5th Grade Mission Trip Update #2

Guest Blogger - Morgan Long (Reflections on Day 2)

We all had a blast; the whitewater adventure water park was way above our imaginations. The raft rides were amazing with the sharp turns and riding on the walls. Awesome great adventures and fast were some of the ways we described this amazing six flags water park. After we had all the fun we imagined, we went to our hotel and got ready for our mexican dinner. We had burritos, which we regreted eating, tacos, beans, rice and quesadillas. After a great dinner we went to the hotel so we could have our devotional and plan out the rest of our trip.

5th Grade Mission Trip Update #1...Pastor D

Guest Blogger - Pastor D

Here we are sitting in the lobby of Springhill Suites in Alpharetta Georgia... Last night was a night to remember... Dinner @ the Varsity... Riding Marta (which was quite a interesting experience for our kids)... then a great night @ Phillips arena with the Atlanta Dream... which gave us many...MANY memories.

Following our night of festivities we concluded with a special time of prayer and presentation of Teen Bibles to the kids. Needless to say, the kids loved their Bibles and were thrilled with the many things that are in days ahead. Please pray for sunny weather today. The news is telling us that it is suppose to rain all day... we are suppose to be @ Six Flags White Water. Last year we had rain on this same day...doing the same thing! IT was so cold... I am praying that today the water is not cold... especially if it is going to rain.

So here we are about to leave... and journey into another day of fun! Watch for future post... our next post will be by one of our students.... you will have to check back to see!

Are we doing Student Ministry as effectively as we could?...or should?

I recently graduated with my Masters in Youth and Family Ministry. One of the most challenging things about this program was it requiring me to rethink how I have traditionally done student ministry. I plan on posting more about this but this video gets the idea started. Should we be doing student ministry or family ministry?

Family Time

Today, I am doing absolutely nothing but having fun hanging out with the fam! We've been riding four wheelers, playing baseball, swinging etc...It's been a blast.

But the interesting thing to me is how refreshing it is when you take time to just enjoy family. As a minister I am usually overwhelmed with "church work" and many times can neglect my 1st priority given to me by God.

After my relationship with him, I am to minister to my family, not to my "job". This is not something just for ministers but for everyone. I challenge you this weekend to take some time to do nothing but hang with your family. Enjoy them, cherish them, and most important focus on their needs 1st...

Disturbed?

I ran across this prayer today and it made me think...How many of us are doing something so big, dreaming dreams so large, that without God we will fall flat on our face? I believe God wants to do great things through the church today, I believe we are just to afraid of failing and looking unsuccesful to our peers that we are afraid to have a God-size vision in our life!

Here's the prayer:

Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves, when our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little, when we arrive safely because we have sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when with the abundance of things we possess, we have lost our thirst for the waters of life; having fallen in love with life, we have ceased to dream of eternity; and in our efforts to build a new earth, we have allowed our vision of the new heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly, to venture on wider seas where storms will show your mastery; where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars. We ask you to push back the horizons of our hopes; and to push us into the future in strength, courage, hope, and love.

I know I have been sailing too close to the shore lately and I am asking Jesus to disturb me to action.

In what areas have you become too comfortable and need to pray: "Lord, disturb me?" In what areas in your life have you been traveling too close to shore and need to pray: "Lord, disturb me?"

A lot to catch up on...

So, I know what you're thinking, I guess Scott feel out of the blogasphere world...well kinda, but things around here have been crazy...I mean seriously crazy. Between a 10 day road trip, graduation, concerts and the list goes on and on, my life has been interesting. Every time I get ready to come back and post, I found another thing come up...

Okay enough excuses...I'm back and ready to rejoin the bloggin world. So if you have left, come back, if your new, welcome!

Where have you been?

You may have been asking that question about me...it's been crazy here...We had an awesome service at the end of February (on Wednesday Night), celebrated Blake's birthday, did our 1st drama here, and yesterday I preached for the first time in the main sanctuary...and on top of all that...I'm now on FACEBOOK! Ok, so I can see where it can be a little addictive...If you don't have me as a friend...hit me up...and I'll try to get back in the groove of blogging...I am heading to Knoxville Wednesday for Winterfest so I may be here and there with it.

Wednesday Review

Last night was an overall good night. We started with a cool animated video. Praise and Worship was good...We did some interactive texting agian this week although we really cut down on it this week. I didn't feel like I spoke really well but overall it was a good night. I feel like we are really gaining some momentum. Good things are happening and it's exciting every week to see what God is going to do...stay tuned 'cause something big's about to happen!!

Here is picture from last night.

Wednesday Review

Last night was AWESOME!! It was our interactive service and here is how it went down...

After the countdown we went into a "text intro" (thanks zach) which was basically a computer driven message on the screens that was communicating to the students like a text message. I was surprised at how much the students were interacting with the video.

We came out of that and into me doing announcements and offering. Then the band did an amazing job with worship. During one of the worship songs we gave students the opportunity to text in what God is to them...I was honestly nervous about this at first, but it was unreal!! Here's a sample of what it looked like

.

We also had Derrick painting during worship...which was also incredible! Great job D!



Worship really was unreal this week...Great job band!

Finally we went into an interactive message, which this week was dominated by the poll questions we were asking students about dating. Here is a view of what it looked like...



We had a panel up front of that students could ask questions to, or we just allowed students that wanted to to share their opinion openly...if they wanted to stand up to the mic...



Overall, I was extremely pleased with last nights service!! I am excited because next week we are going to be utilizing the texting again, but I am going to get more time to preach!!

This was definitely a HUGE success for us!!

This Wednesday

So this Wednesday will be our first attempt at a txt interactive service. We are setting up everything tonight to be ready for Wednesday and I'm looking forward to an awesome night. We are talking about dating and guy/girl relationships in general. Last Wednesday I told all the students to bring their phone (like they wouldn't) and be ready so this should be fun.

We purchased a service that allows us to not only have immediate poll updates, but also gives us the opportunity to moderate any comments that come through (we are talking about students you know)...but I don't want to give out too much info to spoil the surprise.

I'll let you know how it turns out!! I'm excited!

Super Bowl Recap

So it has taken me a bit to get back here and recap our superbowl party but it was great!! We had an awesome turn out (around 250) and the place looked great. We of course had great food (wings, pizza etc...), giveaways (we gave a cardinals and steelers super bowl jersey, cheesecake factory gift cards, starbucks etc...), I had some of my students play in between commercials some (which worked out great) and Bobby Humphrey spoke at halftime. It was a great event. A ton of work, but a great event. The pictures definitely don't do it justice but here they are:

Origin Band

So I instead of posting pictures of the new stage design, I thought I would just post some videos from the Origin Band last Wednesday. although this does not do justice to the service itself...also these are only a few of the slow songs...We didn't run camera production, just a wide angle camera (and the fast songs were a little distorted).

Super Bowl Party and Bobby Humphrey

Man I am getting excited about this Sunday. We are having an awesome Super Bowl Party...Big Screens (inHD!), wii's, x-box 360, wings, pizza and the list goes on and on, but to top it all of we have Bobby Humphrey coming in to speak for us at halftime.



If you didn't grow up in Alabama you may not be as familiar with him as those who did. Bobby Humphrey was one of the greatest running backs ever for the Alabama Crimson Tide. He played for them in the late 80's and went on to be a first round draft pick in 1989 by the Denver Broncos. Needless to say, being here in Birmingham, he will be a great draw for all football fans, but especially Alabama fans.

If you are from the Birmingham area, listen to WDJC Friday morning...they are going to be doing an interview with Bobby about what he's doing and also about the Super Bowl party Sunday!!

It's going to be awesome! Don't miss it!!

Wednesday was Crazy Good

Okay so for all of you who did not make it Wednesday to our service with the Origin band...you missed it! And I have to say...I told you so! It was amazing. This band is so tight, anointed and really have a passion to share Jesus Christ through their music! Since I am still waiting on our other stage pictures I wanted to share some pictures from Wednesday.

Kaden had to make sure everything sounded right, so he was handling the sound check


Here is a shot of Eric (lead singer)...He is such a passionate worship leader. He has no clue how crazy good he is!!


Here is a great shot of the students worshiping...It was a great night!

Wednesday...BE THERE

This Wednesday the Origin Band is going to be doing service. It's going to be an amazing worship service. All I can say is Be there!! If you miss it and here about how awesome it was...I'll have to say I told you so!

Stage Design

So I've been extremely busy finishing up the stage design (which is still a work in progress), having leader's meetings, Winterfest Steering Committee Meeting, and the list goes on. But as promised here are some pics from last week's service. This should give you a glimpse at the stage. We also took some pics last night after service because we got our truss in!! So I'll update those soon as I get them.

Great Start to 2009

So it's been a week since I've last posted but it has been a crazy one!! We have been working extremely hard and long hours to get our new stage design done for our first worship service of the new year...and it looks great!! We just added an 8' tall by 18' wide screen as our backdrop...changed lighting...added staging on the front...cleaned everything out!! I'm waiting on pictures that were taken last night to be emailed to me...as soon as I get them I will post them.

Last Nights service was also great! We used this video (which Blake remade)

It rocked!! The band came right in with Your Name High (Hillsong) I came out and did welcome, Alan offering, then an awesome worship bumper. The worship set was Solution, Rain Down, and What You Say I Say. The band did great (especially with all the new stage design and locations of everyone being moved!! Great job CJ and Band!)

Finally, I begin sharing the vision for our student ministry for 2009. I only got through part of it because we were running behind but it was exciting!! I can't wait to see the AMAZING things God is going to do this year here!

Thank you to all the workers who worked tirelessly on the stage design!! I couldn't have done it without you!!
It was definitely a great start to 2009!