the Logos

Graduating high school seniors, don't forget to apply for the J. Allen Lewis Memorial Scholarship by May 31st. Ladies, we will be serving dinner to homeless women at the Helen Wright Center in Raleigh on Thurs., May 31st at 7:00pm. Food items, monetary donations, and your presence are needed. Pastor Eric & Lady Beverly Ellis & the Philippian Community Church of NC will celebrate their 8th Anniversary May 30th-June 1st at 7:30pm nightly at the Lighthouse Convention Center in Raleigh. Everready Choir will render the music on Thurs., May 31st. They will also have a picnic on Friday, June 1st at Pullen Park starting at 10am. Everyone is invited to attend. Harvest Crusade Update: Invitations to Harvest are now available for you to pick up in the church vestibule. We also have the special “My Story” invitations which you can pick up at church office. These invitation allow you to put your own brief testimony in the invitation. You can either write it or goto the harvest w...

Temptation troubles us all. All of us are targets of the tempter. All of us feel the lure of the world. All of us experience the appetites of the flesh. We have an adversary and his name is Satan. Satan is the tempter. He was the tempter in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 3). He was the tempter of Jesus in Matthew 4. The tempter is a deceiver. The tempter is a liar. The tempter is a thief. Despite all the attributes of the tempter, Satan, we are equipped to win over this powerful enemy. 1 John 4:4 (NLT): “But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world.” The Holy Spirit is within every believer. The Holy Spirit is greater in power than our foe. The devil might be stronger than us, but he’s not stronger than our God! One way for us to win over temptation is in the simple fact that God is faithful. That means He is trustworthy, you can believe Him, and ...

Thanks to everyone for your happy birthday wishes, cards, presents, and most importantly, your prayers. It was greatly appreciated. All seniors who are graduating from high school are reminded to apply for the J. Allen Lewis Memorial Scholarship due by May 31st. Parents: There is a type of crystal meth going around that looks like strawberry pop rocks candy. Teach your children about the reality of drugs and not to accept something that looks like candy from others. I posted a bulletin with details on our MyChurch page. Harvest Crusade Update: Starting May 21 through June 16, Harvest will be hosting Usher Training at various church locations throughout the Triangle. Check out the schedule for the training here . No experience is necessary, you just need to attend the training.

The Youth Ministry will be holding their quarterly Open House on Mon., May 14th at 7:00pm. We need all parents of our teens to attend. Update on Harvest Crusade: I want to encourage everyone who can to volunteer as a counselor. Harvest has a goal of 3,000 counselors so that we can provide one-on-one time with people coming forward. So even if you missed the first two classes, you can still be a counselor if you attend the third and final class! Being a counselor at Harvest does not mean that you will need to do any "in-depth" counseling. What is needed is to simply greet and encourage a new believer and give the person some info on their new walk with the Lord. Those who want to be counselors, please contact Deacon Ward (his email address can be found here ) immediately to let him know. And if anyone wants to work on the follow-up team, you also need to contact him immediately. Mt Zion will not be providing transportation to the event. The idea is for people to brin...

I got word that the Wheelers have settled into their new home in Georgia and the Thornes have safely moved back to NY. They ask that you keep them in your prayers. Our very own Sister Sam Hanebeck will be speaking to youth at a church in Virginia next Sunday at 5pm. I know that she would appreciate your support and prayers. Harvest Crusade: Week 1 of Impact Classes is done. I hope everyone had an opportunity to attend. Hopefully, no one found the material brand new as I have preached or taught on most of it in the past. But it was good as a refresher. And it was good to fellowship with other believers at different churches.

Our very own Angel Johnson was recognized by the Smith Elementary School as their Spotlight on Students Award winner for 2006 - 2007. Spotlight on Students is a program sponsored by Wake County Public Schools to recognize students for outstanding personal achievement. Please congratulate Angel the next time you see her. Sis. Michelle Chalmers invites her Mt. Zion family to support her in the first level of her new (GiftQuick) Business on May 5th at 4:00pm at her home (1552 Dirkson Court). Our first Theatrical Dance Production, "Distractions" was a successful! Everyone from the dancers, musicians, directors, stage hands, etc did a great job. And more importantly, there were 31 visitors at the event, 10 of which did not have a church home and 1 person accepted Christ during the invitation. Praise the Lord! I personally encourage all who can to participate in the Impact classes starting this week for Harvest Crusade. Regardless of whether you volunteer to be on the follow...

I would like to thank everyone for their prayers, well wishes, encouragement, and gifts during the celebration of my fifth pastoral anniversary. We had a great time at the banquet on that Friday and on the following Sunday. It was great to have my mom and the pastor and first lady from my home church to come down and participate in the activities. The family and I enjoyed riding in the limo. I'm the only person I know that rides in a limo with three car seats! But that's how I roll!!! Again, I enjoyed my anniversary and appreciate what everyone has done to support my wife and I in ministry. We look forward to many, many more years of working together to accomplish the purposes God has for us.

For those who have not heard...the Wheelers are going to be relocating to GA. Looks like their last Sunday will be 4/22. Please take some time to wish them well before they leave. I know that God will continue to bless them. "Distractions" is almost here (4/28 at 5pm at Green Hope High School). Invite someone to come to this event. To our graduating seniors, take note of a couple of scholarships: Coca-Cola Two Year College Scholarship Award and Mt Zion’s own scholarship award. Other scholarship and internship info available on our MyChurch classified section . The next Bible Study series, “Preparing for Christ’s Return,” will begin on Wed., Apr. 18th at 7:00pm. Everyone is invited to join us for this series. Harvest Crusade: Next prayer meeting is 4/19 at 7pm at Bay Leaf Baptist Church in Raleigh. I personally encourage all who can to also participate in the Impact classes. Regardless of whether you volunteer to be on the follow-up team for the Harvest events, it will...

Our first Theatrical Dance Production, "Distractions" will be on 4/28 at 5pm at Green Hope High School. Don't forget to invite someone to come to this event. Easter Sunday's love offering is going to support Harvest Crusade. Since Mt Zion is participating in this great event, we also want to support it financially. As Easter is a reminder of God giving His very best for us, let us do our very best for our Lord in our sacrificial giving. Continue to be faithful in your giving towards your vow to God.

Visitation and Homegoing services for Sis. DeLoatch will be held at Mt Zion this week. The Visitation will be Tuesday (4/3) at 7pm and the Homegoing service will be on Wednesday (4/4) at 10am. We had a great Youth Revival last week. On Wednesday, we had about 5 young men come to devote themselves to a closer walk with God. On Thursday, Sis. Payton’s young boy, Braxton gave his life to Christ. Praise the Lord! And on Friday, our youth wrote out their struggles and laid it at the altar. Pastor Wright challenged them to pray and read Proverbs for 21 days. Our first Evangelical Outreach Theatrical Dance Production, "Distractions" is almost here! We want to do our best to make this production one of excellence. Two things are needed: 1) Volunteers to work backstage and 2) Invite people. The invitation to accept Christ will be given so please invite those who may not know the Lord to this great event. Online flyers that you can email to people can be found here . Next Su...

If you haven't seen them yet, check out our photo gallery for great pictures from our Street Dedication and Groundbreaking Ceremony. As we find out about job opportunities, internships for students, scholarship info, and such, we post it on MyChurch in the classified section . Ladies: We will be serving dinner to homeless women at the Helen Wright Center in Raleigh on Thurs., Mar. 29th at 7:00pm. The Deaconess Ministry is in need of donations to purchase the meat to serve the ladies. Your donations can be given to any deaconess. Spring Youth Revival is this week, Wed thru Fri at 7:00pm. We have dynamic guest speakers each night. Then on Saturday is the Teen Summit. Parents, please bring your youth out to these events. Have you put the names of those you plan to invite to Harvest Crusade in the prayer box yet? Don't forget to fill out the names on the Harvest bookmark and drop the bottom portion in the prayer box so the names can be prayed over at our prayer meeting on Tuesdays...

Scripture: 1 Peter 1:6-9 I wish I could tell you that you will not have trials. Some people thought that when they became a Christian they were through with trials. They thought that faith in Christ would keep them from suffering. They thought the Gospel train was the gravy train. Then reality arrived. In this world, we will have trouble. John 16:33 (NLT): “I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” Christians are not immune from sickness. Christians can have financial problems. Christian parents can have trouble with their children. Christian workers can have bosses who are hard to please. But we should remember these times are temporary when we consider eternity with our Creator. 2 Corinthians 4:17: “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” We must accept trials as part of the refining proce...

Elder Snead sent this to me. It's quite funny. Enjoy. Country Funeral As a young minister, I was asked by a funeral director to hold a grave-side service for a homeless man, with no family or friends. The funeral was to be held at a cemetery way back in the country, and this man would be the first to be laid to rest there. As I was not familiar with the backwoods area, I became lost; and being a typical man did not stop for directions. I finally arrived an hour late. I saw the backhoe and the crew, who was eating lunch, but the hearse was nowhere in sight. I apologized to the workers for my tardiness, and stepped to the side of the open grave, where I saw the vault lid already in place. I assured the workers I would not hold them up for long, but this was the proper thing to do. The workers gathered around, still eating their lunch. I poured out my heart and soul. As I preached the workers began to say "Amen," "Praise the Lord," and "Glory"! I preach...

Harvest Crusade Update: Bumper stickers are now available. If you are like me, I don't like putting bumper stickers on my car, but these are removable. This is a great way to announce to the community the event is coming and generate some "buzz". You never know someone may ask you "what is Harvest Crusade?" or "Who is Greg Laurie?" and then you will have an opportunity to share with them about the crusade and invite to come out. Distractions: We are excited about Distractions, our first drama and dance production of its kind so please invite people to come out on 4/28 at 5pm at Green Hope High School. Please be in prayer for our brothers & sisters in Brazil that are facing persecution with a new legislation that would make saying anything about homosexuality a crime punishable by 3-5 years jail time. See the details here . Relocation Update: Our buyer is now saying that we can remain on our current location until our new church is built. PR...

I found this article interesting. Looks like Discovery Channel is trying to distant itself from the James Cameron-produced documentary on the Lost Tomb of Jesus despite the fact that it had good rating. Looks like they canned the repeat airing of it. I'm not upset about that. Check out the article here: http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=11681

Congratulations to Deacon Porter who is now a granddaddy. Jazzmin Moss gave birth to her daughter, Laila J`anee Moss weighing 8lbs 3oz and 21in long. Also, Shanese Greene gave birth to her daughter, Nia Alanah Greene weighing 6 lbs and 7oz. Proud grandparents are Rufus and Peggy Credle. Harvest Crusade is coming in June at the RBC Center. Don’t forget to put the names of people who are not believers that you want to invite on the tear away section of the Harvest bookmark and drop in the prayer box located in the vestibule at the church. Sacrificial Giving: Continue to be faithful in keeping your vows. Things are moving quickly so we must remain focused on our commitments to God. I drove by the site on Saturday and there are now beams up at the site! Due to death in Minister Falana's family, her 2007 Women's Conference will be rescheduled for another time.

Congratulations to Sis. La Donna & Bro. Antonio Bethea on the birth of their son, Mason Gregory, Feb. 28th, 6 lbs., 15 oz., 18 ¾ long! Don't forget that Daylight Savings Time change is next Sunday (3/11) so set your clock 1 hour ahead on Saturday night. Relocation Update: Our buyer had asked for extension and we are currently negotiating on a new contract. Notice that the time between when we need to leave our current location and when the new facility is complete is shortening. If it's God's will, we desire to stay where we are until we move into our new facility. The good thing is that we have a temporary location identified and we are working through logistics (God has already worked it out that we won’t need a special use permit from the Town of Cary). Continue to pray for our transition and our negotiating with the buyer. I encourage everyone to come out to our Bible Study series, “Know why you believe”. This series is especially relevant due to recent challenges t...

Congratulations to our latest newlyweds: Troy and Yolanda Brooks and Minister James and Cecelia Wheeler!! Some of you should have received a new contribution statements in the mail because the amount for your sacrificial giving was incorrect. We apologize for the error and appreciate your patience as we corrected the problem and hope it didn’t cause too much of an inconvenience. Thanks for your generous giving in last Sunday’s love offering, we were able to give $1,000 to the family that lost everything in a fire. We are in the Lent season, which started on Ash Wednesday and goes to Easter. I suggest you fast by giving up something you enjoy and pray so that you can draw closer to God. We had a tremendous time at the Black History Program at the Bond Park Community Center. Everyone did an awesome job from the participants to the production. There was a lot of God-given talent being used and we learned some new things about some of our very own members who were actually making black his...

Today is Ash Wednesday which is the first day of Lent. We marked the foreheads of everyone at Bible Study with ashes. The ashes were prepared by burning palm leaves from the previous year's Palm Sunday celebrations and mixing them with olive oil. Ashes represent mourning and repentance. So during Lent, we should be repentant and draw closer to God. I would also encourage you to fast during Lent by giving up something dear to you.

For God so LOVED the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 This is how we know what LOVE is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 1 John 3:16