May 19 Church Announcements
) below to start the announcement video.Give Blood: Save A Life!
On June 2, we’re doing an outreach activity here at Metropolitan that I’m soooooooo excited about. We’re hosting a blood and bone marrow drive! (Sign up here) Don’t you DARE stop reading! I know you want to, because you’re most likely black, and black people don’t generally donate blood. It’s the truth. The stats are horrible or somewhat less horrible, depending on whom you believe. Only about 5 percent of the general population donates blood, and of that number, only 10 percent are African American – says the Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center1. Blood Centers of the Pacific reports that only 3 percent of their African American population donates blood2.
Lesson 7: Church Wars or Corporate Evangelism
Q2 SS-2012 Lesson 7: Corporate Evangelism & Witnessing: (read Lesson 7)
Key Text: “The things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also” (2 Tim. 2:2, NKJV).
1. Why is it that churches that are so busy fighting among themselves rarely do outreach?
2. What assurance can we gain from Psalm 37 in relation to the success of witnessing and evangelism activities?
3. How do we know when our planning is led by the Holy Spirit rather than by merely human preparation?
4. This week’s study addresses “corporate unity” in the Church. What does this mean—and not mean—in every day terms?
May 12 Church Announcements
La Cour Royale: A Pictorial Review
La Cour Royale - a deb / beau ball for our high school seniors, and the culmination of a year of activities that help to prepare them for adulthood, took place on May 6 at the University of Maryland Marriott. It was a spectacular event and we share some of the evening's events via pictures. Unless otherwise indicated, photographs were provided courtesy of Myron S. Ottley Photography.
What's In Your Wallet?
The people who attended the first class of our Financial Peace University course discovered that the answer to that question isn’t a Capital One credit card. For them, if they follow the steps outlined in the course, their wallets are going to have a lot of cash!
More than 40 people showed up on Tuesday night, May 8 – filling the choir room to capacity. The class is so large that next week they will have to move to the sanctuary. Quite a few of the attendees are not members of Metro and found out about the class from our website and Facebook promotion. Sivan Bruce was the youngest attendee and Sis. Ravi (yes, Sis. Ravi!) was the eldest.
Lesson 6: Personal Evangelism and Witnessing
Q2 SS-2012 Lesson 6: Personal Evangelism & Witnessing: (read Lesson 6)
Evangelism and witnessing are essentially two sides of the same coin. They both serve the same purpose of presenting the good news of salvation to others and encouraging them to accept Jesus as their Savior. They both are essential to church growth. They differ primarily in duration. Evangelism is generally a planned series of meetings in which sequential lessons are presented, while witnessing is often a spontaneous opportunity to share with others one’s personal testimony of the good news of salvation. Evangelism seeks a wider audience, while witnessing focuses on the individual, sharing with him Jesus’ love for us, the ultimate sacrifice He made for us, and His imminent return to take us home with Him. Both the evangelist and the witness are ambassadors for Christ, personally representing Him as they carry His message to the world. While both of these endeavors are necessary for church growth, personal witnessing, doubtless, contributes to both the growth of the church and the growth of the individual.
AirBorn Flight Plan - May 5 Update
Yesterday during our divine worship service, we launched the AirBorn Flight Plan – a three month program of prayer, love, and service meant to prepare us for our third evangelistic series of the year - AirBorn. Each week, as details of the flight plan are released, we'll create a new blog entry with that week's assignments. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us. You may call either of the pastors or shoot us an email at
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May 5 Church Announcements
Celebrate Our Mothers
Our Men's Ministries department invites you to honor your mom - biological or spiritual - at a formal banquet on Mothers' Day - Sunday, May 13. The banquet will provide an opportunity for our members to share tributes about the mothers in their lives - their moms, wives, sisters, grandmothers, etc. The banquet starts at 6:00 p.m. and will be held in the Ministry Center Banquet Hall.
Lesson 5: Sequential Evangelism & Witnessing
Q2 SS-2012 Lesson 5: Spiritual Gifts for Evangelism and Witnessing (read Lesson 5)
Sequential evangelism is a step by step approach to sharing the gospel that was taught and practiced by Jesus during His ministry on earth. In the adult Sabbath School lesson five titled “Sequential Evangelism and Witnessing", we are reminded of four basic steps used by Jesus during his earthly ministry. These fundamental steps remain valid today.
Step 1
- Meet the needs of people where they are.
In the Parable of the Sheep and Goats, Jesus taught that first step in evangelism is to meet the people where they are (Matt. 25: 31-40). It is important that as individuals and as a church, we seek to meet the physical needs of the community we serve with love and kindness, for in doing so the process of evangelism is initialized.
Ready to Die?
In the Adventist church, it's possible that one of the only things we talk about less than we talk about suicide is incest - which is not only sad, but dangerous, as the National Institute of Mental Health reported that in 2007, suicide was the third leading cause of death among youth ages 15 - 24. Why won't we talk about this? Are there things we can do to prevent our young adults from attempting suicide? Are there risk factors we can look out for? On Saturday, May 5 at 5:00 p.m., Lifted presents "Ready to Die" - an open discussion about suicide
April 28 Church Announcements
Lesson 4: Evangelism and Witnessing as a Lifestyle
Sphere of Influence
The Wonders of Science and Technology - In Our Backyard this Weekend!
Experience the wonders of science and technology, in our backyard
The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. (Psalm 19:1; New International Version)
Call me a nerd—you better not!—but I am near giddy about the USA Science & Engineering Festival that’s coming to town this weekend. It has become one of the few major gatherings I gear up for, joining the quadrennial Summer Olympics (I’m accepting donations for a trip this August to London) and the quinquennial General Conference session (San Antonio 2015, here I come).
Financial Peace: A Graduate Reflects...
If you've spent any amount of time at Metro, you've been blessed by the praise and worship ministry of our Minister of Music - Theo Milford. A couple of years ago, Theo decided that before he got married, he needed to get his finances under control. How else would he be able to buy Melody all the clothes she wanted? Just kidding. :-) Seriously, he did realize though, that taking responsiblity for his finances was an integral part of his life and would help contribute to his financial, emotional and spiritual growth, and so he decided to attend Financial Peace University. I spent a few mintues with him talking about his experiences when he took the course here at Metro.
April 21 Church Announcements
Lesson 3: And The Best Gift Is...
Q2 SS-2012 Lesson 3: Spiritual Gifts for Evangelism and Witnessing (read Lesson 3)
…. the one that is given to you by the Holy Spirit. That amazed me. Let’s explore it from the text.
“And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:11-12, NKJV).
Two things that stood out in my study were firstly, gifts are given and secondly, they are given by a specific being: the Holy Spirit. Apparently, gifts are not something that we are born with - they are not talents, right? Interesting! So we can actually have talented church leaders who may not have received the gift for that ministry. I always wondered how a once presumptuous sinner like myself (emphasis on “presumptuous”) could have still led out in church appointed positions. Reminds me about that sermon Pastor Johns preached on Bar-Jesus - "Behind Enemy Lines".
Lesson 2: All Hands on Deck
Q2 SS-2012 Lesson 2: Every Member Ministry (read Lesson 2)
A CNBC Originals documentary, “Cruise Inc.: Big Money on the High Seas” (2009), took us inside the $30 billion cruise industry. The cruise ship documented was the Norwegian Pearl, a 15-story tall, 965 ft long, 93,000 ton “money making machine”. They called it a “floating city” that employs 1100 crew members to cater to 2200 passengers eating 12,000 meals per day. One could only imagine that all hands are always on deck to serve and entertain the passengers.
Imagine Peter the disciple being alive today and swearing (before he was saved, of course) at the cruise industry. He’d probably be thinking - what sense does it make for a multi-million dollar sea vessel to be burning through millions of dollars just to entertain? They don’t even catch any fish!!
) below to start the announcement video.