On May 1^st, the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors recognized Embrace Loudoun as the 2012 Outstanding Volunteer Organization for having “demonstrated exceptional community change and filling a community need.”  McLean Bible Church – Loudoun Campus is a founding partner of this recognized collaboration in the Catoctin community of Leesburg that includes Catoctin Elementary School, the Loudoun Literacy Council, businesses and other non-profits.

On behalf of the partners, Howard Levin from MBC Loudoun and Embrace Loudoun accepted the award from Carol Barbe, President of the Volunteer Loudoun Board of Directors.

Representing the partners at the Loudoun County Government Center, and shown below from right to left are Jim Supp, Campus Pastor MBC Loudoun, Howard & Judy Levin, MBC Loudoun & Embrace Loudoun,  Tanya Bittenbender, Executive Director Loudoun Literacy Council, Denise O’Kane, Catoctin Elementary School Liaison, Deb Neely & Claudia Rabe, MBC Loudoun, Jennifer Baker, Catoctin Elementary School English Language Learning Director, and Darrell Melcher, MBC Loudoun.

For the past two years, MBC Loudoun’s volunteers have been involved in several unique activities including tutoring, enrichment and recreational activities for students, English Language Learning classes for parents, meeting physical needs within families (food, clothing, medical care, transportation, repairs, etc.), summer school & camp scholarships, special events, etc.  Through this service and the trusting relationships that developed, MBC Loudoun has become a valued part of the Catoctin community.  MBC Loudoun families are also fulfilling critical roles as ‘servant advocates’ (coaching friendships) for families that are struggling to thrive.  There have been approximately 35 volunteers who are making significant ongoing commitments and approximately 200 volunteers have participated to date.

Embrace Loudoun is a faith-based 501c3 non-profit organization that facilitates collaboration across many sectors of the community including churches, the public school system, businesses, government and non-profit social services organizations to:

• Remedy challenges in the community, families and individuals.
• Enrich the lives of people to help them thrive educationally, physically, relationally, emotionally, and spiritually.

The Embrace Loudoun strategy emphasizes Mobilizing Together and Caring One-on-one. The ministry relies upon maintaining awareness of needs by listening and observing, earning access by developing relationships and trust, and building ability by networking solutions.  Good deeds establish good will that enables sharing of good news!  Embrace Loudoun focuses on issues such as homelessness, hunger, education, aging, health, family life and human rights available to anyone in the community.

In the coming weeks we will add new posts that describe the relationship between MBC Loudoun and Embrace Loudoun in impacting our community outside the walls of our church.  We are seeking to become the best church FOR our community and a church who would be sorely missed if we were to leave town!

For the last couple of months I’ve been hearing from fellow staff members that I need to see the movie “Courageous.”  To be honest my initial thought was that I don’t want to pay to see some cheesy movie, especially since the acting in Christian films isn’t always the best. Well, after months of hearing people singing the praises of Courageous, I broke down to peer pressure and sent my wife to Redbox for a rental.

To be honest, I was blown away with the life lessons based on Scripture that were taught during this film.  There were some incredibly sad moments and some incredibly joyful moments.  Yes, men, the film even had some action scenes. But what I really appreciated was the authenticity depicted in the families and friendships — nothing in the film was unrealistic—and what happened in the film could easily happen to you or me.

Yes, you may think the acting is cheesy, but let me tell you that if you give this film a chance you will not walk away unchallenged in how you are walking with God. If you are a father be prepared for the gauntlet that is thrown down to us men in the film.

What I am trying to say is that, yes, I was apprehensive about this movie at first but now that I’ve seen it I think it’s a must see for all men, especially those of us who are serious about our walk with the Lord.  This movie will encourage men who are struggling with spiritual leadership, it may help those father’s who think they know it all and think they do all the right things when they really don’t, and it may just be the kick in the butt that some of us men need to be the men God calls us to be.

Click here to view the embedded video.

So what did you think about the film if you have seen it?

For many public schools in the DC area, today was the first day of classes. But before this weekend, many of the more than 150 public school facilities in DC were not prepared for students to arrive today. So on the morning of Saturday August 21st, nearly 500 McLean Bible Church and Frontline volunteers from all of our campuses – including 28 Loudoun attendees – served at more than 40 of the most in-need public schools across Washington, DC. Some planted flowers and trees, while others painted doors and walls, and still others helped teachers organize books and classrooms.

But the DC Schools Project was about more than improving school conditions. It was all about impacting our city with the gospel message of Jesus Christ. McLean Bible Church and Frontline volunteers came prepared to preach the gospel to the community members serving alongside them. Plus, they handed out hundreds of invitation cards that list all of our services at each of our campuses.

Here are just a few of the comments we’ve received so far:

“I spoke to a man about the tragedy and anger folks have, along with the reason that sin drives folks to do such things. I was able to pray with him and gave him an invitation card. I was able to talk about my life change story with Jesus!”

“I gave an invitation card to a student from Maine who is new to the area but had not yet found a church.”

“I got to share the gospel with a little boy from the neighborhood who came by to help us plant flowers at our school.”

And here is an article from The Georgetown Dish and a local blog post on McLean Bible Church’s involvement:

http://www.thegeorgetowndish.com/thedish/mclean-volunteers-recruited-hardy-beautification-day

http://frozentropics.blogspot.com/2010/08/volunteer-locally-your-services-are.html

We want to thank everyone from our multiple campuses and ministry areas for getting the word out, and for helping to make this year’s DC Schools Project a success. This event is not only a great way for our church to impact DC, but also to engage and equip our church family to live out the gospel every day!

In Christ,

Josh Cahan and Samantha Cave

Frontline Tysons Local Impact

Joe Gibbs Event – Loudoun Campus July 28, 2009
Wow! What a night had by all. Besides, the incredible weather, excellent food from Red, Hot and Blue and a host of gorgeous sports cars, it was a privilege to hear Joe Gibbs out at the Loudoun Campus.
Joe shared his testimony, talking about his struggles and how living a life by following God’s game plan, the Bible, had radically changed his life. He shared the importance of a personal relationship with Christ and how we urgently need to use the Bible as our guide for life and the decisions that we encounter on a daily basis. It was encouraging to see our church body rally around this event and get excited about what the Lord is doing in Loudoun County.
Thank you to all who volunteered to help make this event possible.

MBC Loudoun Staff

On Wednesday, June 24, McLean Bible Church (MBC) officially unveiled a new corporate logo to the congregation. This new logo is a result of efforts to be more intentional with our visual identity and to better represent our multi-campus strategy from a visual perspective. It will take some time to incorporate the new logo into all of our communications; but in the meantime, we thought it was appropriate to take this opportunity to share this news with our church family.

The primary objective was to create a logo that clearly indicates that MBC is “one church in multiple locations” as well as allow each campus to build its own unique visual identity easily recognizable in the current and future communities where MBC has a campus presence.

The inspiration behind the design is the “diamond” shape of the District of Columbia. The MBC mission is to make an impact on secular Washington, DC with the message of Jesus Christ and Pastor Lon has often referenced our multi-campus strategy as creating a “spiritual beltway” around the District of Columbia. This logo mark is intended to be symbolic of that mission with the shape of the District as the starting point.

The three separate sections of the logo mark point “out” and “up” from the center of the image symbolizing that our focus is not only on the actual District but also the entire DC-metropolitan area. Each piece of the logo mark is a different shape and color, symbolizing that our campuses are “fraternal” twins as opposed to “identical” twins, meaning that while the core MBC DNA for each campus is the same, each campus will have its own unique flavor or personality.

The space at the center of the mark creates a “cross”, a subtle indication that Christ is at the center of who we are and everything we do in this city.

The color scheme is designed to be current and colorful, yet not too colorful, as to stick with colors that work well together and are pleasing to the eye for both males and females. We also have the challenge of choosing a color scheme that prints well and looks nice on a computer screen. We believe we have accomplished this in the new logo color scheme.

Each campus will have their own campus specific logo for campus specific communications and related materials. The logo will be a variation of the primary MBC logo, with minor changes including one accent color and the addition of the campus location under the church name.

As with any major rebranding campaign, the roll-out of the new logo will be systematic, occurring in phases over the summer. To be good stewards of the resources God has given us, we plan to “grandfather in” the new logo as materials need to be reprinted to avoid unnecessary waste. However, the new logo will become the most visibly noticeable this fall as we launch a brand new web presence, new bulletin, and other corporate documents.

We are very excited to mark this new chapter in MBC history and pray that God will use this new visual identity to connect more people in the DC metro area to the Gospel message of Jesus Christ.

If you have any question or feedback regarding the new logo, please email the communications team at fyi@mcleanbible.org

by Mike Reed, Director of Student Ministries @ MBC Loudoun

Hey Loudoun,
I have some awesome news. Just got the final report today for SH summer camp as we have 341 students going between Tyson’s, Loudoun and Prince William Campus, the most attendance we’ve ever had at Summer Camp! Can I ask you to please petition the Lord this week that God would do mighty things in His name through camp this year? That discipline issues would be minimal, that distractions would be taken away, that the volunteers and leaders and staff would be filled with an extra measure of grace this week and that he would speak to hearts and give a desire for holy living? A great verse to meditate on and pray through for these students and for ourselves is Psalm 85:6-8 “will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? Show us your unfailing love O Lord, and grant us your salvation. I will listen to what God the Lord will say, who promises peace to his people, his saints, but let them not return to folly.”

Sr. High Beach Week is from June 24th throughJune 28th