MBC-Prince William Blog

 We want to give you a quick update on the DC Schools Project, one of our annual church-wide outreach events that took place last Saturday. For many public schools in the DC area, today was the first day of classes. But before this weekend, many of the more than 150 public school facilities in DC were not prepared for students to arrive today. So on Saturday morning, nearly 500 McLean Bible Church and Frontline volunteers from all of our campuses served at more than 40 of the most in-need public schools all across Washington, DC. Some planted flowers and trees, while others painted doors and walls, and still others helped teachers organize books and classrooms.

 But the DC Schools Project was about more than improving school conditions. It was all about impacting our city with the gospel message of Jesus Christ. McLean Bible Church and Frontline volunteers came prepared to preach the gospel to the community members serving alongside them. Plus, they handed out hundreds of invitation cards that list all of our services at each of our campuses.

 We want to thank everyone from our multiple campuses and ministry areas for getting serving, and for helping to make this year’s DC Schools Project a success. This event is not only a great way for our church to impact DC, but also to engage and equip each person in our church family to live out the gospel every day! So if you weren’t able to make it, that’s okay. Get involved in one of our dozens of serving opportunities here at Frontline or in the community!

Here is an article from The Georgetown Dish and a local blog post about McLean Bible Church and the DC Schools Project

 http://www.thegeorgetowndish.com/thedish/mclean-volunteers-recruited-hardy-beautification-day

  http://frozentropics.blogspot.com/2010/08/volunteer-locally-your-services-are.html

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Great news!  If you were at MBC this past weekend, you heard Lon talk about Christianity 101, the first in our series of McLean University classes.  Chrisitianity 101 is designed to give you the foundations of the Christian faith.   Whether you are new to “this religion thing” or you’ve known Christ since you were a baby, Christianity 101 has something to offer you. 

We had such a great response to Lon’s message that our campus will be offering its own session of Christianity 101.  Classes will begin July 11 on Sunday mornings.  Our own Rick Helein will be teaching the class.  Click here for more information or to sign up!

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Many of you know Kristine Showalter, our KQ Elementary Coordinator.  If you see her this weekend, be sure to wish her a big congratulations.  She and Wade Martin got engaged this past weekend.  We’re incredibly happy for them both.  Please be praying for them as they plan their wedding and prepare for their marriage.

And feel free to ask about the proposal or to see the ring.  

Congratulations Kristine and Wade! 

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I know you’ve been waiting with baited breath.   I know I told you this would be up yesterday.  The day got away from me.

So Tuesday I mentioned some of the challenges to working at a campus.  Most of them center around feeling disconnected from what’s happening back at Tysons and feeling somewhat on our own out here.  But there are a number of benefits to being a campus.

1. The central HR, Finance, and Administration offices.  It’s nice that we here don’t need to worry about tracking individual tithes or anything like that.  We really do appreciate all that Core Services does for us.

2. The chance to learn new skills.  When you have a large staff, it’s easy to become a specialist in one particular thing.  When you have a staff of 12, you tend to pick up new skills.  I’ve been learning about audio recording, flowers, how to set up baptisteries, and Keynote, among other things.

3. It’s easier to try new processes.  Our smaller size means it’s easier for us to try out a new way of doing Newcomer’s Reception or a new process of promoting events and ministries.  We’re working on that second one.  If you’re involved with any of that, stay tuned over the next month or so.

4. Our staff is able to connect with each other.  It’s much easier to connect with 3 or 4 people on your team than 35.  Alyce and I are the Creative Arts Ministry staff here at PW.  Jess, Nate, Dave, Katy and I are the Frontline PW staff.  The Tysons Creative Arts staff and the Frontline staff at Tysons are huge in comparison.  At our campus it’s pretty hard to become a silo separate from the rest of the staff – we all need to rely on each other.

5. A smaller campus means it’s easier for the congregation to connect with us and with each other.  I’ve been around MBC for over 10 years now.  I know that for me, it was much easier to meet people and really feel connected (beyond the superficial “hey, how are you”) back at Balls Hill or even when the services were in Smith.  In either case, small groups are essential.  From personal experience, there is no better way to get connected than to be involved in a small group.  I’ve said this before, some of my best friends today are still people I was involved in small group with 10 years ago.

6. We have the benefit of Lon’s great teaching.  How many other churches of 700 have pastors who communicate the gospel as well Lon and Todd do?  This frees Mark up to really focus on building community within our campus.  Essentially he has an extra 20-30 hours a week that the average small church pastor doesn’t have because Lon preaches the message.

7. PW folks are awesome.  Call me biased, but I love our staff and congregation – both at Frontline PW and at MBC PW.

Personally, I feel the benefits outweigh the challenges.  I’m sure there are some that would disagree.  That’s fine, they can stay at Tysons.  I really am thankful to be a part of this new endeavour out here at Prince William.  I’m looking forward to what the Lord does here over the next several years!

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We performed our first baptisms at our campus this morning. (Yay!  Woo-hoo! )

We were able to baptize 3 men, Bob, Michael, and Danny. Each one has an amazing story of how Christ changed his life.  You can listen to their stories by clicking here.

This whole week was a reminder of God’s provision.  I won’t lie – I was a little stressed about how all the elements would come together.  We’re a new campus so we don’t have the Building Services support that Tysons does.  Now, I’m not the handiest of people.  I don’t have a lot of experience putting tubs together.  I can handle Ikea, but that’s about the most I’ve tried.  I like that I can call my management company when I have a plumbing issue.  So the idea of being responsible for setting up, filling and emptying the baptistery was a little daunting.  Not to mention recording the testimonies….  I’m a lighting designer – with limited experience in audio.  I can tell you when it sounds good, but I don’t typically mix on my own.

But it all came together.  Pete La’Mon, Mark, Rachel and Aaron pitched in to put the baptismal together early in the week.  Aaron (our audio engineer) agreed to come in and record and edit the stories.  Craig and Tony helped with filling up and emptying the baptismal.  Aaron, Rachel, and Shirley helped in disassembling it. 

I’m so thankful for the team that the Lord has put together out here at PW.  No one person could do everything.  It’s awesome to see how we balance each other and complement each other in our giftings.  It’s a great picture of the body of Christ working together.

I hope you take a moment to listen to each man’s story.  Really, that’s what we’re all about – lives changed by Christ.

If you are interested in being baptized or want to talk to someone more about baptism, Jesus, or anything at MBC-PW, feel free to email me at stephanie.quick@mcleanbible.org.  If I can’t help, I will find someone who can.

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