125 Years of Mountain Grove Church

Our Future's So Bright, We Gotta Wear Shades

As we looked at where MGC had been in the last 125 years, Cliff Black, senior pastor of Mountain Grove Church, gave us the destination of where we need to be heading.

Cliff made everything clear this weekend.

To make these desires a reality we must continue to make right choices as it comes to ministry. We must be willing to discard many of the attributes of established and traditional practices to make sure that Sunday morning and evenings are times of celebration. We must continue to create a new style of worship music that is filled with statements of praise and worship, and that is geared toward excitement and evangelism. We must be willing to appropriate contemporary cultural forms, where we can become a multi-media place of worship that involves sight as well as sound. We must not just be willing to train lay leadership, we must be willing to allow them to serve in places of leadership under God’s divine direction. I am convinced there are people in our church with all kinds of abilities that are no being put to use, and we must not allow those abilities to be wasted away in idleness. Therefore, our Staff must be visionaries who are willing to teach and train others to do the work of the ministry, as we show them the vision and help them to find their place in making it a reality.

I am so excited about this journey that I started packing last night.

I am ready, let's get going.

E

You amaze me

Ever so often I see something in nature that makes me sit back and say "WOW that is just plain cool". The Grand Canyon,

Ice Storms,

Jackalopes,

and this.

Lighting inside a volcano. How cool is that????

Thanks God. You amaze me

E

Getting ready to say "I do"

In a little more than a week our good friends daughter is getting married. For the last couple of years we had the opportunity to watch this young couple grow closer together. And cry with excitement when Brad proposed to Ashley. We get to be a part of the exciting 1st chapter of their life together. And watch as they look each other in the eyes and promise to be there in until the end. I can hardly wait until next weekend, there is just something that I love about watching a two people committing their lives together. There is so much hope and faith that they will be one of the couples that beats the odds. Overcomes the statistics, and live together "until death do us part." On their wedding day...that special day... there is no doubt that this couple...will finish together.

To Brad & Ashley,

Here is to a long and happy marriage, living as one as long as you both shall live.

I love you guys

E