MBC- Prince William

You know how certain songs will bring you back to a certain memory? Certain songs that instantaneously transport you back to high school (which is not always a good thing), or to your wedding, or to college, etc. I’m sure I’m not the only one.

One of the songs from this weekend’s set does that for me. To be honest, several of them do. O Praise Him reminds me of Frontline in the Smith Center. I can see a picture of the band doing that song. Well, Mighty to Save has an even deeper association for me.

Hillsong’s Mighty to Save was the unofficial theme song for my trip to Cambodia two years ago. I hear that song and I instantly think of the girls who touched my life on that trip. I think of the girls in the restoration center who wanted to paint my fingernails. The ones who had been freed from the prison of human trafficking. I think of the poverty of the children living in slums very similar to our garbage dumps. And I think of how God is working in Cambodia through the volunteers and non-profits there. That trip really taught me about God’s hugeness and how spoiled we are in the U.S. He’s bigger than all of the issues facing Cambodia and He’s bigger than all the issues facing you. I love that a song can remind me of so many lessons I’ve learned.

As you’re getting ready for our service tomorrow, I’d encourage you to think about how big God is. He can move mountains. His light shines in the darkest of prisons. He is Mighty to Save.

Everyone needs compassion,
Love that’s never failing;
Let mercy fall on me.

My Saviour, you can move the mountains,
You are mighty to save,
You are mighty to save.
Forever, Author of Salvation,
You rose and conquered the grave,
Yes you conquered the grave

You rarely notice them, but without them, our worship service would be an entirely different entity. They’re often in black, hiding backstage or in the booth. They rarely seek out the spotlight, yet they are just as important as the ones onstage. They show up early and stay late.

They are our tech team and I’m incredibly thankful for all that they do. Our MBC PW tech team is primarily comprised of Craig Campesi, Aaron Pounders, and Shirley Park. We’re in the process of training people who can step in when they need to take a weekend off, but on most Sundays they are the folks you see back in the booth.

Craig Campesi has been serving with MBC as non-paid staff since we were all in the Smith Center at Tysons years ago. He can fix almost anything and actually took time off of his full time job to serve with the installation of all the systems at PW. On weekends, he is responsible for the satellite link and lighting. He’s also training volunteers in both those areas, so feel free to contact him if you’d like to serve.

Aaron Pounders came to MBC from Cherrydale Baptist Church in Arlington several years ago. During the week, he serves on our install team but on weekends he is our Audio Magician who makes everything sound great. He and his wife and daughter live in the PW area and he’s glad to have the shorter commute early Sunday morning.

Shirley Park has been with MBC since The Edge began 5 years ago. She took some time off to go back to school, but came back part-time when PW opened. Shirley and I have been friends since the Edge days and I’m thankful of all she does for PW. She is responsible for all the visuals you see on the screens during worship and the sermon.

While Shirley, Aaron, and Craig are the ones you’ll see on weekends, there are several folks who have just as important a job in supporting us. Joel McMullen sends us the sermon video and audio from our broadcast booth back at Tysons. Cheryl Rice puts together the sermon powerpoint presentation for us each week. Ken Wortendyke and his team provide us with all the premade videos and all the live video coverage of the sermon.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Dave Schatzman and Don Hollenbeck, Jr. Dave manages our entire tech team for all the campuses. He also knows every wire in every room at every campus. I might be exaggerating slightly, but I’m not far off the truth. Don serves as the Executive Producer for the church so he oversees it all - music, tech, video, etc. Don makes sure we and the team at Loudoun know everything we need to know about what’s going on back at Tysons. He’s also a great supporter of all the artists in our church.

If you get a chance, be sure to thank this team for al their hard work. They are a critical part of what happens every Sunday at MBC-PW.

I know, Halloween can be a sticky subject with Christians. Obviously some people have taken it to an evil, satanic extreme. But others celebrate Halloween as just a fun day for kids (and some grownups) to dress up in costumes. If thinking of today as Halloween bothers you, today is also the day that Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses, so it’s also Reformation Day.

Whether you celebrate today as a day to get candy or as Reformation Day, I hope you have a great weekend and that you join us tomorrow for worship, another sermon by Todd Phillips, and apple cider after the service. See you tomorrow.

Last week we told you about our Rock Student Ministries’ Terror Maze on October 23 and 25. Thank you for praying for this event. Over 1600 students attended and heard the gospel message. Over the two nights, 104 students dedicated their lives to the Lord! Another 500 recommitted their lives to Christ! Praise God for these students and continue to pray for them in the upcoming weeks.

If you don’t understand that, listen to Todd’s sermon from this past weekend. f you say you are a Christian, does your relationship with Christ really define you? Is Christ the biggest “ingredient” in you?

Because I work at a church, I’m often reminded that it’s easy to fill our lives with “good” things that aren’t necessarily “the best” thing. It’s easy to be doing a lot of Christian activities without actually spending time with Christ. I can be at the church every day of the week and still not necessarilly be spending enough time on my relationship with Him. This applies to volunteers as much as it does to staff.

My prayer for this campus is that we would strive to make our relationship with Christ central to who we are. He should be the biggest ingredient in our lives. What can you do this week to make sure that He is?

You may have noticed we haven’t been doing the traditional “turn around and say hi to your neighbor” greetings during services at MBC PW. Actually, we haven’t been doing them at MBC Tysons or MBC Loudoun either. And it’s not because we don’t want you to meet your neighbor. We do. We want you to connect with others who are a part of our community. McLean Bible Church as a whole is trying to do what we can to stop the spread of the flu so we’re not making you shake hands.

I know you may think this is a little extreme. I did, too, at first. But look at it from a different perspective. On an average weekend, 12,000 adults walk through the doors of McLean Bible Church. My college had 2,000 students. My hometown only had 1,000 residents. McLean Bible Church is roughly the size of a small/mid-sized town and we are doing what we can to keep our people healthy.

We do have a solution for the connectiveness that may seem to have become an issue without the greeting. Beginning this week we will be offering hot cider after the services. If the weather is nice, we’ll do it outside. If not, we’ll do it upstairs. (We will take all necessary sanitary precautions, but please don’t cough on the coffee pot or cups.) Take a few minutes after the service to grab a cup of cider and talk to a few people.

If that doesn’t work for you… There is nothing that says you can’t take the initiative to say hello to your neighbor without Alyce telling you to…

See you Sunday!
Steph

When we think of worship, we usually think of singing some songs in church. Maybe you even think about singing along with your favorite Hillsong, Mercy Me, or Ben Lashey CD. It’s interesting to note that the first time the word “worship” is used in the Bible is in the story of Abraham and Isaac (Genesis 22:5).

To give you a little backstory, Abraham and his wife, Sarah, were childless for many years, in spite of a great desire for kids. Then, when Abraham was 75, the Lord promised him a child. Naturally, Abraham and Sarah were a little stunned. Back in those days, they couldn’t walk down the street to the nearest fertility clinic. People in their 70’s didn’t tend to give birth. By their ages, they had pretty much given up on ever having children.

But the Lord is faithful and keeps His promises (Num. 23:19). Sarah did get pregnant and gave birth to Isaac.

So what does this have to do with worship? A lot. Imagine for a minute your child. If you don’t have kids, think of a child you love - or your dog - or anyone you love. Now imagine that you had prayed that God would bring you a child for more than 50 years before you gave up believing it would ever happen. Imagine how much you would love the child that God brought you.

Now imagine that God told you to sacrifice that child as a burnt offering. We often skim over what that really means. Instructions for a burnt offering can be found in Leviticus 1. (That chapter made me even more thankful of Christ’s sacrifice - there is no way I could even offer a cow as a burnt offering). Essentially, the animals were dismembered and then placed on the altar. There were a few other steps including draining the blood and washing the organs, but I’ll spare you. How would you react if God asked you to do this to your child?

Abraham amazes me. He didn’t even question God. I question God about things a lot more insignificant than offering up my child. He accepted God’s command and brought Isaac up to the mountain.

His obedience is worship. He trusted that God would provide. That God’s love for him was bigger than his love for his son. That is worship. No songs were sung and yet Abraham worshipped in a far more significant way than I have ever worshipped.

As the story continues, God provided a lamb for the sacrifice. Isaac was spared. Abraham had many descendants, including Christ. But that’s not the point of this entry. Abraham’s reverence for the Lord is true worship. And that’s the kind of attitude I want to have.

Lon spoke to us yesterday about gratitude and counting our blessings. We even sang a song about it. In honor of that, I’ve decided to spend today posting my blessings to my twitter account (@stephcue - yes, this is a shameless plug). I’m actually enjoying it so much that I may continue for the rest of the week. I haven’t even gotten to the big ones yet!

No matter what your life looks like right now, there is something to be thankful to God about. I really encourage you to spend some time today counting your blessings. It’s amazing how this simple exercise can refocus your thoughts and priorities. So think about it. Pray about it. And thank God for something today.

It’s been a dreary couple of days here in Northern Virginia. I think even my dog is suffering from Seasonal Affective Disorder. I’m curious… what’s your favorite thing to do on a rainy day? For those of you with kids, what is their favorite thing to do on a rainy day?

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