The Momuscripts

/
The Momuscripts

Recently Sarah Brichetto approached me about doing a miniseries of “mom posts” leading up to Mother’s day this year. I was immediately on board, loved the idea. I started thinking more about it. Maybe this should be an ongoing series specifically for mothers and maybe it should have a punny title and maybe we should get some other mom writers who are in different life stages, mom stages, to share their struggles and experiences and what the Lord is teaching them through motherhood. So Sarah and I have been planning, under pastor Dustin Turner’s leadership, and are excited today to launch “The Momuscripts.”

Read More

Do You Know What It Means to Be Human?

/
Do You Know What It Means to Be Human?

Last week we kicked off our latest Equip Series. You can find all of our previous Equip Nights and series here. This 4-week series is on Wednesday nights from 6:30-8 pm at our Vintage Jefferson location. For these 4 weeks, we're looking at what it means to be human. While all of us are human, we might not all recognize what it means to be human. We also might have a flawed view of what it means to be human. If you were look to popular media and our culture to define what it means to be human, you would most certainly discover a multitude of opinions.

Read More

Kingdom Citizenship: Rights & Responsibilities

/
Kingdom Citizenship: Rights & Responsibilities

If you check out my last blog in the Kingdom Series, you’ll see that I believe that thinking of ourselves as citizens of the Kingdom of God is the best way to understand living the Christian life. In this blog, I am going to process what that looks like practically. I believe that Jesus used this Kingdom of God language to help us understand that we are citizens of his Kingdom, not the world we see around us. Our job therefore is to live like we are already in the completed Kingdom of God, even though we inhabit this one. 

Read More

Life at 26

/
Life at 26

Ten years ago I was a junior in high school. If you had asked 16-year old Emily where she thought she would be at 26, she probably would have told you something that looks very different from the life I am actually living now.  

My Checklist

In high school I was very much influenced by my surroundings and adopted a checklist of certain expectations for my life. Here were the big ones:

  1. Graduate college in four years.
  2. Get married by 22.
  3. Have my first kid by 25.
  4. Start my own business before 30. 
Read More

Why has Vintage Church launched the Gx Network?

/
Why has Vintage Church launched the Gx Network?

All churches are commanded by God to make disciples of all nations. One of the most effective ways to accomplish this vision is through being a church planting church. Planting a church in New Orleans has been one of the most challenging yet most fulfilling journeys of my life. New Orleans should really be called the “Not-So Big Easy.” The enemy has come really hard at Vintage Church recently and I’ve really started to ask the Lord for clarity. Every week, I hear of a new story of a sickness, or a fight, or someone got laid off, or one of our leaders is leaving Vintage and moving away. As Vintage Church has launched the Gx Network, Jesus has revealed to me why the enemy has been attacking our church. 

This past Christmas, I had the privilege of traveling with a team from Vintage to New York City. It was so incredible to see the impact in New York because of the church planter that we sent out. On the first Sunday in 2016, Vintage Church officially launched the Gx Network as part of the MORE Initiative. Our current church planting resident and soon to be fifth church planter preached for me and shared that not only is Vintage launching this Network but that Vintage would be planting another church in Denver, CO. You can here that sermon here. The response in our church was an overwhelming excitement. Vintage is so excited about praying, giving, and going with the Gx Network. The next Sunday, Vintage used this momentum and launched a new series walking through the Gospel of Luke called “1MORE.” Jesus has called the church to follow in His steps and continue to reach “1MORE” in our city with the Good News of Jesus. In the middle of this series, I invited another Gx Network church planter in New Orleans to preach for me because I was going to San Antonio to preach and encourage our first church planter in San Antonio. As the church planter in New Orleans preached for me, one of his apprentices was preaching for him and I had two future leaders on the trip with me. Within a month, I had experienced our Gospel multiplication movement of Vintage Church through four different churches. 

Read More

An Unshakeable Peace: Radical Forgiveness that Points People to Jesus

/
An Unshakeable Peace: Radical Forgiveness that Points People to Jesus

For those of you who do not know about or follow sports, we have a professional basketball team here in New Orleans called the Pelicans.

Last year, the former head coach of the Pelicans, Monty William, lead the Pelicans to the playoffs only to be let go by the team after being overmatched by the Golden State Warriors, who would eventually go on to win NBA Championship. I loved Monty, but some didn’t like his coaching style. He soon found a new job with the Oklahoma City Thunder and became an assistant on their coaching staff.

On Tuesday night, February 9th Ingrid Williams, Monty’s Wife, was driving with three of her children on a 40 MPH street when a reckless driver, who was driving 92 MPH North, lost control and stuck Ingrid Williams including her three children in a Chevrolet Suburban going southbound head on. Mrs. Williams was taken to the hospital where she later died. The driver of the other vehicle died as well on impact. Players on both the Pelicans and Thunder were devastated with the news because apparently Ingrid was a mother figure to many players. Many people sent prayers to the Williams family and offered their condolences while many others, when asked about it on camera, broke down in tears over the news. How could the wife of an assistant coach have such an impact on the players? I think the answer is found in who Monty Williams claims to be.

Read More

New Resource for Big Easy Jesus

/
New Resource for Big Easy Jesus

As Vintage Church continues in the Big Easy Jesus series, we are looking at the "I AM" statements of Jesus in the Gospel of John. These statements provide a glimpse at who Jesus is and what he has done for humanity. 

For many, Jesus is a difficult person to understand. We might have a hard time understanding how Jesus is both fully human or fully divine. We might struggle to understand how his work on the cross provided forgiveness from sin. 

Read More

New Discoveries, Same God

/
New Discoveries, Same God

Did you hear about the gravitational waves recently discovered? If not, you can read about them here. It was a big discovery. 

Maybe you’re not a physics fanatic. I get that. There are strange Latin words, a bunch of mind-boggling concepts, and plenty of math. Perhaps there’s so much going on in your life that you don’t have the time or energy to ponder anything that’s not useful. I can understand that too.

Here’s the short and sweet of it:

  • We’ve finally detected gravitational waves
  • The waves were predicted by Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity
  • This theory mathematically suggests the universe had a beginning
  • Thus, the discovery of gravitational waves strengthens the case for Creation
Read More

Kingdom Citizenship

/
Kingdom Citizenship

So, if you have been following the blog thus far, you have seen that the Kingdom of God is Jesus’s primary way of talking about what he was called to do, that this Kingdom is the rule and reign of God, that followers of Jesus are in the Kingdom, and that this Kingdom is here and also not yet here. Now we ask, how does knowing this affect the way that we live out our day-to-day lives?

First, let’s look at some flawed ways of understanding Christianity:

Read More

Mom Enough

/
Mom Enough

I’m just weeks away from meeting my newest little one, so thoughts of motherhood have been heavy on my mind lately. And not just thoughts of trying to remember the basics of caring for a newborn, but bigger, weightier thoughts about the journey and assignment of being a mother. I’m still relatively new at this thing (my firstborn just turned two), so I’m feeling the challenge of caring for two little ones deeply. 

As a first-time mom, I spent many moments in the past two years wondering if I’m doing things right. I struggle with questions like: Was it okay to let her sleep through the night without waking her to feed? Can one year olds have donuts (once a week)? She didn’t have a bath today—and I’m too tired to give her one tonight. Washing her face and brushing her teeth is enough, right? Is she watching too much TV? Am I letting her stay up too late? Is she hitting all her developmental milestones?

Read More