July 4 – 8  |  Cost: $290

5 Day, 4 Night Trip to Atlanta

• 4th of July Celebration at Stone Moutnain
• Fireworks and Laser Show
• Chick-Fil-A Headquarters Tour and Concert
• Atlanta Braves Game
• World of Coke/CNN Tour
• Georgia Aquarium
• Mission Project
• Worship Leading Opportunities
• Bible Study

All meals, lodging, transportation and activities included.

Payment Schedule

• Registration Deadline & Deposit Due
  May 20 – $90.00
  Registration and initial payment MUST be made online.
• Payment 2 Due
  June 3 – $100.00
  Payment can be made at Youth Choir rehearsal on Sundays or by contacting the Music Office at 601-925-6434.
• Final Payment Due
  June 24 – $100.00
  Payment can be made at Youth Choir rehearsal on Sundays or by contacting the Music Office at 601-925-6434.

This new role is a strategic effort for our church to implement a Family Ministry strategy for discipleship.  You may be wondering what that means, and how does it affect what we are already doing.  I want to do my best to give a concise description of Family Ministry in the space below.

Over the past several years there have been ministry leaders that have been tracking some startling statistics about religion and faith in students and young adults.  Christian Smith in his book “Soul Searching” coined the term Moral Therapeutic Deists to describe the kids that are coming out of churches.  Jay Strother in the book “Trained in the Fear of God” defines Moral Therapeutic Desists as this, “Young people are emerging from dazzling children’s ministries and youth programs with the belief that religion is all about feeling happier and doing better.  God was, in their minds, a distant and benign Creator whose purpose was to help them feel better about themselves.”

As leaders have looked at ministry strategies, many have come to a realization that the church and home need to create a partnership in order to create a stronger biblical worldview within their children.  Family Ministry has begun gaining strength as a necessary form of ministry as we seek to bring back the biblical definition of the parents being the primary-disciple maker in their children’s life.  The mere fact that parents will on average spend nearly 75x  more time with their children during a year than the church will, tells us that we must make sure that we are pushing to acknowledge, train, and hold parents accountable as the primary-disciple makers in the children’s lives.

My heart is to see that Morrison Heights as a church congregation proclaims this through our ministry efforts.   We will be following a Family Ministry model called the Family-Equipping model (term coined by Randy Stinson & Timothy Paul Jones).  Over the next several months and years we will seek to use every ministry opportunity to champion the place of parents as the primary disciple-maker.  Our goal will be to seek to provide a comprehensive educational strategy from birth to graduation and beyond that sets a firm biblical foundation for each child.

(Top, L to R) Daria McCoy, Tyler Thames, Corrinne Allen,
Kelcie Howard, Allison Volk, Jordan Langworthy

(Bottom, L to R) Jenna Correll, Jennifer Mitchell, Marianna Fountain,
Dee Gentry, Kelley Beth Brashier

Click Here to Register

As I am praying and preparing to go, I am reminded of the folks who were gathered in Jerusalem just after the Ascension of Jesus. In Acts 2: 36-41 Peter told everyone in attendance that Jesus, whom they crucified, is both the Lord and Christ. As they heard the words of Peter, the scriptures tell us that they were “cut to the heart” and asked “what shall we do?”  Peter replied, “Repent and let everyone of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins.” In Vancouver, not many folks have heard about Jesus Christ and very few have accepted Him as Lord and Savior. We know there is such an urgent need to go and tell others of our Lord and Savior. I realize not everyone can go to Vancouver but maybe we as a church can partner with a church plant pastor and pray for him and his work as he seeks to share the gospel with unbelievers.

While we are in Vancouver next week, I hope God directs us to a church plant pastor we can partner with. I also hope we have many opportunities to share our faith.  Maybe God will show us favor and allow a partnership to be established.  I hope we can come back to Clinton with a plan to work alongside a church planter.  Please join us in praying that God will direct us to the man he has for our partnership. We are excited about the journey and even more excited about what God is going to do!

Five years ago, I was blessed to join the staff of Morrison Heights. The time I’ve spent serving this church family have been the most incredible years of my life. Although my time at Morrison Heights has been a tremendous period of God’s blessing in my life, I always knew that a day might come when God would call me to a new ministry.

After I learned that 96% of people who live in multi-housing communities are lost and disconnected from any church family, God told me to go and take the gospel to these unreached communities. It is difficult to obey God when He calls you to leave a ministry you love and enter a new phase of ministry. As much as I love my church family, I know that God has called me to a new phase of ministry.

Emily and I have spent the past three months developing a leadership team and raising financial support for our mission. We have a team of incredible leaders who are committed to completing the mission of God. We know that this is the time for us to launch and become full-time missionaries to the Jackson metro area. Our last day at Morrison Heights will be May 6. If you would like to keep up with our ministry, you can follow our ministry at our website (www.inciting.org) or on our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/InciteNetwork).

As you remember us, please pray for the following:

• Pray for our daughter, Alden. She will have surgery on her kidneys this summer. Pray that her surgery is a success and that both kidneys will function normally.
• Pray that God sends us like-minded believers who share our vision to plant the gospel in apartment complexes, mobile home communities, and college campuses around the Jackson area.
• Pray that we are able to raise the additional funds needed to support our ministry. We are nearly $20,000 short of our first year’s budget.

Thank you for your love and support. Please know that Emily and I leave you with our love. We will continue to pray for God’s blessings on this church family.

Sincerely,

Mark Metcalf, Youth Minister

Hailey Elder, a freshman at Mississippi College from Tomball, Texas, shares her experience.

—————————————-

“Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” Matthew 25:40

God completely broke my heart this past spring break and I know and that the pieces will never fit together as they did before. He opened my eyes to a whole new way of life that is only 700 miles from our coastline. He showed our team examples of beauty in the ashes and what it means to have His power made perfect in our weaknesses. He moved in radical ways.

View from the tap-tap

As our plane flew over Haiti you could see the poverty and devastation radiating from the land. So many thoughts and emotions flooded my head as I wondered what the next seven days would bring. After we landed, a “Tap-Tap” (a modern covered wagon used for public transportation) drove our team through the capital city of Port-au-Prince, and culture shock began to seep in as the smells, sounds, and sights became our reality. There was trash, rubble, people, cars, and shacks everywhere. We passed girls carrying huge loads on top of their heads and people gathering water out of the sewage drains. Just as our minds began to process this world, we encountered a completely different one upon our arrival to New Life Children’s Home. It was like an oasis in the middle of a desert; the buildings were all brightly painted, and it was the first grass and trees that we seen. We dropped off our baggage into our simple rooms, threw away our American way of thinking, and then quickly found ourselves walking towards the orphanage. We were anxious and excited to meet the kids that would all find ways to wiggle into our arms and hearts over the next week. Within a few moments, we stumbled upon about 15 kids in wheelchairs and my heart leapt with excitement. You see, I have two younger siblings with special needs and my father is the director of Camp Blessing, a Christian camp for children/young adults with physical and mental disabilities. Living life around people who are “different” in the eyes of the world has created a desire inside of me to share the news that those who are “different” are not broken, but are more complete than we will ever be. Like the blind man mentioned in John chapter 9, they too are created “so that the works of God might be displayed in [them]”. These beautiful children, bound by the metal of their chairs, are not mistakes; for God is incapable of making a mistake. They are not lacking perfection for they are created with purpose. I continue to find comfort in reading 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” This makes me ridiculously excited about the day in Heaven when they will be the ones to scoop me up and twirl me around in their arms. The day when they will totally beat me in a race down the streets paved with gold. The day when we will all have the glorious bodies that Paul talks about in Philippians and the ability and desire to praise our Savior with everything inside of us as citizens of high heaven.

It was love at first sight with one particular little girl named Isabella. She is around 6 years old and has Cerebral Palsy

Hailey and Isabella

that has led to the paralysis of all four of her limbs. This doesn’t mean for a second that she is deprived of happiness; in fact I have never seen anyone smile a bigger smile and be more excited about the simple things in life. All you had to do was look into those beautiful brown eyes or hold her tiny hands, and she would burst into laughter. She was definitely my daily dose of much needed joy.

One of my biggest struggles while we were there was comparison. I came from a camp perspective where each camper has their own counselor, the activities are accessible to all, and we do everything to make sure that this is the best week of their lives to let them know that we love them. I had to realize that New Life is not a camp, the kids there aren’t going home after a week, and they don’t have mommies and daddies that are going to come and pick them up and cry tears of joy at the end of the week. New Life is home. They don’t have one specific person there to love and care for them alone, maybe one for every 20 kids. Those who were handicapped didn’t have properly fitting wheelchairs, they didn’t have much social interaction, they didn’t have educational programs they could attend, and they did not have the medical interventions to stop their scoliosis from completely twisting their spines. Most were abandoned when they were young because any deformity or abnormality is seen as a curse to the family in a culture of Voodoo. Many of the other children have recovered from severe malnutrition and other diseases caused by lack of protein and clean water. Despite all of this, they are completely content sitting under the mango tree day after day. They are happy being quiet observers of the craziness going on around them. I’m so thankful that even while looking at all of this so called sorrow through my “American eyes”, God allowed us to see with His eyes. We were given one week to love them. One week to believe in them. One week to hold them whenever possible. One week to provide hands to hold, laps to sit on, and shoulders to fall asleep on. One week to be the hands and feet of Christ.

Guerly

It rained almost every night we were there and it was beautiful to watch and listen to, but it also humbling to think about all of those without a roof over their heads and all of the people who needed this storm as their sole source of clean water for the next day. At church we were reminded of the fact that God is definitely not limited to English as we experienced the beauty of worshipping in two languages simultaneously. Their pastor was trying to teach the children what it means and looks like to worship from the heart. He encouraged them to raise their arms and close their eyes. I raised one of mine and kept the other hand intertwined with Guerly, a handsome twelve year old boy whose scoliosis has taken away his ability to hear and speak, as well as a lot of his muscle movement which has his confined to a wheelchair. One might think that for him, sitting through that church service was pointless because he can’t possibly know what is going on around him, but this is not the case. As the pastor continued to teach in Creole and the music continued to play, Guerly released his grip from my fingers and pushed my arm up, forcing me to worship wholly and unashamed. It was such a humbling and beautiful reminder of what praising God should be like, a room full of children surrendering it all.

Throughout the rest of the week God taught us so much as we simply lived life Haitian style. Our sins becoming “white as snow” took on a whole new meaning as we learned how to tediously wash clothes by hand. Simple joy became very real as we painted with water for hours on end. Victory in Christ became new and exciting all over again as we performed the epic story of David and Goliath for kids who acted as though they had just watched the real thing. We learned an immeasurable amount of patience while feeding never ending bowls of “pea soup”. Praising God in all circumstances was displayed as we accompanied the children on their first bus ride ever, sitting at least 6 per seat, sweating profusely with 70 lb “human blankets” on our laps. We never actually got to get off because plans fell through, but we sang praise and worship songs throughout the entire drive. Fruits of our labor were evident and welcomed with the appreciative smile of the nannies after we helped bathe and feed the handicapped children. The power of unity was experienced as we all contributed to the painting/tiling/grouting of a room for a new pastor. Time became a concept of little importance which forced us to be flexible about the ever-possible potential plan for every hour of the day; we learned to live in the moment. We felt the power of worship and prayers overflow and give us much needed supernatural energy, joy, and peace. We got a snapshot of what it looks like to rest in the arms of Christ as we held sleeping children on our laps for hours on end. I learned humility through the gradual letting go of a “Martha spirit” and allowing myself time to rest, depend, and be served by the amazing people on our team. They were beautiful examples of what it means to have a “Mary spirit”, reminding me that it is okay not to constantly be working with your hands, but sometimes more beneficial solely from the heart. Getting to wash the feet of EVERY child was an amazing experience and such a tangible picture of our servant Savior washing the nasty dirty feet of the people he treasured most in his earthly life. We got hit in the face with life perspective as we listened to a young girl thank God for the air she gets to breathe as she sleeps on a concrete floor, is without parents, without running water, and without many of the things in life we deem “essential”. Undignified became an outfit of choice as we sang an immeasurable number of David Crowder’s “La la la la HEYs!” and literally danced and sang to be mad for our King, with nothing hindering us, for there was indeed passion in our souls.

These are just a few of the infinite number of amazing things God did to us and through us as he showed us what it sounds like to have a heart that beats to the rhythm of his own. I’ve heard it said that we were born with a “defective” heart, and that it must be broken before it can be put back together right so that the blood of the lamb is flowing through us. I want this heart of mine to beat with purpose, knowing that God has me right HERE right NOW for a reason. No matter how much our whole team would rather be in Haiti, we can rest in the truth of Revelation 21:4-5 “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” It is amazing to know we will see them again!

Haiti 2012 Team

Please remember that children must have turned 3 years old by September 1, 2011.  To register for this incredible week, please click either participant registration button or the volunteer registration button.  Please read the following instructions before continuing your registration:

1.)  If you do not have an account set up, please click on the “Create Account” link in the top right hand corner of the login page.

2.)  Please use a current e-mail address as your login name.

3.)  If you have already set up an Online Giving profile, MHBC Portal account, or have registered for an event on the Morrison Heights web page; that login and password will work. Please do not create a new account!
4.)  Please create an individual account for each person 18 & over in your household, please do not create one profile for multiple people in your family.  Children will be listed under their parents account.

If you have question, please contact us at 601-925-6450.

VBS T-Shirts

During registration you will be given a chance to order your child a VBS T-shirt and be asked to pay online.  You must register for VBS before May 27, 2012 to have the opportunity to order a VBS T-Shirt.   In order to be better stewards of our resources, we will only order the amount of T-shirts that are requested and paid for online.  T-Shirts will not be sold the week of VBS.

Cost: $12 per T-Shirt

The following is a summarized plot summary for Hunger Games:
“As punishment for the districts’ rebellion attempt years earlier, the Capitol holds an annual televised event called The Hunger Games. Each district must draw the names of a boy and girl between the ages of 12 and 18. These 24 youths become contestants (called “tributes”), who must fight to the death in a vast arena created by the Capitol Gamemakers. The lone survivor returns home to wealth and fame.”  (summary taken from Focus on the Family)

As I read the book, I am deeply disturbed by the plot of this book.  I try to recognize the fact that it is a fiction book with a make believe world; however, I struggle with the real life portrayal of movies today.   I am deeply saddened by the fact that our world makes a spectacle of kids killing kids.  Even though it is fiction in our world, we use this as entertainment for ourselves, just as the residents of the Capitol did in the book and movie.

This month during children’s worship we have been talking about being rooted in what we believe, having conviction.  We have been discussing the need to stand up for what is right, even when others don’t.   As I continued reading reviews, I was constantly reminded of how our culture says it is o.k. to watch this or that because it is just entertainment.  But when does entertainment crossover into our beliefs as Christians.  When do we make a stance for what is right!

As parents we have a responsibility with our kids to help aim them in the right direction.  Our culture constantly puts pressure on us to make decisions.  Writer, Bob Hoose, from Plugged in Online says, “1 Thessalonians 5:21-22 urges us to “Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil.” That’s perfect advice from a perfect book—about how to handle imperfect teen lit.”  This is great advice for parents as we make decisions for what is appropriate for our kids to read and watch.

Personally, if I had older kids, I wouldn’t want my kids to see this movie or read the books until late in their teen years.  And then I would want to be prepared as a parent to have an in depth discussion about the movie or book and our beliefs.  In this case I would actually agree with the rating of “PG-13 – Parents Strongly Cautioned: Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.”  The movie/book may have some positive elements within the story, but sometimes the bad outweighs the good.   I feel that is the case with this particular story.

Here is an article by Bob Hoose from plugged in online title Teen Lit: Now Without Witches!

Here is an article by Focus on the Family on The Hunger Games.  Includes great follow-up questions if your child has already read the book or seen the movie.

This Good Friday, April 6, 2012, Morrison Heights will host a Secret Church simulcast from 6pm-midnight.

Secret Church is a time of intense Bible study and prayer for the persecuted church led by Dr. David Platt.

Morrison Heights hosted a Secret Church simulcast last year and over 350 people came. This is one event that you won’t want to miss!

Tickets are $5 and you can sign up online now by clicking HERE. $5 covers the cost of your 100+ page study guide. Each ticket comes with two complimentary drinks and two complimentary snacks.

Want more information?
Check out this Secret Church Video.
Sign up now.