On the Way! I am so loving as I watch God move our students along the Way. I love watching them as they are disturbed for the glory of God. I love hanging out with students and hearing them challenge me along the Way. I love hearing their stories and I really love watching them increase the story and fame of God as they challenge each other to be on the way. I love that their passion for the renown of Christ filters to many of us, who are a generation above them on the Way.

I was sitting in a prayer-encounter with our worship team this past week. It was utterly fresh to come together, across the 4 teams, and to seek the face of God. Carrie has died. We are missing our team leader. We gathered and we prayed and we invited God to reveal His presence. I gave a simple assignment before arriving that evening. I asked that each of us on the team(s) bring some truth from the Word and that we wash one another in His truth. Amazingly, one of our students opened the time by reading from Joshua 1. She said to us, 'where did God's people go when their leader had died? What did they do?' Then, she answered it by reading as Joshua picked up the mantle of leadership and challenged them to 'be strong and courageous... to not fear and to not be dismayed, but to trust that the Lord our God is with us!' What an incredible night of centering on our God. I love our praise team. I love our students. I love our God! I love that He is the sole supreme King of glory and that we follow Him. I will miss Carrie very much! Perhaps, the greatest honor that we give to her life of worship is to follow her in great pursuit of Christ.

So, as we move along the Way as a fellowship, I sense a clear call of God toward Him... toward His purposes and His passion. As we study and weave our way through Colossians 1 and as we realize that we are a part of this glorious movement called the 'church', we are also realizing that Christ is our leader. He is the head. He is the beginning. All of what we do and all of who we are is for His glory and for His supremacy. Because that is true, God is calling our fellowship to an ever-deepening place of prayer. He is calling us to seek His face. Stir Holy Spirit! Supreme God, move us.

Ian challenged our students to pray a simple prayer...'Supreme God, move us.' Move us more deeply in the Way. Move us, when we are in the midst of sin, away. Move us, as we see need, to be the way. Supreme God, move us! That is my prayer for our fellowship, as God plants an ever-deepening hunger for His life and His way in our hearts. I am praying that we are moved after the heart of God so that we will be moved for the heart of God. Pray...Seek....Live.....Become.

Supreme God, move us.

By Grace.... For Glory,
Mark

Jesus leading the church. Can you imagine? How would we live, move, and have our being, with Christ leading? What would we do? Who would we be? Would our lives and our 'church' and this movement be defined by 'Christ-only'? Really, would there be such 'awe' of God and wonder for Him birthed out of our fellowship? Could we find ourselves immersed in the inexplicable, apart from Christ?

What if.... What if, as a 'church' of called out people, we believe that Christ lives, moves, breathes and displays His glory through us. What if we really do release a taste of heaven on this planet? What if we fall madly in love with Him and His Word and His life? What is our reason for existence is to reflect Him? What if we do? What if......

Jesus Christ, supreme in the church.... supreme in His people. Supreme.

Mark

I'm pretty excited about:
- 96 kids rolling in who know The Way and who are disturbed by the Way
- Hundreds of kids hitting VBS this weekend
- Christ leading our fellowship

What if He does..... What if......

God is choosing to do pretty audacious things through the life of Emmanuel. I love the church. I love that Christ is our leader. I love that He is the head. I love that we simply need to watch for Him at work and to join with Him in this worldwide endeavor that He is bringing into fruition. He fully intends for every tribe, tongue, nation, people, on the earth, under the earth, in the sea... all peoples... all creation declaring His power, dominion, glory, honor, and fame forever and forever. Amen! I am asking God to mobilize the Emmanuel Fellowship into that song and into the everlasting story. I am asking our God to impassion our hearts for His eternal song!

I am excited about the church, because God is choosing to use us in the lives of kids and students in beautiful ways....He's using us to posture almost 100 kids at camp this weekend so that they can deepen in the Way of Christ.... He's using us to step into the lives of hundreds of kids on "Outrigger Island" (VBS) in a week or two.... to step into small groups through the summer and to chase Christ as we grow in His common interests.... to carry the name of Christ into Port St. Joe; Brazil; England and to Crestview. Amazing! Did I mention kid's heading to camp in July, and having Captain Jack Sparrow introduce them to Jesus Christ? Crazy good summer.

All of this is beautiful and what makes it beautiful is that Christ is the great and glorious transformer. He changes lives and circumstances and hearts in the middle of circumstances. He flips cardboards! The video, this past weekend, was astounding for me. I thought about the multiplied times that Christ has shown Himself and when He has changed the cardboard of a particular moment so that He found much glory in me as I found much satisfaction in Him.

So, what's your cardboard testimony? How is God changing your life? If you didn't get to watch the video this weekend in Encounter, check it out at http://youtube.com/watch?v=RvDDc5RB6FQ .

I love you guys. I love Christ. I love that He loves His church and I really love that He leads it. I love that He brings us into His amazing and transforming story. Pray... Expect....Seek....Dream... Glorify!

By Grace.... For Glory,
Mark

This past weekend was glorious. 4 times, we packed our worship room and we said 'goodbye' to Carrie. I will miss her. I will miss her love for worship, serving, creativity, encouragement, her voice, her worship, her amazing strokes of the keyboard.... I will miss her friendship and her love for God and for social justice and for His glory and for the needs of those around her. I will miss working together and dreaming together and thinking that God just might use us (EBC) to impact this world and to elevate the name of Christ.

Colossians 1.18 reads that Christ is the head of the church.... the sole purpose of the church is to make loud declaration of the supremacy of Christ. I watched the church this past weekend and we were loud and beautiful and glorious and Christ received SO much glory. You fed and loved and served and played and showed up and sang and cried and you made loud declaration of God's great glory in the midst of pain and sorrow. It was beautiful! I love you guys and I love being a part of this amazing deal called the 'church', which has the incredible role of lifting and lifting and lifting the supremacy of Christ. Christ supreme. Christ alone!

Jeff, Carrie's hubby, wrote the most amazing note Monday morning early. I thought that you would enjoy... Here it is:

Mark,

Please forward this to the staff and praise teams. Thanks man!

I have to tell you (again, I know) I love Carrie and am so thankful and blessed to have had her the time we did. One thing that is particularly cool about the blessing she heaped on us is our involvement with EBC. I didn’t want to come here when we moved back to Florida. We had established relationships at 1st UMC, her parents went there and I just wasn’t comfortable with all of EBC’s “wackiness”. It took one service to see Jesus present and one service to see what being here meant to Carrie. Getting to lead with Johnny was the second biggest reason Carrie wanted to be here; the first, Christ! Emmanuel Baptist very quickly became our home! Thank you!

Carrie cherished her “job” and the people she “worked” with. The depth of her faith was just expanded immeasurably by you guys and gals, ALL of you! I almost found myself jealous of her time with Mark. Her friendship with you is priceless! Carrie lived to sing and do music! The fact she got to do it with these teams of EXCELLENT and still growing musicians was most special to her. Carrie loved you ALL!

What all of you (staff and praise teams) did for her/us yesterday was awesome. It so much more than just about Carrie; just what she would want! People were touched by God yesterday and you all lead them to Him! Whether it was on the stage, a hug, spooning food, or just being a welcoming church to everyone; just what Carrie would want. Thank you!

Carrie loves you, I love you, Nate, Xander, and Maggie love you and we so very much THANK YOU for all you did! It was just what Carrie would want!

Jeffy

I love you guys! Enjoy this week and may God find much glory in and through you.

By Grace... for Glory,

Mark