(Refresh post for updates and photos throughout the weekend. A running photo gallery can be found here.)

Sunday, August 29
Morning Session

12:43 - It’s definitely been fun doing this liveblog and I’ve hoped you all enjoyed it. I’m gonna go up and pray with some folks, and hang out here in Tri-Cities for a bit. Tonight I will probably post a review. God bless and thanks for joining us today!!!

12:42 - Bishop and Sis. K are going to pray for the pastors and appointees.

Bishop K announces the convention is now closed.

12:38 - Of interest is the fact that Paul Arnold is of course still the pastor at Tri-Cities, but will be on leave for three months.

Prayer of consecration for all ministers.

12:36 - Check the WA COGOP website for Pastoral Appointments. I can’t type THAT fast.

12:32 - State Appointments are as follows:

Secretary to Overseer - Mary Knoblich
State treasurer - Dolores Huff
Spanish Field Secretary - Samuel Munoz
Cell Ministries - Allen Cabales
Sunday School/Heritage - Bill Elders
Women’s - Sherry Johnson
Youth - Shelly Symonds
Children’s/State Evangelist - Kelly Lane
Overseer’s Care Coordinator - Frank Smith
State Music Coordinator - Pam Murkerson
Youth Camp Coordinators - Bob & Donella Gaines
Sr. Camp - Shelly Symonds
Jr. Camp - Chris & Siu May Knoblich
Young Adult Camp - Bill & Cindy Davison
Pee Wee Camp - Kelly Lane
Men’s - Frank Smith
Adult Retreat - Don & Mary Knoblich
Seniors - Darlene Symonds
Stewardship Ministries - Mary Knoblich
Webmaster/Lamplighter - Rob Judd Jr.
CBL/Director of Evangelism - Don Knoblich

12:30 - Prayers once again for Dave Cabales. I personally implore everyone to keep praying for Dave and Kaye. Not seeing them at convention is a tough thing.

Bishop K saying that Dave Cabales will be stepping down from his longtime position as state music director, and thanking him for his years of service. Truly a changing of the guard to come.

Also thanking Sis. Betty Snodgrass for being here as well.

12:27 - Bishop K thanking everyone who was involved with the program. Still to come is the pastoral appointments.

12:23 - Bishop Hall has concluded his departing challenge with a message for us all to turn to the harvest and touch lives for Christ.

12:17 - Now standing for prayer as we will all join hands and pray.

12:10 - Preaching now about “Three Keys to Successful Reaping: Passion, Power and Performance.”

12:06 - Hi Mom.

12:02 - Getting ready for the Departing Challenge now. He’s giving some figures about population, etc.

11:58 - Talking about membership now. My mind wandered off and wondered what if we had a Roller Coaster at FOW that depicted COGOP history. It would start at 1903 then start climbing, then about 1980 or so it would do the freefall, and by 2007 would keep climbing again.

11:44 - He’s REALLY pumping up Fields of the Wood. The place in front of our table is becoming a traveled trafficway toward the door. People coming and going.

11:41 - Bishop Hall is promoting Heritage Ministries, formerly the Church of Prophecy Marker Association.

11:36 - Technical difficulties! Our team is right on it though, here we go.

11:33 - Bishop Hall is now addressing the Convention. “We must not forget our heritage.” Giving a short visual tour of Fields of the Wood. Sounds like a place I’d actually like to visit sometime.

11:25 - Bishop K is now introducing Bishop Hall, who will give the departing challenge. Turning the microphone over to Bishop Hall now.

11:19 - People still greeting the Knoblich’s. Wonderful worship with “There Is a Fountain.”

11:07 - In a massive show of support for the Knoblich’s, everyone from the convention are going up and giving their offering to plates set on the stage, then greeting them with hugs and words of support. KFC Worship Team is playing the offertory music.

10:59 - Carol has just pointed out that Bishop K was appointed to the North American General Presbyter Sam Clements’ advisory council.

10:50 - Worship was great! Songs included “Shout to the Lord” and “Sing Over Me.” Now Carol Dillard is giving the offertory and we may also be accepting in new members soon from what it sounds like.

10:28 - Worship time with KFC Church.

10:22 - Bishop K introduces his wife as “Sister Knoblich.” He’s definitely showing us that this convention is all business.

Sis. K is now pumping up Adult Retreat. Seems like we’re hearing from all the auxiliary ministries this morning.

Joel Senior has just pointed out to me that there is a caffeine injection station by the sound booth for all convention participants. Pastors have been among the first to receive the drug intravenously.

10:17 - Kelly Lane is pumping up Children’s Ministries. Her presentations are creative, but not nearly as wild as my dad’s when he was Children’s Ministry Director. I think my Dad smoked rocks before he got on stage. Kelly, just has a very vivid imagination.

10:02 - Children’s Ministries are now going to do a presentation.

9:54 - We are going to pray for the folks going on the Philippine mission trip. These guys are headed out in a few days.

9:44 - Lead usher, Pak Keung Wong, is handing out white envelopes for a love offering for the guest speaker Wayne Hall. He came by our booth and said “It’s a love offering for me,” with a huge grin on his face. I love Pak Keung.

9:43 - Sherry Johnson is pumping up Women’s Ministries and giving a Ladies’ Retreat report. 87 women attended this year.

9:39 - While we’re still waiting to get underway this morning, let me point out that there is an astounding number of people here with personal technology devices here…laptops, PDAs, etc. The presence of Wi-Fi at the hotel helps.

Now we’re getting underway…9:40 and Bishop K is speaking now.

9:32 - KFC Worship Team singing “I Will Sing a New Song.” They’ve been singing this for 5 minutes.

9:30 - KFC Worship Team still offering the musical prelude; we’re waiting for things to kick off here this morning. People still filing in — it’s really good to see how in every service we’ve had, the youth/young adults of the state are filling the front rows.

There are significantly fewer people this morning, as is usually the case. Many people leave early Sunday morning for whatever reason. The weather today may be playing into that as well, it’s dreary and rainy outside for the first time out of all the times I’ve been to the Tri-Cities.

9:21 - The Kirkland Family Church worship band is playing some wonderful modern renditions of old-school hymns. Got the guitars wailing, horns a-blowing and the guy on the piano is rocking. Drums kickin’, bass kickin’, it’s awesome. There will definitely be a meeting in the air and I want these guys to play my way to heaven.

9:17 - From all indications it looks like we may actually be starting at 9:30. People are still filing in as we speak.

9:07 AM - Welcome everybody to our last day here at the Washington COGOP State Convention. Yesterday was an amazing day of worship, the Word, and awesome fellowship — during the youth service we had over 400 attendees and one report said we closed in on the 500 mark. Praise God for that.

Today we are going to hear from either Bishop K or Bishop Hall, then we will hear a departing challenge and re-affirmations of pastoral and leadership appointments. I will post those at the time they are announced.

As far as traffic on the site over the weekend, we’ve had over 350 people each day viewing this site for updates on Convention. 43 already this morning…glad you all could be with us.

We are in the musical prelude right now and will begin within the next ten minutes.

Saturday, August 18
Evening Session

10:32 - And that’s it for tonight!!! Youth Afterglow is starting up and that gives me opportunity to sign off. Tomorrow we start at 9 AM. See you then!!!

10:04 - Fekadu may be wrapping up soon…we’re waiting for Afterglow to begin.

9:43 - Fekadu Ayele is speaking about the Ethoipian work in the region.

9:35 - The Spanish youth are doing an interpretive dance to the Spanish version of “Open the Eyes of my Heart.” Everyone is on their feet!

9:24 - Bro. Munoz elicits applause when he tells how grateful he is to be a citizen of the United States of America. I love this guy.

9:20 - Bro. Munoz has introduced a missionary. Giving an exhortation to all Christians to unite and come together.

9:06 - Bro. Samuel Munoz, Spanish field secretary, will now speak. He’s currently addressing the Spanish-speaking audience…now he has an interpreter.

9:00 - Lead usher Pak Keung Wong told me he estimated over 400 people to have attended the service tonight. Outstanding for Washington state.

Tonight’s events are still going on. Carol Dillard is giving the offertory now, and in a few we will hear from Pastors Munoz and Ayele. Later on is the Youth Afterglow — convention’s version of Saturday Night Live.

8:57 - Powerful prayer session. Shelly asked if everyone 30 and younger would step forward for the elders to pray for them, and half the convention (over 200 people) responded. Wonderful time of prayer and it was a testimony to the saying “the youth are the church of today.” Couldn’t get any photos because I was being prayed for as well. It was a huge blessing.

8:13 - Prayer time…back soon.

8:10 - Shelly points out “if we don’t reach out to our youth, they will go to churches that will reach out to them.” That’s….already happened somewhat. Look at everyone I grew up with in camp, only a fraction of them are around today. Around the COGOP, that is.

8:06 - Shelly is asking our elders in the church to lay hands on our youth and pray for them. “If we don’t take our young people, train them and impart to them our experience and what we know, we are going to lose them.” She drew a massive amen for that.

8:03 - Shelly Symonds, state youth director, is now speaking on God’s birthright to us as His children….she’s using the parallel story of Jacob and Esau from the book of Genesis.

7:50 - Sumner receives a standing ovation for their performance. Wonderful dance to “Who Can Stand Before Him.”

7:42 - Worship has just ended. Sumner youth group is getting ready to perform a dance. Here they go…

7:38 - Worship is still going on. It’s been happening for about 45 minutes now.

7:14 - The Spirit is really moving during Worship tonight. Many people have vacated their seats and have gone up front to jump, sing, shout, dance or whatever God impresses on their heart.

7:01 - I just saw a good-sized group from the Hermiston, Oregon COGOP mission. About 15-20 of them have joined us for service tonight. We are singing “Freedom Reigns In This Place” right now.

6:55 - Time for Worship. We will be led tonight not by one specific church, but by a team of youth from all over the state. This is going to be great.

6:40 - Watching a video now of Shelly Symonds parodying TBN’s Jan Crouch. This is hilarious.

6:30 - Youth service is underway. Tonight we will hear from State Youth Director Shelly Symonds, Spanish Field Secretary Samuel Munoz, and Ethopian Overseer Fekadu Ayele.

I have also dared Tim Moon to sing like the Swedish Chef during worship tonight.

6:22 - I’m counting only about 25-30 open seats all across the auditorium. We may push 500 in attendance tonight and we might be standing room only. Many who have not been here for the previous sessions have arrived this afternoon and the room is nearing full capacity.

6:20 - Sis. Knoblich is leading a prayer for the sick tonight. Concert Pianist, Vita Desyatnik, and Music Director David Cabales are both sick and could not be here. Powerful prayer led by the Spirit.

6:13 - Here’s a link to the RSS feeds for the Washington State COGOP Sermon player.

6:00 PM - Welcome once again everyone, we’re gearing up the live blog again as everyone files into the convention center for the last session here Saturday. Looking forward to a great evening, as tonight is the youth service. Got some great stuff coming up — the Sumner youth will be doing an interpretive dance as well as the Bremerton D.A.N.G. Youth team. We’re in the musical prelude now and I’ll update soon. I’m gonna post some photos…

Morning Session

12:31 PM - Looks like altar call is still going on. Many people at the altars and all around the convention center, praying for each other and encouraging one another. Jarrod Elizares from Tri-Cities is leading worship during altar call.

This is a good opportunity for me to sign off for the morning session. Be sure to check back tonight around 6:30 PM when I will be back on here. Thanks for joining us this morning, and we will be back half an hour before the evening session tonight.

12:22 PM - The message is concluding and Bishop K is giving the altar call. Very powerful message today — “Don’t give up, keep building the wall, turn toward the harvest.”

12:12 PM - Bishop K praises the work the Spanish congregations are doing. He gave the Granger church as an example…all the Spanish brothers and sisters came together and held a barn raising for the church, they put the roof on their church in one day. “People our churches need to come together more.” Personally I took that also as a call to network with churches in our own communities as well.

11:54 - Bishop K: “Members, grow up and mature so your Pastor doesn’t have to spend all the time holding up the fort…you are to be your Pastor’s Force, not his field.” That’ll preach!

11:41 - Bishop Knoblich is preaching a hard-hitting message on how everyone is involved in the harvest, regardless of age, language, job, ability, etc.

11:37 - Message is still going on but I figured I’d take the time to let everyone know that our state COGOP website has archives of the sermons from this weekend…they will be updated as time permits. Great job and kudos to our Multimedia staff, Paul Symonds, Corey McBee and Rob Judd. John Almquist is also filming the sermon for New Horizons Church.

11:23 - Bishop Knoblich is speaking: “It’s time to clean the house of God.” More people are filing in as ushers escort everyone into the auditorium. I count about 300 people as just a rough estimate. Still many empty seats, but 300 is great for a Saturday morning.

11:10 - The offertory is over and Bishop Knoblich is getting ready to speak. I’ll have a synopsis of his sermon when it’s over.

10:53 - This is neat — Carol Dillard, offering coordinator, is pumping up the offering, and her daughter Katie Hargett is translating into Spanish for our Hispanic brothers and sisters today. There is a strong Spanish contingent here…good to see people like Brother Munoz here, haven’t seen him in years.

10:50 - Worship has just concluded. Pastor Paul Arnold and the High Point Worship team did a great job. Now Bishop Knoblich is pumping up the afternoon sessions, “Membership Matters” and “Stewardship Matters.” Won’t be running the liveblog for those however.

10:26 - Worship has begun. We are singing “Meeting in the Air.” BLUE BOOK LIVES!

10:15 - 104 Senior Campers, 35 PeeWee Campers, and they didn’t say how many Junior Campers. Let’s just say 70 or so. It just sounds right.

10:04 - I keep greeting people passing by the table we have set up here. A bunch of them immediately ask how my parents are doing these days…a testimony to how well-loved my parents were and how far-reaching their ministry was here in Washington state.

9:58 - Crunching some camp numbers: 46 saved during summer camps, 19 sanctified, 48 filled with the Holy Spirit, 71 baptized in water. 104 attendees for Senior Camp, will get more numbers soon.

9:52 - Getting ready for Camp Reports. I’ll post numbers immediately. Bob and Donella Gaines, state Camp Coordinators, are up there now getting ready to speak. Camp slideshow playing behind them with some humorous photos.

9:46 - Pastor Frank Smith (New Horizons): “It’s good to be in the house of the Lord this morning.” I don’t know why anyone says that here, that’s the third time I’ve heard that phrase this weekend already. It’s a friggin’ hotel convention center.

9:37 - Sis. Huff is reading the state budget report for the year. Mandatory stuff, and if anyone’s interested I can provide some figures later. What I’m really waiting for is the camp report.

9:28 - It’s a great thing to see a bunch of youth/young adults here this morning. Even though it’s a business session, it clearly shows we have young people who are involved in their church and interested in the welfare of the COGOP from the state level. Great to see.

9:26 - Morning session now underway. Smaller crowd than last night, and I don’t think it will be as big, but there are people who have arrived this morning who weren’t here yesterday.

Pastor Roger Jones of Skagit Valley is now speaking.

Remember to continue checking the gallery, linked above, for photos, as terrible as my camera is in this lighting.

9:20 - Special welcome this morning to all our visitors via Jude 2, and linkage via the New Horizons Church (Washougal, WA) and Ring of Fire (Newport News, VA) websites. If everyone could keep spreading the word about this liveblog we could really reach a bunch of people.

9:18 - Had a nice chat with Pastor John Allaway of Bremerton. “We have about 25 youth in our church,” he said. “We’ll let them dance in service, we don’t care…Bible said to dance before the Lord.” Bremerton’s youth group is well known across the state for their interpretive dances at state events and we can look forward to another one this weekend.

9:04 AM - Welcome to another day of State Convention…Saturday, the only full day. In just about ten minutes we will begin the morning session with some worship from the High Point (Tri-Cities) COGOP Worship Team and hear the camp and budget reports afterwards.

Dan Browning has written in to say he enjoys the live blog, thanks for tuning in Dan!!! Anyone else out there that is tracking Convention through the blog, drop me a line at firestormlive@mac.com.

Friday, August 17

9:47 - Looks like we’re informally adjourning. Many people at the altar, but many also leaving and fellowshipping as well. I’m going to take this opportunity to sign off for the night, but I’ll be back tomorrow. God bless!

9:17 - Bishop Hall is still going on strong and the people seem to be enjoying it pretty well. He’s all over the board, touching on a range of subjects but the main focus is that we all need to seek out private time in prayer with the Lord.

8:21 - Bishop Hall has been introduced and is now speaking. I will have a synopsis and a couple photos after the sermon.

8:16 - They’re now showing a video greeting from General Overseer Randy Howard. He wanted to make it but couldn’t for unknown reasons.

8:04 - Moment of silence for deacon John Taylor, who passed away within the last calendar year. I remember working Jr. Camp with him.

7:51 - Just concluded a wonderful time of worship with songs such as “There Is A Fountain” and “How Great Is Our God.” Photos up in 10 minutes on the web gallery.

7:21 - Bishop K announces that we have close to 400 people here already. Outstanding number considering the auditorium doesn’t even look near full.

7:11 PM - Here’s a photo of everyone filing in. Bear with me on the photo quality, the lighting sucks and my flashbulb is dying.

7:03 PM Bishop K declares the Convention open. We’re off and I’ll update in 30 minutes or so!

6:52 PM - Sorry so late, but here’s the schedule for tonight:

7:00
Official Convention Opening by Bishop Knoblich
Scripture and Welcome to the Area by Pastor Paul Arnold, Tri-Cities Pastor
Prayer for State Convention by Frank Smith, New Horizons (Washougal) Pastor
Praise and Worship with Kirkland Family Church worship team
Senior Ministries Boost by Darlene Symonds
Love Offering for Guest Speaker by Carol Dillard
Message by Bishop Wayne Hall, Fields of the Wood

We are set to begin in under five minutes. I will post photos throughout the night.

6:09 PM - People are filing into the convention center slowly but surely. The scuttlebutt here is we are expecting roughly 400-500 people over the course of the weekend. Many probably won’t be able to make it tonight but many will tomorrow.

Just spoke to Allen Cabales and he told me his dad, Kirkland pastor Dave Cabales, will not be in attendance at convention for his first time ever. He is in the hospital again so let’s all join in prayer for him.

4:24 PM - I have arrived at the Red Lion Hotel and Convention Center in Kennewick, WA…directly across from the Columbia Center Mall and all the worldly pleasures it offers.

People are trickling in and I’m seeing folks I haven’t seen since 2002 — the last time I was at State Convention.

I have a table set up where I will be running this live blog through the course of the evening services today and tomorrow, and Sunday morning as well. Wi-Fi is great.

10:35 AM - Audio update, click the Play button below.

[audio:http://www.chris-brewer.com/sc07/friday-1030am.mp3]

10:14 AM - A special hello here to everyone looking for updates on this year’s COGOP State Convention here in Washington. This is the place to be as I will be updating this post as often as possible over the weekend, much in the spirit of a liveblog, but not as fast. I’m not sure what Internet access will be like over there but I will try to get on whenever I can and update this thing.

As of right now I am still in Hillsboro, Oregon at my apartment just finishing up packing and making final preparations to head east on a four hour drive. Convention events don’t start until 6:00 tonight, with the pre-service prayer, and Bishop Knoblich will declare the convention open with service starting at 7:00.

If you can, make every effort you can to be there. If you can’t, well, that’s what this thread is for. Keep checking it for updates and photos throughout the weekend as I will be editing it as necessary.

Wish me and everyone from COGOPs around Wa. state a safe trip! I’ll update later.