Emily's Baptism Video

Click the link below to be taken to the WHY Blog to view Emily's baptism video.

Be sure to leave her a blessing using the comment option.

Emily's Baptism Video

Blessings.

-Scott

Leanne's Baptism

Watch Leanne's baptism and then be sure to leave her a word of encouragement or blessing in the comment section.

God Bless

Scott

2 minute replay

Did you miss the Sunday morning message? Be sure to catch this 2 minute replay. This is part of our series "Comfy No More," where we discuss taking down the obstacles that keep people from church.

Scott

Baptism of Chris

This past Sunday we were witnesses to an amazing event, the baptism of Chris Antonelli into Jesus Christ. This is a critical moment in the life of a believer and follower of Jesus. If you would like to celebrate this with Chris simply click on the comment link. Here you can leave Chris a special prayer or blessing that will encourage him as he begins his new walk with Jesus.

God Bless,

Scott

WATS Sunday

This past Sunday was our We Are The Sermon Sunday. This is the Sunday where we worshipped, took the Lord's Supper together and then, instead of listening to me preach we all went out and preached a message through our actions. We put the love of Christ into action! As best as I can tell we had about 70% participation from the Western Hills members. That is incredible. Since Sunday night I have heard one great story after another. I am so proud to be a part of this church.

In case you missed it the Temple Daily Telegram did a front page story on us today. (Just follow the link.) Thank-you to all who preached a powerful message through your quiet service.

God Bless

Scott

Grateful for Western Hills

It is 11:30 as I write this, but I have been thinking today of the many things at Western Hills that I am grateful for. This list is definitely incomplete, but among the things God has blessed us with are...

• A prayerful and forward looking eldership
• The creativity and passion of the staff that I am blessed to work with
• The numerous volunteers who work to make every Sunday a meaningful experience
• The prayer warriors who are petitioning God to work in powerful ways
• A church that is desperate to get outside of its own walls
• So many who are inviting those they know and love to come and meet Jesus
• The graciousness of all of you who are patient with me as I learn this task called "preaching"
• The generosity of so many that made our beautiful worship center possible
• The numerous new people who are walking into our building each Sunday

These are just a few of the things on my list. What is on your list? What are you grateful for right now?

God Bless,

Scott

Farewell...Again

It has been so great to be back with the family here at Western Hills, but it is time for me to once again head off to college. I have been blessed this summer to see how this church has grown and the vision that it is taking on. As I go back to school I look forward to hearing how Western Hills is impacting the community around it.

Love you all,
Cole

Greetings from Brandon Baker

A video greeting from Brandon Baker, our new youth minister.

New Addition to Western Hills

The Garmons have added a little girl named Katy Elizabeth to their family. She was born on Tuesday, July 17th. She weighed in at 9 pounds, 1 ounce and is 20 inches long. And as you can see from the picture above, she is beautiful!

The word is that big sisters Kendra & Camryn are excited and believe she is a "keeper."

Shelby & Emily are now blessed to be parents of 3 wonderful girls!

We thank God with the Garmons for the blessing of Katy.

If you would like to leave a blessing/note for the Garmons, click the COMENTS link below.


-Scott Seela

Search and Rescue

For the last two weeks our students have been preparing to become a search and rescue team. They are not out saving people drowning in floods (though we did see quite a lot of rain), but they have been preparing to save people who have been drowning in the sin of this world.

Camp Koinonia's theme this summer was Search and Rescue. We began the week by examining our own need to be rescued from the sin that we have been caught up in. Next, we saw that Jesus is the only source of rescue, and all of our attempts to rescue ourselves will always fall short. But the true impact of the week came when we realized that as Jesus saves us, he also calls us to go out and be a rescuer to others. The students looked at and hopefully began to tear down some of the roadblocks that we all have to spreading the incredible gospel story.

My words or pictures will never be good enough to really show what happened at camp, but if you want to experience it, just ask our students. It is from them that you can hear life changing stories and experiences.

Camp Koinonia Update

Several of our Senior High students as well as several adult volunteers are at Camp Koinonia this week. Camp Koinonia is located east of Marble Falls, TX at the Hensel Memorial Camp. Although they have had LOTS of rain, everyone is doing well. A few schedule adjustments have been made, but otherwise camp is running smoothly.

I want to encourage everyone to keep this camp and its participants in your prayers. Senior Week of camp will wrap up Friday evening. Please pray for safe travel for those going to and returning from camp.

Our Junior Week of camp (entering 5th Grade - 8th Grade) begins Sunday, July 1st. Please keep this camp session in your prayers as well!

Camp Koinonia is just another great experience that impacts the lives of our kids and teens. Thank you to all of the many people who help make Camp Koinonia a great experience!

What a Sunday!

This Sunday was an amazing Sunday at Western Hills. God (as he has a habit of doing) showed up and did some amazing things. The greatest thing this Sunday was witnessing the baptism of Hannah Seela by her dad Scott (our Children's Minister). It was a powerful image to watch this Godly father "bury" his daughter in the Lordship of Jesus Christ. It was also powerful to be able to see Qwynn (Hannah's mom), whom I could see from where I was standing. Both Scott and Qwynn were caught up in the moment of what God was doing in the life of their daughter. The experience was made complete by standing with the church as we surrounded Hannah and her family and together we sang the song Holy Ground. It was a sacred moment.

God Bless,

Scott

PS - You are invited to post a prayer, blessing, or word of encouragement for Hannah in the comment section of this post. We will print out all of the comments and give them to her.

New Messge Series

This Sunday we will launch into our summer message series. The title is "Games of Life." We will be using many of the games we remember playing as kids as metaphors for the assumptions we make about life. We all play life by a certain set of rules. This series will examine our assumed rules and lay them against God's word. I am looking forward to this series, it should be fun, creative and hopefully very relevant to your life. this is a great time of the year to invite your friends to come and experience a Sunday with us. Just maybe your invitation is the very thing that crank starts some one's relationship with God.

See you on Sunday
Scott

Baptism

This video is one or our recent baptisms at Western Hills. Each baptism is special because it is someone's life changing for eternity. This baptism is unique because it was 2 brothers being baptized by their father. The video includes their testimonies and the church celebrating following the baptism.

God Bless

A Baby Blessing on Mother's Day

Parents, you been blessed with these children. As a church we believe they are a gift from the hand of a loving creator.

As parents, will you partner with God and with the members of this church to assist your children in growing, as Jesus did, in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man? With humility and hope, will you love and nurture them and to lead them to faith?

The charge above is one we gave last Sunday to the parents of our "new babies." We also took on some promises as a church to be a part of the lives of these children and to help them grow in faith.

May God bless all of us as we live out these promises.

Who is church for?

We used this video last summer during our "Mythbusters" series. I thought it deserved one more shot here on the blog. The video is a parody commercial for a church where it is all about YOU! I am so glad that God is creating an atmosphere and attitude at Western Hills where we realize that church is not about us. Church should never be a place where we take our eyes off of the mission and start griping to get it our way. People are LOST and we need to be passionately focused on introducing them to Jesus, after all it is HIS church anyway. May God continue to bless Western Hills and keep us all focused on the mission.

Love Ya Much

Scott

Our New Youth Minister

On Sunday, Rex Baugh announced that Brandon Baker was offered and accepted the role of Youth Minister at Western Hills! Brandon is married to Heidi and they have 3 kids: Emma (almost 5), Mason (3) and Esther (7 months).

Brandon currently serves as the Youth Minister at the Fredrick Church of Christ in Fredrick, Maryland. He has been there for 4 years.

Brandon is originally from Wylie, Texas (Abilene) and holds a Bacholar's Degree in Youth & Family Ministry from ACU and a Master's Degree in Social Work from the University of Houston.


We are excited about the Bakers joining us in August! Please be in prayer for them as they prepare to come. Also be in prayer for the Peacocks as they prepare for law school in San Antonio.


If you'd like to send a Welcome Email to the Bakers, CLICK HERE.


Have a great week.


-Scott Seela

Enjoy

This gem came to me from Aloha Nelson via email. I hope that it is a blessing to you.

Enjoy!

Scott

Preschool Sunday

Last Sunday was Western Hills Christian Preschool Sunday. We invited the kids and families that attend our preschool to join us for worship. Western Hills Christian Preschool is a wonderful outreach ministry of this church. It is lead by the amazing Donna Kelley, Preschool Director. Here's a video we showed Sunday that shows just a few of the great things that happen at the preschool:

Friday Free-for-All

Here are just a few of the numerous things banging around in my head as we charge into the weekend.

1. I am continually amazed at the talent that God has placed here in this church. Anyone who was present last weekend and laid eyes on the "empty tomb" on the pulpit knows what I am talking about. Our own artist-in-residence Patty Thomas created for us a visual effect that left most of us speechless. (Click on the picture to see large version.) Patty is just one of the hundreds of gifted and talented people God uses to bless this church. I am grateful to be a part of a body that is actively exploring ways for people to put their gifts to work to glorify God. You may never notice, but each Sunday morning worship is the net result of tons of volunteers giving their best for God.

2. This Sunday is Home Group Sunday. Home Groups are our way of making a big church small again. It is our strategy to create an environment of authentic community in the lives of our people. Each time Home Groups meet I hear great stories of how our Home Groups are ministering to people and changing lives. If you are not yet in a group just grab a copy of the discussion questions off the website and invite some folks to your home or to meet you at your favorite restaurant. It's that simple.

3. This Sunday morning is also the Sunday that we have invited all of the students enrolled in Western Hills Christian Preschool to worship with us. This ministry has seen some incredible growth over the last couple of years. More than 40 students are enrolled (many without a church home). So this Sunday we will do what we do best and welcome people into our time of worship. It is our prayer each Sunday for God to use our worship service as an avenue to connect with some one's life and introduce them to Jesus.

4. I am more convinced now than ever before that God's greatest dreams for this church lie in the future and not in the past. If we have the courage to hold tightly to His hand there is no telling where this adventure will lead.

Love Ya Much!

Scott