Raking leaves in a wind storm

Good afternoon on this February 23, 2012.   I was thinking this morning about the wind storm that blew through the valley yesterday.  The news reported gusts of up to 52 miles per hour.  I saw the results of the wind as trash was scattered everywhere, trees and debris was strewn over the landscape.  My thought was this as I looked out my back door to find all the neighbors leaves from this last fall in my yard against the house and of course had found their way into our garage.  Did my neighbor purposely decide to rake the leaves into the wind yesterday or was it an act of nature that just happened.  In either case I am left with a mess to clean up.  My thoughts were this.  If we as Christians would take responsibility for our own mess, issues and problems, God would give us the grace to walk through them.  How many of us have currently or in the past just left our mess and prayed for the wind to come up in hopes that our issues would be blown away “in a Miraculous Way”.   In a book that I recently read entitled QBQ, the question behind the question by John Miller, Mr. Miller addresses the issue of personal responsibility how we address it, deal with it or ignore it.  He tells of a story of the gas station attendant who ignored the customer who wanted coffee telling him, the coffee was not his department.  How have we as a society come to this?  It’s not my fault, it’s someone else’s.  At this point could I go to my neighbor and say, hey your leaves blew into my yard so I demand you to come clean up your mess? Do I hope another wind storm comes up and blows the leaves into another neighbor’s yard?  What do I Do?  The real question is, why did my neighbor allow this to happen?  To cut to the chase we all must take responsibility for our actions and not pile our junk on others…. Can I get an amen…. Or ouch…

Some really cool things have happened since last week.  I had contacted a National trucking company in hopes they would donate a refrigerated freezer trailer to our food bank.  The first contact was back in May of 2011.  The director of transportation said that was a possibility however it may take a while so call back.  Well in 2 weeks I called back to hear the same speech.  In 2 weeks I called back to hear the same thing.  I called every 2 weeks since May of last year.  Well the good news is late last week a 53’ refrigerator/ freezer trailer was delivered to Mountain View Christian Center.  It is in amazing shape with great bones, tires and components.  The director of operations and transportation said this, “You got this gift because you were so persistent”.   In addition to this there is a family business in the church that has taken it on themselves to have all the lettering and signage put on the truck.  Wow what blessing.  My theory is we don’t have money problems we have vision problems, because money will follow well managed vision.  One other really cool thing we are working on is a master Platt plan of our grounds, we own 10+- acres.  In a recent board meeting the issue was discussed and passed unanimously and though it was a grand idea. As I told the board I wanted to blend the vision past with the vision present to the vision future. I had a long conversation with Pastor Doyle Fulkes who was the pastor here at MVCC for 21 years and who led the charge to relocate the church to the present site. He had great ideas that we will be able to start the process.  We have employed the number one master planning church architect in the region.  Mark Hillis is a man who I have worked with in my previous life that is gathering data and ready to start the process.  I will keep you posted as to the progress.   

Here is what’s happening at MVCC.

Hope to see you this weekend at service.  Be sure to invite someone to church with you this weekend.

  Be sure to visit our web site… WWW.MvccChurch.org.

We Love you all,

Pastors Jim & Joy Powell

· Feb.27th-ALL church annual “Church business meeting.”

·      Feb.29th-New Wednesday evening classes are set to begin. *Financial          Peace* Ladies discipleship *Study God’s Word!          

·      Feb. 29th-Financial Peace University with Dave Ramsey hosted by Steve Lubinski.  Information is available at the information center.  It’s not too late to sign up.

·      March 1st-The Rock & Worship Road Show in Boise.  MVCC  Youth groupwill meet here @ 3:30 & leave promptly.  See Pastor Dan today if you plan to attend.   

·      March 2nd-LOVE & RESPECT classes are set to begin again for those who      missed it last time around.  Every Friday for 13 weeks @ 7p.m. FREE Dinner is served @ 6p.m. (donations are greatly appreciated).  Sign up at the information center today.

·      March 3rd-Courageous Men’s bible study 8a.m.-9a.m. Taught by Pastor Jim Powell.  Please sign up at the information center.  Books are $7 each.

·      Fundraiser-Youth KFC fundraiser!  See Pastor Dan or any youth attendee to get your ticket $10 each!

·      February-is Ladies month to share a testimony of how God is alive in your life, LIVESTREAM with Penne Main.  Sign up at the information center.

·              Sponsor MVCC Bookstore online

Look What the Lord Has Done!

Greetings from your Pastor,

What a great year 2011 was.  As I look back to the things we accomplished I get dizzy.  It was a blur of activity full of surprises and blessings. I will attempt to cover the highlights of the year.  We hosted District Council for the first time in the history of the church; we hosted a Light for the Lost Banquet as well as hosting the Southern Idaho District Senior Adult Camp meeting.  In addition we hosted the Largest Food give away in the History of the Magic Valley where we gave away over 150,000 pounds of food to 14 different magic valley communities.

Internally we navigated the church through numerous policies and procedures that will help govern the daily affairs such as our screening of volunteers who work with children, finance policy, church use policy and more.  Our hope is to have each of these policies accessible from our web site soon. We developed a finance committee to help oversee the finances of the church, established a work order system, developed online giving, added additional staff, reworked the giving envelopes, established an apprentice program for up and coming leadership, developed a partnership agreement with World Vision, Idaho Food Bank, Feed the Children in addition to the numerous partnerships locally that benefits our Food Ministry. We hosted a daily radio broadcast that helped us spread the Good News.  Some fun things we did were participated in the Parades for both Rupert and Burley.  In fact we placed second in the Church Division in the Burley Parade and were awarded $100.00. 

The Building and or capital improvements are numerous we will just bullet point each of these items.

·         New production quality Camera and broadcast  Equipment

·         Paving of parking lot adding 88 spaces

·          Totally Kitchen Remodel to make it Commercial compliant

·         New Tables and Chairs for Life Center

·         New Table Ware & plates  for 300 place settings

·         Windows for Security Purposes in the Nursery, and each Door in the Life Center

·         New Locks on all doors

·         Began Internet Campus

·         New Blinds in all the windows in the church

·         Changing Tables in both Men’s and Women’s Restrooms

·         Updating of Men’s and Women’s Bathrooms

·         Added Drinking Fountain in Life Center

·         Painting of numerous Class rooms

·         Name Plates for each class room in Life Center

·         Installed Panic door openers on Exterior doors

·         Easter King Fine arts Center (weekend of Hope) where over 750 attended

·         Major repairs made to the furnace units in the life center

·         New Phone system

·         Named the street entering into the church facility

·         Paid off debt on the coffee shop equipment

·         Improved the Information Center

·         Major roof repair on West side of the facility

·         Purchased additional land on the East side of the church.

·         Added additional Sunday Service opportunities

As you will see from the financial report we had a great year thanks to all you who gave of your tithe, time and talent to make things happen. 

In the coming year I see greatness in every area of the church.  We have begun times of prayer that will catapult us into greatness with our Lord.  In our Sunday Services we have planed an extended series as we preach through the bible one book each month for 2012:

January—Genesis,   February – Gospel of Matthew, March-Exodus,   April- Gospel of Mark, May – Leviticus, June – Gospel of Luke, July-Numbers,  August-John, September-Numbers,  October-Acts, November-Deuteronomy, December-Romans

Our Midweek Services will continue to offer relevant topics utilizing series as anchor classes along with relevant bible studies that will challenge every believer. 

We look forward to another great year.

Pastors Jim & Joy Powell

It started off like a regular day and then!!!!

Great Thursday February 9^th, 2011.

It was a normal Day as I awoke early, made my coffee and sat down to have my devotions.  I try to read at least 2 hours a day in the morning. I always read my bible and a book of choice on leadership or something that challenges or enhances my thinking on ministry.  I was expecting a normal day at the office when the phone rang. Our lives can suddenly change when the phone rings. I answered the call to find an old business associate on the other end of the line.  He said that he was hosting a Faith Impact Day at the state of Idaho Legislature in which he wanted to highlight 14 Ministries in the state of Idaho who was making a difference in their communities without using tax dollars.  He had heard of Mountain View Christian Center through another colleague and friend and wanted to extend an invitation to attend.  As we spoke for thirty or so minutes on the phone, he asks me what all we were doing in our community.  I didn’t know where to begin and where to end, so I started with the food.  I said in 2011 we touched, fed or clothed 39,400 people, we are putting together a free medical clinic for the community, we have a job service that helps promote employers and employment, we have a celebrate recovery ministry that promotes healing from hurts, habits and hang-ups that meets each week, we have a chef that cooks a meal that is free to the community every Wednesday and Friday. We have a mobile food pantry that serves approximately 1000 people each month.  We produce a weekly Mountain View Minutes that is posted on You Tube, face book and other social networks.  This former business associate said that is exactly what we want to highlight on this Faith Impact Day.  I ask when he planned to do this event, he said Monday February, 6^th starting at 8:00 a.m. at the State house in Boise.  I said I would be there and participate in the event.  My mind raced OK Monday 8:00 a.m. Boise, 183 miles one way 2 hours 30 minutes drive time, I would have to leave at 5:30 a.m.  I ask Pastor Joy if she would like to go with me she said sure, but not at 5:30 a.m. To make a long story short we arrived in Boise at 11:00 a.m. The day was planned around the Legislators schedule to maximize the exposure to the Ministries.  The group was set up on the second floor of the Rotunda in the Capitol building with displays and material.  We quickly found our place actually sharing space with a Ministry and put out paper articles of the things we had done.  We only had an hour before Lunch where the Legislative group along with the Ministry groups would share Lunch together at a church near the capitol building.  As I looked around the room at Lunch I recognized most of the Ladies and Gentleman who are serving our state.  In my previous life as a Realtor we hosted numerous legislative gatherings.  It was great to get acquainted now not as a Realtor but as a Pastor of one of the Greatest Churches in the State of Idaho.   The kind words of affirmation rang through my spirit as many were amazed at what the Lord is doing throughout our community.  I was truly honored representing Mountain View Christian Center at this gathering. 

I will be preaching on the Book o Matthew Chapters 7-13 this weekend.  Go ahead and read these chapters and try to identify the issues or areas of Life Jesus taught on.   Hope to see you at service this weekend, and as you are coming bring a friend.  

Take a look at what is happening at Mountain View This week…

         Sunday Home Groups @ 5:30 p.m. Check the information center for your preferred location.

·      February-is Ladies month to share a testimony of how God is alive in your life, LIVE     STREAM with Penne Main.  Sign up at the information center to save your spot.

·      Feb.11th-”Courageous” movie night @ 7p.m. here @ MVCC.

·      Feb. 13th-Ministry reports for the business meeting are due.

·      Feb. 14th-Call in for IDAHO FOOD BANK PANTRY 878-5451.

         Feb. 14^th   Valentine’s Day

·      Feb. 17th-18th-Purity Conference for girls ages 10 years and up in Boise.  Contact our Youth Pastor’s Dan or Sylvia Hendricks 431-2226.

·      Feb. 18th-Men’s Breakfast here at MVCC 7a.m.

·      Feb.19th-Pizza with the Pastor @ 1p.m.  Sign up today @ the Information Center.

·      Feb.21st-Senior Adult Ministries @ First Assembly of God in Twin Falls at 10a.m.

·      Feb. 21st-Food Bank Food giveaway! All volunteers must check in with Chris Bean.

·      Feb. 21st-Woman to Woman “Couponing” @ 6:30p.m. (child care will be provided)

·      Feb. 22nd-Financial Peace University with Dave Ramsey hosted by Steve Lubinski. information is available at the information center.

·      Feb. 24th-26th Register for Men’s Retreat today $145.00 (It’s not to Late)

·      Feb.27th-Annual church business meeting.

·      Feb.29th-New Wednesday evening classes are set to begin. *Financial Peace *Ladies discipleship *Study God’s Word!

·      Fundraiser-Youth KFC fundraiser!  See Pastor Dan or any youth attendee to get your ticket $10 each!

·      Discounted crew neck sweaters, in stock, are available to pick at the information center for $10 each.  Get yours today!

·      All MEN!-Courageous bible study starting soon. $7 per book. Stay tuned for more information.

·      Drop your business card in the offering plate so it can be put in the new online directory.

We Love you all,

Pastors Jim & Joy Powell