dustin c. willis

The Baptism Gathering is probably one my favorite things in the world that I get to do as a missionary/church planter here in the city of Columbia. In Romans 6 is says, "all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life." I am a visual person and Paul does an incredible job of painting the masterpiece of symbolism that is found in baptism. To hear people cry out that Jesus is their Lord and Savior is amazing. I mean before Christ they were dead and now they are alive and they want the world to know about it...that my friends is the reason I moved here and stay here. 

All that to say we have a Baptism Gathering coming up in a few weeks on April 27th @ 7pm at the Riverfront Amphitheatre across the river from the State Museum (where we normally meet). It is going to be incredible and I cannot wait. For those of you planning to be there...it is a really laid back night where we will serve glass bottle cokes and moon pies as we celebrate as family all that God is doing in our city. The place where we are having it is sweet. It's on the river and the back drop for the night is the city skyline of Columbia.  Should be a good time...go ahead and mark your calendars now and if you are an out of town person...make the trip...it is simply a big party.

Below you will see the video from the last time we did a Baptism at The River.

Tonight we started a new message series at The Gathering at Midtown. The series is entitled CHAOTIC JOY and it is a study through the book of Philippians. We will be hanging out in Paul's letter through June sometime and I am pumped about teaching through a lot of the amazing truth found in this book. We could honestly spend a year or more on the book but we are going to limit it to 2-3 months and the move on to something else.  Tonight we covered the first 6 verses, but honestly we camped on vs. 5 and 6 for the most part. Overall a really good night and one that I could see people connecting with and responding to. If you are interested in learning along with us check out the CHAOTIC JOY BLOG that we will be using throughout this series.

Anyways, I just wanted to give you guys a quick update on the night and the start to our new series. Couple of other cool things tonight...it was good to see a couple of church planters in the room. Jay Hardwick and Hub Blankenship were both there tonight hanging out with us. These guys are sharp and it is obvious God is currently and is continuing to use these guys in and for His Kingdom.

Ok, off to bed.....and by the way my wife is back in town, which is great she was in New York City this weekend with all the ladies from my side of the family. I am glad she was able to go, but I am more happy I am not getting in the bed alone either. As a matter fact she is already there and knocked out cold....I think they went pretty hard over the last 3 days in the Big Apple.

Have a good one!

This Sunday at The Gathering we are starting a new series, CHAOTIC JOY. Within this series we are going to be taking an in depth look at the book of Philippians. I must say I a pumped about the teaching that is going to come through this series...there is so much good stuff in this epistle. We have a specific blog that will be going along with this series. CHECK OUT THE CHAOTIC JOY BLOG HERE.

To kick off the series my friend from Atlanta, Ga, Brett Younker is going to be in town. Brett is a great worship leader and we have done a couple of conferences and camps with each other over the last couple of years, but oddly enough he has never led worship at Midtown's Gathering. Well, wait no longer he will be leading us this Sunday a long with a couple of guys from the local band Baumer, who happens to have a great new album out that you should go buy NOW...and while you are at it go buy Brett's New album as well. Both these CD's are great.

Below is a video of Brett leading worship at a conference I spoke at last spring.  Check it out and if you are in the area we will see you on Sunday Night at THE GATHERING. Pick a time and join us...5:30pm, 7:15pm, & 9pm.

I know it has been a while and I apologize, but there are many NEW things going on in my life right now that I am adjusting to.  During this adjustment time God has been doing a lot of amazing things NOT only in my life, but the life of Midtown here in Columbia.

• New Meetings - we have in the past combined creativity meeting and teaching team meeting and now we have separated those into 2 different meetings with 2 different groups of people. We have added a lot of new faces to those team and so far 2 weeks in...it has been great.
• New Schedule - I have so many things going on right now that I have had to set a whole new schedule on when I study for messages, meet with teammates, go on dates with my wife, study for class, meet with church planters, etc.
• New Intern - I have a guy who is interning directly with me and I am pumped about what God is doing and is going to do in his life. One of the big pieces of our vision here at Midtown is church planting. We are working with and training Nick Cunningham to plant a missional church in downtown Charleston, SC.
  
• New "Record" - I honestly hate using the word record there, but I couldn't come up with any other way to make it work with the "New" theme of this blog entry. We had right at 550 people at our Easter Gathering this past week. What is crazy about that is when we started meeting weekly just 14 months ago we had 128 people.  We normally meet 3 times on Sunday Nights, but for Easter we rented out a space in downtown so that we could all fit in one room at one time and well it was fun to see all of our people together. Overall, it was a really...really good night.
• New  School -  I am currently taking classes at my new school, Liberty Theological Seminary.  I am enjoying the class so far, but I must it was weird to turn in a paper the other day...it has been a while.
• New Series - we are starting a new series this Sunday Night @ The Gathering. Chaotic Joy will be a study on the book of Philippians and should last for the next few months. 
• New Numbers - a lot of church planters ask a lot about our financial numbers and so I was going to give some general new updates that may help or may not or may cause questions. By the way, Chris Kakaras (our business and financial director) is great to work with and would love to help in anyway he can. 
• Approximately 33.5 % of our income (money given to the mission here at Midtown) goes towards staffing. Avg. churches usually range between 45% - 60%.
• We currently have 2 full-time staff members (I am one of those) 4 part time (10-18 hours a week) and 2 contract workers (project based etc.) and when summer roles around we will have 11 interns...we have 3 now and will add 8 this summer (they are NOT paid by Midtown).
• We give a minimum of 10% of our money away to partner mission organizations we are affiliated with and the majority goes to church planting. **THIS DOES NOT  include all of the money we pour into Community Missions - that is a budgeted line attem. If that number was included then that percentage would probably range between 20% to 30%.
• This year we project our income (money given to the mission here at Midtown) to be approximately 61% inside support (from the Midtown Family) and 39% outside support (other churches & supportive individuals).

Anyways there is a lot going on new and it is my hope that I will soon have a new blog designed by my awesome friend Matt New...and yes that is his last name. He does incredible work. Check his site out here.

So as most of you may know...even though the church we have planted is in the middle of downtown Columbia, where the University of South Carolina sits, I am a CLEMSON TIGER through and through. I just read a story from today's baseball game that blew my mind.

Kyle Parker graduated high school early to come to Clemson so that he could play baseball as a walk-on as well as join up with the football team for part of mat drills (winter workouts) and spring practice. Keep in mind as a rattle of some stats that Kyle Parker is suppose to still be in high school and he is on football scholarship to play quarterback...NOT baseball.

Today, Parker went 5 for 5 hitting with 3 homeruns, 5 runs scored and 7 RBI's and is currently batting a team best .382. He is suppose to be playing high school baseball right now and that was his day today againts Wake Forest. I mean just a month and half ago he was leading the high school all-star team on the last drive of the game to win the Under Armour National Football All-Star game at QB. This kid is a sick athlete and is already making his mark on Clemson history. I cannot wait to see what the future holds.

WOW! - You can read the full story HERE.

• Cool Stat - we have 115 college students serving in the city of Chicago, IL this week for their spring break. That is how many total people we had this time last year. Crazy! MTV sent a crew with them and will be showing the footage and stories in the coming months. OK THAT IS NOT TRUE, but it almost was. MTV did contact us and talk about that as a possibility. Why us? Because we are cool...NO someone that is involved has a good friend that works with MTV.
• A lot of people think we are JUST a college church...we love college students, but NOT JUST a college church. We are right at 60% college students and 40% adults/children. We want more of both.
• A hate the idea of a green room for a pastor. They're NOT even green...and I don't think Jesus had one. Some of you are thinking, "but Jesus didn't have a car either." give me a break...what are kidding me with that arguement. If that is your thing fine...just not mine. 
• Clemson's b-ball team finished 3rd in the ACC. Their highest ranking in 20 years. Good Stuff...going the right way.
• Easter is 2 weeks away. We are doing 1 Gathering at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center in downtown @ 7pm that night. If you can come check it out we would love to have you.
• We are talking on MONEY this coming Sunday. My good friend and great blogger Chris Kakaras is helping me out with it a great deal. The man understand 2 things well: the bible and money.  Go read his blog, it's strong.
• Meeting my friend and fellow church planter, Jay Harwick, tomorrow for coffee. A non-agenda hang-out. I like those and honestly do not have very many non-agenda hang-outs anymore. We all need more of those in our life.
• Jerusalem journal entries are coming soon...I know I keep promising, but for real they are...along with some PICTURES. We finally have all 900 of them in the computer.
• I do NOT have my MACBOOK. It is in Tennessee some where being repaired. I hate NOT having it.
• We have a team of 7 going to Mali in 2 months.
• We have a team of 30 going to Mexico in July. (Renie and I will be going back for our 3rd year...we love it)
• Both Mali and Mexico are long term partnerships we have set up.
• We add a new partnership every 2 years. That is why we added Mali this year.
• My friend Sean Brereton has a great blog and is in Chicago, IL with our team of college students and is blogging daily updates. Go check it out.

Have a great day and we will blog soon!

More and more churches are starting to preach the prosperity gospel. I just thought everyone that reads this should hear what our friend John Piper thinks of it...I must say...I AGREE. Good Stuff....really really good. Now this will preach. Listen in.

Yea... so I am on the MacBook Air at the Apple Store in Atlanta. Are you kidding...this thing is sick. I want one...can't have one...but on one right now.