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

Man Crush

Face it at some point in the life of a man you have had a crush on another man. And before you get all bend out of shape I am not talking about a romantic crush. What I mean is they have certain qualities or characteristics that we admire about someone else. We wish we were looked like him, talked like him, where as smart as him. or in my case wished I had great hair like Edward Cullan. For me I have more than a follicle obsession with the 17 year old (and not counting) vampire from the Pacific northwest. I am fascinated by the superhuman love his has for Bella. This rivals the love affair of Romeo and Juliet. Except he is already dead and he is a blood sucking vampire....hey no one is perfect

95% of American woman are in love with Edward...

So why is it that a fictional teenage vampire knowd more about unconditional love than all of us guys put together?

Let me help you out here....Your wife or girlfriend doesn't want him, she wants YOU to look at her the way he looks at Bella. They want you to be their own personal Edward. Now I know that it sounds like giving in and letting them change us from who we are.....but really, if we gave them a taste of this, we might be surprised how things will change for the both of you....

So today I challenge you to be her Edward.

E

Why I do what I do.

I have been questioned before about why I work so hard and pull all nighters to get stuff "just right". My motto is:

If it is worth doing, then it is worth overdoing.

So why do I have such I high standard???? Read the following e-mail I got from a friend and you will understand.

Hey! I just wanted to let you and all the "Get Reel" cast know of a testimony I heard about last night.... My brother n law brought his brother n law to Get Reel and it has completely changed his life! Long story short him and his girlfriend/wife are very recently separated. He has been coming to church and has recently visited with Jack [Jack is a staff member at our church] (and he was saved yesterday). We were talking to him last night and he was so excited about being saved and shared with me and Joey what "Get Reel" meant to him. He said when he was listening to the testimony that he was so touched that he just had a whole new outlook on life and it was life-changing for him. I know we are sometimes uncertain if what happened really impacted lives or not, well here's another one to add to the list!! You followed God's calling and this life was changed forever!! Thanks for all you do :)

Mandy

So now you can see that we can never let good enough be good enough. Someones life may be counting on us to go the extra mile. This is where I belong...and this is why I do what I do.

E

3 days and counting

As we practice our lines, prepare the video, and begin our decor, let's not forget the reason we are doing this. There is a couple out there than needs some encouragement. There is a couple that can't find there way "Home". So no matter what your part is this Saturday, stand up tall and say it loud, and just watch as God comes through again.

I love you all

Thank you for taking the time to make a difference.

E