ECS Open House & Business After Hours

Emmanuel Christian School hosted a Business After Hours through our local Chamber of Commerce last night. This is a monthly networking opportunity for Chamber members to stop by after work. Based on business cards turned in, we had approximately 35 attend from the community. They were joined by our ECS staff and faculty, along with several families that arrived early for our Open House. My thanks to Clark and Jenifer for leading the way in putting it all together, to our Food Service staff for the wonderful array of food, and to our staff and faculty for their participation. I also want to thank Johnna for the Chamber's help and for the leadership she is providing.

Following the Business After Hours, the teachers went to their classrooms and the business leaders were able to tour the school and ask questions of our staff and faculty. We combined this night with an Open House for our community. This was the best Open House we have ever had! Families from preschool to high school walked through, gathered information, and we had enrollments coming in the very next day!

Again, thanks to ALL who attended and helped to host this great event!

Sunday Summary - 3.18.12

Yesterday was "Baby Dedication" at EBC. God is blessing our church with MANY young families, and today He blessed us with 9 babies to be dedicated. This is a special time in the life of any church. The concept for this day is based on the story of Hannah dedicating Samuel to the Lord. We encourage parents to dedicate their children to the Lord, to dedicate themselves to be godly parents, and the church family dedicates themselves to do all they can to help these parents raise these precious children to know, love, and serve the Lord. We show pictures on the screens, read special summaries that the parents have written about their children, take pictures, and distribute certificates to remind parents of this commitment.

I continued the sermon series "Thy Kingdom Come" with a message about Kingdom Determination. I challenged our church member to seize the dream that God is placing in their heart, to pursue that dream, and to determine to be faithful until they complete it. I used biblical illustrations of dreamers including: Noah, Daniel, Joseph, Nehemiah, Paul, and Joshua & Caleb. I reminded our church that God gives individual and corporate dreams, that the majority will often oppose them, and those who remain faithful will be rewarded.

God blessed our services with Adelaide being baptized and becoming a member of our church family, and the O'Dell family coming for membership pending baptism. 2012 has been such a wonderful year. We have already had 75 saved through Team Impact, 10 saved through our services, and 30 new members added to our church. Praise God for what He is doing at EBC!

Sunday Summary - 3.11.12 (ECS Day)

Today was our annual service in which we highlight Emmanuel Christian School. ECS Day is a BIG event, since ECS is the largest ministry of EBC. Many of our church members don't realize that on any given day there are approximately 1,000 people on our campus just via the school events. These people include: students, parents, grandparents, teachers, athletes, coaches, vendors, etc. We are proud that ECS has been "Teaching the minds... and training the hearts" of students in Darlington County for 48 years!

During this ECS Day service, our EXCEL music students provide the prelude music, the elementary students serve as our choir, high school students serve as ushers and greeters, students make up our band, and faculty members serve as our praise team. In addition, our EXCEL art students set up an art gallery to display their work and for our members to enjoy. This year, we added a new twist as we showed several TV commercials that included personal testimonies from ECS parents and students.

I continued the sermon series "Thy Kingdom Come" with a message about Kingdom Love. Using Mary's act of breaking her alabaster box and anointing Jesus with costly perfume, I challenged our congregation to lavish their love on Christ, to hold nothing back, and to express their worship with disregard for what anyone else might say. Karen sang a beautiful song that tied it all together. God blessed our efforts with Edna joining our church family; and Tiffany, Josh, and Billy being baptized. Billy shared his testimony of being "religious, but lost." He ended his wrestling match with God and accepted Christ as his Savior on the last night of Team Impact.

Sunday Summary - Team Impact - 3.4.12

Yesterday was the climax to a GREAT evangelism event at Emmanuel Baptist Church. We had Team Impact www.team-impact.com at EBC last week, Feb. 29 - March 4. Team Impact uses feats of strength to draw crowds, then they share a very clear presentation of the gospel. TI conducted assemblies in seven area schools, at Coker College, and at the Hartsville Boys' & Girls' Club. TI preached at our Sunday afternoon basketball church and saw three men make decisions for Christ. Approximately 2,200 people attended the evening events with 160+ making decisions for salvation, assurance, rededication, and prayer needs.

During our morning service, God's Spirit moved and we had an amazing morning! I've been working with a man in his 20's who was saved yesterday! I got the privilege of baptizing my daughter and another young man who were saved several weeks ago. We also added nine new members to our church family! Last night, a man who has been active in our church and sings in our choir, realized his need for salvation. He stated that he had a head-knowledge of Christ, but he needed to surrender his heart to the Lord. Praise God!

I want to extend my thanks to all of our EBC volunteers who helped to make this event a huge success. Our church family has caught the vision for reaching beyond our walls, reaching our community, and impacting eternity! Thank God for people who are willing to serve the Lord in whatever way is needed! I also want to thank David, our EBC Children's Pastor, for the work he did in organizing this event. God has blessed us with a great ministry team!