kevin Presseault So… how are you doing? The very typical response to that question in our Canadian culture is “Fine. How are you?” If we’re really honest with each other, we’re probably not as fine as we tell people we are. We really just want to sit back and engage in some polite and friendly conversation. How am I doing? Glad you asked! I’m tired. Really, really tired. Last night was probably once of the worse night’s sleep I’ve had in years. My eyes are sore just trying to focus on my computer screen as I type this article. I have a killer headache that comes from being over tired. My neck and shoulders are stiff and feel like they’re in knots. Yup. I’m tired. I’m also tired of winter. I’m really done with it. I was waiting for the school bus this morning with my kids and the wind blowing off that farmer’s field felt like it was going to cut me in half!...

So very weird to think that I only have 12 days left here at Woodside ! Boy oh boy does that ever get me all excited/sad/freaked-out all at the same time :-) So here's a bit of a brain dump... Just had my last staff meeting here today. Since next week is Spring Break a lot of the staff won't be here so we cancelled next week's meeting... and next Sunday is my last day... so no more meetings. Didn't even get into either of our services this past Sunday... spent the entire time talking with people who wanted to know what I was going to do. Everyone was incredibly supportive... but I was quite looking forward to Dan's message on Ephesians 2! I guess I'll have to listen to it online :-) My office is in the biggest disaster ever! I'm going through all my old notes and throwing out everything that really is just clutter. Also starting to pack up all my books. Packing all these books is making me want to reread a WHOLE bunch of them! Man, I've read some really ...

Over the last couple of Sundays I have just been SOOOO overwhelmed with the encouragement and the support for Danielle and I in this transition of ministry.  I have just been blown away by the kind words, the hugs, the tears and the love that everyone has been poured out on us. So many people have touched our hearts and our lives during our time at Woodside .  We are so grateful to God for sending us there for this season in our walk with him.  We are so thankful to have been a part of the ministry there, even if it feels quite short. I also amazed at the number of people who have shared with me how much they've been impacted by my time at Woodside ... and these are people that I've barely talked to in the years I've been there.  WOW!  God is really good!  Glad he was working in people lives through me because it certainly wasn't because of anything I planned!  :-) Thank you everyone for your prayers and your incredibly kind words!  Thanks for the love and the encourag...

Found this video from The Gospel-Driven Church blog... and JUST LOVE IT!!! This is the kind of stuff that makes my heart skip a few beats! It's only 2 minutes long... but a very powerful message to all of us. (If you're reading this on Facebook check out this link )

I have always been a "what-you-see-is-what-you-get" kind of guy. No secrets. No hidden motives. No agendas. Emotions right there on the sleeves. It's easy to know what I'm thinking and what I'm feeling and what I'm passionate about because it's all right out there for all to see :-) Bill Hybels says it best that "the local church is the hope of the world". I believe that. And I am more and more convinced that if the church is going to be effective in bringing that message to a hurting world we church leaders need to step up and out of our comfortable church worlds and be real and transparent with people... those in and outside our churches. I believe we live in such incredible times. Technology is INCREDIBLE. Information on everything is EVERYWHERE. And with more and more and more information it seems like people actually have less and less answers to life's big questions. People are no longer simply looking for truth... but need to know and ...

As I continue this process of transitioning from one ministry to another something really sad is hitting me today. And this is going to sound like a self-pitty party... but it really isn't. Truth sometimes hits hard. It's really hitting me that I did a pretty poor job of getting people on board with the ministry that I was doing here. I know... this sounds harsh... but it's so true. And do you know how I know it's true? Because not a single person here has any clue of everything that I've done here. I know this is true because I've been spending the last couple of weeks simply trying to document everything that I've done here the past 2.5 years... And, for me, that's REALLY bad! My philosophy of ministry has always been to work myself out of a job. I should be investing in leaders and other people in order to get them pumped up about the ministry and getting on board the train! I should be encouraging and equipping members to join us on this incredibl...

On Friday my wife Danielle and I celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary! I just can't believe that it's been ten years already. How did we celebrate? Well... in November we went on our cruise... and on Friday we took the kids to see The Jonas Brothers in 3D :-) Not the most romantic but it was a lot of fun! I truly consider myself the most blessed man on the planet to have such a fantastic wife! She is the most encouraging and thoughtful person I have ever met. She's also an absolute hoot to hang around with. I love being with her and doing things with her more then anyone else in the world. In ten short years we've had some pretty amazing adventures. And I'm pumped and excited about what God will do in our lives together for the next ten. Love ya Babe!