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Good afternoon, Mt. Carmel family! I trust you are having a wonderful, Christ-centered day! While I know that many people are drearily walking through another day in this dreaded lock-down, I find myself excited at times about seeing in what ways God is going to work in our world for His glory!

I realize there are so many varied opinions about the way government officials, business owners, and even individuals are reacting to this pandemic. I find it very easy at times to dismiss the views held by others that do not line up perfectly with my own. But as Ravi Zacharias (a very influential Christian apologist who went to be with Jesus this week) said, “We have a right to believe whatever we want, but not everything we believe is right." That is important to remember. We are all entitled to an opinion, but that does not make our opinion right. Ravi also said, “You'll never get to a person's soul until you understand their hurts.” When we quickly and glibly dismiss another’s opinion without trying to understand them, we most likely will lose the chance to point their hearts to Jesus. Let’s be patient with one another as we walk through a time we have never walked through before. May we do so with our hearts set on loving God with all our being and loving our neighbor as ourselves.

I wanted to update you on the latest news regarding our return to in-person services.This Sunday, May 24, we will be offering two ways to connect with your Mt. Carmel church family. 

1) Online Service: We will continue to stream an online service at 10 a.m. on our website, Facebook, and YouTube channels. 

2) Drive-In Service: We will have a wonderful in-person worship experience on Sunday at 11 a.m. in the parking lot of Mt. Carmel. We will have a blessed time singing praises to God, hearing from the Word of God, and social-distance-approved fellowshipping with the people of God! I cannot wait to see you all! You are welcome to either stay in your cars for the service or to bring a chair with you and sit with your family. We will be asking everyone to follow the social distancing guidelines, though. We do not plan to open the buildings for bathrooms, so please encourage your children to go prior to coming. However, if there is an emergency, we will certainly make our facilities available to you.

And to make the drive-in service even more interactive and engaging, I have already included the lyrics and the message outline on our church app. (I know that may sound a bit strange to some of you, but, YES! our church does have its own app!) May I encourage you to download our church app onto your smartphone? Not only will you be ready for this Sunday’s drive-in service, but you can also access the church calendar, social media, online giving, past sermons, and share your prayer requests with one another! You can either search “Mt. Carmel Luray” in your app store—or click the following link on your smartphone.

iPHONE USERS: https://bit.ly/iOsapp-mc

ANDROID USERS: https://bit.ly/androidapp-mc

While we are still producing daily Bible studies at 11 a.m. for you to continue to grow in your relationship with Christ (access the playlist here), we also started a Ladies’ Digital Small Group (through Facebook) yesterday—or should I say, we tried. Even though Jenni McQuillan and I had practiced and were confident with our preparation, we could only get the video to show for the administrators of the group. While it was certainly an embarrassing moment for me, we DID figure out the issue—and we will be ready for next Thursday at 8 p.m. to show the second lesson of Kelly Minter’s series, “All Things New.” The first lesson is available for you to watch at any time throughout the week here.

On June 1, we will be starting a Men’s Digital Small Group (through Facebook) using Tony Evans series “Kingdom Man.” What an excellent study. You will be challenged for sure! Although this will not start until June 1, you can sign up for the group here.

Also, I would love to get some feedback from you as a church family about our return. I would like to know if you have hesitations, concerns, or even excitement about returning to church after so long. I read an excellent article this week written to church leaders (click here to read) about the decrease in online engagement with church members. What was exciting is now becoming dull and lackluster. But the message of the Gospel is not boring at all! To think that a holy God would send His perfect Son to live a sinless life and be slaughtered by sinful men in order to have a loving relationship with those sinners is beyond comprehension! Oh, what a God we serve!

But as we make preparations for our return to the gathering of believers here at Mt. Carmel, I would love to hear from you! Would you take just a few minutes of your time to fill out this survey? It is anonymous, so please be truthful. Thank you so much! 

Finally, let me share with you some resources that I think would be of great help to you. The only way to access these materials (at the moment) are through private Facebook groups or through private YouTube links. The reason for this is because while we have purchased the right to share this material with our church family, we cannot make it available to the public as a whole. I hope you understand and are able to access these wonderful resources for your family! 

The Jesus Story Book Bible

You’ll Get Through This

Gospel-Centered Parenting

Gospel-Centered Marriage

Thank you for allowing me to serve as one of your pastors/shepherds. I count it a tremendous privilege and honor. And, yet, an even greater honor is to serve our King Jesus! My prayer is that we understand that our calling as a church is not to be served, but to serve one another for the glory of Christ!

A verse that has resonated in my heart over the past few months is John 13:35 where Jesus said to His disciples that they will be recognized as His disciples because of the love they show to one another.” The love we have that is displayed in our words and works towards our brothers and sisters in Christ should be so overwhelming to a watching world that they think, “That must be one of those followers of Christ.” May we learn to grow in this type of love for one another!

Please pray for each other regularly. Please reach out and stay connected to one another. If we claim that the church is the people and not a building, we can still be functioning as a body and as a family who loves and cares for one another.

May God’s abundant blessings be experienced in your life today! 

Your friend and servant,

Brian Hasse