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Sunday Reflex 8-15-10...

Wow. Packed house again yesterday! At the end of the service, HUNDREDS of people stood up making decisions to SELL OUT to God yesterday. Here are a few reflections on the day that led up to that moment:

• I can't even describe how the feeling in our worship services is changing. People are learning to TRULY worship God @mtnlakechurch! It's changing our church! 
• Thanks to the hundreds of you who have given up your seat at 11:15 and moved to the 9:30 Worship Service! We could not have done it without you! 11:15 was JAMMED! Don't you slide back! 
• Even changing out our stage design and music before the service has helped awaken my senses leading up to the service. How 'bout you?
• Todd Nichols' new song: "I Live To Worship" is one of the best worship songs I've ever heard. I cried again yesterday as we worshiped through that song! 
• Week 2 of "Fractured Fairy Tales".
• Taught on Moses striking the rock in Num 20. Moses didn't do exactly what God told him to do. He compromised. 
• "Moses serves as a painful example of the fact that that more often than not, we fracture our own fairy tales."
• "Moses' personal story did NOT end happily ever after."
• "Moses reminds us that every compromise has consequences."
• "Question: Do you think God KNEW Moses was going to compromise at some point? Yes! And He still picked him! Still wanted to know him! Still used him! Still wrote the first 5 books of the Bible through him!"
• "Even when we fracture our story, God is still writing His."
• "If you want to know what the New Testament is all about, it's about God demonstrating that even after numerous fractures in the human story, He was still writing His!"
• "that's my story: The very fact that I am standing up here before you today is a testimony of God;s grace! I do NOT deserve to be part of His story! But by His grace I am! And you can too!"
• "God allowed Jesus to be fractured to pay for ours!"
• "We can walk out of here today with heads held high and a hopeful future in our hearts, if we will acknowledge our compromises and embrace His grace today!"
• "So what do we do? Same thing Moses did. In Deut 3, Moses went before God and the people and acknowledged his sin."
• I began to ask people to pull a Deuteronomy 3: To stand up, one group at a time, if:
• • They wanted to acknowledge their need for a Savior for the first time.
  • They had an area of compromise they wanted to commit to turn away from.
  • Because of their fractures, they were having a hard time forgiving themselves & experiencing the grace of God. 

• HUNDREDS STOOD UP!
• One of my disconnected friends stood up! 
• So many stories after the service of commitments made!
• I can not even describe what God is doing @mtnlakechurch right now but I like it.
• If you haven't experienced it, you might ought to get here and experience it for yourself.

What to expect this Sunday…

In case you’ve been living under a rock, Mountain Lake is holding its GRAND OPENING THIS SUNDAY for our new Children’s, Student’s, & Adult Worship Spaces! 

Even for those of us who’ve been around Mountain Lake, EVERYTHING will look and feel differently!  Here are some of the things you can expect at Mountain Lake and other highlights of what will be happening at MLC this weekend:

 NAMETAGS: Believe it or not, EVERYONE at Mountain Lake EVERY WEEK wears a nametag.  They’re not “visitor” tags. There  are  no “inner circle” nametags, either. They’re all the same. Each person makes one for themselves every week at our church! So all over the lobby this week when you come in, watch for the cafe tables with a small sign that says: “Make you nametag.” Stop for 10 secs and do it. If you DON’T have a nametag, you’ll stick out!  I love the fact that we are the church “where everybody knows your name!”  Literally! How cool is that?!

Preschool Parking: We understand the challenge of having young children.

Children’s Check-in:

If you have children birth-5th Grade, the first sign you will want to look for is “Children’s Check-in”.  For the many guests we’ll have this Sunday, you can simply stop by our “First Time Guest Children’s Check-in” TENTS outside! 

The tents will be located at the preschool parking entrance and the north entrance by the water feature. We will check your children in to our children’s ministry system and tell you EXACTLY WHERE TO TAKE YOUR CHILDREN NEXT. 

Regular Attenders note:  Be ready to scan your BAR CODE this week if you’ve been given one. Choose SELF Check IN and learn how to do it yourself. Self Check in can be fun and fast.  OR  Choose ASSISTED Check in and someone will help you through this process.

Our children’s ministry environments are:

Nursery:

 

Preschool:

 

Elementary

 

Student Ministry:

Always held in:

Our NEW Student Ministry Auditorium!

Middle School:

Sunday mornings at 11 AM.

High School:

Sunday nights at 6PM in the LOFT!

Note: Sunday mornings, our High Schoolers worship with us in the adult worship auditorium, and they will love our music and messages. We work hard to relate the service to the young and young at heart every week!

 Adult Worship:

The service:

Get here EARLY to get the best seat!

The music:

Our music has a little “life” to it, because we believe it inspires more relevant, heartfelt worship in our services. If you love it loud, sit down front. Otherwise, grab a seat around one of our CAFE TABLE SECTION, or in our Theater Seating section. This auditorium and this worship experience will change the way you think about church forever.

The message: No preaching AT you here. Just a relevant conversation about where we all are and where God wants us to be. We’re kicking off a new message series called: “If you really knew me…” If you’ve ever been afraid for people to know the real you, especially in church, you’re about to be encouraged.

After the services:

Our pastors, including myself, will be hanging out in the lobby after the service and would LOVE to meet you & your family. So…

I hope to see YOU this Sunday!

Christmas Eve Service Times announced...

Mountain Lake's Christmas Eve service times will be as follows:

North Forsyth Campus: 4:00, 5:30, and 7:00 PM
West Forsyth Campus: 4:00 & 5:30

We just added ANOTHER worship element this Christmas Eve that will rock your world this Christmas! Make plans now and invite a friend, family member, or co-worker now! I'll talk more about the new series we'll kick off on this night later on...

National New Church Conference...

        As many of you know, Mountain Lake now hosts the second largest church planting conference in North America here at our church, the churchplanters.com conference. David Putman and I, and Marie Lindelli, along with our two church planting residents, are all down in Orlando the first part of this week for the National New Church Conference in Orlando. This church planting conference is the largest in the country and includes over 2500 people here this year! David and I are hosting the post-launch track of the conference and will be speaking at it on Wednesday to 400-500 pastors! Pray for us. Pray for what God wants to do through us here. We'll have the opportunity to encourage HUNDREDS of pastors! God is giving our church so much influence! Don't worry, I'll be back and ready to teach Sunday!!   

Easter Worship Service Times...

Mountain Lake Church is proud to announce SEVEN IDENTICAL WORSHIP SERVICES ON TWO DIFFERENT CAMPUSES this Easter!

Service Times are as follows:

North Forsyth Campus: 8:00, 9:30, and 11:00 AM; 4:00 and 5:30 PM.
West Forsyth Campus: 9:30 & 11:00 AM

We'll be kicking off our new message series called:

Current Worship Schedule...

FOUR IDENTICAL SERVICES ON SUNDAYS:

9:30 & 11:00 AM
4:00 & 5:30 PM

Children's Ministry is offered during every worship service

Student Ministry
AMP'D, our Middle School Worship is offered during the 9:30 & 4:00 services.

SHIFT, our High School Worship is offered during the 11:00 & 5:30 services.

See you Sunday!