New Children Church Team Leaders

Most of you know that my wife Amie runs our children's ministry. She has done an amazing job leading Embassy Kids. Although she loves the children she misses interacting with me and others on Sunday in "Big Church" we have had our eyes on a young couple that we could mentor into the leadership of our kids church. Beginning in August Brantley & Hannah Johnson will be leading Embassy Kids church K-6th grade.

They will be in charge of staffing, preparing materials that go with the Kidmo lessons each week, and taking our Kids church to the next level. Amie will still be overseeing all of the children's ministry birth-6th grade, but Brantley and Hannah will serve as Children's Church Team Leaders and will lift the weekly responsibilities from Amie for K-6th graders. These two have tons of energy and a heart for children they are going to kick!!!

To begin with they will run the Kidmo program the first and third weeks of the month and Amie and Lela will fill in the other two weeks of the month. Parents we are working hard to provide a place that is the highlight of your child's week and we believe that Brantley & Hannah will help us achieve our objective in the lives of children to provide a fun and planned environment where children can learn character development, Biblical understanding and grow up loving God, themselves, others and the church.

Thoughts about EMC and Summer so far

-Our Journey groups are on a break starting this week until August. Attendance at the past session of journey groups was great.

-Camping went great with everyone pitching in to make killer meals (thanks Jody and Lawrence for the fresh Halibut), the guys didn't do so well fishing, but we all had a great time tubing. Thanks Jay for bringing the boat. And thanks Kevin for letting me be the last man standing at poker.

-The "Dive In" Series went great. It was a simple series (no video, no props) but something that God used to challenge us to go deeper. I want to be a church that meets people right where they are, but definitely doesn't leave them there. Let's challenge ourselves as Christ followers to live like that changes everything.

-God is bringing more musicians and vocalists our way. I love our worship team you guys are doing great. Others with talents and giftings are making their way to the embassy. it will be awesome to see how Jared mixes Sunday mornings up with some of these new musicians and vocalists.

-For it being summer attendance has been great, but finances have been rough. I guess that's part of summer.

-I am blown away at the percentage of people that serve during the month at emc. We have enough volunteers that most of our areas to serve in are just one time a month. We are still a little weak on week four of the month so if you're not doing anything yet at the embassy let me know and we'll get you hooked up.

-We are all going to miss Micah our intern. He's been a great addition to the team.

-We need to get our signs back out in the community on Friday nights-Sunday nights. If you want to volunteer to place a sign each week just let me know.

New EMC Invite Card

I think Jared did a great job on this invite card. We plan on passing out 2000 of these attached to microwave popcorn packets during the fourth of July.

Great Weekend

This past weekend couldn't have been any better. Amie and my parents were all in for the weekend. They came to see Adalee in the Wizard of Oz and to celebrate Aubrynn's B-day. I can't believe how fast my kids are growing up. Sunday night we had a bunch of Aubie's friends over for her party and when things wound down all of the dads went fishing. Man we tore the lake up. Props go to Bill who possessed some serious fishin' mojo that night. He couldn't keep from catching fish all night. He even caught a snake....crazy.

It was also great meeting Shane the father of one of my daughters friends. He was quite the fisherman too. With my dad being down I got to pilfer his tackle box like old times too. Anytime I can stand on the bank of a lake with my dad is a good time.

I think Sunday night felt so great also because Sunday morning went so well. It's summer and we had great attendance. The past few weeks we have had several new people and families coming to the embassy. This week a guy I invited came and recommitted his life to God. Sunday nights always seem complete when I walk the 75 yards to the lake and throw a line in...this Sunday night just felt even better.

"The Embassy...a church for all people?"

I recently received this e-mail from someone who God loves deeply. How would you have replied? I have changed the name to give the writer anonymity. Following the e-mail is my reply.


E-mail:

Hello,

I recently heard good things about your church. We're currently attending __________ (the name of a church in Atlanta), and feel like we're being led to a church home that is a little closer to our home and somewhere that we can be more involved. However, there's a challange for us, most churches in the area are not welcoming, based on sexual orientation. My partner and I have been together for over seven years, we're laid back, comitted, professionals and most importantly Christians. Is your church a place that's welcoming and understanding?

I totally understand if you think your church might not be the best fit for us.

Thanks so much and I look forward to hearing from you,

John Smith (Name changed)


My Reply:

John,

Great to hear from you and I am glad that the reputation of our church is getting out there. We are a group of people who love God and love people right where they are. I would say that we are accepting of all who come into the doors of the embassy. I like to tell my staff and church that we are to be a redeeming community. Christ shed blood for our lives puts value on us whether we have appropriated it by believing on Him or not. I am not saying that brings salvation to everyone, but that does bring value to everyone, and we endeavor to treat people according to the treasure they are in God's eyes.

I also encourage our staff and leadership that in addition to being a redeeming community we are also to be a sanctifying community. A community that seeks to lead people into a living life changing relationship with Christ that causes us to be more like Jesus and to live a life progressively more like what God's word prescribes for us. God loves us and wants the best for us and out of His desire to bless us He challenges us to lay down our desired will to take up His revealed will. This is difficult for all of us, but God is with us on the journey challenging and empowering us to rise up to His revealed will (The Scriptures). I would say that God's word would reveal to us many things that we are to allow Him to lead us into and other things that God would lead us out of further separating us to Himself for His best to be seen in our lives. Our sexual preferences and physical relationships apart from marriage, eating and drinking out of moderation, gossip and discord are all things that God desires to line up with His word. God loves us for just being and we love everyone coming into the embassy the same way....No hate.....No fear....no bigotry.....just love; but God also loves all of us too much to leave us where we are if where we are is not what He has revealed as what's best. Man, we all have our stuff that God is perfecting us in, but thank God He has our best interests at heart even if it goes against what I want, desire, and find satisfaction in. With that said... I would love to see you at the embassy, sit down with a cup of coffee, and begin a journey with you both, as we all as a body allow God to bring our lives into His best for each of us according to His word.

John, I Hope to meet you soon!


"with you on the journey"


ross wiseman
lead pastor
embassy metro church

VOTE FOR JOSH

Don't forget to go online to South107 to vote for our very own Josh Brown! If his song "Texas Stars" is picked in the Battle of the Bands he will be placed in rotation on the radio with some of your favorite country starts like Montgomery Gentry, Alan Jackson, and Brad Paisley.

EMC-ers Rock the Vote!

Father's Day at the Embassy

I think most of us who are father's remember an arcade game in the eighties called Dig Dug. Well this Sunday get your gaming thumb ready because there will be a "Dig Dug" Tourney in the lobby before service. We have a great prize package available that will give you and your child a full day of fun this summer.



From 9:30-10:00 sign up put a minute on the game with your wife and kids cheering you on and see how your high score measures up with the other fathers at emc. I am going to come ready to kick all ya'll's butt!

Fuel For the Journey

Podcasting has begun!!!!!! We want to help provide you with resources to propel you on the road of life. We hope that the podcasts can be fuel for your journey. We will be uploading our weekly teachings and getting past series uploaded over the next month.

"Fuel for the Journey" will be a great resource for personal growth and for getting info into the lives of your friends and family all over the country. Through this medium we will be able to reach many times more people than we do in our weekly services at our Woodstock location. E-mail this link to friends and family and they too can experience what you encounter on Sundays at the embassy. Who knows it maybe just what they need to get them coming to check this whole "God Thing" out. You can make a difference pass this info along to others today!

Intern used to help bring fresh appreciation for the embassy

Our intern Micah arrived a little over a week ago. For the past 12 days we have poured into him info regarding the life, focus, and mission of church planting. Going into this I wondered how much he would get from his experience with us. All I can say is it's been incredible downloading info into the hard drive of this guys heart.

We are a 1 1/2 year old church plant and having this guys around has made us revisit a great deal of what it took to get to where we are currently. When you are neck deep in it you forget the journey and all the amazing things that have led you to this point.

Rehashing things has really giving me an appreciation for all that we have done as a church in our short history. Our emc-ers have worked faithfully to bring about a great environment that is reaching many for Christ. Just this Sunday we had three more people come to Christ and as we asked for a show of hands of those who have come to Christ at emc or their lives were radically changed since coming to emc hands went up everywhere.

Having Micah here has helped us appreciate in a fresh way what God has done with all of us since January 8th, 2006. Not only are we being able to birth a fire in a future church planter, we also are being able to rekindle a freshness in planting as we talk to Micah about the journey God has led us on up to this point.

I recommend highly to any church planter to have an intern for a month just to remind you of how far you have come.

June Series

During the month of June plan to wade out of the shallow end and go deeper each week as we dive into the depths of some of the greatest personalities of the Old Testament.

Like the first time off of the high dive, this series will challenge, inspire, and help you realize "you can do it"

See you in the deep end!!!

Last week of our marriage series

I know it is Memorial Weekend and a lot of families will be gone, but if you are in the area you don't want to miss tomorrow's service. We could have laid back and said let's coast this weekend, but we have a great day plan. My wife Amie will be co-teaching with me which will ensure for an entertaining experience. Actually my wife is the one who gives me the best stuff I put in my talks every week any how.

Also we have a 1st edition video installment from three emc-ers that will have you rollin'. you guys tore me up. With the band kicking, a little Hendrix memorial music, and God showing up in a powerful way we are going to have an amazing Sunday. I can't wait!!!

See you tomorrow. If you can't be there be safe and have a great weekend with your family and remember to take some time to reflect on our service men's sacrifice for our freedom.

The Intern Cometh

Last month I received a call from the U.S. Missions department of the Assemblies of God. Evangel University had contacted them looking for a church plant to place one of their students with during the month of July. The student will be doing his practicum with embassy metro church. His name is Micah and will be with us from June 1st through July 8th. He has to have a work project that he is focusing on that church planters organize often so he will be working with us on everything it takes to pull off an event like the July fourth parade and park ministry and the promotion and design of our July series. Everyone make Micah feel welcomed on Sunday June 3rd and if you want to include him in any events you are doing throughout the month just let me know.

Amazing Staff Meeting Tonight

Tonight we put everything on the table nothing was sacred. We laid out every area of Embassy Metro Church and dreamed of how we can take it to the next level. The last couple of months we have all become busy working in the organization, but not necessarily on the organization. This the major reason organizations get stale, stagnant, and eventually atrophy. We refuse to allow stale & stagnant to become adjectives that will ever characterize the embassy.

Tonight we made a giant punch list that goes beyond maintenance and into the realm of fresh vision. Churches or business that only focus on maintenance, or merely working in the organization, will eventually lose the drive and fire they began with and will eventually become caretakers of the status quo. With that in mind as we go into the summer, a time often embraced by status quo churches to just lay back we have decided to charge ahead. The next three months will be an amazing time to be a part of Embassy Metro Church.

Hold on to your seat and get ready....I don't do this very often but I am going to ask you to serve like you have never served before, give like you have never given before, and invest in your friends and invite them to come experiencing what God is doing at the embassy like you have never done before!!!

You know I don't talk about numbers very often. I have never put numeric goals on our church, because I fear we'll focus on people as digits instead of souls desperately in need of a loving God. Well I just want to tell you that we are getting ourselves into a position as a church that we could have 300 people coming to the Embassy by January. That's huge I know, but God is able to do this as we give him our best in service, finances, and connecting with and inviting others.

We launch with such a small handful, but look what you have accomplished in a year and four months. With us moving together with passion and commitment we can double our church body by January. Well why should we do that? I can tell you it's not so we have bragging rights because I have been a major part of a church that grew to nearly 1000 people and if I wanted that I could have just stayed their telling our story for years to come. It's not so we can build our own kingdom frankly because building quasi-spiritual kingdoms for man's glory sucks and stinks in the nostrils of God.

Then Why!!!??? It's so that 100's & 1000's of people in the North Metro Area of North Cobb & Cherokee County can find Christ and find His better way to journey through life through the ministries of Embassy Metro Church.

If you are a Team EMC-er(member)at emc then join with us in the next season of our church and let's endeavor together to make an impact on our region.I think the Devil will fight us, the gates of hell will not relinquish victory easily, but we are going to kick his teeth in through our faithfulness and we are going to see lives changed like never before. Get your addict friends to the embassy, get your neighbor who feels like life is meaningless to the embassy, get your own rear end to the embassy, because God is getting ready to blow our socks off (never quite understood that expression) We will be the ones who can say "we were there being used by God when God blew our minds"

I'm sorry this was a novel, but I feel like God is ready to pour out increase on our church. Get a fresh vision of your role in this explosion and embrace your place at the embassy and watch as our efforts together serve to change the lives of those who are near and dear to you.

Can't Beat Free Stuff

This week a friend of ours from Ohio had a cosmetic denistry conference to be at in Atlanta. He brought the whole family in an RV and they have used our house as home base all week. It's been great being with old friends and it's been great getting hooked up on some awesome entertainment and grub. Monday we took the kids out of school and they took all of us to here, and tonight we are getting sitters and they are taking Amie and I to here. I guess you could say we've had a "surf & turf" week.

Man I could spit!

Last night we had a great Creative Design Team meeting. So today I took all the info we came up with and began to compile and add to it. With that accomplished a great deal of our June series is now slated.

After 2 hours of work I decided I would turn it into a pdf file and upload it to our CDT google group so we can add more thoughts to it etc. Well somehow I killed the file and all I can get it to say is mumbo jumbo computer talk.

If you are a preacher you know how frustrating this is, because the whole time you are feeling directed in your prep by God and He was adding some great stuff. Then it's all gone and you have to start over, but you know you won't remember everything you had written, so you feel like you're leaving something out. Well anyways that's life. I retrieved my crumpled notes from last nights meeting from the trash (thank God I hadn't thrown them out yet) and it's back to getting everything compiled and added to again.

I'm so frustrated I could spit.

Jerry Falwell August 11, 1933 – May 15, 2007

I admire deeply what Dr. Falwell has accomplished
for Christ through out the years. Welcome Home Dr. Falwell...good and faithful servant enter into your rest.

New Series begins this Sunday

Tomorrow is mother's day and we are launching a new series called "Just Married?" I can't wait as we begin to unpack some of the stuff we all deal with in our marriages. We're going to kick it off right as we look at resolving conflict in the home in a teaching called "Fight Right". If you are single you need this series too. See you all in the morning!

Project Hero makes the Atlanta Journal Constitution

Communities of Faith: Home makeover with heart
Embassy Metro members aid woman

By Candice Hannigan
For the Journal-Constitution
Published on: 05/10/07

There were no network camera crews filming the extreme home makeover near downtown Woodstock last weekend. Buses weren't needed to bring in throngs of volunteers for the job.

Yet members of the Embassy Metro Church hope the work they did on the home will change the life of the woman who lives there.

"This is going to make a big difference in her life. I know she appreciates what this church and these people did to help her get her house and her yard in order," said Sara Blalock, a friend of the woman, who asked not to be identified.

Blalock said the woman is 66 years old and single, with no family nearby to help her. She faces multiple health challenges, including diabetes, and lives on a small monthly income.

About 40 volunteers spent the weekend painting inside and outside her home, installing new flooring, landscaping, repairing appliances, lights and cleaning from floor to ceiling.

Some church members are taking her to lunch, and out for a new hairstyle and a manicure. Her two dogs are even being sent for grooming. And for the next month, church members will keep the woman's refrigerator and freezer stocked with healthy meals suited for a diabetic's needs.

This home improvement project wraps up a Hero series that pastor Ross Wiseman started on Easter Sunday.

Services have featured public safety workers and other "real-life heroes," as well as challenges from Wiseman to "position ourselves and stand for something that's worth standing for. Our families, our integrity, the lives of those who are lost in our communities, those things that are right and good. We need to be heroes in our communities, and you can't be a hero if you don't take a stand."

Members also raised $1,000 for a firefighter whose son has been undergoing treatment for a brain tumor.

"There's something powerful when people unite together to do something that's bigger than they can do on their own," said Wiseman. "We want to go into the community and let people know they're valuable to God, whether or not they've stepped into the four walls of our church. We want to be a body that's focused more outward than inward."

Embassy Metro Church: Sunday services begin at 10:02 a.m. at Cherokee 16 Cinemas off Towne Lake Parkway in Woodstock. Contact: 678-384-4919 or www.embassymetro.org.

Project Hero Before & Afters

Most of you know that we are doing an extreme makeover on a ladies home in Woodstock this weekend. She has been through a great deal of hardship and health issues. Those of you who were not at the embassy this weekend didn't hear the announcement that we are canceling church Sunday to go be the church. Actually the entire weekend will be full of opportunity to love like Christ and be a hero to Miss Ann. This is going to be an amazing weekend for our church, our community, Miss Ann, and our God!!!!! Is it going to be tough OH Yeah, but we can do it! Yesterday was the first day of cleaning and removing flooring. Everyone blew my mind on how hard they worked. I'll throw some pictures up and tell the story Sunday night when we are finished.