The Orchard BLOG
About The Author
The Orchard Blog is written by Steve Dusek, Founding Church Planter here at The Orchard Church. Steve is a father of two kids, both leading worship in the student band at The Orchard. He and his lovely wife, Sherry, celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary in January of 2010.





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The Orchard BLOG

Easter is Coming!

Mar/02/2010 05:05 PM
Wow! It is MARCH, and we got our brand-new mini-series kicked off this past Sunday! This will be a good series to be in for a few weeks, and we find Jesus doing a full-court press with miracle after miracle that are very important. This series is also important, because it will take us all the way up to EASTER, which is just a five Sundays away!



Speaking of Easter... You know, that is a really big deal for us. It is the holiest of holy days for all believers, and we want to treat it right. We’ve already begun to pray and to talk about what that morning will look like at The Orchard Church, and we know that God will show up in a big way! BUT, we also have a bunch of other stuff that we need to get on top of! We will most likely have a record attendance that day... Where will we put all those people? We’re already feeling pretty full in both services! Should we add a third service for that morning? What about video projection in the other theater? Would that just be awful? Will the parking lot be able to handle all the cars? Should we offer nursery and preschool in TWO hours? What about the already crowded lobby? How will we get 200+ people through there? I know, I know. Easter is about GOD and the incredible miracle of redemption because of his blood. BUT, we DO have to plan for everyone to get together and celebrate, too... And there is an awful lot of planning to do! Do you have any good suggestions about it? email me!

Snow Days

Jan/13/2010 10:02 AM
You can make many plans, but the Lord’s purpose will prevail
Proverbs 19:21

Who would have figured that a little snow would have effected Gilmer County the way it has? Once again this morning, all of us are at home... The family sleeping in due to the fact that school is out yet again. Today marks 4-1/2 SNOW days that we’ve experienced. Some roads are still reportedly impassable. Some people have yet to leave their homes since last week’s snow event.

Of course, it isn’t the snow alone... It’s the temperatures. Yesterday was the first day in over a week that we saw temperatures above freezing! It isn’t the AMOUNT of snow... but it’s resilience. We’re used to snow falling, then melting right away. We just aren’t accustomed to seeing snow hang around day after day.

And of course, the roads are shut down at a time when we as a church have been so poised to launch such a big, new phase of our ministry. On the big “SNOW Sunday” we had two services for the first time. Tonight we are set to relaunch youth ministry, but haven’t had the chance to actually invite students, due to school being out. This coming Sunday is our LifeGroup Connection, where we hope to connect people into community.

It seems like we’ve just picked the absolute worst time for just everything, doesn’t it? Did we miss it? Should we have done something different? Was our two-service schedule a mistake for this past week? Will our youth ministry kick off with a whimper instead of a roar?

You might not have known it on Sunday, but we had more first time visitors on our big snow day than we’ve had on any one Sunday in months! Not only that, but we presented the truth of God’s love and grace, and we saw one of those first time guests turn their life over to Christ for the first time! Praise God!

We may not have posted our best-ever numbers on Sunday morning, but ETERNITY was changed that day. So, if you’re all into sheer numbers, maybe you’re counting the wrong thing. Life change is what counts, and THAT is what God had planned for Sunday.

Maybe tonight at the youth ministry launch, we won’t have a ton of kids... But GOD will do the work that HE wants to do, DESPITE what our numbers show. Our plans are good, but God’s purpose will prevail!

Seven Things in Seven Months

Oct/31/2009 12:17 AM
You may have noticed that my good friend, Tony Balfa built a brand new sign for the corner near the Wal Mart! The new sign is perfect... It is much more permanent in it’s build quality than the old one ever was, and we got a new, RED banner to go in it! It just looks great!



With this new, more permanent sign, I feel like we are making a real statement. Doug Moore calls it “staking a claim on Ellijay,” and I think I like that. We just celebrated our six-month anniversary since our launch, and I feel like we are really getting some momentum going. We are HERE TO STAY, and we are HERE to CHANGE THE WORLD. We have a real heart to see God change hearts in Ellijay, and we just want to be part of it!

They told us that we would probably stall out at around 30. Fifty, if we were lucky. And that is after a year of ministry in Ellijay. The church growth experts say that all churches experience a growth barrier at 65. The next barrier is at 120. Churches all over the world just plain hit these barriers, and tend to stop growing.

The Orchard Church has been amazingly blessed by God. We’ve blown right by all of those expectations. After praying and seeking wise counsel, I believe that our first growth barrier is going to be at 250! Yep, 250. Nobody could have forseen that we would be having over 120 on a regular basis just six months into our ministry here in Ellijay. Nobody would have known that we would see dozens of people turn their lives over to Christ. We literally have people WAITING to be baptized!! How cool is that?? We are feeding families, clothing people, and doing all sorts of ministry in the name of Jesus.

We are SIX months old, and we are already bumping up on the capacity of our auditorium. Our life groups are already filling up. If we don’t watch out, we are going to LIMIT our own growth potential just because we aren’t ready for what God wants to do NEXT.


God has called us to something HUGE!
We’ve only just gotten started, but we have a lot to do. We’re experiencing much more growth that we ever anticipated, and we are seeing God do some incredible things. I was talking with our board this week, and we are setting some pretty high goals, aiming for these SEVEN things over the next SEVEN months. These are BIG things, requiring us to really buckle in and get it done... Here they are, in no particular order:

1. Develop a deeper PRAYER ministry
2. Have several BIG DAYS, including Christmas Eve, Super Bowl Sunday, and Easter
3. Add a SECOND SUNDAY AM SERVICE
4. SECURE and BUILDOUT the ERA for Children’s Ministry
5. Launch Elementary-age Children’s Ministry
6. Launch Youth Ministry
7. Launch more Life Groups!

This represents a lot, and it will mean a lot of people getting in on serving on a regular basis, but we are SEEING GOD WORK, and it is our privilege to partner with Him! Keep watching this space for more detail on what each of these seven things mean for our group. The fact is, we are running out of space in the movie theater, the lobby, and in the preschool area (the ERA next door to the theater). What a great problem to have!

As I look at this list of seven things... I can’t help but think that the answer to all of these things lies with PEOPLE. You know, it isn’t my responsibility to grow the church... it is God’s. Jesus called the ball on that one in Matthew when he said “...I will build my church.” But, I also know that it is my privilege to partner with him in that growth! God has given MANY people with gifts to the church to build it up into maturity and unity in Him! (Check it: Ephesians 4:11-16) So, I have to wonder... As we move into each of these seven things... WHO will God use? Who will God send? Who will God work through? Will it be you?

To see all the “Seven Things” blog entries so far, just click HERE.

Incredible Day!

Jul/06/2009 12:47 PM
I’m just in awe of yesterday’s Baptism Party. My amazement began at 4:30AM as I checked the radar, and saw the storms moving in. But they never materialized. All through the morning, the storms were knocking right on our doorstep according to the radar, but GOD held them off, and we had an awesome time out at the ETC Pavillion!

We fed nearly 80 pounds of chicken, we painted faces, jumped in the inflatables, played volleyball, sang, and had a great time... But best of all, we baptized a bunch of people! Even some that weren’t planning to be baptized! What an incredible day!



How can I even begin to say thanks to the selfless people who jumped in and pulled this event off?? Very special thanks to:
  • Kenny Crook and John Steinmueller for cooking all of that chicken
  • Angela and Jeff Langley for coordinating all the food stuff
  • Chuck and Gail Vautrot for the inflatables, and for getting the chicken
  • Rachel and Casey for getting up and setting up
  • Larry and Donna Vorpahl for coordinating the baptisms, greeting, and lots of other stuff
  • Amy Balfa for being the face of the event
  • Chad and Summer Mahan for making sure the place was spotless and put back
  • Doug and Naomi Moore for coordinating all our volunteers

These people and many others did a WHOLE LOT of work, and it couldn’t have happened without them. Way to go! It was EXACTLY what it needed to be. Thank you so much.