Blockbuster

This past weekend, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen made $112 million at the box office. Since it opened last Wednesday, it made over $200 million. Over the past 10-20 years, movies have increasingly become a major part of the pop culture scene.

Part of the reason for that is their stories connect with viewers on an emotional and, sometimes, even on a spiritual level. Movies can teach us the value of intimacy, perseverance, and more. Given the right story, movies can inspire us.

Not surprisingly, Jesus used stories for the same reasons. They can inspire us, motivate us, move us and teach us.

On Sunday, we begin a summer series that will use movies to illustrate the truth of Scripture. I will have the pleasure of speaking at Reveal this weekend. I hope you will plan to join us and to invite a friend to join you!

-- Peace, Jamie

More NY

Yesterday was our last day of being at our work sites. Today we go to Niagara Falls. One of our work sites was Foodlink, a food bank that's more warehouse than bank. Foodlink receives about 10 million pounds of donated food a year, almost half of that from Wegman's - a grocery chain in NY.

They sort the food, re-package it, and sell it at a very minimal cost to smaller, local food pantries to use. A group worked at Foodlink on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. While there, we sorted food, boxed food, and helped them write thank you notes. But our main job was pouring out mineral water. Yep, we poured out abut 11000 bottles of water.

Why? Well, Wegmans donates out of date mineral water that can't be resold or reused. But in NY, each bottle is worth a nickel. Foodlink makes about $20,000 a year on returned bottles. This week we were able to help them make about $550.

The director at Foodlink, John, was a great guy to work with. He was very appreciative of our help. Apparently pouring water down a drain is not a glamorous job.

Thanks for your prayers while we were working. Continue to pray for us. We will be leaving early tomorrow and getting back to Rock Hill late tomorrow night. Remember, no Reveal this week. One worship gathering at 10:00am Sunday.

-- Peace, Jamie

NY Mission Trip

I am in Rochester, NY this week on a mission trip. I wanted to post a few pics and let you guys know what's happening here. We got in late Saturday night to New Covenant Baptist Church in Canandaigua.

On Sunday, one group led worship at Pleasant Valley Baptist Church in Geneseo while the other helped out with the children's ministry at Harbor Church in Geneva.

On Sunday night, we went to a retirement center to lead worship before going to Lake Ontario Park where we were able to watch the sunset from a pier extending out on to Lake Ontario.

On Monday, one group went to RAIHN (Rochester Area Interfaith Hospitality Network) to do some work on their house. (I'll write more about RAIHN later). The other group went back to Harbor Church in Geneva to paint the pastor's house and put in a ceiling in the basement of the church.

Today, one group went to Foodlink in Rochester and then went to Geneva to help out with a kid's club at an apartment complex. The other group continued to work at Harbor Church in Geneva.

It has been an awesome week. I hope to go into more detail later.

-- Peace, Jamie

Set List 06.21.09

Here is the music that we used for 06.21.09 - Father's Day.

[Opening Song]
My Hero - Foo Fighters

[Worship Set]
Hallelujah (Your Love Is Amazing) - Brenton Brown
Open The Eyes Of My Heart - Paul Baloche
How Deep The Father's Love For Us - Stuart Townend (Skillet Version)

[Closing Song]
I Still Believe - Jeremy Camp

This week was frustrating both in the REVEAL service and 9:15 and 10:30 services as well. Lots of sound problems, worship order problems, etc. Things just were not tight and smooth like they normally are. In REVAL, we had some monitor problems 10 minutes before we were to start and as a result we were not able to fix them completely. As a result, we are going to push hard to go to all personal mixers on stage. I think that this will help a great deal with the overall sound level in the room.

Technical stuff aside, I thought that worship went well. We opened with "My Hero" on Easter Sunday as well and thought that this would be a great song to bring back since for most of us our dad's are our heroes. I did however change the line "...he's ordinary" to "extraordinary" again just like on Easter.

After I led the first song, Dave Kerns led for us again. Once again he did a great job, and it was great to be able to worship from the other side of the stage for a change.

Next week, we won't have REVEAL because we are doing our special service "Celebration of Freedom" - one service, 10 AM. It will be a great time celebrating the freedom we have in this country and the freedom we have in Christ. I am really looking forward to this service. You need to be there by 9:45, because the worship center will fill up quickly.

As always, part of Fred McKinnon's Sunday Set Lists.

Dream Big...Pray Bigger!

Will

Acts 11:29 Project

Pictures from last month's Acts 1129 Project







Your next chance to join us for an Acts 1129 Project is Saturday, June 20. We will be painting, cleaning and doing some yard work. Meet at the church at 8:30am. We should be finished up around lunchtime. For more info, contact Lori Beaty at loribeaty@gmail.com.

-- Peace, Jamie

Computers

Yep. You guessed it. My computer is driving me mad. About a month or two ago, I noticed my computer (about 2 years old) was beginning to slow down. It took longer to start up. It took longer for programs to open. It took longer for files to load. Then about a week ago, it would freeze briefly (about 5-10 seconds) whenever I clicked on anything (and I do mean anything - email, itunes, word, internet, anything.) Now, I'm not the Road Rage-y kind of guy. I lose my cool every now and then. But I'm pretty laid back about most things. However, one thing I'm not laid back about is waiting. (Yes, I'm the guy who drives 30 minutes out of the way to avoid sitting in traffic for 5-10 minutes). I like to keep moving, which has meant that my computer is driving me CRAZY now.

So I've spent portions of the last three days shedding excess programs, unused files, and deleting extra copies of music on my hard drive. I found four copies of three different Relient K CDs on my computer. Still it's not enough. My computer is still slow, still freezing, still driving me CRAZY. The first chance I get, I will be turning my computer over to the capable hands of Mr. Miller Pitts, computer genius, who will hopefully update and upgrade my computer to get in back in proper working form.

It reminds me a lot of how I live my life. Weeks and months of use and misuse drag me down. I get busy doing things, added responsibilities, chugging through life. Eventually I realize that my relationship with Christ is not where it needs to be because of all the excess in my life. Then I start shedding things to try to make it right only to realize that I need to turn myself in for an update and an upgrade from the only One who can get me back in shape.
As my computer goes off to the shop, I think it will be a good time for me to unplug and unwind in the presence of another Genius.

-- Peace, Jamie

Sunday

It was awesome hearing Paul Nigro, one of our college ministry team members, bring the message yesterday. His sermon title was "When You Lose Your Shields of Gold" and looked at 1 Kings 12-14 and the life of Rehoboam. Here are some observations he made:

• How you respond when things don't go your way says a lot about who you are.
• We make things worse and don't fulfill God's purpose in our lives when respond improperly to tough times.
• During bad times, God is trying to speak to us.
  
• When someone cuts you off in traffic, 50% will respond in someway. 2% will hit the gas and follow the car that cut them off. (Paul and Will both fell into the 2%.)
• We have to move past the anger when dealing with tough times.
  
• Anger keeps us from dealing with the issue.
• We have to reassess our priorities.
  
• Lack of willingness to look to God caused Rehoboam to experience greater loss.
• We have to measure our worth during tough times.
• Things we have (money, house, car, etc) don't really have anything to do with our value as a person.

The band was awesome. We had another great crowd. The summer has been very good so far. Hope to see you next Sunday.

-- Peace, Jamie