Scott McAlister

Josh Brickey , our student pastor, spoke today at SpringWell.  Of course he did a wonderful job!  We announced the good news and sad news that Josh is leaving SpringWell to start a new church in north east Columbia next year.  He will be missed tremendously but we believe that Josh and his wife Patty are following God’s plan for their lives.  Please help us pray for Josh and Patty in the coming months.  Thanks Josh for all of your love and support to SpringWell and to me personally.

We also had a guest band with us today…a band called “My Calvary”.  They absolutely rock!  They will also be leading us in worship in January on our leadership retreat.  If you haven’t signed up to attend the retreat please do it quick.  The dates are January 16-17.  You will find all of the details at www.springwell.org . 

And don’t forget next Sunday we will be starting a brand new series called “The Elephant In The Room”.  There is an old aphorism, “the elephant in the room” that refers to an obvious truth that no ne wants to talk about.  So we are going to open up and talk about a couple of subjects that we often want to ignore in church.  Next Sunday we are going to be looking at the “suffering elephant”.  It is an attempt to explore the question, why do bad things happen to good people?  I certainly don’t think that I have all the answers but I do believe that it is a question that many people are asking today.  So please pray for me this week as I prepare the message and don’t forget to invite a friend next Sunday.  Have a happy and safe New Year.

We finished our Christmas series “The Journey” this weekend…it was amazing.  I think that it was the best Christmas series we have ever done.  I want to say a special thank you to all of the people who worked so hard on the stage…I think that someone said there were like 100 people who used their gifts to make the stage come to life.  We don’t have simple carpenters we have artists.  And our artistic folk are just silly gifted.  The music thisweekend was incredible.  I think that Drew and his team out did themselves and Jon Day just showed out!  And of course our music wouldn’t sound as good and the stage wouldn’t come to life without the help of all of our tech guys and gals…you guys are the best.  I also want to thank Connie Burton for the wonderful job that she did to make it all happen.  Most of all I want to thank God for all the lives that were changed over the past few weeks…life change is the reason we do what we do.  Have a Merry Christmas!

I’m getting old…there is no doubt about it.  Yesterday I wrote that at our staff Christmas party we would be having BBQ from “Ken’s BBQ”.  It sounded good…it felt good and I never gave it another thought.  As I was about to pull into “Ken’s BBQ” yesterday to pick up the BBQ I noticed that it wasn’t “Ken’s BBQ” it was “Henry’s Smokehouse”.  What makes it even worse is the fact that to my knowledge there is no “Ken’s BBQ” in Greenville at all…I don’t know if there is one in the world as far as that goes.  I have no clue where that came from.  Oh well I hope that I will able to find my way to church in the morning.  What’s the name of that church again?

Have you ever just had one of those weeks? Well this has been one of those kinds of weeks for me…thank you Jesus that it is Friday. I’m actually pretty stoked about today. I just finished up the message for Sunday…well I have a little more to do but it’s really close to being finished. And tonight Karen and I are having the SpringWell staff over to our house for Christmas. We will be having BBQ from Ken’s BBQ in Greenville…I am so excited! I love ribs! It is going to be so much fun to hang out with our staff and eat.

Also I wanted to remind you guys not to miss this Sunday…it’s going to a great time to invite your friends. Don’t forget we are having three services to accommodate the crowd for Sunday. The services are 9:00 am, 11:00 am, and an evening service starting at 6:00 pm. The 6:00 service is going to have an added song…it’s going to be sweet! See you Sunday!

Sunday was another incredible day at SpringWell.  On top of two wonderful services we finished off our day with our children’s musical, “The Christmas Express”.  It was unbelievable.  Here are a few of my thoughts:

• Our children are amazing.
• Our volunteers are amazing.
• Our staff are amazing.
• Ministry is a team sport.
• Ministry is a family thing.

Thanks to everyone who work so hard week after week to make our Children’s Ministry such a success.

Well here I go again…Sunday was off the charts!  I never ceased to be amazed at how God has blessed SpringWell with the most talented group of people that I have ever seen.   If you missed the service this past Sunday then please whatever you do don’t miss this coming Sunday…you truly won’t believe the stage area.  It is so wonderful to see how God uses people to change lives when they are willing to use the talents, spiritual gifts and abilities that God has given them.  If you aren’t allowing God to use your gifts to change and transform lives then please…please give us a call at SpringWell and let us help point you in the right direction.  Todd Carpenter, our pastor of connection will be more than willing to help you in your spoiritual journey.

I just got some disturbing news.  It was reported that about two weeks ago in Jos, Nigeria, where I was the last week of my trip to Africa that 400 people were killed…wow that will make you stop and think.  It was said to be a result of their election.  The more disturbing part was that it was mainly Christians who were being killed.  I guess God had me there at just right time and got me out just in time!  Please help me pray for the people there.

It’s been an amazing week!  I have watched a sweet team of people work incredibly hard all week putting together the stage and lobby for Sunday…you are going to be blown away.  I believe it’s the best in SpringWell’s history and that is saying a lot!  As amazing as the stage and lobby will be, equally amazing are three of the people who are helping put it all together…two were baptised and the other one accepted Christ as his savior this past Sunday.  Here are three brand new believers already diving into what it means to be a disciple of Christ…they are using their gifts to serve and loving it.

If you haven’t found your place to serve at SpringWell yet then please let us know.  One of the greatest joys in life is serving Christ through serving others.  See ya Sunday!  Get ready for “The Journey”.

I do realize that it is Wed. night and I’m just now getting around to reflecting on Sunday.  I thought after a couple of days to think it over that maybe it would have lost its wow effect on me…BUT it hasn’t.  We baptized 29 people and it was phenomenal.  The music was way over the top and God did His thing during the invitation.  When I say that God did His thing I mean lives were changed!  I’m telling you it was off the stinking charts.  If you missed it all I can say is please whatever you do don’t miss this Sunday because I believe it is going to be another life changing kind of Sunday.