Changing Service Times at ACC

Hey there ACC!

As most of you know from our Senior Pastor Mike Edmisten's announcement this past Sunday, ACC is going to undergo a schedule change on Sunday Mornings.

Starting October 2, we are moving the start time of our Sunday Morning Service from 11am up a half-hour to 10:30am.

In case you missed it, here is the announcement in its entirety:

From Mike: Service Time Change from Amelia Church of Christ on Vimeo.

You can read more about the details of the schedule change by visiting this link and you can view more precise times regarding the change by clicking on this link.

We are super-pumped about what God is doing in and through our church and cannot wait to make this change so that heaven can be more crowded!

Vlog #4 - Coffee & Scripture

Here's the Vlog for the week:

Quote of the Day - Reds

While watching the Reds game with my grandfather Burrel Saylor, he made a quote and I about fell off my chair. He asked who was winning the baseball game and I replied that the Reds were winning 2 - 1. To which he promptly stated - "Well, that means they'll lose this game."

That just sums up the Reds' season this year, doesn't it?

Vlog #3 - Exercise & Perseverance

New Vlog is up for the week. Hope you're challenged by it!

Vlog: Life & Death

Here's this week's Vlog. Hope you're challenged by it!

Vlog Number One

The techies call it a Vlog. That's right, a VLOG. It's kind of like a blog, but with video.

Either way, here's the first one. Hope you enjoy.

My bad

Okay, so if you've followed me regularly, you've realized that my last post was in June.

My bad.

I could come up with a thousand excuses, such as:

• My sister's dog ate my blog and so I wasn't able to write on it.

But those of you that know me have already dismissed that because I don't have a sister and if I did, she wouldn't have a dog.

Beyond that, I'll just apologize and tell you all to watch for something brand new coming next week to this blog. Hopefully it will liven things up a bit and allow me to post more frequently.

Until then, sorry it's been so long. Here's to fixing things for the better.

-Brian

Q&A Beyond Live: Part One

Hey ACC,

As most of you know, we held our first ever Live Q&A Event this past Sunday at ACC and if you missed it, you need to go and check out the podcast because it was a whole lot of fun.

We received so many questions that we were simply unable to answer them all and as a result, Mike and I thought we would take a few of them and answer them on our blogs.

So without further ado, I'll get to the question I'm going to tackle today. It was actually two different questions that I believe have very similar answers. Here they are:

1. How is the Christian religion different from other world religions?
2. Why Christianity versus other world religions? This is for apologetic reasons

First off, everyone needs something to believe in. People need something bigger than themselves to be a part of, (even if it's a belief in nothing). Our whole life is a search for identity: we're trying to figure out who we are and why we're here. As a result, we have come up with different opinions, but only one of them can be true. For example: Everyone could think that the sky is a different color, (red, purple, aqua), but only those who think it is blue would be true because that's what color the sky is.

In our world that we live in, Christianity is the only true religion. It's the only one that makes sense.

Why, You ask?

It's the only one where God actually saves His creation. In all other religions, man saves himself and if man can save himself, why does he need God?

This guy a long time ago named Pascal thought up something known as Pascal's wager. It goes something like this: He said that if God exists, then people should believe in Him. If they didn't believe, they would be in danger of Hell. If God doesn't exist, then it doesn't hurt to believe in Him while we're alive, so we might as well believe. Get it?

The problem comes along when people try to prove God exists. Most people think that you can point to evolution, or cause and effect, or absolute morality, but it's a lot deeper and more complex than that. Try these on for size:

1. DESIGN - If you were walking around in the forest and stumbled on a Rolex watch, would you think to yourself, "Wow! It's amazing how this watch formed itself from nothing out here in the middle of nature!" No. You would say, "Awesome. Some rich guy lost his watch and now it's mine." But really, you would assume it was purchased at a store that got it from a warehouse where some guy works on an assembly line making them all day long. THE POINT - Things with an intricate design point to a Creator. The universe is intricately designed, who made it? God.
2. COSMOLOGICS - This one is kinda deep. Everything that happens must have a cause, right? Your car moves because you started the engine. The engine started because you had the key turned. The key turned because...on and on. The world and our existence have to have a cause. THE POINT - There has to be a final cause - one thing that started everything - for it all to make sense. In order for it to be final, it has to be perfect, and God is perfect. The Big Bang etc, don't hold up here. If a printing press exploded, do you really think Webster's Dictionary would just form from all of the letters they've got sitting around in there?
3. ENTROPY - Again, deep. :) You learn in High School the second law of thermodynamics (or at least you were supposed to). The amount of energy in something is decreasing - we're moving from a state of order into a state of chaos. That means that at the very beginning there must have been a state of order. So way back when, there must have been perfect order. THE POINT - Chaos now, perfect order at the beginning. Once again, the only answer is God.

Other world religions will cite one of these three main reasons as the very tenets they were founded upon and that's why Christianity must be the only true religion. It is the only religion that even remotely holds up scientifically (take that Darwinists).

Here are some other examples of why Christianity is the one true religion:

1. ISLAM - Allah (god) is a harsh god, a god of judgement. His devotees cannot personally know him. Where then lies the incentive for following him? Our God invites those who believe in Him to be loved by Him and to know Him personally.
2. HINDUISM - If we can work our way to god on our own - through works, knowledge, and devotion - then why would we need god in the first place? And, if you believe in reincarnation, how do you explain the significant growth in population? If new babies being born are the souls of people who die, is no one making it to nirvana (heaven)? Are more souls just being created?
3. MORMONISM - God has plainly said that His book (the Bible) is closed. Revelation 22:18-19. Since most of what Mormons believe is based heavily on their extra biblical book that's full of all kinds of skeptical stuff, their beliefs aren't really founded on anything substantial. Plus, the Book of Mormon has no evidence supporting it, archaeological or otherwise.
4. UNIVERSALISM - Ultimately you would become confused because if truth really is continuing to change like they say, how is it tuth? Truth is absolute. The very definition of it is constancy. Oh and then there's John 14:6.
5. WICCAN - The Wiccan belief system is a reflection of what is a the heart of all sin - the desire to be as great or greater than God. By glorifying the creation rather than the Creator, Wiccans have put themselves in a position where they make all of their own rules. God though by definition is the ONE supreme being. Everyone can't be god. It doesn't work that way. God is the best, the #1 being, so 20,000 people can't be that.

I hope that this helps answer these two questions. For more information, check out these books on apologetics:

• The Case For Christ by Lee Strobel
• Evidence That Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell
• Why So Many Gods? by Nelson Publishing

In Answer to Mike's Post

For those of you coming to my blog in search of the question Mike posed on his blog, see the answer below:

• When asking this matter to expert on Tootsie Pops, Chuck Norris, he explained to me that if you roundhouse kick the Tootsie Pop properly, it will lick itself, so zero licks.

Bin Laden's Death - How Should I React?

The world lit up this morning and last night with reactions to the headlines - "OSAMA BIN LADEN IS DEAD".

People poured into streets, corners, in front of the White House and celebrated at the top of their lungs.

So How should we react to this news?

Check out Mike Edmisten's post on his site. It's money.

And it's exactly how we should react.

Disappointment

Since Easter Sunday was yesterday and we had an absolutely amazing day where God showed up huge at ACC where 2 people were added to the kingdom via baptism and 1 person transfered their membership to our church and countless other lives were transformed, you might be wondering why in the world I would choose to write on this subject this morning.

The answer is very simple, I had an 8-year old who was devastated yesterday morning.

And there is a very valid reason why. You see, my son, Joshua, was and is a spring. Out of the 8 friends he invited via the Death By Love cards not one single friend showed up on Easter Sunday for church here at ACC.

And my son took it very hard.

I'm sure several of you felt the same way yesterday. As a matter of fact, my wife Cara invited someone who didn't show up yesterday, and that feeling she had of disappointment is completely valid.

Now, here's the catch (and my advice to you and to my son) - "Don't Quit!"

That person or family you invited may not have shown up yesterday, but there's nothing stopping you from inviting them again.

Sure, it may not be Easter Sunday. Sure, there may not be as impacting of videos, or songs. Sure, it may be a different topic, but the gospel hasn't changed. The people haven't changed. The message hasn't changed.

As a matter of fact, here's what has changed. Lives have changed. And your neighbor, or family member, or friend, are most likely not going to have their life changed if you don't pursue them with all of the perseverance you can muster.

Like I told Joshua yesterday morning, people even said no to Jesus himself, but that didn't stop him from telling others. That didn't stop him from pursuing people.

And that shouldn't stop you either.

Go find that person that didn't show up this past weekend and invite them again and then pray for them and continuing inviting them until they show up.

With that kind of perseverance, they don't have a chance of not eventually having their life changed, and that will make this season of disappointment seem like it's worth everything.

Now, Go and do.

Your Words Matter

Gentlemen,

When was the last time you said something nice to your wife?

Mike Edmisten, ACC's Senior Pastor said a few weeks ago in this sermon that we men need to be verbally generous with our wives.

So, does your wife cherish your words so much that she would be willing to die for them?

I just read this article on Fox News about a man's wife who died, trying to protect her cell phone from being stolen because of the messages her husband sent via text to her on her phone.

According to her grieving husband, "She was very sentimental. She really cherished our text messages. She has four cell phones that are full. When she doesn't have any memory left, she gets a new phone."

Men, as tragic as this story is, there's a lesson to be learned. I'll reiterate what Mike said -

"You need to be verbally generous with your wife."

Now excuse me while I go text mine.

Preview:Albums of 2011

Every year (usually a little earlier than this) I post a list of what I believe will be the top ten albums of the coming year. This year being no exception, I have prepped a list of the top ten albums I'm looking forward to this year. Unfortunately (since I'm late this year) this list is a little biased because a few of these albums have already arrived (and two of them are phenomenal).

So with that being said, here we go:

10) Foo Fighters - "Wasting Light" - April 12, 2011

What can you say about "the Foo" except that they rock. I enjoy listening to all of the new music this band produces and have been a fan ever since "The Colour and the Shape" when I saw the video for "Everlong" (which remains my favorite Foo Fighters song). Dave Grohl (lead singer) has already stated that this album will have a harder edge to it than the previous ones and that excites me because with the exception of a couple of songs (ie. "The Pretender") their last couple of albums were more mellow. I would love to see them get back to their roots, but I'll reserve judgment until after I've heard the album.

9) Tenth Avenue North - "Inside & In Between Live" - March 1, 2011

I first started listening to Tenth Avenue North last year and immediately wondering why I had never heard of them when they released their debut album back in 2008. This band is the perfect blend of contemporary and edgy and they bring solid biblically based lyrics that cry out for healing and hope from God. If you have not heard this band yet, do yourself a favor and jump on grooveshark or iTunes and give them a listen.

8) Falling Up - Untitled Self Produced Album - No Release Date Yet

I became a Falling Up fan when they released "Dawn Escapes" back in 2005. Falling Up is the perfect blend of Rock and Electronic Instrumentation. I was really disappointed in their 2009 album "Fangs!", but I quickly learned that they were only a three piece band at that point. They have since reunited and are producing this album by and for their fans. That gives me quite a bit of hope, but like the Foo Fighters, I reserve to judge it until I have heard it. We'll see.

7) Rebecca St James - "I Will Praise You (Worship Album)" - April 5, 2011

Finally, Rebecca St James returns to give us another album. It's not like she's been busy or anything (touring, book, movies, engagement). I thought her last album in 2005, "If I Had One Chance to Tell You Something" was her best album to date and this singer seems to up the ante every time she releases a new album. Her 2011 release will be her second worship album and since I enjoyed her first one ("Worship God") so much, I cannot wait to get my hands on this one.

6) Family Force 5 - Untitled Album - Sometime Fall 2011

Okay, I loved this band when they arrived on scene in 2007 with "Business Up Front/Party in the Back". They brought a fresh new sound to the relatively new genre of crunk rock and they didn't mimic anything I had previously heard. With high energy driven guitars and vocals, "Business Up Front" garnered my album of the year award in 2007. Fast forward to 2008 when the Fam released their second album, "Dance or Die" which turned out to be a glorified pile of garbage. It's not that it was terrible, it just wasn't what the fans had been shown in their first album. I was ready to write them off until I read the following quote from lead singer Soul Glo Activatur, "Yes, the third album will have more crunk-rock and "rock-and-roll" elements similar to our first album."

5) Coldplay - Untitled Album - Later in 2011

Coldplay is a band that has only gotten better with age. Some have called them the U2 of the new music era and I couldn't agree more. Chris Martin's (lead singer) vocals are astonishing and the sound that Coldplay has been able to produce is nothing short of phenomenal. Their last two albums, "Viva La Vida" and "Prospekt's March" were both extremely well done and like Tenth Avenue North, this is a band that I was late in getting to the bandwagon, but I won't make that mistake with them again.

4) Hillsong United - "Aftermath" - February 15, 2011

The next three albums have already released this year, so admittedly, I'm a little biased on them. Hillsong United's last album, "Across the Earth/Tear Down the Walls" was the album of the year in 2009 and for great reason. it still remains my favorite worship album ever. Aftermath is the band's second studio album and for a live band, it doesn't seem to work so well. That being said, there are still plenty of songs to worship along with and this album is perfect for private personal worship time to God. Not great for a corporate setting, but that's what you get sometimes with Hillsong United. All in all, this is a strong album and it makes bold statements about God. Pick this up if you're looking for some new worship material.

3) Kristian Stanfill - "Mountains Move" - January 11, 2011

I first heard of Kristian Stanfill back in 2006 when he rewrote and arranged the hymn "Jesus Paid It All", adding a brand new chorus to the classic hymn and personally reigniting my love for it. Then, Stanfill released his first album "Attention" in 2009 and immediately garnered my attention. ACC, you might recognize a couple of his songs, even though you don't know it. Obviously, we have his version of "Jesus Paid It All" in our regular rotation, but we just introduced a couple of his songs that are new to you "Beautiful Jesus" off of "Attention" and then his brand new single off of this album, "Say, Say" This new album is phenomenal and I have really enjoyed listening to it. Check it out.

2) RED - "Until We Have Faces" - February 1, 2011

Wow. That's all I know what to say about this album. Wow. Red burst onto the scene in 2006 with "End of Silence" which easily took the album of the year award for me that year. I also wrote this post about the albums of the last decade for me and had I been forced to pick an album that rose above the rest, it would have been "End of Silence." Then, RED released their sophomore album "Innocence and Instinct" in 2009, and although it was a good album, it lacked the punch that "End of Silence" carried. But now, RED has dropped the feel of "Innocence" and returned to their roots with "Until We Have Faces." Perhaps a more appropriate title would be "Until We MELT Faces." This album is hardcore rock at its best and the grunge undertones that made RED so popular are back in full force. I also love the string arrangements that accompany almost every song. RED is so much more than just a simple rock band, they are artists and composers and their music is fun to listen to. Oh, and by the way....they love Jesus to death.

1) Switchfoot - "Vice Verses" - Later in 2011

Switchfoot is one of my favorite rock bands because they have energy driven music, high octane vocals, and lyrics that scream of a desperate need for Jesus. When they went into the studio to record their 2009 album "Hello Hurricane" (which is now my second favorite Switchfoot album behind 2003's "The Beautiful Letdown") they recorded enough songs for four full-length studio albums. However, instead of wasting them all with one massive release, they decided to stagger them over several years. Brilliance. That means that this album and the next one will come from the same vein as "Hello Hurricane". I love the sound of that and with that news, this album will easily nab the number one spot this year if it delivers.

So how right am I about these predictions? Only time will tell. Look back when December 2011 comes around and we'll see how close I really was.

New Thru 30

Alright ACC,

Brand new series comin' your way next Sunday, January 16. The series is called New Thru 30 because as a Church, we are going to tackle the entire New Testament of the Bible in only 30 days and you will be made New in those next 30 days as you undertake this challenge to read through the entire 27 books that comprise the New Testament.

Here to explain a little more about this series is our Senior Pastor, Mike Edmisten:

New Thru 30 Intro from Mike Edmisten on Vimeo.

Series starts January 16 at ACC. See you there!

Small Groups - Spring 2011 Part Five

Hey ACC,

I have taken the last few Thursdays and blogged about our individual Small Groups that we are offering in the Spring Semester at ACC. Each week I have highlighted an individual group that you can sign-up for to give you a little more information on what each one will be about and who is facilitating them.

Of course you can find all of the details over at ameliasmallgroups.com before the next semester begins.

Unlocking the Future: Revelation & End Times

Details: Tuesdays / 6:30pm – 8:30pm / Yance & Lisa Pyle’s House

3349 Whispering Trees Dr., Amelia, OH 45102

This group will study the book of Revelation and its implications on our own lives, both personally and spiritually. We will unlock the secrets of prophecy held in this book and formulate some better interpretations about Revelation’s major themes of hope and victory.

Facilitator - Brian Morrissey, (brian@ameliachurchofchrist.com)

Family - Cara (married for 9 years), Josh (8)

When did you meet Jesus? – I grew up in the church, but even though I gave my life to Jesus at the young age of 6, I didn’t know what it meant to give him control of everything until I hit rock bottom my freshman year of college. The rest is history.

What's unique about you? - I am actually in the process of writing my first novel. Study and research are fun for me (I know, I’m weird).

Why should a member attend your group? - Because we need to understand two things about the Book of Revelation: It’s a book of hope and a book of victory. Jesus is the main star and through his cross, we win. That’s all that matters.