Kyle Mountsier

Marriage Counseling

kylemountsier — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 13:03:29 +0000

Yesterday Amanda and I received our books for marriage counseling. First let me say, if you are ever planning to get married, please embark on marriage counseling before your big day. I guarantee there are some major things you and your future spouse have not thought about or talked about that can come up during this time. I am excited about the fact that these things will come up between Amanda and me! Nervousness also plays a HUGE picture in getting all this stuff on the table. Obviously, the stuff we have not talked about yet has not gotten on the table for a reason, whatever that may be. Either way, this looks to be great preparation for stepping into this new chapter of our lives.

Last night, I embarked on reading the into and first chapter of “Love and Respect.” A few weeks ago at The Bridge, Tim threw out this same idea to the church in our “TwoEqualsOne” series. It is the understanding that if a woman is not loved and a man is not respected, a marriage goes into a crazy downward cycle until one of the two happens. Therefore, we are called to either constantly love or constantly respect. I decided last night that I will probably need to read this chapter of the book once a month when we get married. This chapter calls us to do something that, as humans, we are not naturally inclined to do. So, the moral of the story is, if you are married: buy this book and read chapter one every month; and if you are not yet married: buy this book try and get a grip on what some basics in marriage look like. Lastly, if you would take the time to remember Amanda and me in prayer as we get ready for marriage, we would much appreciate it!

kyle

The Set: August 2, 2009

kylemountsier — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 13:19:51 +0000

Yesterday was a really good day at The Bridge. The new Executive Pastor, Jeff Flowers, and his family joined us for the first time as staff. Tim also challenged the men to be providers in all areas of life for our wives and future wives. Below is the song set if you would like to know what went down from a musical worship side:

Ancient of Days- Gary Sadler and Jamie Harvill

Your Love is Amazing- Brian Doerkson

Unfailing Love- Chris Tomlin

We Are Hungry- Brad Kilman

Hope to see you all next week at The Bridge. That will also be my fiance’s, Amanda Browning’s, last Sunday at The Bridge.

kyle

The Set: July 19, 2009

kylemountsier — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 13:38:53 +0000

This week at The Bridge was HUGE. There were tons of announcements and good things going on. This week I was the sound guy and Uptown Kids teacher (which is always a blast!). We have been doing some cool things with the band over the summer by mixing up the instrument set. This week we only had guitar, electric, and drums. It was fun to mix because I had to find some bass in it all to ground the sound and bring out each guitar. I really liked this week and think it could become a staple in Bridge band future possibilities. The set list here:

In The Secret- Andy Park

God of Wonders- Third Day

You Are My King (Amazing Love)- Billy James Foote

Amazed- James Anderson

Kids was great! It was cool teaching them the past couple of weeks because Amanda and I had to teach a series on relating to parents. Yes, I wrote the series, but it was still challenging. The struggle of not being parents, yet being far enough removed from young childhood was hard to overcome. I think it actually gave us a neat sort of birds-eye-view looking at and explaining things to all the kids.

Yes, the above is very short because I want to leave you time to read two blog posts that relate to 5 HUGE announcements made Sunday and let you in on what is happening with Justice ’09. First, two weeks ago we introduced our second justice initiative for this year, KIVA. Kiva is a micro-lending site that allows people to lend with no interest and see huge results. We have already made 43 micro-loans and all but $10 has been paid back! That is incredible production and nothing you would see in the US (thus, the economic “crisis”). After one week, we have now been able to give 8 more loans! Our goal for the summer is to increase our lending by 20 loans so we have 12 more to go. Please pray if this is something that you want to be a part of in this ministry. Lastly, check out these two blog posts about the 5 HUGE announcements that we had this last Sunday:

Kyle and Amanda’s Announcement

The Bridge’s 4 Announcements

Please direct any questions about these announcements to Tim Dunn or myself. Hope to see you all at The Bridge next week!

kyle

Announcement

kylemountsier — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 12:55:00 +0000

This week at The Bridge I announced something very happy and sad at the same time. About three weeks ago my fiance, Amanda, accepted a position with Ballet Pensacola in Pensacola, FL. We are so happy that a job finally showed up for her and she will be able to dance! The week after we found out, we went to Florida to get started on move specifics. While we were there, she found an apartment and a second job. Both were such a blessing, especially because we found them in a day and a half of being there! She will be moving from Cincinnati on August 10th and beginning both of her jobs the week of the 17th. Please be praying for her and supporting her in joy through all this. She is very sad to be leaving the community at The Bridge but knows it is an opportunity she cannot pass up.

That begins the sad news. Yes, Amanda will no longer be at The Bridge after August 9th. On the other hand, I also play a large part in this. There is no way I can spend a year apart from Amanda or even the time until we get married (look for another announcement soon regarding that). So, at the moment I am looking for full-time jobs in Pensacola. I have committed myself to The Bridge community until September 13th. At this point, if I have found a job in Pensacola, I will be moving there and finding a place to live until Amanda and I get married. It will be very hard to leave everyone at The Bridge but I know it is the best option. Amanda only has a short period of her life that she is able to dance and I need to support her and follow her during this time. We will miss you all but want to continue to be involved in your lives. I know we will be visiting The Bridge any time we are in town! Let me know if you have any questions about specifics. Both Amanda and I would love to tell you more about it!

kyle

I just have to…

kylemountsier — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 02:56:16 +0000

Really…I hate all the hype. It is lame. It is like the President died or something. But really, I also expect nothing less from this world. So, as it goes, I must pay my homage to the late, great MJ…LONG LIVE FREE WILLY!!

so yes, i did it.

kyle

The Set- July 5, 2009

kylemountsier — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 14:25:32 +0000

Yes, I took a break from blogging this week but that is all back to normal this week. Lets start off with what went down yesterday at The Bridge. Going in to yesterday I was quite excited about the morning. I had the great privilege of leading in musical worship with two other great men, John Paul “The Pope” Wilkens and Aaron Sayers. It just so happens that because of 4th of July weekend, this also became the setup crew (along with my lovely fiance, Amanda). When we have the small setup days like this, it actually is pretty fun to do it with such a small team (although I do miss the great help of others). We get in to the most random discussions like the debate between small and large churches down to the intricacies of the movies we all saw this week. Great inspiring stuff for Sunday morning. What I think this does so well (listen up all you Worship Leaders out there) is create a communal bond that can be carried over into our music and worship through practice and the service. When the worship team gets to interact on that kind of level, our leadership potential is multiplied.

I love the feel of an acoustic set. We only had guitar, bass, and djembe and pulled out the old bar stools. I love the songs we did yesterday and I think all of them are lyrically full and have some good musical turns in them too. We introduced the Hillsong song “The Stand” for the first time ever at The Bridge yesterday and it felt like people really took hold of the lyrics. The “prechorus” and “chorus” are both so powerful as a reflection as our response to God. Here is the set list:

Better is One Day- Matt Redman

Sing to the King- Billy Foote

The Stand- Joel Houston

How Great Thou Art- Stuart K. Hine (let that chorus ring out, so powerful)

Really enjoyed Tim’s message yesterday. It was great to get a glimpse into more of the woman’s role in marriage and a man’s response to that. He put everything in great perspective. I think so often many people in the church see the “wife submission” passage as a hierarchy, when really the husband and wife are equal. If our relationships mirror Christ/Church to God, then we are joined equally with different minds and abilities that come together to equal one. Amanda and I have come away from each week with so much to talk about and learn from. If you are engaged or married, I encourage you to either check out this series online or find a mentor that can help you in your relationship.

kyle

The Set- June 28, 2009

kylemountsier — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:02:18 +0000

Yesterday was one of those most anticipated by us, the leadership, at The Bridge. We had the distinct opportunity to watch yet another believer follow in believers baptism. Megan had mentioned it at Life Group earlier in the week so we no doubt were ready to act. Because we have now been through a baptism at The Bridge once, this was something that we pulled off quite easily and quickly on the setup side. I am excited because this just allows us to do that more often when the need arises! Continue to pray for Megan as she ventures further in her relationship with Christ as well as the four that we baptized just a few weeks back.

Now that we are done talking about the last event of the service, I always like to dig into the other stuff. Though we are not the most technologically advanced church, I still really enjoy running sound each week. Yes, I do wish the pops, feedback, and random loss of sound from instruments was more avoidable, but that also presents a good challenge. I do not know everything about sound or video but what I do know is that if we are not careful with the way we use them, they can become distractions in a Christ-centered life (yes, life. this does not just pertain to Sunday mornings). I will say I was a little off this week, and probably could have focused on the overall mix a little bit more, but I think in the end it came out well. The last song (seen below) really seems to be one that our church is grasping. It seems to be a running trend that we tend to gravitate toward musical simplicity with lyrical complexity and challenge. The song ‘Surrender’ really covers both of these so well. Here is the set list:

Marvelous Light- Charlie Hall

Blessed Be Your Name- Matt Redman

The Heart of Worship- Matt Redman

Surrender- Marc James

I also thoroughly enjoyed and learned from the teaching. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am looking forward to learning so much about marriage before I take that step. This is especially great because I can see some of the ways these things work in my relationship with Amanda now and what I DEFINITELY need to work on. Tim Dunn has already done a great job at bringing this message to married couples, engaged couples, and singles alike. I think all three of these statuses will gain drastically from this series. Hope to see you there next week!

kyle

Phil Wickham- Singalong

kylemountsier — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:18:20 +0000

If you have not seen or heard this album from Phil Wickham, YOU NEED TO! He has it up for free on his website. Below is a video of just one of the great videos he has of the whole set on youtube. I love the idea of an acoustic set on a free CD with hundreds of people singing along! Hopefully you will be encouraged and be able to worship with all these people.

kyle

Violence…will it stop?

kylemountsier — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 02:22:39 +0000

This article was in the LA Times today.

72 dead. Wow. Can you imagine that in one of our cities? There would be massive hurt and pain induced among our families and friends. How often do we ever feel such a hurt in America? Major death tolls like that rarely even happen in hurricanes and tornadoes, let alone roadside bombings. We do not even know what something like this would feel like. When I walk down the streets of Cincinnati the most fear I get is from the dumb driver that tries to go on red while I cross the street. I would never fear sitting in front of Starbucks that a car parked in front of me would suddenly blow up killing me and many around me.

This kind of violence is met face to face almost every day in cities like Baghdad. In talking to some friends who have been there, I know this is all too true. It is a constant fear in many peoples’ minds in these areas. Sometimes we read these stories and pass over them with the mind of “oh, I am glad the death toll was under 100 this time” or “wow, that is just too bad” or “I wonder what our government is doing to stop this.” What we forget to do is stop and think that these people had families, and those families are hurting just as much as we would. Why not take a minute to stop and pray for these people? We sometimes forget that, though violence in the world was brought on by the fall of man and the tempting of Satan, Christ came to redeem us ALL back to him. These people matter too. Love them with the love Christ showed. You may not be able to comfort them with a smile or hug but the least we can do is stop and pray for this hurting world

your thoughts…

kyle

A new favorite…

kylemountsier — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:06:39 +0000

This song is a new favorite of mine. I am a big fan of repetition in music lately, seems to be a constant reminder and by the fifth time you sing the line sometimes you actually realize what the words mean that you are singing. Hope you like it….

Your Love Never Fails- Chris Quilala (Jesus Culture)