Lifeline MONTHLY NEWSLETTER MBC SEPTEMBER 2018 VOLUME 23 August was a really great month at Macedonia. It was filled with the Blessing of the Backpacks, the Back to School Bash, Deacon Ordination, and Homecoming. It s hard to believe that we are starting the last quarter of 2018. Where does the time go? Soon, the weather will turn cooler, the leaves will change colors, and the year will be over! But, this month, our church begins our new church year. A new church year for us to focus on Leading Union County and Beyond into a Life-Changing Relationship with Christ! When I think about how God has blessed our church, I am overwhelmed! Because of your faithfulness and generosity, we became debt free this past April by paying of the note on the new worship center. In addition to that, we bought a new bus, renovated the student ministry area, renovated the gym and restrooms adjacent to the fellowship hall, and have future improvements coming soon! We have developed and passed a Constitution and By-Laws, and a new Policy and Procedure Manual. We are seeing God speak to our hearts every week in worship, and it thrills me to see people respond to the Holy Spirit! As I said, September is the first month of our new church year, and it is filled with opportunities for you. September 5 Joy Group Joy Group is starting out our new church year with a bang! We are leaving the church at 9AM to head to the Rattle Snake Saloon in Tuscumbia, AL. Joy Group is a lot of fun. Our purpose is: To engage in fellowship events, to minister to one another, and to reach those who need Christ in Union County and beyond. Join us on September 5 and become a part of a great bunch of believers who will love you, and help you grow in your walk with Jesus! When you come, make sure and bring a friend with you. See Patsy Grisham s article for more information about Joy Group. Church Events Sept 3 - Office Closed Sept 5 Joy Group - TeamKid Registration Sept 9 Parenting in a Digital Age - Deacon s Meeting - Small Groups Sept 11 - R.E.A.L. Women s Ministry - WOM I Sept 12 - TeamKid Begins Sept 16 - Core Leader Meeting Sept 21 - Youth Lock-In Sept 23 - Margaret Lackey Offering Sept 14 WOM II Sept 28 Men s Cookout
September 5, 12 Team Kid Team Kid is a vital part of our Children s Ministry. It is led by Jack and Nicole McQuary and an incredible group of men and women who serve every week to teach our kids to think and act like Jesus. Thank you all for serving, and I want to thank Gina for her hard work this summer on Wacky Wednesday, and the several other ministry events she led. We are blessed with passionate workers serving our kids, and I thank God for all of you! Registration is September 5 at 6:30. Team kid will kick off on September 12 at 6:30 PM. Your kids will enjoy a great meal, some amazing teaching, and even some recreation every Wednesday in Team Kid. And don t worry adults, when you get them settled you can join our adult group where you will grow deeper in your faith, and in relationships with God s people! I know you need some adult time! Join us in the conference room after you drop your kids off at Team Kid, and check our Bro. Jack s article for more information about our fall semester of Team Kid. September 9 Parenting in a Digital Age Join Bro. James as he serves as a facilitator in an 8 week video study led by Jason Gibson Sunday morning at 9AM in the Youth Room (old sanctuary). If you want to know more about the study, just click on this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbtqmgijlls Following the video, there will be discussion and application of the teaching. This is an incredibly practical study that can protect your family from the pain that so many families face because of online predators, addictions to porn, and will also help you monitor/control the sites your kids go on as well as social media involvement. Parents, technology is not going away, so we need to be prepared to help our kids navigate it safely. You can enroll in this study by signing up in the welcome center, or just call the church office. My Sunday School class will move to the Growth Track Room (the room just outside the Worship Center) until this class is over. Deacon s Meeting Men, our next Deacon s meeting will be September 9 at 5:00 in the conference room. We are electing officers, and welcoming our newest Deacon, Jack McQuary, to our Deacon Ministry Team. Welcome Bro. Jack! I look forward to serving with you. Fall Growth Groups Resume Our Fall Growth Groups will kick off on September 9 at 6PM in the Worship Center. We are doing something a little different this semester. We will all watch a video teaching by James Macdonald called Authenic, then we will break out and our group leaders will facilitate a discussion to help us apply the truth we learned in the teaching. If you want to know more about this study check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipuh3xp5kz4 My prayer is that this study will take us into 2019 transformed into authentic followers of Jesus. Sign up at the welcome center after worship, or call the church office, and we will enroll you in a group! Remember, all of our Growth Groups exist: To provide Biblical instruction led by highly passionate & competent leaders that will empower our Sunday School members to reach Union County for Christ, and to become fully devoted followers of Jesus who disciple others. Join us, and let s get growing! September 16 Brotherhood Our Brotherhood exists to: To provide a ministry which will enable men an opportunity for fellowship, mission involvement, and inspire them to lead each other to become fully devoted followers of Jesus. Brotherhood will NOT meet for breakfast this month, we will meet for our annual Men s Ministry cookout at Jim Shirley s cabin on September 28 at 6PM. Make sure and come, and bring an unchurched friend or neighbor with you!
September 16 Core Planning Meeting Our Core Planning Team will meet in the Fellowship Hall for a brief lunch, then we will move to the youth room for our quarterly meeting. If you were a part of our Core Planning Meeting when we developed our long range plans, you are invited to this meeting. We will celebrate our progress, work on some goals we have not yet met, and set new goals for 2019. If you stepped up this year to lead a ministry or organization, be sure to join us on September 16 following the morning worship service! September 21 The Student Ministry will have a Lock-in beginning on September 21 at 7PM and will end on September 22nd at 7AM. See Bro. James article for more details. I look forward to our new church year. We are going to focus on becoming fully devoted followers of Jesus, and I believe God is going to bless our passionate obedience with church growth. Welcome to a new church year Macedonia. It is going to be filled with the presence and power of God. So I know it will be amazing and life changing! See you Sunday, Bro. David Worship Ministry Hello church! Let me share the Worship Team Purpose with you: To create a spiritual environment that inspires and encourage people to worship God. The heart of worship is surrendering your life to God. The Apostle Paul said, Give yourselves to God surrender your whole being to Him to be used for righteous purposes. (Romans 6:13) Later on in the book of Romans, Paul wrote: So then my friends, in view of God s great mercy to us, offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to His service and pleasing Him. This is the true worship that you should offer. (Romans 12:1) True worship comes from a surrendered life. There have been many times when God is asking us to totally surrender our lives to Him. What does it mean to worship God in spirit? God made us with three separate parts to our being.body, soul & spirit. We can best communicate with God on a spirit level since God is Spirit. When my spirit connects with God s Spirit, that s worship. It is a bit difficult to describe but let me explain how it works for me... When I am leading worship or I am just in a worship service, I can just sing the worship songs and go through the motions of worship; or, I can really focus my heart on God. When I sing the words and mean them from the depths of my being, that is when true worship begins. The month of August ended with a Night of Praise! We spent countless hours in preparation and God truly blessed our efforts! I wish all of you had attended! The worship team led several new songs and a couple stand out, Great Are You Lord and Gracefully Broken! I will put a link to each of those at the end. So...now it s September and that means it s time to start on Christmas Music! I hope if any of you enjoy being part of this event then please sign up for choir and get involved! Also if you play an instrument and would like to honor Christ with what he has given you then see me as well! I pray blessings on each of you! God has a plan!! Bro. David B. All Sons & Daughters - Great Are You Lord https://youtu.be/uhz0w-hg4iu Tasha Cobbs Leonard - Gracefully Broken https://youtu.be/azzc3ebh6ie
Children s Ministry The Mission Statement for the Children s Ministry is: To provide children with the necessary tools to grow: Their faith in Jesus Christ; Their desire to be obedient to Him; Their fullest potential through Christ-like attitudes; and Their love for Him that remains throughout their lifetime. I cannot believe August has come and gone already. School has started and all of our children are settling into their daily routines. It was tough getting back to rising early, being in class all day and having to complete the dreaded homework at night. With that being said, on Sunday, August 5th, we began our morning with the Blessing of the Backpacks. This is something that I enjoy each year. Our children are all up front with their new backpacks, dressed in their new school clothes, where they are prayed over for the new school year. This year, as well as last year, our Superintendent of Education Ken Basil spoke to our children and their parents and prayed over them asking for a safe and productive year. Thank you so much Mr. Basil for all that you do for our children and our school system and especially for praying for our children s and teacher s safety throughout the year. I also want to go a step further and thank all those responsible for the improvements made in our schools to ensure that our children are safe and secure while attending each day. The improvements are beautiful. To continue the back to school Sunday fun, we met at Pirate Adventure, just outside of Oxford on Sunday night. Our children always enjoy this fun night that is filled with good food, fellowship and a lot of wet and wild fun. We counted approximately 175 people who came and participated in this year s event. A huge thanks to all of my team who helped prepare and pack up for this event. Thanks so much Mike Garrett (who did all of the cooking of the hotdogs), Julie and Craig Johnson, Brandi Cooper, Casey and Justin Sanford. Without these good people, we wouldn t be able to accomplish all that we accomplish throughout the year. Thanks so much. Now bring on the new Church year and a lot of fun activities. The next event the Children s Ministry will host is our annual Fall Festival. This year it will be held on Sunday night, October 28th, from 6:00 8:00 P.M. Mark this date down on your calendars and come out and join us in a fun filled night. Our children so look forward to this event every year and we do as well. I am ready for cooler weather, bonfires, leaves changing colors, hayrides, pumpkins, comfy sweaters, and the list could go on and on and on. I hope you are too! Student Ministry Purpose: To reach, love, and disciple students alongside their families within our community effectively, so that they can reach, love, and disciple people throughout Union County and beyond with the gospel. (Acts 1:8) (Matthew 28:19-20) Lock-In- September 21-22. This will begin at 7PM on the 21st and end at 7AM on the 22nd. Every Wednesday we have a youth worship service at 6:30pm. The gym will be open for those who want to play basketball and the youth room will be open to those who want to hang out before worship from 5:30-6:30. Food will be provided every Wednesday, thanks to Jeff and Nicole Whitehead! Every Sunday morning, we have youth Sunday school at 9am that is taught by James and Carie. On Sunday Night, we have our youth leadership team meetings at 6pm. This is for anyone in the youth group that wants to learn more about being leaders among peers. You can stay tuned for more updates in youth events and youth outreach for the upcoming weeks by texting or calling James Baker at 662-882-8268.
TeamKid Registration for TeamKid, the Wednesday night Children's Ministry, will be on Wednesday, September 5th, from 6:30-7:30 pm in the Fellowship Hall. There will be a notary at registration so bus forms can be notarized for those of you whose children will be riding the bus. The notary will only be here on Wednesday, September 5th, so take advantage of this so you won't have to find a notary somewhere else. We will only have one bus route. It will pick up children around the church and on the north side of Highway 30. Children without notarized forms will not be allowed to ride the bus. We will have classes for ages 3 year old through 6th grade. Ages 3-5 year olds will be using a program called Look at Me. Grades 1st-6th will be using Team Kid's Catching Air. Our program will have its first meeting with the children on Wednesday, September 12th, from 6:30-7:30 pm. Please do not bring children earlier than 6:20 pm. We do not have planned activities before this time. Our youth (grades 7th-12th) use the gym from 5:30-6:30 so children under that age are asked to stay in the Fellowship Hall. Each Wednesday night we will begin with feeding the kids at 6:30 pm and then have class and mission or gym time. We will gather in the Family Life Building and also dismiss from there. To drop off and pick up your child(ren) you may drive through the drive through area or park and come in to bring them in or get them. There will be an adult at the drive through to help children get in and to call for your child(ren) as you come through. We are looking forward to another great year with our children. If you have any questions, please feel free to call Jack McQuary at 266-0122. R.E.A.L. Life Women's Ministry We are so excited about our new women's ministry. R.E.A.L. stands for R-Relationships, E-Encouragement, A- Accountability & L-Laughter. God placed on a sweet lady's heart the importance of connectinn with our ladies within the church. She gathered a team of ladies together from all different age groups to try and think of ways to connect with one another. This is not WOM or replacing WOM. It is just times for us to get together and be real with one another, to build relationships with one another, to encourage one another and to have accountability partners. This way we can grow closer to one another and to Christ. All ages are welcome, from college age and up. Our purpose: Women connecting with other women to help one another grow in their commitment to Christ through relationships, encouragement and accountability. Our verse: Colossians 2:2 - I want them to be encouraged and knit together by strong ties of love. I want them to have complete confidence that they understand God's mysterious plan, which is Christ himself. Event: Our first event will be Tuesday, September 11th at Buff City Soaps in New Albany at 6:30 pm. We will have refreshments, a small devotion and then learn how to make bath bombs or soap. Cost is $15 and deadline to sign up is September 2nd. We are looking forward to connecting with each other and creating friendships that will last a lifetime. If you have any questions regarding this ministry please see Nicole McQuary, Angela Shirley, Casey Sanford or Ashley Harrelson. Joy Group We will be going to the Rattlesnack Saloon on September 6th. We will leave the church at 9:00 AM. On October 3rd Dave Green will entertain us with his music. Tehn in November we will have our annual shopping trip. The purpose of our Joy Group is to engage in fellowship events, to minister to one another and to reach those who need Christ in Union County and beyond. WOM I Our September meeting will be Tuesday the 11th in the fellowship Hall at 6:30 PM. Our purpose is to help involve our members in missions by providing opportunities for them to learn about, pray for, give to and do missions.