Sunday Summary 9.26

In the last two Sundays, we have had 3 people baptized and the Lord added 8 new members to our church family. We also have 3 more adults that have indicated their interest in baptism and another 4 who will soon be joining the church. Two of those are new believers!

On Sunday mornings, I've been preaching a new series entitled, "Who Cares?" It goes along with the billboards we have posted in our community and also our website, www.ebc-cares.com. People are being reminded of what "real" caring means and how we as the Church, must care for those around us. They are also realizing that you can't serve God, while sitting on the sidelines. By the way... what ministry are you involved in?

It's been good seeing God move in the hearts of our people, as they have been volunteering to serve in various ministries. We need all the volunteers and help we can get with Judgement House and Trunk-or-Treat coming up. I'll keep you posted on how God uses our volunteers!

Bible Doctrine Class

I started a new Life Group 2 weeks ago and it has been amazing! The class is "Bible Doctrine 101." While doctrine doesn't sound very exciting, the crowd is growing and those present are excited about having a "safe place" to ask those Bible questions that have bewildered them for years.

The class consists of various age groups, new believers, not-so-new believers, regular church-goers, occasional church-goers, and more. We started by introducing the basics of the Bible (sections, divisions, Library mentality, authors, etc.) It appears the simplicity of the subject matter has been well received, and I think the excitement will only grow as we begin to study the doctrines and watch the lights come on for new believers.

The purpose of the class is to help people gain a firm foundation for their faith. CNN recently had a survey of religious questions on their website. Sadly, atheists and agnostics answered the questions about religion more accurately than those who claimed to be "religious." Even more sadly, the survey revealed that Southerners (specifically in the Bible belt), knew the LEAST about religion.

Maybe if preachers would preach more Bible and less opinion, people would know more about the Bible. Can you imagine what the church would be like if people actually knew their Bibles, lived its teachings, and had a foundation upon which to build a biblical worldview! I CAN, so I'm teaching a class on Bible doctrine; since you can't live what you believe, until you know what you believe.

Friend Day - 9.12.10

Last Sunday was AWESOME! Whether you called it "Friend Day," "National Back to Church Sunday," or as the old-timers used to call it... "Round-up Sunday;" it was a GREAT day!

Many of our church members invited their friends and family members to attend with them. One of our newest evangelist and her 2 friends (who recently trusted Christ), had two pews of people with them! We had 2 baptized, 3 prayed to receive Christ, 3 more requested info on how to start a relationship with God, 4 recommitted their lives to Christ, and many first-time guests were in attendance! As we started following-up on our guests, another lady invited Christ to be her Lord and Savior on Monday night!

Friend Day also served as a great reminder (to me) that it is "not my our might, nor by our power; but by His Spirit" that God convicts hearts and builds His Church. On Friday night, our family went to visit our daughter in VA and on one of our biggest Sundays of the year, I left my sermon notes laying in the hotel lobby as we drove off. Imagine my surprise on Saturday night as I went to look over my sermon one more time. So, I was at the church at 6:00am on Sunday morning praying and recreating. The experience was a teachable moment reminding me to depend on God and trust Him for the results.

Thank you to all who prepared our facilities, made coffee, served donuts, cleaned up, greeted, had a part in the service, etc. Also, a special thanks to everyone who cared enough to invite a guest to attend with them. God rewarded your efforts!

Sunday Summary 9.10.10

Last Sunday, was exciting as 2 people were baptized and 2 joined the church. We concluded the sermon series regarding the process for making disciples. Our 4-step process for making disciples at EBC is:

• Share
• Connect
• Serve
• Disciple Others

Following the morning service, I had the sweetest conversation with a couple who was convicted about inviting their friends to do everything, except come to church. They made a prayer list and e-mailed it to me. We have joined them in praying. Others filled out cards asking us to pray for their friends and relatives who need to start a relationship with God.

Now that we've talked about making disciples --- let's DO IT!

Sunday Summary 8.29.10

Yesterday was another GREAT day at Emmanuel. We started our morning service with a child being baptized and ended our service with a young mother being saved! Folks were kneeling at the altar and many others knelt at their pews. God met with us today!

The Children of the World international children's choir (sponsored by World Help) ministered in our morning service. The group consisted of 16 children from the Philippines, Nepal, and Uganda. They stayed in the homes of our church members, performed during the Chonda Pierce concert, and then during our morning service. The kids stole our hearts, as we were reminded of how God has blessed the USA and how we can be a blessing to others by showing God's love in meeting their needs. The World Help Director for Africa was our guest preacher and his message tied in with exactly what I have been preaching for several months -- Serving!

Last night, we enjoyed a Night of Praise as God spoke through the vocalists and musicians in our church. I was encouraged that so many new people were involved. A special thanks to each one who ministered, and to Brian G. for coordinating this effort. Our future Worship Pastor and his wife were visiting, so it gave them a great opportunity to see the talent God has blessed us with. Joey even joined in with a solo last night.

It's been an EXTREMELY busy weekend, but it was worth it all. Again, thanks to all the volunteers who helped us accommodate our guests and make the events of this weekend possible. Thanks to God for giving people the vision to build such a large building in such a small community... and then bringing the people to fill it!

Comedian Chonda Pierce

Christian comedian, Chonda Pierce, performed last night at Emmanuel to a "sell-out crowd." Chonda ministers to people by sharing love, laughter, and the joy of the Lord. Last night's effort was a fundraiser and to help us raise awareness for the prolife, Carolina Family Planning Centers! Visit their website at www.CarolinaFamilyPlanning.org. In addition, we had the Children of the World, an international children's choir perform during the intermission. They stole the hearts of the people. You can find out more about the children's choir and World Help ministry at www.WorldHelp.net.

Chonda's transparency about her own struggles, connected with many folks. In addition, her honesty about the ridiculous (and hilarious) behavior of "church people" in the name of God... may have helped a few Pharisees see themselves in a new light. Hopefully some churches will be different today, because a few people are different today.

A special thanks to all of our volunteers who collected tickets, greeted, served as ushers, sold merchandise, worked security, helped advertise, cooked, transported, etc. A strength of EBC is the number of people who are willing to serve! A special thanks to our staff, who take every event at EBC very personally and see it as an opportunity to reach people.

Emmanuel Christian School

Emmanuel Christian School is well underway for the 2010-11 school year. In spite of the economy and several schools closing or eliminating upper grades, ECS is going strong! We are within 2 students of last year's enrollment and some who left to try other schools have already returned.

Some highlights for this year include:

• Addition of a Director of Development
• Implementation of our Accelerated Reader program
• Implementation of our new Promethean board
• Addition of a third class of 3 year olds
• Addition of new desks for several of our classes

For more information, visit our website at www.ecscrusaders.com.

WHO CARES?

This fall, we want our community to know how much the people of Emmanuel Baptist Church care about them. So, we've created a website that in approx. 4 minutes shows gives a glimpse of EBC in pictures. Check it out at www.ebc-cares.com.

Tell your friends about the site. We had almost 500 hits in the first week!

Sunday Summary 8.22.10

Yesterday was AMAZING as people have now officially returned from vacation and the church attendance was back up! Thanks to Heather for coordinating our music as we wait for the arrival of Joey Colson. Thanks to the band, praise teams, and choir for your patience! There is a genuine spirit of unity and cooperation among our worship ministry team, and it is so refreshing.

In our morning service, I preached for the fifth week on "Serving." This is the third step in the disciple making process adopted by our church. I ran through many Scripture passages where Jesus taught His disciples about serving. Our study revealed the following:

• If you want to be great... you must serve.
• If you want to hold a place of honor... you must serve.
• If you want to make a difference... you must serve.
• If you want to be like Jesus... you must serve.

We concluded the service with the story of Jesus washing the disples' feet. Think about it... the Creator washed the feet of His creation. We spoke of the "Power of the Towel" and laid small towels across our altar and asked those desire to become servants for our Lord to take one of those towels and place it in a prominent spot where it would remind them to serve Him.

During our evening service, Cindy Faile, our missionary to Mali, Africa gave a report of her work. Cindy has been a missionary for 25 years and felt God's call on her life at 11 years old. She is an amazing lady and doing an amazing work.

Sunday Summary 8.1.10 - TEAM work

This morning, I preached on teamwork in the local church and within the Body of Christ. Interestingly enough, today our team shined through! I left at 6:30 this morning to pickup our pianist in Florence, Mike was repairing a gutter that was pulled off the building by the heavy rain, Heather filled a vital gap in coordinating our music, Michael filled an instrumental gap, Justin was setting up rooms that didn't get reset after our carpets were cleaned, Sherman was delivering bulletins and reports, David was preparing E-Street, Dan and George were here early making sure our A/V was ready, Juanita always comes in early to prepare our nurseries, and there were so many others in various areas.

In addition, this week we had an army of people handing out gospel tracts! I'm restocking our supply weekly. Ann had family with her today and has had guests with her for the last several weeks. Tammy & Heather saw their friend saved last week and baptized this morning. Alisha had family and friends present to watch her special day. Savannah was baptized, and the Baker family joined the church. Tonight, our Belize Missions Team gave their report and it was obvious that their efforts made an eternal impact.

God has blessed us with a great TEAM. Our members are ministers and our staff are equippers! In the last three weeks, we've had 8 new members join our team (and 3 more next week), some older members getting off the bench and back in the game, and so many faithful members continue to serve weekly!

Praise God for what He is doing at Emmanuel!