Women's Brunch

“They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness”

Lamentations 3:23

With the theme of “Morning Mercies” our women met for a spring brunch on Saturday, May 22 in the beautifully renovated chapel.

We enjoyed a delicious southern brunch among lovely spring decorations.

It was an honor to have women from our Chinese church, our Spanish church and several visitors as well. A total of 130 women attended this event. The women also enjoyed a quick “purse treasure hunt” (the winning table found 22 items on the list in their purses). One of the highlights of the event was the acapella “flash mob” special of “Great Is Thy Faithfulness.”

It was a blessing to hear from our missionary Lou Anne Keiser, who served along with her husband in Spain for over 30 years. She spoke of God’s faithfulness and encouraged us to trust God and to count on His new mercies.

-Kathy Burget

PS: Thanks to Jennifer Davisson for all the great photography she has provided during her time at MBC. Here are the hi-res images.

Chapel Progress 5.6.2021

The Morningside chapel renovation project is progressing on schedule for it to reopen on May 9th. We have removed the pews, installed TV’s and speakers for a much improved audio/visual experience, painted the ceilings and walls, stained the wood trim, enhanced the stained glass and cross accent wall, laid a beautiful herringbone design LVT floor, and are ready to receive the tables and chairs soon.

Chapel and Gym Renovation 2021

Chapel Renovation

Thanks to David Rogers for these amazing images of our future Chapel. The new chandeliers and LED lights have been installed, the pews have been removed, and the ceiling has been painted. We are currently staining all of the wood accents around the chapel and stained glass windows to a dark, rich color.

Gym Renovation Images

Our planned gym renovation drawings are pictured below. The gym renovation will begin in the summer after the Chapel renovation is complete. Thanks to David Rogers for creating these amazing images.

Life Classes in April

APRIL 11, 18, 25 LIFE CLASSES ON SUNDAY PM

MEET AT 5:00 PM

Meet in the Auditorium for Opening and Service with Pastor Miller who is preaching a 3-week series on Moses.

GO TO LIFE CLASSES AT 5:15 PM

Here is a list of this month’s…

LIFE CLASSES:

1) HELPING A FRIEND BIBLICALLY NAVIGATE THE STORMS OF LIFE: STEVE CRUICE (107)

Explore what the Bible says about dealing with depression, anxiety/fear, and suicidal thoughts.

2) STARTING POINT: PASTOR CROCKETT (FELLOWSHIP HALL)

This is a great class to attend if you are considering membership at Morningside.

3) LESSONS FROM HISTORY: JOE JARRELL (225)

History can teach us many valuable lessons. We will examine some of those and discuss what Christians can learn from past events.

4) BUILDING GODLY RELATIONSHIPS: PASTOR JONES (EAST WING)

Learn what the Bible says about Godly relationships.

5) KIDS LEARN CREATION (KIDS WING)

Our kids will watch videos helping them learn a Biblical view of the origins of our world.

Resurrection Hope: Easter 2021

On Sunday, April 4, many of us got to rejoice in the hope of Easter with friends, family, and guests.

The weather this Easter was picture-perfect.

It had actually been two years since we could celebrate Easter Sunday together in person. What a terrific time it was!

Nearly 100 families took photos at our booth. Speakers of ASL, Chinese, English, and Spanish took advantage of the beautiful spring backdrop, and Jennifer Davisson captured some great smiles!

Here are a few of the photos. Click the link below to see all.

We heard from our Children's Choir and Teen Ensemble. And after the service, joyful faces race across the fields in search of colorful eggs!

Pastor Crockett continued his series in Ecclesiastes.

“Much wisdom is much grief,” said Solomon. Knowledge by itself can’t give us permanent profit or lasting joy because of the death that our sin has earned us. But the hope of Easter is that Death itself is defeated.

The world’s smartest minds can’t figure out how to stop death. But Jesus swallowed it up in victory!

Our choir and orchestra sang before and after the sermon, and we all closed the service by singing “Alleluia”—”Praise the Lord!”

MBC Choir and Orchestra presented “Christ Is Risen ” and “Worthy Is the Lamb.”

How to Connect with Morningside

Congratulations! You’ve come to morningside.org/news, the best place to find out about our churchwide events. Most of our classes and small groups meet right after the morning service. Have you connected with one yet? Just let us know if you’d like help!

We also have regular updates about what’s happening in churchwide ministries and for people in various stages of life. Each week’s email update has posts from many of them, and you can sign up for that here.

Women

You can find women’s events at morningside.org/women.

Kids

Kids to Grade 5 (and their parents!) can get updates and news for kids at morningside.org/kids.

Students

For events for Students Grades 6-12, check out morningside.org/students.

Rooted (College Ages)

College students and young adults ages 18-22 can find out lots of great info at morningside.org/rooted.

Senior Adults

Morningside Seniors keep an active calendar! Find out more at morningside.org/senior.

Missions

You can find missions news and updates at morningside.org/missions.

Outreach

Our outreach team blogs at morningside.org/outreach.

Music

Find music events and updates at morningside.org/music.

What's Reopening This Spring

While health risks certainly have not ended, God has certainly shown mercy on us even in the extent of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It may be many more months before it’s wise for all of us to participate in things like congregational singing or passing an offering plate, but as more people are gaining immunity and case counts have dropped we are ready to begin another phase of reopening.

This new phase of reopening includes activities critical to fulfilling our mission of loving God, loving each other, and loving our world through worship, evangelism, fellowship, and discipleship:

• allowing fellowship and worship on Sunday evenings--in person and at church

• allowing the sharing of food as safely as possible during our fellowship times, even indoors

• resuming regular outreach ministries that break down barriers to the gospel through sports

We do not advise you to pursue these activities against medical advice.

As of March 10 South Carolina’s number of COVID-19 cases had fallen dramatically in the last few weeks, even as vaccinations began. scdhec.gov/covid19/sc-testing-data-projections-covid-19, accessed 10 March 2021.

Upcoming Sunday PM Schedule

We are excited to resume in-person PM services on March 14 with an Irish concert from Coffey Ministries. This will start one final time at 5:30 PM. Beginning the following week, that start time will change.

• March 21 we’ll celebrate Communion together and our Sunday PM service start time will change to 5:00 PM. This new start time will allow more time for fellowship after our evening services. The service will also include a brief business meeting for two missions support items approved by our missions committee and deacons..

• March 28 our classes and small groups will help choose songs for another Singspiration.

• April 4 is Easter Sunday. We will celebrate the Resurrection in the morning service and will hold a prayer service at 5:00 PM.

• April 11 we begin a new series of life classes--our first since 2019. We will still have a regular preaching service in the auditorium, and a life class will be offered for children. After a time of singing and announcements all together in the auditorium, children and interested adults will be dismissed to life classes.

Church Activities

Fellowships may include food again. If your church group would like to hold a fellowship at the church, please see our updated Activity Request Form at morningside.org/church-life. If you would like to serve food, we will ask about what health precautions you are taking. Note that we are still not ready to host private events and outside groups. Some of the exciting events volunteers are already planning, though, include Women’s Bible Study and monthly Morningside Seniors fellowships.

Physically Distanced Seating (Room 107)

We’re thankful our auditorium attendance has risen so much, but we are also glad to continue offering seating in Room 107. Beginning March 14, no seating with confirmed distance will be available in the auditorium itself. This will help us make sure we don’t turn away guests but will also help our staff and volunteers confirm distanced seating more effectively. In addition to our distanced seating in 107, a new internet service contract we’ve just entered should allow our livestream broadcasts to improve even more in the near future.

We continue to pray for our church family, and our staff is reaching out personally each week to as many as we can. We are thankful to worship together in person and online and for the opportunity to pursue our mission of loving God, loving each other, and loving our world. If you have a prayer request for us, please let us know.

VBS This Summer

We are so excited to bring back VBS this year in the evenings, June 6-9, from 6-8pm! Would you join us as a Volunteer? You have the opportunity to guide children to Mystery Island where we will be tracking down the One True God. There's a place for everyone to serve. Please pray the Lord opens children's hearts to believe and follow Jesus.

Coffey Ministries

Celebrate the gospel with us on March 14 as we welcome Coffey Ministries. Aaron Coffey will preach in our AM service, and at 5:30 PM we will hear an Irish Concert.

Coffey Ministries last served here in 2018, just after one of their team members had passed away. It was a powerful service, and you can watch the video here.

Team Members

• Aaron and Stephanie Coffey

• Riley and Bethany Woodfin

• Phil Arcuri

• Mike Haynes

• Hannah Wood

• Stephanie Wright

Outreach

Will you help us spread the word? Invitation cards are arriving for the Welcome Center, and March 7 we plan to distribute them to MBC neighbors.

We hope you can join us!

Morningside 2020: A Review

Sanctity of Life Sunday

We celebrate the sanctity of human life each January.

Baby Dedication

This year we had the privilege of hosting Kevin and Andrea Chen’s baby dedication. It was a privilege to partner with the Chens as they committed to raise Evelyn in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

Do you vow, by God's help, to be faithful in your calling as members of the body of Christ, to help these parents teach and train this little one in the nurture and admonition of the Lord?

We do.

Music

Our choir and orchestra opened the service singing about God’s fatherly compassion:

From everlasting to everlasting is the lovingkindness of our Lord,

To those who fear Him and keep His covenant and remember to obey His word.

He rules over all creation from His heavenly throne above.

From everlasting to everlasting is His love.

And we sang the beautiful hymn, “This Is My Father’s World.”

Though the wrong

Seems oft so strong,

God is the ruler yet.

Stand for Life

We heard a stirring challenge from Charles Butler to stand for the lives of the unborn.

“What are you going to do about it?”

God’s Work in the Womb

And Pastor Crockett preached about God’s work in the womb of every mother (Job 31:13-15).

Did not he that made me in the womb make him? and did not one fashion us in the womb?

Livestream Services Update

Morningside is changing to a new live stream service provider!

Although things may look a bit different, you will find our broadcast in the same places on YouTube and Facebook.

The Boxcast Smart TV apps will no longer be available after March 14, but you can still use your Smart TV to watch our livestream services. Just search for "Morningside Live" on the YouTube app on a Roku, Apple TV, or Fire TV device.

Our cost for the new provider will be much lower, and the rest of the benefits we’ve enjoyed from our livestream services should continue.

We started streaming live regularly in 2016, and in 2020 our viewers spent over 10,000 hours on our main YouTube channel. Adding a year of Boxcast helped us launch immediately into dual-stream services last March, and the first online-only service also got to be the first service on Facebook. We’re so thankful for all the improvements we’ve enjoyed, and as of our members many still rely on our online services we’re thankful we can continue to offer them in multiple locations.

The 5 Most Popular Posts of 2020

So many things changed in 2020, and the way we use our church website was one of them! But we continued blogging at our main blog and through several of our ministries (like Outreach), sharing most of these posts through the weekly updates and our social media profiles.

Some of last year’s most-viewed content on our website came from these posts. Here’s a rundown:

1-2. (near-tie) Schedule Updates and Updated Schedule: These two articles wouldn’t die—because 2020 kept turning “updated” into “outdated.” That turned these articles into the 3rd- and 4th-most-visited pages of the year, because, well, 2020.

3. Get to Know Jeriel Ontoy: Jeriel’s ministry has been a big help already!

4. JR-SR Retreat: This was a great event with amazing pictures of a beautiful spot—AND it was the last week before the shutdowns began… (sigh)

The Big Oak Lodge (Gatlinburg, TN), the site of the 2020 JR-SR Retreat.

5. Music for a Virtual Church: What kind of music do you have when you can’t meet in person? Back in March, hardly anyone had thought of it.

Honorable Mention: Always Good: Gratitude for Majesty Music. Written in October 2019, this post was visited more than anything else in 2020 besides the schedules. “You Are Always Good,” and through it Jonathan Hamilton and Majesty Music, continue to have a huge impact not only on our church family but on believers around the world.

Other Popular Pages

Livestream Video: Naturally, this became our most-viewed page of 2020 besides our home page itself.

Easter 2020: This Easter was a little different… but Christ is still risen!

Keith's Story: This was still one of the most popular pages of the year. The day after his death’s anniversary, we got to honor Chief Deputy Marcus Davenport and the family of Sgt. Conley Jumper at Thin Blue Line Sunday.

Get to Know Karis Lehman

Last month we got to welcome Jeriel Ontoy to our church family and music staff, and this month we have the privilege of welcoming Karis Lehman.

Karis gained a great deal of music ministry experience growing up in a pastor’s family at Shannon Baptist Church (Shannon, IL). During her college years, Karis became an associate member and served faithfully in our music ministry. January 10 she comes for full membership.

After graduating from Bob Jones University last May, Karis became the band director at Fisher Middle School. In November, she began serving as our orchestra director. In addition to leading orchestra rehearsals, she has also helped coordinate music ministry opportunities for many other young adults.

Karis also used her voice in our Christmas program:

“Karis’s energy, joy, and skill are so helpful while we rebuild our orchestra,” says music pastor Todd Jones. “Pastor Crockett and I are thrilled with the leadership team God has provided with Jeriel and Karis working alongside us. We look forward to continuing, to the best of our ability, Morningside’s great legacy of conservative, engaging music ministry.”

Get to Know Jeriel Ontoy

We are very thankful to announce the addition of Jeriel Ontoy to our music staff. Jeriel and his wife Carmel became full members on Dec. 6.

Jeriel and Carmel were married on June 27, 2020.

Jeriel has been active in our music ministry and Rooted college-age ministry throughout his undergraduate studies. He was deeply involved in church music ministry even during his teen years, and during college his leadership opportunities included coordinating music ministry opportunities for his society at Bob Jones University. During the summer of 2020, he mentored under Mac Lynch and led the choir and congregational singing at Catawba Springs Christian Church (Apex, NC). Now pursuing graduate ministry training, Jeriel serves as Research & Co-Curricular Coordinator for the School of Religion at BJU.

During the fall of 2020, while continuing to coordinate the Rooted music, Jeriel began to take on many more volunteer leadership activities in our music ministry. Among other things, he took a major role in planning and leading our Nov. 22 Praise Service.

“Jeriel’s strengths in planning and communication are always critical for a church music program,” said music pastor Todd Jones. “But while we’re trying to rebuild our program after months of heavy restrictions—and while some of those restrictions continue—they are more important than ever. He’s been a huge blessing already, and I look forward to working with him now that he’s part of our leadership team.”

We look forward to having Jeriel's part-time assistance helping direct the adult choir and in some of the many other tasks in our music ministry as well.

This Week's Holiday Highlights

     Morningside Holiday Service Schedule

Holiday Schedule maps with SS room locations and Children’s programming schedule

This week’s schedule includes optional SS classes before and after our combined Christmas program, Christmas Carol.

This Week’s Schedule

December 9, 2020 – Wednesday

7 PM - Regular schedule

December 13, 2020 – Sunday

9:00 AM – Sunday School

10:00 AM – Christmas Program in Auditorium; Nursery care only

11:00 AM – Sunday School

4:30 PM - Christmas caroling to Morningsiders (meet in MBC Gym)

5:30 PM – Online Service

December 16, 2020 – Wednesday

7 PM – Regular schedule

Christmas Caroling

Come out and join other Morningsiders as we social distance carol sing and minister to Morningsiders who have not been present in person for a while. Join us on Sundays, 12/13 and 12/20 @ 4:30 - 6 PM. We will meet in the MBC gym before going out.

Civil Leaders Sunday

During our Civil Leaders Sunday 2020, we welcomed and acknowledged more than a dozen of our civil leaders at the local, state and national level. South Carolina’s Lieutenant Governor Pamela S. Evette and Greenville's congregational representative William Timmons were among the honored guests.

In addition, we recognized Dr. Bob Taylor for 20 years on the Greenville County Council and 50 years active in politics. During all his service in Greenville county and across the state, his greatest desire was to see Christians involved in the political process and to see them stand for the principles and values we as Christians hold dear.

Pastor Crockett’s message, “God and Government,” came from Mark 12:14-17: "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."

Thank you to those who were able to join us. View the additional photos below highlighting more details from our Civil Leaders Sunday.

Civil Leaders Sunday

We welcome you to join us for Civil Leaders Sunday, November 1 at 10:00 a.m. Morningside Baptist Church will acknowledge and honor local, state, and national civil leaders. Each current officeholder or candidate will be introduced during the service. Special confirmed guests include Lieutenant Governor Pamela Evette and Congressman William Timmons. Morningside members Bob Taylor (Greenville County Council), Adam Morgan (SC state representative), and Tim Nanney (Greenville Register of Deeds) will also attend.

Thin Blue Line Sunday

Thank you for joining us on our 3rd biannual Thin Blue Line this past Sunday October 25. We are thankful for our law enforcement families. We were pleased to have Sgt. Conley Jumper’s family attend to honor Sgt. Conley Jumper’s life whose watch ended October 20.

Sheriff Hobart Lewis also presented the Trooper Keith Rebman Award to Chief Deputy Markus Davenport for his exemplary service to the community.

We are also receiving donations for the family of Sgt. Conley Jumper of the GCSO, whose watch ended October 20. To participate, choose the “Benevolent - Jumper NTD” option on our giving site. Boxes will be ready Sunday to receive offline donations as well.

Watch our 2018 Thin Blue Line service honoring Keith: