Blog

What a year it’s been at MCC!  Here is the third installment of what God has done to transform us and use us this past year.  Enjoy, and thank God together with us!

MOPS had a very blessed year, and its impact upon the community has grown.  Over 30 moms helped to kick off the fall semester! Topics like prayer, managing clutter (actual & metaphorical clutter), and loving husbands God's way & through scripture, have deepened friendships.  Celebrations for new mamas, gatherings for the holidays, and helping out moms in need have brought laughter and fellowship.  A single mom with 9 kids who had little to nothing at all was showered with food, clothing and household goods. God has loved and served moms, and even mobilized them to be a blessing to others.

Our Greeters and Connectors teams sought out and welcomed dozens of MCC guests on Sunday mornings. 

And the friendship and openness have started to spread!  Many people beyond these teams are looking for newcomers now, and reaching out to people that they don’t know. 

We are also being more intentional about serving our visitors through welcome bags and our new Starting Point Lunches. These lunches help us get to know them, fold them into small groups and ministries and answer questions.  One attender at the Lunch told about her first experience at MCC:  “The first week, I was greeted by so many people that it was overwhelming!  When I came back the next week, people kept coming up to me and saying ‘hello’, and they all remembered my name!”  She has since come forward for membership.

The Meals Ministry served dozens of families at times of critical need. One couple who was helped said they were amazed that they were so well cared-for during their physical trial. Melissa spearheaded coordination within small groups, ministries who serve together, and through other affiliations, to help bring them friendly visitors and fresh-baked goodness when they were sidelined.

At Villa Santa Maria, God re-opened a door for ministry to youth who face steep challenges.  While we’ve met one-on-one with different residents in the past years, for the first time we have two separate Bible studies with 8 different residents being involved regularly.  We got to partner with one of our own sisters, Melissa, who serves there as a therapist, and who weekly invests in these precious children.  Now, each week, we read the Bible together, and share prayer requests for God to bring breakthroughs and new hope.

Through CareNet, we’ve helped to offer young women a choice for life, and a path of hope.  Several babies, whose Mothers have been blessed by CareNet, have been born just in the last few weeks, and even one born on Christmas Day!  Through Adoption Assistance Agency, we’ve helped 12 families to adopt for life this year, including one from our own church. 

Maybe one of the best glimpses of God’s glory at work in our midst comes from the brother who reminds us of how faithful God has been to all of us, as seen in his own trials. 

“God has been teaching me through a crushed vertebra, spinal cord surgery, a heart ablation and subsequent nerve recovery process that I can trust Him.  My Good Father has provided brothers and sisters to help me in so many ways through my ordeal.  I have been blessed and continue to thank Him.  The Lord has served me through my wife, my family, and His faithful servants.  Thanks goes to so many of you here at MCC."

What a year it has been at MCC.

As the world we live in seems to move at a whirlwind pace we can be steadied that the Lord always remains the same (Psalm 102:24-27) and secure in the knowledge that He works everything together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).

Please join us in giving thanks for 2017 and stay attentive in watching how He works, how He transforms and how He moves in our lives and through MCC in 2018!

What a year it’s been at MCC!  Here is the second installment of what God has done to transform and use us this past year.  Enjoy, and thank God together with us!

We saw Cache Deterding, Joni Dobran, Katie Barker, and Verity, Hana, & Killian Gray come forward for baptism and had a number of households join us to covenant in membership, not including the several who came forward just last Sunday!

In our Women’s and Men’s Bible studies, people are opening the Word, and learning how to read the Bible for themselves.  They are gaining confidence in reading in context, and seeing what God is actually saying.  Along the way, they are partnering with, caring for, and serving one another.  One group rallied to move one of their members who had to make a change to Los Lunas.  Two other groups stepped out of their comfort zone to serve the community as they came to our church for a meal and a program (more on that later).  And one of those men’s groups also helped host two Men’s Breakfasts this fall, so that men could come together for fellowship, testimony, and accountability.

Our Sunday School classes, and the BSF groups that meet here, are also growing in how to study the Bible.  In both, God uses His Word to show His glorious nature more clearly, to bring His purpose and plan into sharper focus, and to transform people’s lives by His power.  There are “aha” moments, and then there is the steady shaping of a godly heart and mind.  Both are happening regularly, and are seen as we come together week by week.

On Sunday mornings, our music ministry continued to help us sing out God’s truth together, and draw near to Him.  This ministry was co-led by 5 different volunteers.  It is a miracle and a gift that they work together so well!   One of the leaders shared,

“I think my favorite part of the worship ministry is when the congregation takes over a song and sings it loudly — able to carry on even if the team up front quits singing.  When this happens, I humbly feel that this is right and good.  I also especially enjoy the spirit of unity that comes from a group of us playing a song together.  There is something special about voices, instruments all blending to make a beautiful sound.  Usually, we are all amazed — because we come together as individuals who have just had imperfect mornings, weekends, or weeks behind us.  God is faithful to make a beautiful song out of all of us.”

MCC servants shared the gospel and taught Bible verses each week to children in the schools in the East Mountains.  The Follow the Son Bible Clubs watched God open doors for them, and keep them open.  Children memorized Scripture, and took the gospel home to their families each week.  And we had the privilege of hosting a meal and Christmas program for some of these East Mountain families at our church.  Two of our small groups adopted that event. Together with Bernadette from our Fellowship ministry, they worked hard to give these families a special evening, and the message of Christ’s love.

We partnered with International Students Inc. to impact international college students at UNM with the love of Christ.  We served in various capacities; from providing rides and advice and meals and furniture, to tutoring English, conducting hikes, and arranging for temporary housing.  Stan Schug described his own experience serving with ISI:

“In time, trust and relationship has developed into friendship.  I’ve gone from talking to unknown foreign students within a structured format, to becoming closely involved with an Iranian, Muslim couple; to having very dear friends with explicit permission to teach their four-month-old baby, Sam, about Christ, as he grows up.”

Through our support of the Gideon’s ministry, we had a hand in more than 13,000 copies of God’s Word being distributed at this year’s State Fair, and another 5,600 on the UNM campus.  At Highland High School, 181 young people received copies of the New Testament, with 102 of those being given out by our own Mike Brazie and his partner.  In some of these interactions, Gideon’s were even able to share the gospel and offer further follow-up.

If we try to recite how many marriages have been strengthened, describe how our facilities have been updated and improved, count the number of groups that have come onto our campus and been served, and tell the number who have been trained in financial stewardship, surely we will run out of space and time.

God is good and He has been faithful to use MCC’s ministries for His glory over the past year! Join us in giving thanks for all He has done in, through, and for MCC in 2017!

And, there is still more to be thankful for! Stay tuned for our final praise installment, next week.

What a year it’s been at MCC!  God has blessed us and used us!  We are truly grateful to be a part of His divine work of transformation. There is too much to share in just one post, so here is the first installment. Enjoy, and join us as we thank God for all He has done this year!

We saw two teens give up their summer to invest in God’s work on mission trips to hard places. Another teen gave her summer to serve mid-schoolers for the Lord at summer camp; and an entire band of youth and adults from MCC made the journey to Bolivia, to further gospel community with the families in Sucre. 

We helped to train pastors in Ethiopia, drill wells and support gospel workers in Peru, and bring audio Bibles to military personnel around the world. 

There was the MOPS ministry creating community, respite and vision for the moms who often serve unnoticed at home; while also adopting a grandmother who is the primary caretaker for her grandchildren.

The Lord raised up two new servants for Fire and Ice, our Mid-High Youth Ministry.  Through Daniel and Joy’s leadership, and the entire youth leadership team, the students studied Scripture challenging them in how their faith should be alive and visible in their daily lives.  They took on two successful service projects - with Both Hands ministries, and with Operation Christmas Child - allowing our youth to reach out and share God’s love.  Our High School Youth also shared the love of Christ in the community, by not only partnering with these events, but also sharing gospel tracts door-to-door at Halloween.  And some of our youth are already making preparations to follow the Lord in going to Bolivia next Spring.

Our VBS last summer was an overwhelming success!  We had hoped for at least 100 students, planned for about 120...and were blessed with 139!  Of these, more than 60% were from outside MCC, and over a quarter were without any church home.  While we sang, and rehearsed the gospel, and walked through “Rome” together, many children prayed for the Roman guard to come to Christ, helped hide fellow Christians from the Roman authorities, and marveled at how different and enslaving the worship was for people of other faiths in that ancient day.

The Lord continued to grow and use the ministry of biblical counseling at our church.  Couples, singles, women, and men benefitted from opening the Word and letting God minister to their needs.  One woman who was fearful and bitter is now a woman of grace and joy.  A woman who was betrayed faithfully re-builds her marriage.  A woman, in the midst of terrible family conflict, serves her church family with great joy. And a sister in the throes of depression has learned the precious gift of perseverance.

The MCC Food Pantry is under new leadership, and has really made waves!  We had wonderful support from the body, and Barbara found new ways to reach those in need.  The Pantry partnered with Shine to help provide for meals throughout the entire Christmas season for several families from A. Montoya!  In addition, we provided abundantly for a family from Edgewood whose house burned down.  Some of those we served were very impressed when they learned that all of the donations had come from members of our church, and not from a large food bank.

And speaking of the Shine ministry, it has been a thrilling year!  God has truly built a bridge between us and the community at A. Montoya this year, and it is miraculous.  Who ever heard of a church being welcomed in to serve at a public school?  But we are!  We've been transformed as we’ve hugged weary moms at food pantry events, seen God provide cakes for a cake walk, created beauty with an indoor garden in the kindergarten wing, helped transform the library, created space in the teacher’s lounge where teachers can come for resources that they would otherwise purchase out-of-pocket, served alongside teachers in the classroom, and interviewed kids as they beamed about their Science Fair projects.

God has abundantly blessed MCC this year! We are so thankful for the eyes to see His grace on us! Though every one of these ministries inevitably faced struggles throughout the year, they can look back and see God’s hand in their decisions, service projects, volunteers and growth! We will be continuing this series to share how God has used other ministries at MCC to transform lives and communities!

We’d also encourage you to look around, to consider your life and/or your ministry, and to see how God is working in and transforming them! Give thanks that He sees and meets you right where you are!

What’s in a Logo?  What’s in a Website?

Honestly, in and of themselves, not that much.

But, used the right way, they can be powerful tools for the Kingdom.  The changes you’ve seen around MCC lately are all intended for a very specific purpose, and that purpose is tied directly to our vision. The idea is that we want to see God do great works of transformation in our midst, and we want to see Him get the glory for it. 

So, what does this transformation look like? It takes on several forms, but specific to our new look and our new way of communicating there are at least two very specific ways we see all of this working together.

First, we see the new look and website being part of making MCC a bigger light in the East Mountains and beyond.  Remember Jesus’ words in Matthew 5? He says that we are, “The light of the world.  A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” Can an easily find-able and navigable website be part of MCC being a bigger light? Absolutely. The way we communicate outside the church has potential to bring more people who need the Gospel through our doors, and that’s core to our mission as a church.

Second, we see the new look, website, social media, and communication strategy as being a key part of drawing us, who are part of MCC, closer together. When we communicate the great things God is doing in our midst, make it easier to find ways for people to plug in and engage, we are drawn closer together. We can pray for each other more easily, and we can more completely “live life together”. There is a great example of this in Acts 14. When Paul returned from his missionary journey, it says in Acts 14:27 that, “When they had arrived and gathered the church together, they began to report all things that God had done with them and how He had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.”  We can gather together in this way and celebrate through the technology of 2017, and personally in the same way they did then.

In the end, it’s our hope that God will use these efforts to change us, change our community, and in all of it that He would get the glory.  Thanks for being part of this body!

Lastly, a special shout out to Jodi Kenney and Elizabeth Allen, who have spent countless hours the last few months to bring all of this to life. You guys are our heroes!