I’ve been reading, on and off, a great book that is a compilation of sermons by Frederick Buechner called Secrets in the Dark. Here’s a short excerpt of one powerful message addressing the impact of the birth of Christ:
The face in the sky. The child born in the night among beasts. The sweet breath and steaming dung of beasts. And nothing is ever the same again.
Those who believe in God can never in a way be sure of him again. Once they have seen him in a stable, they can never be sure where he will appear or to what lengths he will go or to what ludicrous depths of self-humiliation he will descend in his wild pursuit of humankind. If holiness and the awful power and majesty of God were present in his least auspicious of all events, this birth of a peasant’s child, then there is no place or time so lowly and earthbound but that holiness can be present there too. And this means that we are never safe, that there is no place where we can hide from God, no place where we are safe from his power to break in two and recreate the human heart, because it is just where he seems most helpless that he is most strong, and just where we least expect him that he comes most fully.
This past Saturday we held what is becoming an annual event at Allison Park Church, our ‘Impact’ day. This day is an awesome opportunity to serve a community in which we are planting a church. With the launch of LifeStone Church in just a couple weeks, this year’s Impact community was South Side. This day really hits one of our big values in church planting, which is serving the community. Not only does it teach the new church plant this value, but it allows individuals from APC to be physically involved in this exciting process of launching a church.
This year in South Side, we had numerous projects and were planning for close to 250 volunteers to blitz the community. With the large amounts of rain we ended up receiving that day, we did cancel a good number of our projects, but God was faithful! We still had almost 140 people walking the streets paying parking meters for people, picking up trash all over the South Side, planting flowers in local parks, repairing homes for senior citizens, and more! It is incredible to see how God could use even a portion of what was planned to still make a big impact in this community!
I talked to a number of people from the community that were so amazed at the number of people that came all the way to South Side just to serve and bless the community. With all the work that was done this day, the Kingdom of God was visible and tangible. It wasn’t just about a sermon on Sunday, but service on Saturday. I believe this is the greatest expression of the gospel…serving with no strings attached.
A big thank you to all of you that weathered the storm that day and came out to serve!! LifeStone Church and South Side residents will be forever grateful for the hard work you put into this great day!
Several years ago, I was so blessed to join Jeff Leake and the MCM team to help assist in the coordination and advancement of the MCM Network here in Pittsburgh.
A few weeks ago, the decision was made for me to move to Philly to help with the launch of our new MCM church plant that Brad Leach will be planting. This move will help accomplish a number of things:
I will have the opportunity to lead a Neighborhood Group in one of the Philly communities which will give me even greater experience as I prepare to plant a church myself one day.
I will serve on Brad’s church leadership team and assist him in the launch of the new church.
I will help in networking with Valley Forge Christian College, the students who will volunteer to help, and the local pastors with whom we are working to form relationships.
I will still remain employed by MCM, and will continue to provide administrative support, graphic design, and some degree of ministry coordination for MCM-Pittsburgh. I will come back once a month to be part of the monthly MCM Network (Catalyst) Meetings (which really are a highlight of MCM!).
I will stay through CityReach and make sure that we have a great week of outreach! Then I will most likely move to Philly in the fall. In order for this move to happen, I will be raising some additional funds to help support the changes. We would also like to be able to hire a part-time administrative person to cover some of the responsibilities I cannot manage remotely.
Your giving to MCM or any special investments towards this vision would make an enormous difference! If you are interested in supporting this, feel free to contact me at nickp@mcmnetwork.org or donate online on the MCM website. Also, if you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment or email me at the address above! I really value your support, encouragement, and prayer during this big time of change for me! Thank you all!!
This week I wanted to feature a message by Loui Giglio when he reminds us of the fact that we are wonderfully made by an amazing Creator. Loui is the founder of the Passion Conferences and is planting a church in the Atlanta area called Passion City Church. He is a gifted speaker and has a way of inspiring people young and old! Enjoy the message!!
Finishing up my recent blog series on our MCM church plants, we’ll look at LifeStone Church, which will be launching this June in the South Side.
The American Serbian Club before LifeStone's first preview service in South Side
God’s hand has really brought this whole team together over the last couple years as He called Jack & Jamie Thomas to move to Pittsburgh this past July to launch this church. They had only a small handful of people committed, but they now have close to 40 on the team! Although the church has not launched yet, God has done some amazing things already through LifeStone in South Side. Here are some of the highlights:
Last October, LifeStone set out to hold their first Harvest Party in the community for the kids and families that live in South Side. They set their goals high as they hoped to see 100-150 people come out for this first big outreach. Little did they know, God has bigger things planned, as they had over 250 people show up for this first major outreach!
As LifeStone began the process to plant, one of the initial things to identify in a community is a Sunday morning meeting space to hold services in. This proved to be a more difficult task then originally thought. For months Jack scoured South Side looking for a building in the right location and price range. One after another, the doors were closing. In fact, as we approached their first two preview services, we still did not have a building identified. Then, just at the right moment, God opened the door for LifeStone to meet in the American Serbian Club just off the main street in South Side. It has ended up being the perfect building in the right location with plenty of meeting space! God’s timing was perfect, as usual!!
Just a few short weeks ago, LifeStone held their first Easter Egg Hunt in South Side. Although this is a common event in most communities, South Side hadn’t had a community Easter Egg hunt in almost 20 years. As they promoted and prepared for this big Easter outreach, it started to become apparent that this wasn’t g
LifeStone's first Easter Egg Hunt in South Side a few weeks ago.
oing to be just another little outreach. Although they planned for 300 at this Easter Egg Hunt, they had over 600 show up, coming from all over South Side and even some surrounding communities!
As LifeStone prepares to launch in just a month and a half, please continue to keep Jack, Jamie and the team in your prayers! Launching a church is not a simple thing at all, but we know that when God’s favor rests upon it, He will build His Church and nothing will prevail against it!!
Continuing my posts on our recent MCM church plants, we’re going to look at our most recent church plant, Element Church, which was launched in August 2009.
Pastor Rich Jones speaking in a Sunday morning service at Element Church.
Element is a unique church that meets in a very non-traditional environment, Mr. Smalls Theater, a rock concert venue. Since their launch Element has really blazed the trail toward reaching the unreached in Pittsburgh. Their worship is a little edgier then most, but they are seeing people who wouldn’t normally darken the door of a church now accepting Christ!
Here are some highlights from this past year at Element:
They launched on August 16 with over 230 people! The place was packed with standing room only!!
On January 17 of this year, Element had its very first water baptism with 12 people being baptized and 7 more people responding to accept Christ! It was truly a transforming Sunday. You can watch the recap video here.
This last month, Element held their second annual ‘Great Millvale Easter Egg Hunt’ with over 300 people! What is cool with this egg hunt is that they actually partner with the Millvale community officials for this event.
2010 Great Millvale Easter Egg Hunt
Then this last week, Element Church was actually featured in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review! What an honor and opportunity. You can see the article here.
As Element approaches their one-year anniversary this August, we know that God is really moving in Millvale through Element. This community that has experienced so many set-backs now has a group of believers serving and pulling for the success of Millvale! That’s Christianity at its finest!!
Over the next few posts, I wanted to take an opportunity to share some updates from our most recent MCM church plants. I’ll start off with Pastor Greg & Francie Krowitz and BridgePoint Church in Tarentum, PA.
BridgePoint (BPC) just celebrated its two-year anniversary last month and has had some exciting things happen in recent months. This past October, they were able to move out of their meeting space, a boxing gym, and into a more permanent church building owned by First Christian Church in Tarentum. The provision of this building was an answer to prayer and God’s continued favor on our MCM churches in miraculously providing church buildings!
For the month of October BPC met at 9am, prior to First Christian’s service. Then in November, the leadership of First Christian decided to cancel their Sunday morning service and join BPC’s service, allowing them to have a later start time of 10am. Since that time, BridgePoint has seen a number of new families joining the church and in addition to meeting in this building on Sunday mornings and they have now moved their offices and small groups into the building. Over this last 6 months, BPC has experienced some incredible favor with the First Christian leadership already, and we are believing that BPC will one day own this beautiful building, allowing them to continue to be a beacon of hope to the Allegheny Valley!
Recent water baptism in BPC's new building
This past Sunday, BPC had one of their regular baptism services that they are now able to have with the baptismal in their new building. Greg baptized 6 people, which included a mom & her two sons, a brother & sister and a young adult! God continues to move at BPC and we know that the best is yet to come!
As we celebrate what God is doing in Tarentum through BridgePoint, continue to keep Pastor Greg and Francie in your prayers as they look toward this 3rd year of existence as a church and lead BPC toward a place of greater influence and impact in the community!
As I woke up and was praying this morning, I had this song in my heart and thought I would share it with you. Call me old fashioned, but oh how we need Jesus today and everyday!
Today is such a fascinating day. It is the day between Good Friday, which commemorates the crucifixion of Christ, and Easter, the day of Christ’s resurrection. It is a day that some 2,000 years ago the disciples would have mourned and contemplated the future of this great movement their Rabbi had started. The future was unknown to them. It seemed that this great man, the very Son of God, had just been murdered on a cross and this new movement known as ‘The Way’ was now in jeopardy. What would the days ahead bring? Many of them had abandoned their previous careers and callings to follow Christ. Would they return to these previous professions? Would they be linked with this ‘revolutionary’ and experience a similar fate? So many questions and seemingly so few answers.
Have you ever been there? You seem to be in a place of uncertainty. You are hanging in this balance of what was and possibly what could be. For the story of Christ, we know the ending. We know that Christ did rise again and the movement eventually called ‘Christianity’ not only survived, but impacted the entire known world of that day. For your life, though, what does the future hold? What will the coming days, weeks and months bring? Although I can’t answer those questions specifically, the Apostle Paul penned some powerful words only a few years after Christ’s resurrection that apply very well to this place of uncertainty:
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7)
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28)
Remember that although you don’t know all the answers and what the future might hold, there is a God that holds the future and is not uncertain. He is ‘working all things’ toward His purposes and will not abandon or forget you!
