From the Inside Out

We celebrated the end of an era at Abundant Life Church today. It was the last service to be held at 2021 E. Park Blvd. in Plano. For many, it was a bittersweet day. Everyone is excited about moving into our new facility, but we also leave behind a space where many fond memories were created. I came to ALC as a teenager in the Fall of 1988. At the time, I wasn’t happy about leaving the church we attended, but I know now it’s where God meant for us to be. My relationship with Him deepened there, and I was blessed to have one of the best pastors in the world, Dan Rigdon. I also experienced one of the most momentous occasions in my life in that building. It’s where I met and married my husband.

I have many great memories from my 21 years at ALC — there are just way too many to list them all! The great thing is that even though we’re leaving the building behind, those memories will follow me wherever I go. I have no regrets. One experience is ending. Things will never be the same, but through that ending, we have a new beginning. We have a remarkable opportunity to create new memories and to reach more people in our community by sharing the love and saving grace of our Saviour, Jesus Christ. What an amazing privilege!

In honor of our last day in the Park Blvd. building, we held a special “reunion” service. The day started early for those of us in the choir/worship team. We arrived at 8 am for a 90 minute music practice before service started. It made for a long day, but it was worth it!

We had a good crowd before practice ended. By 10 am, the place was packed full. We had our regulars in attendance and many former ALC’ers showed up to celebrate also. I think we set a new record for attendance — 660! Wow!

The choir kicked off the day with an “old school” song from years past, “Total Praise.”

The presence of God filled the room and lingered the entire day.

I was scheduled to sing on the worship team today, and I was delighted to have the opportunity to help lead worship one last time at ALC. I’m not very sentimental, but as I sang, I experienced many emotions. I am so blessed. God is incredible. I’m amazed with His grace and thankful for the fabulous group of people we have at ALC.

We baptized 22 people today!!! They alternated between the baptistery and the “old school” method.

Jeff Manning baptizing “old school” in a trough

Memories video

Dan Rigdon addresses the congregation

Anthony Mangun shares his thoughts and leads the church in a prayer for Jeff, Miquell, and our church leaders.

NOTE: all photos are courtesy of (ahem…stolen from) Sheila Horvath.

Our last church service at 2021 E. Park Blvd. will be held on Sunday, May 31 at 10:00 am. Abundant Life Church (ALC) is planning many exciting activities for that special day:

• Anthony and Mickey Mangun will be attending (Mickey will be playing the organ and singing with the choir)
• A special baptism ceremony will be conducted
• Pentecost Sunday and the move to the new building will be celebrated
• Fond memories of the building before the remodeling will be brought back (i.e. stained glass, old pulpit, round globe lights, etc)
• Finally, we’ll be having an ALC choir reunion and will be singing some “old school” favorites from ALC’s past!

When ALC switched to two Sunday morning services, they went with a smaller “worship team” to enable choir members to serve in the Sunday School department (and other volunteer ministries required to support two services). This has been a successful model, but sometimes you miss having a full choir on the platform. There’s nothing that compares. I love having all of those people up there with us worshipping their hearts out and praising God. It’s so cool!

We had our second practice tonight, and we’re starting to get back in the groove of things. The group sounded amazing. We’re singing many favorites from past years and a few recent favorites too. It’s going to be a fantastic worship experience, and I can’t wait! We’re singing one of my personal “old school” favorites — No Greater Love by the CLC Youth Choir. That song always touches me. The words are simple, but true. It’s a great reminder of how much He loves us and the sacrifice He made to show us the depth of His love. It’s…ah-mazing!

Anyway, if you are a member of ALC, don’t miss it! If you are a former member, don’t miss it! If you aren’t a member, but are interested in joining us, put it on your calendar and don’t miss it — Sunday, May 31 at 10 am.

We hosted our first murder mystery party tonight for the young married’s group at church. This particular mystery centered around popular children’s book characters. They come to life in the library each evening to fellowship and frolic…that is, until King Henry VIII was murdered.

The famous detective, Sherlock Holmes, assembled all the characters in the library to determine who committed this heinous act.

The entire cast of characters

I was Little Red Riding Hood’s grandmother

Little Red Riding Hood and Pinocchio

Inspector Sherlock Holmes

Gepetto pulling Pinocchio’s strings

Aladdin and the Genie

Dr. Frankenstein

Pondering the evidence

Dorothy and the Wicked Witch

Introductions and the list of suspects

For the complete picture album, check out the photos section of my blog.

Abundant Life Church will soon have a new location in Plano, and I couldn’t be more excited about it! An overwhelming majority of church members approved the purchase of the new facility tonight during our annual business meeting. The building is located on Premier Drive in West Plano near highway 75 and Park Blvd.

It offers 40,000 sq. feet of space, and compared to our existing 18,000 sf facility, it is downright spacious! We will have a 550-seat worship center, a 250-seat auditorium/gymnasium for youth, a children’s theater, numerous classrooms, and plenty of office space for our church staff. We will also have a pad of land where a new 40,000 worship center can be built to accommodate future growth.

God has truly blessed us with an amazing opportunity at a fabulous price. He is SO good, and it just goes to show you that He is in control of our destiny in spite of human shortcomings, failures and mistakes. The “man downstairs” tried to break our spirit, but God used our struggles to unify us and make us stronger. In the end, His plan prevails.

We already have 3 purchase offers on our existing facility — a miracle considering that it’s only been on the market for a couple of weeks and the real estate market is in recession. It’s just another testament to the fact that God seems to be ordering our steps.

I’m extremely excited about the opportunities that this new building provides us, not only for drama ministries, but also for our youth, children’s, and adult ministries. I can’t wait to see what God has in store for us at the new property. If everything goes smoothly, we may be making the move in late May. I can’t wait!

Tonight we filmed the video sketches for Saturday Night Life. We managed to get all of the shots we needed, and I’m really happy with the footage we captured. It was a productive evening — oh, and we managed to have a bit of fun too.

Now it’s on to the editing stage where Chad will work his magic, creating a Director’s cut for us to review. Expectations are high since last year’s show was so well received. I think we’re up for the challenge though — no fear!

The opening cast video will be similar to the one we did last year. It was shot “SNL style” with the camera moving quickly through the church until it locates cast members who happen

to be doing a few funny, and dare I say “uncharacteristic”, things along the way. I think we’ll have some genuine laugh out loud moments during that one, but I can’t give anything away so you’ll just have to wait for the show to see what I’m talking about.

I can tell you that we are bringing back Newt McNewsy, our roaming news reporter, for a couple of special interviews. Newt always seems to find the most interesting people, and he will travel anywhere, anytime to “bring the news to you.”

The Roxbury guys are also back — and this time they have a new friend. We captured some really funny stuff with these guys. And Chris, the “new guy”, was a good sport even when he was forced into dark, hot and cramped quarters that most people would complain about. It’s so nice to work with such a good natured group of actors. That makes my life SO much easier.

A few of our costumes for the live sketches came in today, so we also had a quick impromptu fitting. More pics are below…enjoy and don’t forget to mark your calendars for the live show on October 3 and 4 at 7:30 pm. It’s going to be great!