Mike Edmisten Follower of Jesus. Husband of Nicki. Father of Ryan & Brock. Communicator of the Word.

No More Blogging in 2008

After hundreds and hundreds of posts, I'm calling it a year. This will be my last post for 2008. I'll fire up the old blog engine again in the new year. Comments will also be disabled until then.

In the meantime, I want to thank everyone who has read, commented, and given me encouragement via my blog. When I first started doing this, I couldn't imagine myself blogging. Now I can't envision my ministry without it.

This blog has become an invaluable tool to carry on the conversation beyond Sunday morning. It has allowed me an incredible avenue to teach…and to learn. It's given me a personal connection with so many people that wasn't possible before. Thanks for being a part of this journey with me.

Enjoy the holiday season with your family. I'll talk with you again when we flip the calendar. Until then, God bless…and go easy on the fruitcake.

The Reason for Christmas

The Son of God became a man to enable men to become the sons of God. (C.S. Lewis)

Merry Christmas!

ACC Christmas Eve Service

Our Christmas Eve Service is tonight at 9:00 pm.

Check out the details here.

Vintage Christmas Videos

We're going to wrap up our Vintage Christmas series tomorrow night at our Christmas Eve service. Tomorrow night, we'll find out how the story of our "featured family" ends. If you missed a week of this series, or if you just want to experience the story again, here are the four video segments that we've featured during this Christmas season.

Vintage Christmas Week 1 – Joy

Vintage Christmas Week 2 – Peace

Vintage Christmas Week 3 – Wonder

Vintage Christmas Week 4 – Love

I want to thank Brian Morrissey for his hours and hours of work on this project. This story is a "Morrissey original," as are all the videos. We are so blessed to have such a gifted, creative guy on our staff.

Also want to thank Jason Case for recording the audio for the story. Thanks for your patience through the 70+ takes that were required to complete the recording.

Don't forget…Christmas Eve service at 9:00 pm tomorrow. You don't want to miss it!

Pray for the Shryock Family

If you live in Cincinnati, you've likely heard about the tragic accident that happened during a local Christmas pageant. Keri Shryock fell 25 feet to her death during the opening performance of Awaited, the Christmas pageant at Crossroads Community Church.

As the body of Christ, let's take some time during the holidays to pray for Keri Shryock's family and for Crossroads Community Church.

Click here for a blog post about the tragedy.

Click here for a statement from Crossroads.

Sunday Night Reflections

What an amazing morning at ACC! I'm blown away. And I don't say that lightly. I'm seriously blown away by what God did this morning.

Some reflections…

Unbelievable morning!

Vintage Christmas: Love

I am stoked about tomorrow's services at ACC! Brian has created a video for every message in this series. Tomorrow's video…the guy outdid himself. Wow.

The video is going to set the table for us to consider the most "vintage" Christmas element of all…love. Without love, there would have never been a Christmas. The reason the gospel has any power at all is love. Come to ACC tomorrow and experience the love of God again…or for the first time. God will blow your mind. Trust me.

We've got some fun surprises in store for you, too. I can't wait! ACC is the only place to be on Christmas Sunday! If you miss it, you'll have an entire year to regret it!

Staff Christmas Party

Looking forward to our staff Christmas party tonight. Should be a wild time at the Presta's house tonight! If you don't believe that pastors' families can get a little crazy…you don't know us!

My only concern…the kids will outnumber the adults. Kinda scary.

The Answer is Yes!

If you're wondering if you should invite a friend to come with you to our Christmas services this Sunday…the answer is yes!

Studies have shown that people are now more likely to come to church on Christmas Sunday than even on Easter Sunday…if they're invited.

This Sunday, the message is going to be a simple, but very powerful, gospel presentation. The heart of Christmas is love. And love is the heart of the gospel.

So should you invite your friend? Heck yes! Invite them with confidence, knowing that they'll have a great time. And knowing that they'll hear a passionate, honest message on how much Jesus loves them.

Humble Beginnings

Mark Batterson is the lead pastor at National Community Church in Washington, DC. NCC has experienced explosive growth and is one of the pioneers in the multi-site model (one church, many locations).

But listen to what Mark says about how NCC began…

"For about six months we commuted into the city, but the most memorable commute was my first weekend as pastor of NCC. The blizzard of '96 swept through DC and left record snowfalls. And we barely made it to church. There is a little hill in Kingstowne where I actually had to get out and push our car. We eventually made it, but we were the only ones who showed up. Not exactly a storybook beginning."

Can you imagine pouring every ounce of energy you had into a new church plant, only to have no one show up for your first service? I would have probably experienced a nervous breakdown right there in the snow.

And in his latest book, Mark notes that, while people did start attending NCC, they didn't come in huge numbers at first. Attendance was so sparse during the early days at NCC, Mark said that he closed his eyes during worship "because it was too depressing to open them."

NCC had a pretty inauspicious start. Now God is using this church to take the gospel right up to Capitol Hill. Thousands of people are coming to Christ through NCC's ministry.

God knew what he had in store for NCC. But Mark and the others who helped launch NCC had no clue. All they knew is that God had called them to do this. As tempting as it was, they didn't allow a very humble beginning to keep them from pursuing God's call on their lives.

Feeling frustrated in your kingdom work? Keep going. God honors faithfulness during tough times. You never know what God has in store for you if you stick it out.