trey taylor

the greatest gift of all

// November 25th, 2008 // 3 Comments » // church, faith, family, video

Every Christmas we serve our community by helping anyone who needs it, and its our hope that they have the best Christmas possible. Its our mission that every child in our county has presents under the tree on Christmas day. But we don’t limit it to toys, we also provide a 40lb. box of food for each family to make that day just a little more special.

Last year we really picked it up a notch, Merry Christmas Baldwin County graduated from just toys to bikes. We were able to give away 1100 bikes, and this year we are going even bigger. 1600 bikes. Thats right, 2 full 18-wheeler trucks full. And they are in boxes, so we get to put a ton of bikes together. (Here’s the video from last years assembly night)

Ok yea, thats a lot of bikes, but its so much fun to be a part of giving someone the Christmas they’ve dreamed about. There are so many hurting people in our community and its such a blessing to be a part of their Christmas story. Last week, I got an email from a lady that stumbled on MCBC through my blog, and this is what she wrote:

I live in Baldwin County and I recently became unemployed and now I am not able to afford to get my 3 beautiful children Christmas gifts. I have never been in this position before and my heart is broken. My husband has a job but it just barely pays the bills and keeps food on the table. I am helping my 20 year old daughter take care of her 2 yr old daughter. My son-in-law died in 2007 and we are all working together to make it through. My daughter also needs your help. If its not too late to receive your help please email me back with what I need to do to give
our children a Christmas. Thank you.

This is just one story of the hundreds of people that will line up on December 13th as early as 2a.m. to receive gifts that they didn’t think they would have otherwise. This is my favorite thing we as a church do every year. Unplug the stage lights, kill the sound system, shut down the computers… this is it. This is what we are here for.

Check out this years promo…

If you’re in need this year and want a little more info about MCBC, or if your interested in supporting this outreach then visit our site here.

If you’ve been involved in MCBC in the past, let me know, tell me what it means to you?

vacation

// September 27th, 2008 // No Comments » // family, photography

I’ve got some of our vacation pics up on my flickr, check them out here.

We spent a week in South Carolina with our friends Jody & Gina. A few of our days we were in Rock Hill (which is just south of Charlotte), then we spent a few days in Charleston and the Isle of Palms. It was awesome. Charleston is one of our favorite places to vacation. Hope you enjoy the pics.

saying goodbye

// September 8th, 2008 // 2 Comments » // family, random foolishness

As of today around 1 pm (I think), I’ll be saying goodbye to my twenties. Thats right, I’ll be an old man (as if I wasn’t already), right on up there with this old guy. Which I’ve got to admit is somewhat painful. I try to ignore my birthday every year, but now with flippin’ Facebook I can’t, it won’t let me… thanks everybody for the birthday wishes!

In honor of this new chapter of my life I thought the blog needed a little makeover, so if you’re tuned in via a reader or facebook, stop by and take her for a spin. 

I realize I’ve been completely absent from the blog over the last week, life has been super busy (honestly I’m mourning a little). And this week it may not get much better because we be (not a typo) taking a little vacation and I’m so stoked. Vacation is sooo needed. You may be getting some pics this week of our family adventure to Charlotte and then on to Charleston. Have a great week.

30 is the new 29 baby!

quality vs. quantity

// August 28th, 2008 // 3 Comments » // faith, family, leadership

I’ve been reading Pop Goes the Church for about the last month (I’m a slow reader), and let me just start by saying this is a great book. Tim Stevens has put into words what I’ve been feeling about the church for a long time. You should definitely read it, its awesome in pure form baby.

Something jumped off the page that I’ve got to share and ironically it doesn’t have much to do with Pop Culture and the Church. Tim uses an example of how truth can be found anywhere if we are looking for it, and in this case he found truth in a TV show called ‘Shark.’ ‘Shark‘ is about a big time attorney named Sebastian Stark who always wins in the courtroom, but rarely wins at home with his teenage daughter. He’s too busy and he constantly misses opportunities with her. Tim realizes that with 2 teenage daughters of his own he sees this show in a whole new light, through a lens that not everyone sees through. ‘Shark‘ speaks volumes into his life about the importance of his relationship with his daughters during these formative years of their lives. This is what he says,

“Sebastian is a hero at his office – but misses so many opportunities that only come through quantity* time with his daughter.”

I know, I know, the first time you read it you think, “What! thats not right, it’s supposed to be quality time not quantity time.”

Well, notice the little *asterisk*, he put that in there, so I look to the bottom of the page and this is what he says,

“*This isn’t a typo. You may think quality time is more important than quantity time. But you never know when those few minutes of quality time are going to happen. The only way to ensure that you will have good quality time with your kids is by spending large amounts of quantity time with them.”

How true is that? How long have we been living the lie that its all about a few minutes of “quality” time over serious amounts of time. We’ve got it all backwards, especially a lot of us in ministry. How many families are victims to “the ministry.” Kids growing up blaming God because they took a backseat to “the ministry.”

I’ve heard pastors say, “when you’re in ministry, and your busy taking care of God’s people, God will take care of your kids (since you’re never there).”

Dude, if I felt comfortable cussing on my blog, that right there would deserve a ton of colorful wordage. That is the most ridiculous pile of crap I’ve ever heard.

If you can’t or don’t take care of your family, then why would God trust you with his. As a Pastor, my first priority in this world is my wife and kids. PERIOD. End of story. And not in a few minutes a day of “quality” time, but in quantity… as in everyday, face-to-face time.

My promise to my baby girl and my wifey is that no matter what, I will be there with them. It’s that simple.

Your thoughts?

good news for baby alli

// August 7th, 2008 // No Comments » // faith, family

This has been an extremely crazy week, so my apologies on the lack of blog love thats been comin’ atcha this week.

But I did want to share this one little bit of info, Beck told me earlier that our friends Richard and Janna have gotten a few good reports this week (thats right, a few) on baby Alli (original post). Some major improvements are starting to take place. All I can say is praise God, and thank you guys that have joined us in prayer and fasting this week, God is moving in her life and its huge.

I don’t speak medicalese, so if you want to read the specifics of whats going on with Alli, then check out Beck’s post here.

where 7 or more are gathered

// August 3rd, 2008 // No Comments » // faith, family

I’ve posted several updates about our friends little girl Alli, if you need to play catch up see the original post here, and here are some pics. The short version is that she was born at 28 weeks, which means she was 12 weeks premature. She’s been in the hospital for over a month already, and its looking like she’s got a long way to go.

This week we found out that they’ve had some bad reports lately (read the details here), so Beck and I felt that we needed to spend some extra time fasting and praying this week and wanted to give you guys a chance to get involved.

Our plan is to begin today with 7 days of fasting. We aren’t asking anything specific but that you’d pray about being involved and exactly how to be involved. Whether you’d fast a meal a day, or one whole day over the 7, or maybe fast something other than food. We’d love to have at least 7 people join us this week, so that everyday is covered. We believe that where 7 or more of us are gathered around 1 little girl in prayer, that God will move in Alli’s life and we’ll see even bigger miracles take place.

Beck has posted the specific prayer request, check them out here.

If you plan to join us in this fast let us know, either drop a comment here or over on Beck’s blog. Thanks in advance guys… this is gonna be huge.