Tag: MCM Network

MCM Update: LifeStone Church

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!!

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MCM Update: Element Church

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!!

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MCM Update: BridgePoint Church

BridgePoint's New Building

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!

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New MCM Website Launched

We are happy to announce the launch of our new MCM Network website! This site is designed to be a resource to pastors and church leaders.  There are a number of features to this site that we are so excited about.  Below I have listed a few of those features:

  • Sermon Resources (logos, graphics, videos)
  • Strategy Resources (governance, operational documents, etc.)
  • Listing of Upcoming Events/Trainings within the Network
  • Ministry Openings at our 16 MCM Network churches
  • Bios about each of our MCM churches

As a Network, we are committed to seeing our pastors, churches and church plants reach their full-potential.  Our churches are community-driven churches that strive to not simply build their church, but to build their community. If you’d like to visit our new website or get more information on the MCM Network, visit MCMNetwork.org.

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