Last week I wrote Part 1 of a blog called, “It’s all about IMPACT.” In that blog I tried to share a little bit of the history and vision for our IMPACT Ministries here at Mount Pleasant. As a reminder, we have 3 current IMPACT Ministries. There’s our IMPACT Center on our Greenwood campus that serves 450-500 people in 4 services every IMPACT Thursday (morning – afternoon – evening) and IMPACT Satur...  Read More

I love the word IMPACT. In fact, I love it so much, that a few years ago I told our staff that moving forward our word for ministry would be IMPACT (always in caps). I’d be lying if I told you that I knew exactly what that was going to mean, but I did have an idea. The first thing we did was rename our then Community Ministry Center (CMC) the IMPACT Center. Next, we began using the name IMPACT Thu...  Read More

I’ve been going to church since I was a baby in the nursery. In fact, I can still remember the woman who would rock me on her lap and read Bible stories to me when I was young. I called her “Aunt Gail.” She wasn’t a member of our church, she was someone the church hired to staff the nursery. What’s really interesting about this story is that she introduced my single mother to her oldest son and th...  Read More

A March 17 article in the Washington Post told the story of Evoni Williams, a waitress at the Waffle House in La Marque, TX. The Post reports: It all started with a Facebook post. On the morning of March 3, Laura Wolf was eating breakfast at a Waffle House in La Marque when she overheard an older man, who reminded her of her late father, tell Williams he had trouble with his hands. The man, later ...  Read More

Like anyone who has served in a leadership role for a significant period of time, I have learned a lot about what I’m good at and what I’m not good at (I don’t think that’s good grammar but given the context of the sentence, I think it fits). One of the areas where I sometimes struggle is the communication of vision, which is bad because a clear and compelling vision is important to the success of...  Read More

Life’s been a little busier than normal for Sandy and me the past few weeks because we’re getting ready to move to a new home. For the past few years we’ve wanted to “downsize” to a ranch style home. Our two-story home with a full basement is more than we need and we’re over walking up and down two sets of stairs. We’ve been looking for a while but have been pretty picky. One Saturday night I came...  Read More

Over the past few months, one of the most common questions I’ve been asked is, “How’s that 4th service going?” In January of this year, we changed our Sunday morning service schedule from two services at 9 and 10:45am, to three services at 8:45, 10, and 11:30am (our Saturday night service at 6pm remained the same).The first thing I would say is, “It’s going well.” That’s based on how our staff and...  Read More

According to a new Gallup Poll, the number one reason Americans attend church is to hear Biblical preaching. And the numbers are high: 83 percent of Protestant worshipers cited sermons that "teach you more about scripture" as a major factor in why they go to church. Almost as many (80%) cited the importance of practical application. Or, in other words, teaching that connects our faith to daily lif...  Read More

On a drizzly afternoon in early 2015 seven people gathered for Washington D.C.'s newest group—The Quitters Club. Tagline: "Let's Give Up on Our Dreams … Together!" One attendee was ready to cast aside her long-held ambition to become an actress. Same deal for a would-be writer. Another was ready to quit Washington D.C. The group of strangers were drawn together by the same invite that read: "Most ...  Read More

I just put the finishing touches on the first draft for the weekend message. I’m preaching verse-by-verse through the Gospel of Matthew and we are in the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:8, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God). It might sound odd, given that this is the 6th of 8 Beatitudes, but this just may be the most important Beatitude. Since that’s the case, I labored over my manuscript...  Read More

On the first full weekend of January 2017, we made a change to our Sunday morning service schedule and went from two Sunday morning services to three. The new times are 8:45, 10, & 11:30am (we continue to worship on Saturday nights at 6pm). When I announced this new schedule I told you (my Mount Pleasant family) that we were doing this to make room for more. In the past, especially at certain time...  Read More

A few weeks ago, I told my wife, Sandy, that the question I dread the most every year when December rolls around is, “What do you want for Christmas.” I say that because, there’s not a single thing that I need and, at my age, most things I want are a little pricey. So I do my best to put together a simple and “relatively” inexpensive Christmas wish list for my family. In the end, I’m never disappo...  Read More