Baptism on Steroids!

Today we celebrated one of the two ordinances we believe God has given to the church to remind us about His redemptive work in our lives, Baptism.  As Missy Crump (Stan's our Mission's Pastor's wife) said, THIS NEVER GETS OLD!

At each of our two services times today we baptized four people.  During the first hour we baptized; Donna Brock, Michele Smith, Temple Carr and Allysia Halbrock.  In the second hour we had; Jacob Shireman, Rachel Busic, Leigh Peterson and Anna Alexander.  Anna is the story I want to share with you: YOUTUBE VIDEO HERE

The picture at the left is Anna, she is of Laotian decent.  It was during her baptism that I was blown away.  We ask all adults who are being baptized to tell their story by video to be played just prior to their baptism.  I don't usually see the videos until the service.

Anna entered the water and her video began.  During the video she told of being raised Buddist by her parents.  At some point she attended a Christian church with a friend and her dad beat her!  At that point I lost it, here we are in America, Habersham County, GA the belt buckel of Christianity and this young lady was being beaten for just attending church.  

Anna's husband, Stephen is a police officer in Baldwin, the city where Fellowship Church is located.  I had met him on several occassions through the chaplain ministry I have with our city police.  They began to attend about 6-8 months ago.  At some point (Anna would have to tell you) about four weeks ago Anna came forward during one of our services, she prayed to recieve Christ.  When baptism was announced she immediately signed up. 

Today she stepped into the baptismal pool (hog trough) as a proud step of obedience to Jesus Christ.  For most of us that doesn't mean much, but I asked Anna just before her baptism how her parents felt and she said they will not talk to her.  It broke my heart. 

I have baptized many people in my years of ministry, but she is the first that has to endure what most would not to follow Jesus.  Anna blessed me today and I believe God will use her story to bless many others.

Question: What are we dening to follow Jesus?

Sunday Night Rewind

WOW What an amazing day!  Not that every Sunday at Fellowship lately has not been amazing, but today had some special things happen that blow me away.  So just as a celebration and reminder allow me to rewind:

• The attendance today was really good considering it is Mother's Day, by the way mother's Happy Mother's Day.  I hope you had a great day with your kids.
• Our coffee barista's did an amazing job today.  Diane and France were out of town and we never missed a beat (not that they are not very important to us).  Thank you to Nokie Moore for stepping up and helping lead today.  I love it that we have a depth of servants at Fellowship.
• We celebrated the volunteer of the month today, Kent Elliot.  You should know that Kent has only been at Fellowship for less than a year, but his level of commitment has really be great to watch.  Allow me to give you one example:  Kent is attending our New Believer's Class.  He shared with us that he wanted to attend so that when people asked him about it at the Guest Services counter he would know how to help them.  That story blew me away.  THANKS KENT, you help provide an environment for people to follow Jesus at Fellowship!
• Today message was Cardiac Rehab - here's a few points
• Knowing God + Walking with God = Worshipping God
• It starts with the heart!
• Knowing God is more than just having information it's having time for personal relationship.
• Worship is like the spilled coffee in the saucer, umm umm good!
• Worship begins with a commitment to a personal Sabbath.
• Baptism today was just amazing, so instead of using this post to tell you about it, I will do another post because the story is so amazing!!! Get ready to be blessed.

It seems that lately we have been experiencing some of the most invredible worship times and spirit at Fellowship Church.  So much so that I can't wait for next week to see what happens. 

Let me encourage you in one way, Invest and Invite:  when God is moving as He is at Fellowship we should be investing and inviting.  As God moves it will lead others into a relationship with God. 

See you next week!

Thanks...

How Can I Pray for You?

We got the chance yesterday and today (as well as the rest of the week) to love on the teachers at Baldwin Elementary by giving them small goodie bags for Teacher Appreciation Week.


Today Craig asked each of them this question: "How can we pray for you?" I think that simple question caught so many of them by surprise. The overwhelming response was for patience for the next 18 days, but several of them went deeper. The shock and surprise from that little question made me realize how many times someone requests prayer but how many times have I said, "How can I pray for you?" This simple question can change someone's entire outlook on the day.

As we go through each day, we get caught up in what is going on in our lives that we forget to look around and see what is going on in the lives of others. My challenge for myself (and I hope you challenge yourself too) is to stop, smile, and ask someone this week "How can I pray for you?" and actually pray for that individual. It can be so easy to just say, I will pray for you, but so hard to actually take the time to pray for them.

We had several very strong prayer requests today from Baldwin...I hope you join in with us to pray for these teachers and the students as well.

Also, if you would like to go and help deliver bags on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday, you will definitely be blessed. Just call me or email me.

Video Blog

Here is a quick Video Blog from Monday



Mickey

Sunday Rewind

Today at Fellowship was incredible.  I have to say our worship went to a new level and it was exciting to see people letting go and letting God.

Here are a few of my thoughts:

• Guest Services Team rocks, you guys always do a great job when the weather is crazy.
• Coffee bar -  the coffee was great today and the smiles you guys serve up are truly encouraging.
• Even thought I didn't get to walk through the kids area (due to the worship schedule) I watched as the kids and parents exited, all I saw was smiles and laughs, I think we exceded our goal of kids having fun and learning about Jesus.
• Great crowd of 360 or so, I will get the exact count in the morning.  So far since Easter we have been above 350.  Next is the 500 mark.
• The Offering was good today.  Thank you for being faithful and supporting the ministry of FC.
• I am so excited about our New Believer's Class that began this morning.  Attendance was good and I believe this will prove to be an important part of our future growth.
• I enjoyed playing the guitar with the band this morning, I really rocked.

The message was really good this morning, not because I gave it, but because God used it to change lives.   During the Destroying the Idols time I listening as everyone tossed their light bulbs over the wall, the noise of the bulbs bursting on the ground was out of this world.  It really rocked me, I can only hope you did that for real in your life and didn't just go through the motions.

As we worshipped to close our time together all i can say is WOW!  I believe God was happy watching us worship and give Him praise.

Next week I hope you will come as we tackle the thought of Cardiac Rehab.

Reminders:

• Baldwin Elementary Teachers Appreciation - we need help putting together the gifts and if you can visit with them to give out gifts each day let us know.
• Baptism is this Sunday.  If you haven't talked to Stan you still have time.
• New Believers class is an ongoing class that you can drop in on.  Each class is independent of the others so you can miss one and catch up late.  Greg Brock is teaching this first steps class each Sunday at 11:00

More to come this week.

Dead Blackberry, a few trout and really fast cars!

My weekend so far has been pretty exciting. 

It all started with an early release day from school in our county.  Nathan (my 12 year old son) and I spent the afternoon together.  We first went and hit some baseballs at Diamond Field.   We really had a great time.

Then we decided to go trout fishing in Helen, GA.  We started fishing from the bank but realized the fish were on the other side of the river and we both decided at the same time to go wading.  After a few minutes we both caught a pretty good sized trout and enjoyed the fun of fishing together.  We fished for about 30 minutes or so and began to consider moving on to another spot.  As I walked out of the water I felt a weigh in my pocket, then it hit me, the weight was my Blackberry, not good.  But we did have a great time and for that I am thankful.

Then today I met Tina's brother Matt at Road Atlanta for the Mitty's, a vintage car race.  I love fast car and racing so this was up my alley.  After a few races the group I was with wanted to go to the autocross, Mazda was allow people to test drive the M-5.  All I can say is drifting baby drifting.  The last time I did something like this I was asked not to come back, this time the course attendant said I did a great job, so the next trip I drove it like I stole it, and smoked the tires pretty well.  Wait there more!  Next we went to a AMG Mercedes booth and they offered to allow me to drive a $139,000 convertible coupe.  WOW!  This car has over 500 HP and I had to slow down at 95 in traffic.  REALLY!  The cool thing was when the car shifted I heard a chirping sound, thought that was strange so I asked the man in charge.  "Hey, why does this car chirp when it shifts?"  He looked real funny and confused.  When we communicated better he said, "That was the tires barking!"  Ouch.  Well, after several passes our group was asked to leave, they said they were loosing control and we were going to fast.  As we left I overheard one of the workers say, "We need a tire deal for that group!"  FUN is an understatement. 

The best part of my day was when I was going beyond 90 MPH through Braselton, GA I looked over at my Mercedes co-driver and said.  "If I am scaring you don't worry, I can't die unless God says so, you should be pretty safe right now."  He got this really strange look and nodded as if to say, "you are an idiot!"

As I thought about these last two days, I can't help but think about how we live our lives for Jesus.  We live lives that are safe and secure.  We live to protect and preserve, to hold on to what we have.  Had I lived safe and protective I would have missed out on some incredible fun.  Now I am not talking about living recklessly, but living as if we believe in the God of the Bible.  To follow Jesus sometimes requires us to live with reckless abandon, trusting Him for our lives.

What have you done in your faith that  requires you to depend on God for the results?