Irmo Campus

Happy Mothers Day!, Love Dad

Today is Mothers Day. That makes it a very special day.  Our women were honored for the unique ways that God made them special and for the calling and accomplishment of raising raising children and grandchildren in this world.  We gifted them with a lovely boxed candle and treated them to quiche, fresh fruit and pastries with their normal donuts and coffee this morning. Just little touches to say how much we respect, honor and appreciate all you do.  And then something else happened....Pastor Jeff and a group of 28 men replaced the mothers who normally serve in our children's ministry!  They made crafts with the children (if you can operate a caulk gun, you can glue ribbon to a box!), joined in worship and ran the regular, easy to run but extremely impactful children's ministry we do each week!  We called them "Special Forces" and they truly took our campus by storm...here's the proof:

Community Car Care Day

Our values at Seacoast include sharing our story with others. This Easter, we're going to share our story and reach out to the community, helping families in practical ways. We'll be hosting a FREE Car Care Day on Saturday March 31st from 10am-2pm. We'll be doing tire and fluis checks and a car wash, with hot dogs and fun for the kids, too! If you are a car care professional or can serve in other ways, please complete a connect card during services or contact the church office.

Our Lives Have Been Changed

The Irmo Campus met a man at our first Newcomers in our new location in September.  A great smile and lots of enthusiasm, he jumped right in to serve and lead.  The vision of our parking team is one he got.  Checking in for the bright orange vest each week and orange baton, he headed straight for the curb to welcome members and guests. But there's more.  He is a man who understands and embraces all aspects of Worship, Connect, Grow, Serve and Share.  He attends services every weekend, sometimes twice, is in a small group, attends healing school, serves every week, every chance he gets and has been there with sleeves rolled up to share at our Fall Festival and to reach out to others in special times of need.  This man truly has given of himself wholeheartedly to the Irmo Campus.

This Friday, February 9th, Chuck Lanham will trade his orange vest in for a little while and head back to Iraq for 18 months.  He will continue to give all of himself, not just for our spiritual growth but for our freedom and the freedom of others who have far less.  He takes with him plans to begin a small group and he takes with him our hearts, love and prayers.  He is our family now.  And we will never be the same.

First Tough - ALOHA

First Touch Appreciation / Get Acquainted Luau
TONIGHT – 6:30 – Courtyard

If you are on this SERVE TEAM or are interested in getting involved - it's all about you! Come celebrate with us! Allow "us" to serve YOU for a change! Something you don't want to miss out on. We'll have dinner, fun, fellowship, and games in Hawaiian Luau Style! Dress is very casual - bring a sense of humor!

Grand Opening Service 8/27

Grand Opening Service at the new Irmo Campus was a huge hit!  We had 850 join us to celebrate the new facility God has bless us with.  Hundreds of people volunteered time and talent to complete the renovations to this traditional building and put our unique "creative" touches that make it Seacoast - Irmo, our new home!  Check out some of these shots from the main service:

Bill & Ginny Dawson

Her e-mail address is ‘goginnygo’ which well describes the schedule of this energetic and committed couple! Living in Newberry, they are “retired” and still maintain a family farm, do real estate renovations, volunteer at the food pantry and in the high school with troubled teens.  Here at Seacoast, Ginny helps out in the office,  Bill helps tear down on Sundays and they both are active in their Newberry small group and the prayer team!  They have 5 family members who attend Seacoast Irmo… do you know who they are?

SANDRA PENLAND

If you’ve been here more than a week or two you’ve no doubt noticed the beautiful lady in the lobby we call “Sandra” and “Friend”.  A member for over 3 years, she was part of the initial team who gathered to plant Seacoast Irmo.  She has served every single week since, reaching out to make visitors and attenders feel welcome and informed when they walk in the door.  Through her leadership of the Café and for the past year and a half, the Information Team, she has led over 50 volunteers and served with the true heart of a servant. You will also find her at most events offering support and pitching in to help to the very end where needed.  Please get to know Sandra, your life will be richer because you did.

Inventive Hospitality

JoAnne, Tom and
                 Cathy

So one day a few weeks ago, we received a call from the great people at Wachovia.  They were having a two day event at the theater we call our home and wanted to know if we could help them out with a projector and a speaker.  Well, anybody who knows our Pastor Jeff, knows better!

He truly teaches us by example, day in and day out, what it means to Love God and Love People, not seperating the two.  As an artist, he also teaches us about excellence in all we do.  He met with the team from Wachovia and as any "proud parent" would, he offered up the gifts and talents of his team of people and all that God has gifted us with. 

The call was put out for some assistance to set up and serve, early Wednesday, through the morning and Thursday afternoon and evening.  No less than 15 Seacoasters took off work, went in late or gave of the time they had to come and help out that first morning! The second day, 10 came to run sound, lights, set up and tear down, ice down drinks and serve however needed. 

Romans 12:9 (The Message) says, "Love from the center of who you are, don't fake it..."  Romans 12:13 continues on with "...be inventive in your hospitality."

Our mission was to serve, it came out of who we are, natural, not phony.  It's not the kind of event that gets added to an official church calendar...it just sorta came up!  There was no manual to tell us what to do, we were inventive and gave it all we had as if it was our event.  As a result, people saw our hearts. 

Have you ever been a part of a church where you didn't feel like you could invite your friends or even total strangers?  Seacoast is NOT one of those churches!  One by one, people asked about who we are and what we do.   Not because of tracts we handed out or fliers stuffed into their sandwhich boxes.  We invited them to come. We have had several visitors who were there those days who came to see what we were about.  From what I hear, they loved the Sunday experience as well and will be returning. 

Thank you Pastor Jeff for teaching us how to Love God and Love People.  It's truly the only way to be.  Thank you Jeff DuPre for being our First Touch Host!  We had an incredible evening on Good Friday with great food, wonderful family fellowship and incredible worship and reflection.  Someone told me afterwards that that is the best thing that we do.  At the time, I had to agree.  Now I'm thinking that this, here, is actually the best thing we do.

Love God. Love People.

Angela

A Time To Serve

We need your help! We, as a church, have an opportunity to serve our community. We will be helping Wachovia with a big event on Wed. and Thur. of this week. Please come at any of the times listed below and we’ll get you started! Come for one hour or come for the whole thing! Let's let Wachovia see God's people at their best!!!

Melanie and I love this church!!!
Your pastor and friend - Jeff
jeffkinney@seacoast.org - 319-4301

To Do List

• Set up complete sound, light trees, stages, stage props and stage lights.
• 4 wired mics, my head-set and Mel's wireless mic.
• Complete media set up (Projector, DVD, laptop and CD player)
• Cafe to serve 150 cups of coffee and 8 dozen donut holes.
• We will need all the coffee stuff to go along with the coffee.
• I want to fill 3 of our rolling coolers with ice & Coke products. I'm going to try to get 100 bottles of water with the Seacoast logo on it. I'll go to Sam's Monday or Tuesday to get the drinks.

Please let me know if someone from these teams can come. WE NEED TO BE SET UP BY 9am ON WEDNESDAY AND BY 3pm ON THURSDAY.

• Media person to set up DVD's, projector, small TV monitor , switch and laptop...etc!
• Sound person to set up the mains and one monitor.
• Cafe person to make the coffee, set up the condiments and sodas on Wed. We will only need sodas on Thursday.
• Runner to get the donuts Wednesday morning.

Wednesday 04/26
Set up: 7am to 7:30am/Back to work by 9: 00ish ?
Sound tech: Whenever you can be there?!
Tear down: 1pm

Thursday 04/27
Set up: 1:30pm to around 3pm
Sound tech: Whenever you can be there?!
Tear down: 7pm

See Ya There!!!

From Christmas Eve

Here's a wonderful story from our time in front of the theaters - Christmas Eve 2005:

Here's a SeaCoast story for you to share in Mt. Pleasant.  Our family got to the Courtyard Christmas Eve Celebration late so I thought it would be nice to help clean up. I took some of the round tables down to the storage room. I had to keep asking where to put things.  On the second trip there was a young lady (in her 20s) in the storage room putting some posts up. I asked where the speaker stands I was carrying should go and she said, "I don't know. I don't work here, I just saw a bunch of people feeding people so I thought I would help them clean everything up." 

Awesome!  She had never heard of SeaCoast or that a church even met at the theater, but was helping us clean up. It provided a great opportunity for several of us to invite her to stay for the service a come on Sunday. She had never heard of church that met in a theater before.

Jim