Monday Morning Perspective

Eddie shared some stats yesterday that were eye opening, encouraging and challenging. Fairview, we have 92,000 people within a 5 mile radius of us and double that for a 10 mile radius. 35% claim to be evangelical Christians. Eddie is right, we have work to do! 

Some great points worth remembering...

The Holy Spirit was given for our employment not enjoyment. 

I'm nobody telling everybody about somebody who can save anybody. 

Jesus gave the Great Commission to 11 with no political status, no social standing. 

It's not about our personality, our persuasiveness, our position. It's all about His power. 

There's no plan B. We are His people and we are responsible for sharing. 

If you're not doing missions here, why go there?

Many go on vacation and call it a mission trip. 

The light that shines the brightest shines at home. 

It was a powerful message and powerful worship. It was one of those goosebump times. Cross Talk was back and on fire! I hope all who lead in worship really grasp your role in preparing us to hear the word and receive it. Yes, we should all come with expectancy and our hearts and attitudes right before the Lord, but what you do is vitally important. You help prepare us and decisions that are made at the end are so often in response to what you do at the beginning. Thank you for serving and leading!

Our Sunday night modern worship was tremendous as well. I LOVE the mixture of ages from teens to senior adults!! That's what it's about!! I'd put our volunteers up against anyone. Many are there two hours early. I've been praying about who was going to man the media booth when Eddie Fisher is not there and I turn around and Andrew Mosteller is up there and will continue to be. Daneil Joines is always working those slides. The countdown was happening and I headed to turn down lights and Justin Broome was already standing there to do it. I panicked when I realized we hadn't "delegated" guys to take up offering but they were on it. Nathan Brannon gets Eddie's podium up there right on cue. I hope you've seen that. My son Stephen made it. It's one of favorite things ever! Thank you Justin Broome for sharing our life on mission moment at the end. I love those so much! It puts such a visual with the sermon that is priceless. Come out and join us for this special service. Even if you come Sunday morning, you'll get so much out of this one. It's unique with such a sweet presence of the Spirit among us. And there's always room for more who want to volunteer. We are about building depth so no one feels the weight. That's part of the discipleship process.

Happy Monday to you all. We get an extra day of February. How will you spend it? Make good use of it! See those opportunities God brings your way. Slow down. Help make someone's day a little better. Living your day on mission with God makes it a day with purpose and no regrets! 

Monday Morning Perspective

WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!

This post will be longer than usual but Sunday was such a full day in every way that I have to at least try and do it justice!

This was week two of our Life on Mission series and it is already my favorite. That says a lot because I love them all and I've had some favorites I never thought we would top. But this one is so rich in scripture and so practical that I'm loving it already! 

Our church mission statement  is we exist to glorify God and make disciples who live life on mission. Week one we looked at glorifying God so this week we looked at making disciples and we found ourselves in Matthew 28 at the great commission. I won't break down the entire message since I'd rather beg you to watch it online if you missed it, but the heart of the message for me was the two calls God issues to us: the first is the call to salvation and the second is the call to GO! Maybe or maybe not to go across the sea, but most definitely to all believers, the call to go across the street. It was an "as you go" message and we have no excuse. 

Extras for this Monday...

Cross Talk, who leads us in worship every week, was missing some band members Sunday so we called on our student band from Alive to lead. Let me just say, Fairview we are so blessed. We didn't miss a beat, no pun intended. Those kids stepped right up! My heart was pounding! Now yes, they lead weekly for our student service and they are fantastic and we have a large crowd every week! But, it's a whole new ballgame to get up on Sunday morning in front of a large crowd, most of whom are older than you, and not cave to intimidation. To say they did an amazing job is an understatement. 

Now shoutout to two people just because. I love that my pastor/husband is a leader that not only allows our young ones to take such a part but loves it and encourages it. Just in case you don't realize the big deal, it's a huge deal. There's a lot of prayer and energy and thought that goes into a Sunday morning not for perfection sake but you just always want nothing but your best given for the Lord. Those of us in ministry not only know with our head but we experience the full blown spiritual warfare that goes on in a worship service. So to put our young students in that atmosphere and believe in them that they can handle it just makes me so thankful for Eddie. It's always been our heartbeat to raise up the younger generation and watch them lead. 

Now to their fearless leader Michael Hux! He believes in them and has poured so much into them, that's true discipleship. He has stuck with them and raised them up for such a time as this. They were ready to not only lead music, they were solidly grounded to handle such an enormous task (remember I mentioned spiritual warfare). Proof that they aren't the run of the mill, just get up and sing teenagers. They are strong believers ready to take their place not willing to "let anyone look down on them because of their youthfulness"! They have been raised well at home and church, perfect combination. I love them and am so proud of them...

We went from there to a luncheon to love on the Andrews family. They are headed to Cayce SC. Chet will be the pastor at State Street and those people are in for a treat. Chet and Hope are two of the finest people we have ever served with. They love Jesus and people from their heart of gold and they have truly lived a life on mission for the almost 3 years we have known them. As Eddie always says, you will get the kind of staff that you have been, so these two should have loving, loyal, hard working, godly staff surround them. We will miss them terribly but we know how special it is to go "home" and how special preaching God's Word is to Chet and he does it so well. We love you guys and your family. 

Ok just one more thing...

We kicked off our 6:00 service, more modern in style, and had 71 which blew us away for the first night. We had no idea what to expect we just knew God told Eddie to do it and so we did it. We would both tell you that one blessing of coming to Fairview was no night service haha and here we are. BUT, this was definitely different from what we've ever had at night and I told Eddie "yea I can do this :)!" That's a night service worth having, it was pure gold! We were both so energized and pumped afterwards. It was incredible. Shoutout to Keifer Mendoza and his band!! WOW!! Gifted, anointed, powerful doesn't even begin to describe these college students. They have the Spirit all in them, over them, surrounding them. I could feel it even when they were warming up. Thankful that our son John agreed to close the service with a Life on Mission moment as he shared the story of Mellow, a homeless man and his family he met in Atlanta last summer. I'm so thankful to Eddie Fisher our A+ sound guy and Daneil Joines for coming 2 hours early to serve and Nathan Brannon who just does anything you ask of him! Scott Joines got the coffee flowing in The Basement. He probably had no idea when he had the coffee idea that we would work him so hard, but so grateful he sees that as a ministry! Also thankful to our kids who jumped on board with us! We can always count on you! John and Chrissie took over the Tshirt area, creating and making it happen. Jessica, Justin and Chrissie manned the Gray room and Justin led our volunteers and band to pray before. Sometimes in ministry you can wear your kids out asking them to do things but they're no worse for the wear. I know we can be harder and tougher on you all to get things done at times because you're just right there, but you have the freedom to remind us (and we probably need reminding) to be more graceful and merciful and to say NO! Not knowing what would happen and if anyone would show up but us, left us not knowing how many or what kind of volunteers we needed, but if you want to help please let us know. Our kids will be very grateful!! Haha!!! You can never have too many to smile and welcome people! Media/sound people are always needed! One of the things we've talked about is creating depth for two reasons: one, because everyone can't be there every time. And two, raising people up to lead is part of discipleship and as mentioned before, part of our heartbeat.  So thankful that some volunteered last night on their own and we welcome more! Please come join us for any of our services 8:30,11:00,6:00. 

Ok, sorry for all if that BUT I did warn you ; )! Here's a few pics from last night...

Leading the band in prayer is the best way to start!

They show up early, hard workers!

You can't beat good sound guys! May their tribe INCREASE! 

Have a more blessed than anyone deserves kind of week!!

Monday Morning Perspective

I'm not sure how Sunday's service hit you, but at the risk of scaring some of you I'll tell you that after that last worship song singing about our Great I AM, I could've taken a few laps around the worship center. And after that message I could've taken a few more. Don't worry friends, I wouldn't do that without a very clear word from the Lord Himself, but just know, that's how I felt. And if you've never felt that, I'm going to pray that you will very soon because there's nothing like it!!

Anyway our new series is Life on Mission.  I believe I said it earlier that this could be a life changer and now I know it can be. And when this series changes lives, it's going to change our church. More of Him, less of us. 

This series started with a challenge to live lives that glorify God. I'm not going to give away a lot because if you didn't hear it, you will be much better off listening to the entire sermon than reading highlights here. However, Eddie made some points I'd love to share.

First of all, read it, memorize it, live it...our church vision statement...we exist to glorify God and make disciples who live life on mission. 

In our every decisions, actions, even our thoughts we should ask, does this glorify God and does it bring good to others? 

We can be a stepping stone for others or a stumbling block. 

Our liberty stops where it may cause another to stumble. 

A life that glorifies God is a life that is concerned about others. 

Love in the form of a servant is the best theology. 

When we live for the glory of God we won't be able to contain what God will do. 

This church is a movement to glorify God. 

Glorify God in your salvation and glorify Him in your situation. 

Before I act, or write on social media, ask is this permissible and is it beneficial?

Can't wait til next week! And don't forget THIS Sunday starts our Sunday night service in the Alive Center! We are SUPER excited about this and how we believe God is going to use this service! The Basement will be open at 5 for coffee, service starts at 6! Pray for leaders who will be serving! Pray for Keiffer and the band as they lead worship! Pray for Eddie as he preaches a 3rd service! And pray that people will come and bring others and many will meet Jesus and begin the journey of discipleship. This is a HUGE opportunity and we don't want to miss it! Love our church and the opportunity to serve Jesus here! 

Monday Morning Perspective

Introductions to series and the final wrap can be difficult. Sometimes it seems like it's more information about where we're  going and where we've been than a message but not true yesterday. That message was solid. It gave plenty of encouragement and was extremely challenging. It's sad to see 1John go but this series leaves us lacking nothing and plenty to continue to sort through and attempt to live out. 

Eddie taught us that we can indeed live a life of holiness, not perfection, and a sign of spiritual growth is the decreasing frequency to sin. As believers we still sin but we're not ok with it. 

He encouraged us by reminding us of the Holy Spirit's residence in our life as a believer and with that comes empowerment. 

And he also challenged us with that final verse in 1John that tells us to keep ourselves from idols. What do we give more time, more money, more energy to?What consumes our thoughts?  The antidote to the idol problem we have is to go through life consumed with Jesus. Matthew 6:33 

I absolutely cannot wait for next week and the upcoming series. I've been looking forward to it since late summer:Life on Mission. If you or some one you know is struggling with the why or how of life or what's my purpose and how am I to live out my beliefs in this world, I believe this is the series not to miss. Please come! Please invite! Please bring! 

First pitch is coming!

It seems like every year I can't wait for the first pitch (baseball that is). I was even asked just today if I was ready. The answer should be without hesitation YES! However first pitch this year means that it's another son's first pitch of his final season of college ball so it seems the sooner it starts the sooner it ends. But, yes I'm excited it's just a little bittersweet. North Greenville University opens their season this week and John is a senior this year. I think it's actually gone faster than the high school years if that's possible. It's also the first year I won't (probably) see John hold down 1st base or take a swing. He's much more ok with that than his mom but he chose to focus more on pitching and it's extremely hard, and draining, to do all of that at this level though he's done it extremely well! 

There have been some nerve wracking moments and games, none more than when he was at bat with the game on the line or even more taking the mound, men on base, at times loaded, no outs, or few outs, and everything on the line. For John, he's cool as a cucumber, me, not so much. He's never been one to not care about giving up runs as long as they weren't his. He gets much more angry at himself for giving up another teammates runs than his own. He's a team player all the way through. 

Some people say there's no crying in baseball but I can tell you I've cried many tears over baseball, some good tears, some very sad. Baseball has brought more fun, taught not only my boys many life lessons, but their parents as well. And there will be many tears when it's all over. I'm sure, like his brother, he's more prepared for the next season of life than I am. Whatever that next season is, I know John will be ready and will work at it just as hard as he's worked on the field. He knows God has a plan and He will bring it about and it will be for his good. He will use many of those life lessons he's learned from baseball the rest of his life:working with others to accomplish a goal, getting along with those who may not be like you or may not like you, respect, putting losses behind, keeping your eye on the prize, hard work, motivating others and on and on and on! 

John, there are critics in baseball and life, allow the criticism to motivate you and listen to only those voices who know what they're actually talking about. You know there's fair weather fans in every area of life, know who you can trust and partner with those who bring out the best in you and will stay in the trenches with you. I heard recently that you need to choose friends who won't just ride with you in the limousine but they'll ride on the bus with you. Those are hard to find, but they're out there. And they're worth searching for. 

As for now, enjoy your senior season! Work hard! Leave the game, and every game, without regrets. Never leave thinking you could've given more! Stay humble! And keep believing that you are there for so much more! It's a platform not for yourself, not to draw others to yourself, but to give you a way to testify to God's goodness and faithfulness. That platform will be with you forever and open doors with people and opportunities you never dreamed possible. 

Now go and have fun playing the game!

Monday Morning Perspective

After cancelling services last Sunday due to snow, it was great to get back with the church family. We celebrated believer baptism, we were encouraged to get involved with Hope week which is fast approaching, had a precious young engaged couple join our family and a great message from our pastor. All in all it was a fabulous day in His house. 

We are closing in on the end of this series in 1 John. It was heavy and thought provoking but very well explained and challenging by Eddie. As he pointed out, sin is sin and we need to pray for one another rather than talk about one another. Looking forward to next week as we wrap this series up tight before moving ahead to the next one that Eddie gave us a sneak peek to.