LOOKING BACK

OUR MORNINGSIDE WRAPPED

2024

As a church family, we are called to be the hands and feet of Christ. In 2024, we were blessed to live that out in amazing ways. Discover how your involvement has shaped lives, as well as how we’re looking forward to another great year together.

He who has begun a good work in you
will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. 
(Philippians 1:6)

Jump to:

It was big

A Year of Unity

Growth and Giving

In 2024 we set records for morning worship attendance for Chinese, Spanish, and overall. We welcomed a new staff member and celebrated 20 baptisms.

    • 50% more than 2023, the most in many years

    • 7 English, 7 Spanish, 6 Chinese

    • first-ever video testimonies

    • 99 new members (new record 2nd year in a row): Total 670 regular, 20 associate

    • Up for the 4th year in a row to surpass 2019’s record of 963

    • Average Spanish attendance: record 155 (186 for Feb. 25 baptism all-time record)

    • Average Chinese attendance: record 54 (123 for Chinese New Year 2nd-highest ever)

    • $1.75M General, $178K Missions both 2nd-highest on record

    • Nearly 10% of 2023’s extraordinary record arrived on July 16, 2023. Had that week’s offering been anywhere close to normal, 2024 giving would have set new records in general, missions, and total

    • We also thank the Lord for letting us earn over $100K in interest on our savings

Learning & Preaching

Our spring series was “Joining Jesus: The Final Week.” Guest preacher Chris Anderson joined us for missions conference, and our homecoming speaker was evangelist Aaron Coffey. During the summer we enjoyed several evening gatherings in “Biblical Worldview: Thinking & Living.” “Standing Together” was Pastor Ontoy’s summer exposition of Jude. Our Spanish and Chinese sermons explored the books of Deuteronomy and Acts.

Music & Media

We sang nearly 200 songs on Sundays, learning modern hymns like “His Mercy Is More” as well as classic hymns like “We Rest on Thee.” Our choir and orchestra served nearly every Sunday morning as well as several special evening gatherings. Our Spanish music team more than doubled!

Our video studio began its use for baptism testimonies as well as our weekly announcements. We welcomed new editors and presenters for video announcements. We trained several new technicians and held an audio training seminar in the summer.

Transition

Our pastoral transition began in May, and our interim team began serving on June 9. Our pulpit search committee has provided monthly updates, and each member of our pastoral team has filled our pulpit multiple times in the morning or evening gatherings. We prayerfully look forward to a new senior pastor’s ministry in 2025.

Every Generation

Life Stages

Kids

The Morningside Baptist Church Children's Ministry partners with parents to help children Know God, Grow in Grace, and Love Others. 

Our Programs & Teaching and Initiatives & Events support that mission. Volunteer teams of all age levels serve from our nursery through 5th grade every Sunday and Wednesday, along with other community events like VBS and Back to School Splash.

    • Pray for Morningside Kids to trust in Jesus as their Savior

    • Disciple Morningside Kids to Know God and Grow in Grace by reading and memorizing the Bible together

    • Encourage Morningside Kids to consider missions through guest speakers, books, videos and hands-on service projects

    • Develop Awana Store as motivation for learning more Bible memory verses

    • Recruit more invested volunteers as small group leaders

    • Develop a Journey through Jerusalem Easter experience

    • Update flooring in the nursery and preschool rooms

    • Average Sunday attendance: 90+

    • Highest attendance: 138 (Easter Sunday)

    • Our second highest attendance was for A Night in Bethlehem Christmas experience

    • We increased our Sunday and Wednesday volunteers by at least 20 people

    • We welcomed 6 new families into membership

    • We welcomed 10+ new visiting families

    • Average Awana attendance: near 100

    • Highest attendance: 125 for Awana Grand Prix

    • We welcomed 9 new babies into our nursery

    • We witnessed 1 Morningside Kids baptism

    • Preschool - This is our first intentional teaching time for kids. They learn important Biblical truths about God and how people responded to Him. They memorize Bible verses and complete story related crafts (Know God)

    • Primary & Elementary Gospel Project for Kids - Bible Literacy, Bible Truths & Bible Memory - we began a new 3 year cycle teaching kids chronologically through the Bible. We ask and answer important Bible Truths (catechisms) and memorize the Scripture (Know God & Grow in Grace)

    • Sunday Small Groups - Discipleship, Bible Study & Prayer - we divide into age-appropriate groups and talk about the lesson, learn to study the Bible and pray together (Grow in Grace)

    • Awana - Scripture Memory & Discipleship - we spend time each week learning a Bible verse, what it means and how it applies to a child’s life. 

    • Wilds Camp - Discipleship, Evangelism

    • Hosted a Volunteer Appreciation luncheon

    • Developed a Psalm 23 challenge for primary kids

    • Developed our hymn singing in Elementary during large group time

    • Hosted the Awana Grand Prix and invited parents to come

    • Hosted an Easter Egg Hunt for church family and community

    • Recognized and congratulated K5 graduates

    • Morningside Kids crafted gifts for Moms and Dad

    • Morningside Kids assembled give away bags for Pelham Road Spring Fling

    • Hosted Jungle Journey VBS for over 165 church family and community kids

    • Welcomed our largest group of JBC Wilds Campers in June

    • Welcomed George and Darlene Matzko to demonstrate God’s creation through various engaging experiments and how we can glorify God through science

    • Hosted Back to School Splash for church family and community

    • Hosted a 4th & 5th grade boys event to build relationships

    • 4th & 5th grade girls showed care through cards and snacks to Mr. Beckett after his fall

    • Hosted a “A Night in Bethlehem” experience for children (preschool-5th grade)

    • Opened our Awana Store to award clubbers for memorizing the Bible

    • Recruited volunteers for Nursery and Elementary classes

    • Resourced volunteers with supplies, intentional curriculum & online training

    • Appreciated our volunteers through gifts and fellowships

    • Recruited volunteers for Nursery, Awana and Elementary small groups

Teens

Our middle school split into boys’ and girls’ Sunday school classes for the first time, involving several new volunteer leaders. Many from the upper grades visited our church plant in Reno, NV. We rejoiced to have two teens baptized in 2024.

    • Add another quality family to the teen staff

    • Update branding with printed materials

    • Outreach (VBS, camps, retreats, and other ministry-related opportunities)

    • Mission trip to Iceland

    • Grow the YG to see an average of 75 on Sunday

    • Two teen baptisms

    • Sunday School Teachers - Recruited Heather Grimm and Beth Gunther to teach the girl's MS class. Recruited Levi Scott along with Brenden Newton to teach the MS boys.

    • Wednesday nights:

      • An average of 60 for the youth group (Sunday’s average is almost 70).

      • We have small groups and split-session during the month

      • Almost twenty adults and college serve our teens every month

    • Multi-generational - This year, the youth group served our MBC Srs in two banquets. We served over 110 seniors at the spring banquet and about that many for their Christmas banquet. The Srs had an opportunity to give towards the mission trip this year.

    • Events

      • Annual Jr/Sr Retreat to TN

      • Annual Harvest Hoedown and Teen Sunday School with guest speaker Andy Gleiser

      • Camp - The largest number of campers thus far

    • VBS - The Middle School enjoyed VBS, while the High school participated in serving the children during VBS.

    • Growth - The average attendance in the YG has grown to almost 70 on Sunday morning. That is an increase of an average of 5 teens over last year.

    • Mission Trip - Our teens and sponsors served this summer at our MBC church plant in Reno, Living Hope

    • Community - The YG assembled 2,000 Easter Eggs for the hunt. It is awesome to see the teens having a blast participating in MBC's outreach efforts.

    • Community -  We also served in the Fall Carnival.

College Ages (Rooted)

Rooted is a ministry at Morningside for college students and those in the workforce ages 18-22. During the spring and fall, Rooted meets in the gym after the worship service and breaks up into small groups after a short assembly. During the summer and holidays, Rooted combined with our NEXT young adults group.

In 2024 Pastor Henson took the leadership of Rooted from Pastor Ontoy, but Pastor Ontoy took the leadership of Ministry Mentoring from Pastor Crockett. We welcomed 7 new associate members in 2024 from our Rooted group (pictured: Levi Scott), and many students served faithfully with kids or teens or in music or media.

Young Adults

NEXT focuses on the years just after college, Pursue focuses on young professionals, and Engage focuses on young couples. In March Pursue sponsored a Young Adults Leadership Summit (pictured). We welcomed new members from each group in 2024, and we celebrated milestones with many bridal showers and baby showers.

Parents

Several groups full of parents meet after the worship service. Homebuilders focuses on the first few years of parenting, and Impact focuses on established families. Both groups have regular activities especially for moms. Other classes can encourage parents as they in turn help their kids launch into adulthood or as they deal with an emptied nest.

Senior Adults

Morningside is home to many great senior adults. Classes for senior adults meet before and after our worship service. Kim & Chris Kuhr plan monthly activities, and Pastor Todd Jones provides pastoral care. We are especially thankful for many who help us visit all those who are unable to attend services regularly.

2024 activities include a work trip to The Anchorage (pictured) and a lakeside picnic. As for several years past, 2025 plans include supporting the Teen Mission Trip while being served by the teens.

Missions, Outreach & More

Ministries

Missions

Our own Vince Waltz begins deputation this year with our support, and we pray for the Lord to bless his ministry.

God continues to bless the Hope for Reno team (Gleisers, Keltings, Tilsons, & Wesses) and Living Hope Church with spiritual and numerical growth.  Six new believers were baptized this past summer.  New members have been added to the church throughout the year.  The average Sunday attendance has remained near 100.  We rejoice and thank the Lord for the lasting fruit in Reno.  Since the birth of ODBM, Morningside has been passionate about making disciples and planting churches in the US while sending missionaries to the uttermost parts of the earth. 

In 2024 Morningside continued its commitment to impact Reno by starting the Bridge to Reno initiative.  Along with the Teen Mission Trip, Morningside has encouraged and supported multiple adult teams to help our missionaries and catch the vision for Reno.  The Bridge to Reno will continue in 2025 as we desire for more Morningsiders to catch the Reno vision and join the team to make disciples in Reno.  Pray for God’s leading and hand of blessing to continue to be upon the Reno team and the Bridge to Reno efforts so that many churches will be established in Reno.

Since we're publishing a bit more publicly this year, watch for a special subscriber-only message about "Rene." We can’t report about her here because she serves in a restricted area. You’ll be excited to hear what God is doing there!

BAM (Business as Mission) College Retreat

  • Record attendance (44) for the 2024 BAM Retreat

  • Steady growth over the past 4 years of BAM Retreats

  • Impacting college students to live on mission to reach the unreached

  • Pray for the 2025 BAM Retreat (Feb 28 – March 2)

The Tsonga People – South Africa

We’re thankful for the Meyer and Schlehlein families (MBC/ODBM) serving 20 years among the Tsonga.  God continues to bless and give fruit that remains to reach the Tsonga nation with the Gospel for the Glory of God.

  • 5 Churches planted among Tsonga villages

  • 6 Preaching Points in Tsonga villages

  • 1 Classical Christian School established

  • Annual “GYM” (Godly Young Men) camps for boys

  • 16 new believers baptized!  Seven came to Christ through street preaching; five through Sunday School. 

“I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen [nations] for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.”
— Psalm 2:7-8

Antioch International Missions (AIM) - Myanmar

Morningside and ODBM have been privileged to train, assist and partner with AIM, a national mission agency in Myanmar.  Despite the ongoing civil war and strong spiritual opposition, AIM has continued to preach the Gospel, make disciples and plant churches among unreached people groups. 

  • Mission Stations established among Unreached People Groups – 15

  • Churches planted among Unreached People Groups – 10 

  • New Churches planted in 2024 - 6

  • New Missionaries in Training – 24

  • Total AIM personnel - 45

Sunday School & Small Groups

Most of our Sunday school classes are designed to help you connect with your stage of life. Our small group growth in 2024 was especially in teens, Spanish, and Chinese. Our weekly average of 672 was near 2023’s record. We also combined Sunday school several times, including for Aaron Coffey’s testimony.

Life Groups

Our life groups are designed to help you build inter-generational relationships near your neighborhood. Our 19 groups meet in Greenville and Spartanburg counties. Many groups help us keep up with shut-in members in that part of town, and several went caroling in December.

Men & Women

We regularly hold men’s activities and women’s activities. The best-attended women’s event is the Christmas brunch. In 2024, our women also enjoyed an overnight retreat at Bonclarken Conference center. In the fall, our men helped several senior adults with yard projects.

Reaching Out

Our biggest outreach of the year is Fall Fest, and Good News Club and many more outreach opportunites are available all year round. We saw 10 people make professions of faith as a direct result of the ministries or personal witness of our Morningsiders. We praise the Lord for saving these souls, and we pray for many more.

In November we also reached out across our church family for Family Camp. 269 Morningsiders who speak different languages, originate from different countries, were born in different decades and even different centuries all came together for time around God’s Word, great fellowship; multiple activities and don’t forget the coffee & ice cream! Our special guest speaker, Dr. Ken Collier, challenged us from the story of Job: When there is a gap between God’s works and ways and my understanding of God’s works and ways, we must fill that gap with trust in God. We look forward to our next Morningside Church Retreat in 2026.

    • We helped multiple families with funeral planning.

    • We helped multiple individuals with counseling.

    • We helped couples with weddings.

    • We continued to provide coordinated care for our Morningsiders through regular staff member contacts.

    • We ministered to multiple families during their time of need through visits, meetings, emails, phone calls, etc.

    • We honored ladies with flowers & chocolate on Mother’s Day.

    • We honored men with Dad’s Root Beer on Father’s Day.

    • We provided a special series with Dr. Renton Rathbun - Biblical Worldview: Thinking & Living

    • We continue to provide a class for ministry mentoring for informal group discussion time and one-on-one mentoring with a pastor.

  • Salvations

    • We had 10 people make professions of faith as a direct result of the ministries or personal witness of our Morningsiders.

    Attendance Records

    • Highest Yearly AM Avg Attendance - 984

    • Highest AM Attendance record - 1408 (Easter Sunday - 3/31/24).

    • Most Sundays with AM attendance over 1000 - 25 Sundays.

    • SS - 2nd highest attendance year of the last 10 years.

    Easter

    • We celebrated an attendance of 1408 (highest AM attendance ever). In addition to our annual Easter Egg hunt and photo stations we offered a fellowship around coffee and doughnuts for Morningsiders to connect with our guests.

    • Easter Good Friday service - well attended with higher attendance than 2023 service. It was a gospel outreach opportunity with the community. The new rotunda setup centered around the cross coupled with a message and the communion was a nice initiative.

    Pelham Road Elementary School

    • We supported the Pelham Road Elementary PTA with an MBC sign on the fence. 

    • We hosted a table for the 2nd time at the Pelham Road Elementary Spring Fling to give out water, and gave out about 400 invitations to VBS and Wordless Book gospel bookmark.

    • We staffed Good News Club to be a member-led ministry that can continue under Pamela Matthia’s leadership.

    • We provided some pies for the PRES teachers at Thanksgiving.

    • Pastor Huffman serves on the School Improvement Council.

    Miracle Hill Greenville Rescue Mission

    • We provided monthly financial support for this Greenville ministry to the homeless.

    Miracle Hill Overcomers

    • We hosted multiple graduations in our Chapel for men graduating from an intensive in-person addiction recovery program.

    Miracle Hill Foster Care

    • We celebrated Foster Care month in May with a diaper drive.

    • We provided $500 from a designated gift for camp scholarships for 2 foster children to attend summer camp at The Wilds.

    • In December, our Women’s Ministry collected supplies.

    Life Group Community Night

    • Multiple Life Groups served our community and church family with Christmas caroling.

    Piedmont Women’s Center

    • We honored Sanctity of Life Sunday on 1/21/24.

    • We helped with a Baby Bottle fundraiser and donated almost $5700 from Morningsiders giving to PWC.

    • We joined a new program called “Meals for Moms” to assist new moms in our community that may request help with meals.

    Academy of Arts

    • We were the host site for the Drama Ministry Team (July 2024).

    • We were the host site for the AOA drama seminar with the Classical Conversations of Woodruff Road Home School Group (October 2024).

    • We were the host site for the AOA staff training.

    Fall Fest

    • We hosted hundreds for the Fall Fest and it provided a good opportunity to connect with unchurched families.

    • We had about 750 in attendance.

    Hope Baptist Church

    • We had multiple Morningsiders volunteer to help with VBS June 2024.

    Political Involvement

    • We provided space as a voting location to support our community in their civic opportunities to vote.

    • We hosted a Pastor’s prayer breakfast for Adam Morgan who was running for US House Representative from District 4.

    • We hosted a meeting with Faith Wins with US Senator Lindsay Graham as the guest of honor to meet with local pastors.

    Homecoming (66th anniversary) & Service with Aaron Coffey 

    • Aaron Coffey spoke for our teens Harvest activity on Sat night and then again on Sunday AM in the 10 AM service and a combined SS.

    Back to School Splash

    • MBC hosted a community back to school splash on 8/7 with indoor games (it had to move indoors due to bad weather).

    Christmas Programs

    • MBC Choir & Orchestra provided a community outreach with the 12/15 presentation of God With Us.

    • MBC Spanish ministry provided a Christmas program in Spanish on 12/15 AM.

    Veterans Food Collection

    • This was our 3rd year collecting food for Veterans in partnership with the Veterans Administration. We donated $1150 worth of food.

    Vacation Bible School

    • We hosted AIG Jungle Journey VBS (June) with about 165 kids and teens.

    GriefShare

    • We offered 1 session of GriefShare for our community to help them deal with grief from a Biblical viewpoint. Our Spring session was on Wednesday night.

    Spanish Ministry

    • Our Spanish ministry saw God work this past year with salvations, baptisms, and a thriving discipleship class on Sunday PM.

    • Our Spanish ministry continues to provide outreach and assistance to our community through hosting consulate and legal assistance events.

    Chinese Ministry

    • Our Chinese ministry has matured under the leadership of Pastor Kevin Chen as he transitioned to full time ministry this year.

    Deaf Ministry

    • Our deaf ministry enjoys a good size class of hearing and non-hearing individuals who enjoy a SS class, LifeGroup gathering and worshiping together on Sunday mornings.

    • We transitioned from the capable leadership of Doug Young after many years to a group of leaders under the leadership of Dale Brodsky.

    Arabic Ministry

    • Our Arabic ministry continues in-person bible study on Sunday PM.

    Wounded Spirits

    • We took on a new Morningside missionary, Vincent Waltz to serve with Wounded Spirits.

    Missions Ministry

    • At our December 2024 business meeting we voted to increase support for all of our missionaries with a 10% increase.

    • Our staff have been preparing for and leading multiple Bridge to Reno trips.

    Nursing Home Ministry

    • Morningsiders provide regular services at the West Village Post Acute Nursing Home.

    • Morningside provided 128 gift bags and cards for Valentine’s Day.

    Connect Team

    • We continue to welcome our community and fellow Morningsiders with our Connect team and provide training for our volunteers on 3/10 and 8/18.

    MBC Merchandise

    • We continued to provide MBC logo t-shirts for people to wear in the community.

    • We provided MBC staff with embroidered dress shirts with the MBC logo

    Isaiah 117 House

    • Isaiah 117 House has a mission to change the way foster care begins by supporting foster children, foster families and the DSS workers. For the 2nd year, we were the host sight for a very successful car wash and lemonade stand. 

    • We are also the host sight for their monthly interest meetings.

    Contact a Pastor Invitation Slide

    • We continue to provide a Morningside Google Voice number 1-814-2PRAYER (1-814-277-2937) that is on a slide during invitations for people to text a pastor for prayer. 

    • That number goes to Pastor Huffman, Outreach Pastor.

    Family Camp

    • 269 Morningsiders in attendance.

    • Hosted Ken Collier as our speaker who talked about trusting God from the life of Job.

    • We look forward to our next Morningside Church Retreat in November, 2026.

    Bob Jones Academy

    • We have agreed to serve as a reunification site if they need to evacuate their students in case of an emergency.

    Primrose School at Pelham

    • We are the evacuation site for their school if needed.

    • We provided a better baptism service experience for the church and candidates by recording salvation testimonies on video to show to the congregation prior to the baptisms in the English services.

    • We hosted Janice Butler with Christian Learning Centers for a service and learned about ways for MBC to engage with reaching our Middle School and High School Public school kids.

    • Moms in Prayer - we became the host sight for a new group of moms that gather to pray for their students at Pelham Road Elementary School.

    • SS Initiatives

      • We moved the growing deaf ministry SS class to a ground floor location to better facilitate their needs.

      • We provided the Engage SS class with a nicely renovated SS room on the 2nd floor.

      • We provided our 5th & 6th grade boys a nicer room for SS.

      • We resumed SS classes for Middle School boys and Middle School girls.

      • Pursue hosted their first Young Adult Leadership Summit with special speakers and guests from the community attending to encourage them to engage in local church ministry.

    • Strategic Outreach Plan developed with help of John Cofer and Kenneth Driscoll to help identify and promote various ministry opportunities to our church family with a webpage (https://morningside.org/opportunities). 

    • We ordered 2 new 10x10 pop up tents with MBC logo on each panel and an advertisement of our Spanish, Chinese and deaf ministries on each valance.

    • We want to see 20 people make professions of faith as a result of our Morningside local ministries and the witnessing of our Morningsiders.

    • We want to see 25 people follow the Lord in baptism and provide a new format of baptisms that provides salvation testimonies on video for each candidate.

    • We want to increase our record year of membership in 2024 of 99 new members and set a new record of 100 memberships in 2025.

    • We want to continue exploring partnerships to better serve our community. 

      • Meals on Wheels - needs volunteers to provide a warm meal

      • David’s Table - ministers to adults with disabilities and their families.

      • Christian Learning Centers - partner with a local sister church to provide a release time program for Beck Academy Middle School students.

      • Provide coffee and supplies to support students with free coffee from the BJU Center for Global Opportunities office for the Spring 2025 Semester.

      • Christian Learning Centers - explore opportunities to partner with another local sister church for reaching Middle School public school kids through a release time program.

    • Pastor Huffman hopes to lead a team of 7 - 10 for a Bridge to Reno mission trip in March 2025.

A Culture of Discipleship

In our own stages of life, in our neighborhoods, in our community, and across cultural barriers, we are called to make disciples. If any of our ministries are succeeding, it’s because they are succeeding at making disciples. A year ago, Ken had just come to Christ. Now we’ve had the joy of seeing him proclaim his faith publicly. May the Lord help us to measure every activity by its potential and realization of making disciples.

Beyond English

Languages

Iglesia Bautista Nuevo Amanecer

Our Spanish ministry enjoyed record attendance throughout 2024. The discipleship class that had begun in 2023 had to move to a larger space, and seven adults were baptized. We welcomed several new Spanish-speaking familes into our membership.


Inreach

  • Started Welcome Team (follows up mid-week with visitors); Interpreting Team (Spanish to English, for couples who have a spouse that doesn’t know Spanish well); Coffee “Welcome and Fellowship” ministry (grown from 5 to almost 40 weekly); Men’s and Women’s ministry celebrated their 10th year anniversaries (monthly in home fellowships – praying, food, teaching, fellowship);  Children’s class has outgrown its room and now occupies two rooms; Restarted Youth Group with activities; Started a Young Adult group and had three activities this year; Music ministry Team grown from 5 to 12; Started transmitting on YouTube as well as Facebook (Our ministry now has faithful viewers in five states and eight countries); We’ve welcomed two new babies and Pastor Mendoza has ministered in two weddings; Started the book of Deuteronomy (“Palabras de Vida” / “Words of Life”) and handed out over 20 Bibles that are being brought in weekly and studies together; Baptized seven adults and started Discipleship classes (grown from 8 to 30); Seen record attendance for Spanish ministry second year in a row (189 on one Sunday); Seen many lives changed and being changed.goes here

Outreach

  • International Dinner (shifted from it being an “inreach’ to an “outreach” event – Record attendance – 196

    Citizenship Workshop – 100 guests from the community (35 made the step from residency to citizens); Mexican Consulate had three events this year, two large and one smaller (welcomed 800+ large; 600+ small)

Chinese

Our Spanish ministry enjoyed record attendance throughout 2024. They enjoyed the newly refurbished Carrier Hall as their worship space, and six teens and adults were baptized (five of them on April 7). We welcomed 17 new Chinese-speaking members.

    • Continued the sermon series on the Book of Acts, currently at the halfway point.

    • Launched a new Sunday School class at 11:00 a.m.

    • Regularly observed the Lord’s Supper every month.

    • Held weekly prayer meetings consistently.

    • Celebrated 5 adult baptisms and 1 teenage baptism this year.

    • Welcomed 17 new members into the congregation.

    • Rejoiced as 2 individuals made professions of faith in Christ.

  • The Chinese Ministry successfully organized several outreach and community engagement events, including:

    • Hosted weekly Chinese Ladies' Bible Study every Tuesday morning.

    • Organized biweekly Life Group gatherings on Friday night.

    • Chinese New Year Celebration hosted at the church.

    • Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival gatherings at the church.

    • Strawberry and Apple Picking Outreach events.

    • A college outreach featuring skeet shooting at Pickens Rifle Range (SCDNR).

    • Friday Night Basketball Outreach to connect with the local community.

    These efforts have strengthened the spiritual growth of our congregation and expanded the ministry’s reach within the local Chinese and broader communities.

American Sign Language/Deaf

Our ASL/Deaf ministry also enjoyed record attendance throughout 2024. We said goodbye to Doug & Susan Young, who had led our Deaf ministry for many years. Dale & Cynthia Brodsky have continued the ministry, and we welcomed several new ASL-speaking familes into our membership. Luis & Bernadette Hidalgo joined on December 22 along with Pavel and Diana Kleimenov and John & Shelley Dee.

A Storm for the Ages

Hurricane Helene

On September 27, 2024,
Upstate SC had its worst storm in history.

Operation Helene

Donations over $21,000 poured in for our Disaster Relief Fund. We directed our giving and our prayers to our partners at The Wilds and Arch Ministries. Our members collected supplies for relief trips into Western North Carolina throughout the next week.

Saturday, September 28

We hosted a food truck in the parking lot in partnership as men from the Spanish ministry provided food for sale for the community, most of whom were without power.

Sunday, September 29

We had no livestream or in-person worship service for the first time since 2018. We posted a few miple videos to help us worship with the electricity and connection we could spare.

Wednesday, October 2

We held a daylight prayer service for our community, and over 60 volunteers helped provide nearly 40 boxes of food for community guests. Many of the volunteers as well as recipients were still without power.

ARCH Ministries

In Barnardsville, NC, a gift of $5,000 from our Disaster Relief Fund provided heat for 150 homes with cans and vouchers for kerosene gas.

The Wilds Camp - Brevard, NC

A gift of $5000 from Disaster Relief funds helped The Wilds rebuild. We also sent $150 for immediate supplies. Amazingly, camps resumed less than 3 weeks after Helene hit. And 6 weeks to the day after that historic storm, we got to enjoy family camp there!

Grace Baptist Church (Newport, TN)

Two Morningside members helped this church rebuild after it was totally flooded. A gift of $5000 from Disaster Relief went along with them. The Knoxville ABC affiliate highlighted the pastor’s resolve to resume serving the community even after sustaining such horrific damage.

Such were the stories for many in the aftermath of Helene. Members sustained property damage, but no one was injured or harmed. And our members fulfilled our mission in amazing ways.

New Year, Same Mission

Our Vision

Our vision in 2025 is to fulfill our mission to the glory of God. What will that look like? We’re glad you asked.

If you’re one of our deacons, your vision is to present a candidate to the members for our next senior pastor. If you’re one of our pastors, your vision is to help our members fulfill our mission until a senior pastor arrives.

Pastor Miller is helping launch several missions gifts. We hope you can join our missions conference offering in the next few weeks.

Pastor Stuhl is helping launch several projects. Thanks to the giving and approval of our members, our retaining wall is done and our chapel and gym are nearly ready with a new roof. But we’re hardly finished—we’re planning major repairs on the Miller House this year.

You can see goals from several of other pastors and staff members in the sections above. They include seeing 20 professions of faith, holding 25 baptisms, and welcoming 100 members. Any of those would be incredible.

But our greatest need—whether for deacons, interim leaders, other leaders, members, or guests—is the same as the greatest need of our community and our world.

Jesus is still the answer. Our vision is to see Him and reflect Him more clearly in 2025 than we did in 2024.

In 2024 we survived a historic disaster and began a historic transition. But every time a sinner repents, the angels rejoice. And we want to rejoice with them more this year.