It has been amazing being here on this internship. I have learned so much about ministry, but more importantly, about my faith. Growing spiritually here will never be forgotten. I wanted to bring everything I learned from Mountain to my home church so my home town can be on mission like we are suppose to. Needless to say, I didn’t have to because they came here, from Lanett, Alabama all the way to Joppa, Maryland, to do just that. They are starting an internship in hopes to make more and better disciples through Point University. They have never done anything like this before so this is a huge Cannonball for them. The ripples that God makes through them will be a blessing to experience. I cannot wait to see what God has in store for Lanett, Alabama and maybe even the world through this ministry.
~Branden Jones
The Kingdom Vision
Tags: intern
Making Waves and Surfing Them!
To me, Cannonball was all about trusting God and jumping in. I have always wanted to surf. I have been going to Ocean City, MD my entire life. It looked really fun!
When the Cannonball initiative started, I thought to myself “I’m going to form a Christian surf team.” People laughed and laughed. They said things like “You are not going to find surfers that are interested in God…Surfers are dirty, lazy, troublemakers.” Wow. Where are people getting these ideas? The movies? Well, I decided to start forming the team. I am really good with computers so I built a website to give people information about the team and a members page to sign up. My goal was to have around 10-15 people that I could do Bible studies, pray, and surf with.
The waves started coming… waves of people that is. Our team is up to 117 members right now! Most of our members are in Ocean City but about 15 live near Mountain Christian Church. We formed a small group at Mountain which has been going really well. Currently we are working on the “Walk Across the Room” study. It is all about reaching out to others that might not be Christian or believe in God. It’s perfect because that is what Surfers For Christ does. We reach out! This past year we have brought people to God, brought people to Mountain that would never go to church and done studies to better understand the teachings of Jesus. We also are involved in the community. We have done things like second saturday serve, help make food for Celebrate Recovery,and beach clean up in Ocean City.
We have also had some pretty good success in fundraising for charity. There was a Penguin Swim in Ocean City (their version of the Polar Bear Plunge) where we raised $970 for the Atlantic General Hospital. Our last fundraising project was for charity:water. We were able to raise $500 over the winter months. Charity:water is an organization that provides safe drinking water to those in underdeveloping countries. The money we raised helped fund a drilling rig that is able to drill freshwater wells for communities. It was our way of going Glocal I guess. We want to do things for our community but would also like to help others outside of the U.S.A. Surfers For Christ has been an incredible project and blessing to many. I look forward to the impact we can make with our team members, the community and people outside of our team.
Chase Soper
Founder of Surfers For Christ
Tags: serving, small groups, surfing
Blessings in a Backpack
This article about Mountain’s involvement in the Blessings in a Backpack program was posted on the Harford County Public School system’s website this week. We are blessed to have such healthy relationships with these different schools, and it is very evident that God is doing an incredible work through Mountain in the lives of many faculty, staff, and students throughout Harford County. As Ms. Haller of Magnolia Elementary says in the article, “In my heart I know that it brightens their lives.” We know that ultimately it is the light and peace of Christ that is moving in and brightening the lives of not only the children who take part in this program, but the teachers, staff, and volunteers as well.
Check out the article here.
Tags: kids, school, Sponsorship, teachers
Faith in Writing
On Commissioning Weekend, I had a dilemma. I sat in the service, having some vague idea about what was coming, but with no idea what my mission field would be. There are plenty of facets to my life, but nowhere did I see a leading or hear a calling. Nothing felt right, and that scared me a little. I wanted to be on mission for God, but felt utterly clueless. So, I prayed. I prayed during the songs. I prayed during the sermon (while still paying complete attention, I swear).
God answered.
As I watched other people walk up to be commissioned, I looked down at my card and wrote “the written word.” I’ve been a writer for a long time, but I’ve never turned it to God’s use. Now, I’m sticking to my talent and writing for God and about his Word. I have started a blog called Faith in Writing (http://faithinwriting.wordpress.com) with the hope that God will use my words and my story to bring people to Jesus.
Tags: Commissioning
Just a Friend
Being on this internship has been steroids in my growth with Christ. I walked daily with Christ, but I worried about how to do everything. I searched for answers of how did Jesus do it, and came back empty handed. I used to worry about how to serve, how to plan, how to get people aware of the event, but being here has changed the way I think about serving. To me, serving had to be an event that helped the community and helped multiple people. Where is that in the bible? Thankfully our schedules allowed us, the interns, to be taken by Alex Lozada to New York to see a couple of church plants in different areas there. This would be my third time going to New York in my life and the two previous times were not the best in making me feel welcome. When I went there times before I felt overwhelmed and unappreciated; everyone there is mean was the way I thought.
This time I knew not to look through that lens of serving or being accepted because of Mountain teaching me how to be a better disciple. When I did, though, I noticed pain, need, a cry for help that I never thought existed in a city that is so individualistic. Meeting with the planters, hearing their story about how they went because God was calling them to New York showed me how to lean on and have faith in God. This was a spitting image of what Jesus did and how he walked when he was here on earth. They have made relationships and those relationships are making relationships and the church is growing without much to offer except love. What blows my mind though is that each plant started with one person and the growth came from making a friend. Just one friend was the start of a chuch! That cannonball decision to live in New York has made many ripples in the lives that are touched and will continue to grow until God comes back. Praise God for guidance and for love and showing me how to be a leader in the world just like Jesus was.
~Branden Jones
Tags: church planting, intern, New York
The Powerful Words of God
A few weeks ago, our middle school youth group, set out on a journey to spend the weekend in retreat with our Maker in the backwoods of Pennsylvania. I, along with two other brave young adults were chosen to be with the 8th grade girls. It was cold and so we all quickly found our way to the first main session of the weekend and tried to get warm with some amazing worship. At first, it seemed like none of the middle school kids wanted to pay attention but as soon as Blake started to speak, they began to take in what was being said.
That evening, our small group of 8th grade girls were as hyper as ever but even through that, they asked very serious questions and as we began to discuss many important things, (yes including boys!) I began to notice how one girl (Allie) particularly really listened and had such a hunger to know more about Christ and how to live a Christ like life. All through the next day as we had our break out times and our main services I kept my eye on her. Her hunger was so strong that it was physically visible. That evening, our main session was about the voices that Satan/the world is telling us. We took time to write out those things and put them on a board. The next morning, we talked about the voices that God is telling us and wrote those out. Afterwards, Allie came to me and said she believed what God was telling her and she wanted to be baptized!!! Praise God!!! Allie has since been baptized and is beginning to witness to her dad who is not a Christian. He has come to church with her several times since and so, Allie is continuing to make waves!
~Angela Highfield
Life Anew
As a woman who had her whole life turned upside down last year, I am still walking in faith to be a minister to my new community, my family (who is still struggling with all the changes), my new friends, and finally to my new job! I know that the Lord is with me, and I believe that there is many blessings yet to come. With His help, I will overcome my feelings of unworthiness because Jesus says that I am. He says that I am loved, I am wanted, I am beautiful, and I want to help others feel those things too. My God is bigger than anything and I praise Him for this amazing love.
This post has no tag
digging in the heels
Shelly and Matt Huggins showed up at our front door and said, basically, here are your teeshirts.. you’re going to be commissioners on Sunday..NOT ME!
So Sunday came, my husband Bill proudly wore his but NOT ME! During the service… the tears started.. i was so convicted! my wonderful husband listened to His call and Eventually I walked the aisle to him, annointing him 1st with oil and then he me, so I could do My commissioning..
i didn’t think i was worthy to annoint anyone.. proudly, we had a line full, including a staff member who said they came forward because of me. she too wasn’t sure she was worthy.. we serve an AWESOME God! my commission is single women..1 from a name 2 years ago that we provided a Thanksgiving meal and KEPT her and now 2 more from Welcome to Mt..
-Nancy
Tags: Comissioning
On Mission… Immediately
During the commissioning time Saturday night, I met a young mom, Jen, and asked her what was on her card, and she said, something about family or something like that. Then she said something like, but I know what my real mission field is supposed to be – helping women in recovery. I said, well, good then, let’s commission you to that. That was about the time for one of our interludes, and so I invited her to come up and do her commissioning on the platform. She said, let’s just say family but not the recovery. “My kids are here and I just don’t know.” I said fine, whatever. When we stood in front of the church, though, with tears in her eyes she said, “My name is Jen, and my mission field is women in recovery.” We commissioned and anointed her.
After the service, I saw her again. She was standing with her hands on the shoulder of an older woman who was sobbing, and pouring her heart out. Jen was listening and getting ready to offer her guidance. She almost missed it. But because she responded with faith, God was using her on mission within 10 minutes of her commissioning. Amazing stuff.
Ben Cachiaras
Tags: Ben Cachiaras, Commissioning, recovery, women
God finally got through to me
My name is Debbie and my mission field is marriage ministry… There I said it…I finally am giving in to what I think God is trying to tell me…the “two by four to the side of the head” that finally got through was the service last week where we were annointed to “go” and serve the world.
I have thought for awhile that marriage ministry is where I would like to serve. My husband and I participated in a couple of marriage studys with Tom and Shelly Steck, and were in a small group with them briefly before they moved. Then we were in another small group with the Arsenaults, and did a couple of marriage studys including “The Five Love Languages”. When Mountain started the Cannonball thing our small group discussed what could be our cannonball, and we discussed doing a medium sized couples study with our small group leading by being table leaders, set up, refreshments, etc. Thanks to Rob, The Art of Marriage was the result and I saw marriages saved right before my eyes! It was then I knew I wanted to tell everyone about this. I like the idea of “marriage missionaries”, people who are dedicated to nurturing their own marriages and helping others to find what God intends marriages to be. We do not have a perfect marriage, but have learned alot about each other and marriage like God intended. I have personally gone back to what I learned in that study to help family members or friends. But still I did not come forward to serve in this way.
Then my son got married last October, attending Fit to be Tied. My daughter got engaged and she will be married this October at Mountain, and my other son got engaged and will be married in North Carolina this July. You would think 3 children all getting married in one year would have been a sign but still I did nothing….thought I am going to be too busy this year, maybe next year…..
But God did not give up on me…He kept after me, finding friends of my children already divorced still in their twenties, articles in the paper about 25% of divorces being couples married 20 yrs or more….when Ben call us to come forward and make a commitment I had no choice …I knew what I had to do, so here I am..use me…
Debbie Trentzsch
Tags: Commissioning, marriage
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