SonRise Church

Thanksgiving Food Boxes

sonrisechurchmd — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 18:19:09 +0000

Several local churches were able to reach out to roughly 170 homes in our area to provide them with turkeys and food items for the holiday. Many of you gave of your time and treasures to make this happen. When the community of believers comes together, the impact we have makes a difference in people’s lives. Let us be thankful to God for the difference he has made in our lives through Jesus Christ!

Harvest Fair

sonrisechurchmd — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 17:35:58 +0000

Most of you attended the Harvest Fair last Friday, but I wanted to write an update. We estimate that we had between 1200 and 1300 people attend. We received more than 900 registration cards and as Daryl and I have talked to people, we know that a lot of folks didn’t register. At any rate, the event was INCREDIBLE! It was a massive success as far as we are concerned. It tells us that people in this community will show up to an event in droves if we invite them and do it well. I think this is the same with our Sunday service. If we personally invite our friends, co-workers, and neighbors, they will come. Let’s do it!

In the Spirit

sonrisechurchmd — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 20:28:39 +0000

Over the next three weeks, Daryl and I will be preaching a series called “In the Spirit”. We believe in one God that reveals Himself in three Persons. We have addressed the Trinity in the last few months and have spoken much about God the Father and God the Son. In this series we are taking three weeks to discuss God the Holy Spirit. We have said before that we cannot explain God, but because He has revealed Himself to us in the pages of Scripture, we can describe Him. He reveals Himself as Trinity, one God in three Persons. In this series, we are looking at three ways in which God empowers us to speak, to see, and to serve by filling us with the Holy Spirit.

We have difficulty understanding what our ‘spirit’ is and does, so we have even more difficulty understanding what God as Spirit is and does. Hopefully, in this series we can answer some questions and challenge SonRise church to resemble more closely what God desires us to be.

Also, don’t forget about our next series we are planning: You Asked For It!

PrisonBreak: Week One Follow-up

sonrisechurchmd — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 17:38:57 +0000

I wanted to follow up Daryl’s sermon yesterday (“What Are You In For?”) with some of the thoughts I gleaned from it.

· God’s plan is unchanging, his love is never-ending, he is trustworthy, and he is sovereign.

· We can end up in prison in several ways: 1. From our own choices and actions; 2. From someone else’s choices or actions; 3. From God’s choice for our discipline; 4. From God’s choice for our blessing; 5. From God’s choice to accomplish his plan; 6. From the ailments of our mortal bodies; 7. From some combination of the others.

· Often our bad choices imprison those we love the most.

· The object of our faith (that is, God Himself), is much more important than the amount of faith we have.

· Faith should be the foundation for understanding our experiences and not the other way around. We understand our experiences because we have faith in God and his Word to us, and He explains our circumstances to us.

· Sometimes God says “No”.

· Prison time comes to everyone, whether you follow Jesus or not.

· We can experience freedom in the midst of a cold, dark prison through Jesus Christ.

· Since God is sovereign, his love for us is unending, his plan is unwavering, and his word is trustworthy, we can trust him despite our circumstances.

This is going to be a challenging sermon series for me personally. What are your comments/expectations? My prayer is that we can remain in the freedom that Jesus gives throughout the various “sentences” we all will inevitably serve.

Death of Dr. Bruce Revel

sonrisechurchmd — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 17:36:12 +0000

By now many of you have heard that Dr. Bruce Revel suffered a massive heart attack last Sunday morning and went home to be with Jesus. For those who knew him our hearts are sorry for the great loss to our lives and the Eastern Baptist Association. Dr. revel served as our Director Of Missions of the Eastern Baptist Association since 2001. For those who know our history that was right when God called me to start SonRise. Bruce was actually my Supervisor for our church plant and was a constant encouragment and supporter of our church. He was always very interested and encouraging and whenever we had a need he was quick to try and fill the void. His heart for the Kingdom of God and for church planting will be felt for generations to come as Bruce led the way in moving our Association to plant multiple church plants during his time in ministry with us. HighTide, SonRise, Soul Discovery, Gathering Tree, Nuevo Amanecer, and others were fruit of his prayers, and leadership. As a church planter during those years I will always be thankful to God for allowing me to serve with such a great man of God like Bruce Revel. I will miss him and pray for his family as they adjust to their loss. But as for Bruce, congratulations my friend! You are now home. Well done good and faithful servant! I’ll stop by your mansion when I get there and we will worship at the Master’s Feet together again!! Thank you Jesus for your promises!!

Interview with David Jackson of the BCMD

sonrisechurchmd — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 17:42:08 +0000

The other day while I was at the Baptist Convention’s Office in Columbia for a Church Multipication Team meeting, David Jackson (the convention’s “Church Multiplication Missionary”/strategist) asked me to allow him to interview me for the podcast he does called “Moving At The Speed of God.” I agreed and we sat down and talked while being recorded.

He asked many questions about what makes SonRise unique and the vision and core values that God called us to live out. It was very good for me to think about how God has developed us and led us to lead in our convention for many years now in evangelism. Just this week I received a letter from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary acknowledging that we were again this year in the top 3% of all SBC churches in conversions (Decisions to accept Jesus Christ) and baptisms per ratio of membership.

When I look back and talk about how we been able to do this year after year the reason for our success becomes very clear. God. We prayed for this and He answered us. We only live that out as He shows us how. What a great privilege to be a part of such an awesome church. Whenever I get a chance to talk about some of the ways God has shown us how to be effective at reaching people for Him, it always excites me to do more and be more creative about how we can impact and reach more people with Jesus. SonRise is one of the most friendly, giving, and genuinely caring churches I have ever been a part of and that is why God keeps sending the hurting, and those who need a healing touch from Jesus. We are the ER to the Kingdom of God, not the retirement village. If you would like to check out the interview go to http://www.bcmd.org/cm_podcast and have a listen. For those who are members of SonRise it will charge you up one more time. For those who aren’t (sorry) but I hope it will encourage you to be tireless about the Master’s business of saving lives and healing hurts.

God Bless, Pastor D

The next series…Jesus, B.C.

sonrisechurchmd — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 13:02:55 +0000

I just wanted to say that Daryl and I have had an awesome time studying for this series. It’s been incredibly challenging, but also very enriching. I thought I would point you all to some Scripture passages we will be dealing with ahead of time so you can begin to read and meditate on them over the next few weeks. Here is a list of passages for you: Genesis 1; John 1; Hebrews 1; The Book of Colossians; Exodus 33. Feel free to post any thoughts you have about these passages. I hope this will help you get more out of this series. We are pumped about it!

Rising Son Youth Group

sonrisechurchmd — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:52:27 +0000

In May, I had the privilege to be a small group leader for Rising Son during their Silver Ring thing program. This is a program promoting a biblical understanding of sexuality and abstinence. It teaches about temptation, establishing boundaries, consequences and rewards, as well as commitment and accountability and relying on God. In short, it teaches how to practically apply biblical teaching to life, specifically in the area of sexuality. Last night was the culmination of the program. There was a meal and a ring ceremony. Something like thirty teenagers made a commitment to God to remain sexually pure leading up to marriage (Which, by the way, sexual purity is required in marriage as well). Our culture is immersed in the sexual perversion in politics to entertainment to advertising, and to see around thirty teens commit to God to honor Him with their lives truly is a significant event. I was also thinking how significant it is to have so many commit their lives to Jesus BEFORE they go away to Centrifuge youth camp. When I was in high school, we were always pumped up after camp, but these teenagers are seeking to honor God now. Even though many of them can’t drive, even though they can’t vote, we can see an example in many of these youth in their commitment. As Paul said to Timothy, “Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe.” (1 Timothy 4:12)

Play Ball!!

sonrisechurchmd — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 19:33:47 +0000

I’m excited about this series we are finishing this week. It has caused me to think a lot about SonRise as a team. I think that this church has a great attitude that can accomplish much in the Berlin/Ocean Pines area. This community is truly in need of people who will “live lives so others meet Jesus”. I’m equally excited that there are other churches in the area that play on the same team with us. This Sunday at Purdue Stadium should be a great time. This morning, I was reading in Acts 19 how God used the Apostle Paul to transform the community of Ephesus. There were those who were involved in practicing magic, but when they heard about Christ, they left their lifestyle and livelihood for the sake of following Jesus. Truly the Gospel of Jesus is powerful enough to radically change a community. With each of us playing our position that God as our Coach has given us on the team, surely we will have a winning season. This community will be changed as a result.

I am interested to know your thoughts about the “Play Ball” series. How has God spoken to you? What have you been challenged to do?

Maturity

sonrisechurchmd — Thu, 22 May 2008 18:26:40 +0000

I have been spending a lot of time reading the last couple of mornings and I want to put some thoughts down for discussion. One question I came across was what makes a person a mature Christian. We often assume that time alone matures. We forget that time can also cause rot. It takes time as well as intentionality. It also takes the church. We cannot move on to maturity alone. We need the church, we need accountablity, we need Greenhouse groups, CrossIrons, Girlfriends Unlimited, Celebrate Recovery, Rising Son, Kingdom Kids. We need to serve eachother and encourage eachother. We also must pursue maturity in Christ. Life does not happen “to” us and neither does Christianity. The New Testament does not entertain the thought of a “Lone Ranger” Christian.