Aletheia Church

Hey all,

The Aletheia Band is heading down to Nags Head tomorrow morning for a weekend tour. We will be playing at Ark International Church in Nags Head tomorrow night and then in Edenton, NC on Saturday night. We won’t return to Harrisonburg until the wee early hours of Sunday morning. Please pray for us as we will be driving back all night Saturday night after the show in Edenton.

It’s been a while since we have played out because there has been so much going on here at Aletheia. It’s been an incredible 2008 and I feel so blessed to have been a part of what God has done.

For those of you who are going to be in town this Sunday morning, please make sure you don’t miss the Aletheia Sunday morning worship experience. Cameron Gwaltney (our Wed. night band leader) and his band from Va. Beach will be leading worship and it is sure to be a fun and energetic time of worship. Pray for them as well. They are leaving Va. Beach at 5am Sunday morning to give themselves ample time to set up and to prepare to rock everyone’s world during the service. Don’t miss it.

On a side note, about 26 of our core group and volunteer staff leadership participants at Aletheia met last night for 2 and a half hours. It was an incredibly encouraging meeting. We discussed the future and came up with some amazing ideas of how we are going to improve the quality of every single one of the different ministry areas at Aletheia Church. Be on the look-out for constant changes this summer and this fall.

We refuse to become complacent. We refuse to to become stagnant. We refuse to limit God. Let’s be ready for the next phase as we move forward to touch even more lives…to see even more people come to know Christ, to see more people baptized, and to see more people equipped and challenged to fulfill their God-given potential.

Once again here is our vision statement: To see the Harrisonburg community and the area colleges and Universities effectively connected to Christ through relevancy and genuineness.

This vision also extends itself to Richmond, Norfolk, and hopefully in the future Radford U, George Washington U, George Mason U, and wherever else God wants to take us.

God is doing some incredible stuff. Please continue to pray for these things.

So here we are again, another Monday. I thought I would reflect a bit on what happened yesterday at Aletheia. First of all I wasn’t sure who would be at Aletheia because it was the day after graduation for JMU and a lot of our regular young families were missing as well.

After all was said and done, we had 220 people at our servce which was about 200 less than usual for 2008 but totally expected because Summer is here now. Actually I expected a lot less people than that. But let me tell you, it was an amazing worship experience. We are always trying to make changes to improve the quality of the Sunday morning worship experience. You know, streamlining things, adding more creative elements, becoming more organized, etc… Yesterday, we made some changes with the transitions during the worship set. Everything went on without a hitch and we were so stoked about it. It was probably the smoothest and seamless worship set we had ever had. I think having better transitions in between songs allowed for there to be no awkward silences and people were able to continue to focus on God instead of thinking what the band was going to do next.

Also, I know I said 14 people were going to get baptized yesterday. Actually we had 13 get in the freezing cold river to get dunked. It was a powerful time. The testimonies of our people were incredible. There were a lot of tears and a lot of cheers. It was simply amazing. I figured that since last May we have baptized around 100 people at Aletheia Church in Harrisonburg. God is moving in this place and we are glad to be going for the ride.

Thanks to all of you who are sucha huge part of what God is doing at Aletheia. Let’s just pray that the momentum will continue throughout hte summer.

Have a great week.

Hey people,

This weekend is going to be amazing. Not only is the Aletheia Worship experience on Sunday morning going to be awesome…

but after the service 14 people are going to get baptized. Yeah, that’s right, 14 people! That’s the single biggest one-day amount that has ever been baptized in the history of our 6 year old church. You do not want to miss it. It’s going to be an incredibly unique experience.

In April we have baptized 8 people alone so what more can I say than dang, God is great!

Hope to see you guys out on Sunday. Love you.

For those of you in blog world who don’t know what a typical Sunday morning at aletheia is like, this is for you.

Here is some raw footage, live and unedited. Enjoy!

Aletheia Worship Experience

Hi everyone,

I wanted to get a word out to everyone because that is what I usually do this time of the week every week. Thanks to everyone who came out to our resurrection celebration on Sunday. It was an incredible worship experience and for those of you who were here, you know why I am saying that. God really moved in that place on Sunday. We worship a mighty God who has limitless power and we were reminded of that this past weekend.

Traditionally for every other church in America that is not college-aged, Easter Sunday equals the largest attended day (other than Christmas) of the year. For us it typically means that half or more of our congregation will be GONE. Many of you go to your home churches to spend time with your families. For me, my family is here so I have nowhere to go, and this year I was very glad about that. On Friday and Saturday, we handed out over 2500 fliers on doors all over the community. Thanks to all of you who helped with that. Because God is so faithful, even though I don’t think a lot of people came as a result of the flier, we had our largest attended Easter service in the history of the church. Praise God! I can’t say enough about how amazing my God is.

Many times this year I have talked about momentum and keeping ourselves motivated. It’s a theme that needs to surface over and over again. This theme ties right into perseverance. Are we persevering for God? Are we “holding up under” the difficult circumstances that come our way? I am reminded of James chapter 1 verse 3. It says that “the testing of our faith produces perseverance.” How are we doing with those tests that come into our lives? Are we remembering how awesome and powerful God is? Are we including God in everything that we do? Are we being faithful to His Word? Are we inviting our lost family members, friends, and co-workers out to Aletheia? Are we coming out to church ourselves consistently? I’m ready for what God wants to do. Are you ready? Are we ready for what God has planned? Are we ready for what He has in store for our lives and for the ministry of Aletheia? I hope so.

God is moving at Aletheia Church in the small town of Harrisonburg. We are seeing great things transpire on a daily basis. I hope and pray that you will continue to be a part as God continues to change lives and break down barriers here. Please continue to come alongside us and assist us in doing great things for God.

Invite a friend to Aletheia this week. It’s going to be another great worship experience. You don’t want to miss it…

If ever there was a time to make it out to Aletheia, this coming Sunday is the perfect time. We are having a very unique and special easter service that will hopefully change your life. Don’t miss it. Invite your friends and family. And, there will be a free meal following the service so what’s not to get excited about free food…and let me tell you it’s going to be incredible!

Also, we put a couple more videos of the band rocking out a couple weeks ago on youtube and we would love it if you guys checked them out. Enjoy!

“When Our Hearts Sing”

“Salvation is Here”

One more thing…if you have not added the church or the band on facebook, please do so now. Type in Aletheia or hit up the links…

Aletheia Church

Aletheia Band

See you at 1040am on Sunday morning.

Ace is once again our guest blogger today. Read this below and be challenged…

Two summers ago I was in Suffolk, Virginia with my then-fiancé, visiting some of her extended family. Even though I spent my childhood in a part of West Virginia which even someone from Suffolk would find empty, I don’t feel that Suffolk could ever be home to me, not even with all that Southern sweet tea. On this particular visit to the “upper deep-south”, I was listening to some of the older folks have a conversation about their church. But, whenever they would reference the activity of going to church, they would instead say, “goin’ to preachin’.”

Now, if you have relatives who speak with that kind of southern twang, first of all, no need to cringe. I admit, I found my own diction in utter chaos after our visit, but it recovered. Since that time, I’ve come to notice a big contrast in the mentality between a place like Suffolk, and a College town such as our own. We, of course, do not typically use the phrase “goin’ to preachin’”, but rather, “going to church.” Seems like the more appropriate thing to say, doesn’t it? But may I submit to you that I think there’s a lesson to be learned from this simple difference in lingo.

Think about this question: What is the church? If you’ve spent much time around Aletheia, or in the Discipleship Course, you know that the church is not a structure. The word refers to those who are called out for a special purpose. Its substance is not in concrete and steel; it’s in flesh and bone. We, you and I, are the church, and it goes wherever we go. So in reality, whose description of what we do on Sunday mornings is more accurate? It’s those good-ole folks in Suffolk. We do not go to church on Sunday mornings; the church gathers to worship her bridegroom, and to hear his Word.

What would it look like if we really applied this mentality? It would mean taking our moments with other believers, outside the walls of our warehouse, more seriously, as times of worship even. It would mean dissolution of those social groups that inevitably form (churches made up of cliques and politics are dead). It would mean not giving new visitors the “slow head-to-toe” when they come through the door. Most importantly, it would mean living out Philippians 2 every day of our lives. The same spirit that envelops us at Aletheia on Sunday mornings can be accessed at any moment. Four walls, a sound system, and a lot of fellow believers, are not prerequisites for an experience of worship and learning. Aletheia Church is not a building; it is you and I.

I must apologize for the lack of posts. Everyone must think that I am a blog slacker but really it’s just because I’ve been gone for the better part of the last two weeks. One of those weeks was spent in Atlanta where I was able to express the vision of the Aletheia collegiate church planting model to hundreds of key christian leaders across the nation. This past week was spent in Costa Rica where our team of 11 was able to minister to the wonderful people there. We saw 18 of them come into a personal relationship with Christ. It was an unbelievable experience and our team really shined. Thanks to all of you who prayed for us. It was at times a very difficult trip but God rewarded our faithfulness with amazing productivity. We hope many more of you will be challenged to go on our next global mission wherever that may be. That’s it for today.

This week we are off to Atlanta for a national missions forum held by the North American Mission Board in which I have been asked to speak at. Please pray that God will really use me as I share the story of Aletheia and what God has done in Harrisonburg over the last 6 years as well as in Richmond and what he is going to do at places like Norfolk in the near future. I will be speaking on Thursday night at 6 so while you are eating dinner please remember to pray for me.

Thanks to everyone who came out to church yesterday for an amazing morning of worship and teaching. God is once again surprising us this year with incredible productivity. There is so much momentum right now and I hope everyone is riding the wave. Now (more than ever) is the time to invite your freinds and family out to Aletheia Church because what God is doing is something that I have never seen in ministry before. There is an excitement that is so contagious right now and I want to thank all of you for the parts that you have in making it happen. Please continue to allow God to use you and let’s continue to see great things happen as a result.

The band finally released “On Learning In WarTime” yesterday. Thanks to all of you who spent the $5 to pick one up. Believe me, the band is extremely grateful. If you have not heard the album yet there is a complete stream of it on our myspace page. If you like it then you can pick up a digital copy or if you are so inclined, a hard copy directly through our page. Please support the band. Thanks!

I hope everyone is doing well. I’ll leave you with this…

“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” Psalm 133:1

God loves it when we are all in unity. He accomplishes much more when we do so.

Hi people,

Here’s the scoop…if you are pretty involved with Aletheia, then you probably contracted a wicked stomach virus within the past week. It has hit just about everyone with the exception of a few. Now that maybe an over-exaggeration, but still everyone in my immediate family as well as Pastor Dave, Chippy, Graham (and there are rumors of others), have all contracted this mean and take-no-prisoners virus. There are even rumors of some of you going to the hospital. If you are ill, I hope you get better. The good thing about this virus is that it only lasts for about 18 hours so it comes (and boy does it come), and goes quickly.

On to more serious business. If you aren’t doing anything tomorrow at 10am, there are a bunch of church planters from Northern Virginia coming to Aletheia for a meeting. And the band is going to rock their faces off for a few minutes so if you feel like coming and worshiping for 20 minutes, be at Aletheia Church at 10am tomorrow morning. It should be fun.

I hope everyone is having a great week and staying away from the bathroom if you know what I mean.