The Deacon body continued to serve the congregation of Morningside throughout the last quarter supporting various events with special attention being paid to family ministry.

Please be in prayer for those individuals currently serving our church as a deacon.

If you would like to recommend someone to be considered as Deacon for the upcoming church year beginning 2025, please reach out to Rick Beatty, Deacon Chair, via text to: 706–464–4338 or email to: rckbeatty@gmail.com

The second quarter of 2024 brought an increase in our church-wide activities. As a Partner in Education, we celebrated our teachers during a special prayer time on the first Sunday in May. For the end of the school year, we treated the teachers at Blanchard Elementary and Blackmon Road Middle schools to goodies and treats. Gifts were provided for the secretaries at Blackmon Road Middle School for Administrative Professionals Day. Larry and Rhonda Kees also donated 180 bags of cotton candy for the BRMS eighth-grade students.

From Mother’s Day to Father's Day, we collected change to support the wonderful work of Sound Choices Pregnancy Center. Summer family events kicked off May 22nd with a ‘cookout’, followed by family time at Ellerslie Park the next week. We enjoyed some family worship nights as well, along with a Gospel sing and ice cream social. Events planned for the third quarter include our Fall kickoff on August 11th and a Church/community yard sale in September.

The student ministry is currently in Panama City Beach, Florida for our Summer Retreat. We have 21 students and 8 leaders in attendance. We look forward to sharing a good report upon our return. On July 24th, the student ministry will start a new small group study on the Gospel of John. The NextGen Family Worship Nights have been very successful, we have had over 50 people for both events and look forward to another one in August.

The Children’s Ministry kicked off Summer with VBS! We had over 100 kids signed up and averaged a daily attendance of 85. The children raised over $400 for our very own Morningside Library as well as Operation Christmas Child. We also collected 382 non-perishable items that were donated to Hillcrest Ministry Resource Center here in Columbus. Thank you to ALL of the wonderful volunteers who made VBS another success!

We look forward to our Movie Night on Friday, July 26th from 6-8pm in the Family Center Theater. Wednesday Breakout returns August 14th! Also, we are teaming up with Blanchard Elementary again for our Fall Festival/Trunk or Treat on October 26th. Be on the lookout for trunk volunteer sign ups. For anyone interested in serving in Children’s Ministry please contact Barbara Port.

The Women’s Nite Out continues to be well attended and enjoyed. It is time for us to come together and relax as we enjoy a meal in a restaurant which is hopefully new to some. In this quarter, we are visiting Golden Chopsticks, Newk’s, and Olive Garden.

Our first Pop-Up Event at the Columbus Museum was a success. These are for all who want to come and share the fun. Our next Pop-Up is the latest movie by the Kendrick Brothers, The Forge. We are popping up on Sunday, August 25th, 1:30 pm, AMC 13, which includes the 25% discount. There is a Bible Study which goes with the movie’s message. We have one more Pop-Up Event planned for the fall.

We are exploring Craft Nights for ladies who enjoy crafting to spend time together working on whatever crafts they do. If you are interested or have any ideas, please get in touch with Holly Sutherland. We want to encourage you to contact any of us with your ideas and suggestions for activities or events. The Women’s  Ministry team is Alice Hiltibrand, Janet Knight, Beatrice Miller, Mary Stewart, and Holly Sutherland.

First, I am excited to be the new Weekday Preschool Director! We will be going into the Fall with over 100 kids pre-registered as well as a full staff of 16 teachers! Open House will be August 12th and our first day of school is August 13th. We are looking forward to collaborating with MBC on children’s events throughout the school year.

Morningside Christian Preschool is partnered up with Blanchard Elementary for the after-school tutoring program which is set to begin in October. If you would like to volunteer as a tutor or come on board as a preschool substitute, please contact Barbara Port. We are looking forward to a fantastic year!

The Personnel Committee oversaw the following changes over the course of the second quarter of 2024. The church recognized Zach Walsh's commitment to the church with a 5-year anniversary gift. The committee also oversaw the promotion of Barbara Port to the position of Weekday Preschool/Children's Ministry Director. This change of position will allow our Children's Ministry to synchronize outreach efforts with the Weekday Preschool so that both can continue to grow and the Gospel can spread to more families in our community.

In April, the bereavement team, under the direction of Cathy Gilson, provided a meal for the family of Mary Bagley. We hope and pray this provided a small measure of comfort to the family during their time of grief.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 
who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. 
~2 Corinthians 1:3-4