Press Release

Embrace Church goes multi-site in the future.

Embrace Church will be uniting with The Rock La Roca to form a new Embrace Church with two campuses.

May 8, 2011: Since Rosario Picardo was launched out from The Rock to plant Embrace UMC in downtown Lexington, the new church has experienced explosive growth.   In fact the ministry and the needs for ministry have become larger than can continue to be met at their current location in the Kentucky Theater.   At the same time, the ministry at the Rock/La Roca under the leadership of Aaron Mansfield, has continued to expand into the community in prolific ways.   The legacy of Epworth United Methodist Church through the ministry of The Rock continues to impact the N. Limestone Community to the glory of God.   Ever since it became apparent that Rev. Mansfield would be appointed to another ministry at Annual Conference in June, discussions began as to whether there would be a way to meet the needs of both congregations and continue the cooperative spirit at The Rock out of which Embrace was born.   In recent weeks the leadership teams of both Embrace UMC and The Rock UMC have been considering a plan to reunite the ministries of the two churches while continuing to serve the community in such vital ways.   The result has been the intention to move forward with a formal plan of reunion of the two congregations, which would result in the formation of a new church, which will continue to meet at the two existing locations.   Tentatively we are calling the new church Embrace Church, with 2 campuses:  Embrace Church: Epworth Campus and Embrace Downtown.   The ministry of La Roca will continue and be known as La Roca at Epworth.   Rev. Rosario Picardo will be appointed as the lead pastor for Embrace at Epworth and Embrace Downtown.   Rev. Iosomar Alvarez will be appointed as lead pastor of La Roca at Embrace and also continue to serve as lead pastor of La Fuente which meets at Hope Springs UMC.   Rev. John Carter will be appointed as a local pastor to assist with the pastoral duties of Embrace at Epworth and Embrace Downtown.  It is anticipated that the current staff of both Embrace and the Rock will continue and that the ministries and worship of both congregations will continue as currently constituted subject to future adjustments of a united leadership team.

The leadership teams will meet together on Tuesday, May 10th to work out the final details of the plan of unity and an information session will be held on Wednesday, May 11th @7pm.   The hope will be to announce the reunification of the church at Annual Conference next month and that a service of unification and chartering will be held in the near future.  This is an exciting season in the life of both of these wonderful congregations.  I was hoping to be able to make this announcement in person, but in recent weeks I have experienced some health issues which makes that not possible at this time but I will hold all of you in my prayers as you continue on this exciting path which will ensure that vital ministry will continue in the North Limestone Community as well as in the heart of downtown Lexington.

Rev. Mark Girard, Lexington Superintendent.

Just a few years ago, Michael Franzese was “one of the biggest money earners the mob had seen since Al Capone, and the youngest individual on Fortune magazine’s survey of the ‘The Fifty Biggest Mafia Bosses,’” (Vanity Fair magazine), ranking #18, just 5 behind John Gotti. His autobiography, Blood Covenant, tells his story from the early days in the mob and rise to power through his damascus road experience that changed his life forever and led him to do the unthinkable, the unexpected, and by some, the unbelievable – Quit the Mob and follow Jesus.

The Born Again Don (Vanity Fair Magazine)

Today, Michael is a follower of Jesus Christ, dubbed “The Born Again Don” in a January 1991 feature article in Vanity Fair Magazine. He found his own Damascus Road that began with a beautiful woman, Cammy. The story of his conversion is a testament of God’s willingness to reach into the heart of any man regardless of their past or the present condition of their lives.

Law enforcement officials and mobsters say that the only way to leave the mob is in a coffin. However, God’s Word has a different insight – It is said in Proverbs 16:7 that, “when a man’s ways are pleasing to the Lord, even his enemies are at peace with him.” Michael is living testament to the latter. Over ten years ago, Camille led Michael to accept the Lord and it was at that time that he renounced his life in the mob. His conversion experience to a Christian faith completed the transition for Michael from a kingdom of darkness into a kingdom of light. One covenant bound him to the mob, the other, the covenant in Christ, set him free. Cammy’s role in the transformation of Michael cannot be overstated, leading media to call her “the woman who changed the face of organized crime.” Her role is a story of inspiration for women everywhere. That God used the power of love to penetrate the heart of a mafia captain, and be instrumental in Michael leaving the mafia and coming to Christ is nothing short of inspiring.

Man on a Mission With a Message

Franzese is now a man on a mission. Determined to use the compelling experiences of his former life for the benefit of at-risk youth, professional and student athletes, corporate executives and for anyone seeking the inspiration to beat the odds and make positive changes in their lives, he has become a highly regarded motivator and a source of invaluable information. Franzese candidly describes how he survived dozens of grand jury appearances, 3 major racketeering indictments, 5 criminal trials, 7 years in prison and a Mafia death sentence. He tells how he engaged bankers, corporate executives, union officials and professional and student athletes in a wide variety of financial scams. His open and honest presentations are fresh and unique. Audiences are captivated by stories of his personal experiences in organized crime and genuinely affected by his powerful anti-crime messages and eye opening revelations, particularly Church and faith-based events who hear his testimony of faith. Whether on tour with SonicFlood, speaking at a Church, or through his ministry partnership with Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Michael tells how there are two truths – You can’t escape the long arm of the law – and you sure can’t escape the longer arm of the Lord.

Telling the World
Michael’s compelling story of transformation has been featured through both Christian and general high profile media. Most recently, he was featured on the 700 Club * 100 Huntley Street * Billy Graham’s Decision Today Radio * Family Network “Open House” * Daystar Network * LeSea Broadcasting “Harvest” * TBN Praise the Lord & Damascus Road * Life Today with James Roberson. He has also been featured in Life Magazine * Fortune Magazine * Vanity Fair * Sports Illustrated * GQ * L.A * Times * 48 Hours * The Today Show * Nightline * ABC Primetime * NBC Nightly News * ESPN * HBO Real Sports * Jim Rome Show * PBS “All Things Considered” * the prestigious “The Eleventh Hour” for PBS, with guests Dennis Weaver and Jeb Magruder and was featured in the March 2003 issue of Cigar Aficionado.

“As a sworn member of La Cosa Nostra, I knowingly took an oath, a blood covenant, that obligated me to live my life in conflict with both the laws of God and of man. Although the Lord Jesus was known to me, at the time, I chose to give authority over my life to the boss of the Colombo crime family. Today, there is no doubt in my mind that I was doomed to spend an eternity in hell had I continued to reject the authority and live outside of the grace of my true boss, Jesus Christ. Mark 14:24 tells me that the blood of the covenant of Jesus set me free from the covenant with the mob.”

Sincerely,
Michael Halcomb

During our stay there, in the daylight hours we will be serving in some of the poorest slums in the world and strategizing with other Christian leaders and non-profit organizations to begin creating ways to help eradicate the rampant destitution of a community called Korah (Kore).  Korah is a community that consists of 80,000 societal outcasts.  There are lepers, HIV/AIDS victims, orphans, widows, prostitutes and many more who have been shunned or more pointedly, thrown away, by those more wealthy and powerful than they are.  Stating the matter more sharply, in Ethiopia’s capital city, Addis Abeba, a city of 6 million people, there is a city dump and it boxes Korah in against a filth-ridden and polluted river bed.  Every single day, the children of Korah wake up with hungry bellies and rush to the garbage dump to scavenge for food to eat.

On this trip, our group will be hosting a free conference for Ethiopian ministers called Edify where we will preach, teach, pray and lead worship.  In turn, these ministers will return to their villages and/or congregations to educate and disciple their members.  We also plan to put on a sports camp for street kids, feed the hungry, participate in home visits to HIV victims, visit a leper clinic, build relationships with church leaders for future trips and much, much more.

Jesus make the point in Matthew 22 that the greatest commandment is to love God, and the second is to love people.  Sound familiar?  If you havn’t figured it out yet this is kind of our motto at Embrace.  In the book of Luke this story is also told but towards the end the lawyer actually asks Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?”.  Jesus doesn’t just simply respond with a straight forward answer but actually tells a story about a good samritian to answer the mans question.  The reason this story is so important is because Jews and samaritians did not hang out, much less help eachother in time of need. The Jews hated the Samritians because they where not fully Jewish.  I think Jesus is making the point that our neighbor is not only anyone in need, but that we are to love all kinds of people.  This would be the same as me saying to you think of someone you absolutely hate, someone you can’t stand, and then tell you to have compassion on them and love them as yourself.  It’s a radical idea if you think about loving those that hate you, having compassion on those who persecute you.  The truth is that our neighbor is anyone we come in contact with, whether for a brief time or even for a life time.  We are called to share love and compassion with all, not just some.  What really hits me about the Matthew and Luke passages are the correlation between Loving God and Loving People.  After answering the mans question, Jesus doesn’t just stop there, but takes is a step further from our relationship with God to our relationship with others.  Jesus still doesn’t stop there and this is the part so many of us miss, Jesus doesn’t just say to love people, but actually he say’s, “love people as yourself”.  That word, “yourself” is scary sometimes, Jesus words imply that not only should we love God, love people, but we need to love ourselves as well….  I’m not talking about a self-righteous type of love but a heathly love of self that comes from acknowledging God’s love for you.  Some of us don’t like to look in the mirror cause we never see the good about us, but we only see what we want to change.  Some of us fear we will never measure up to what people expect from us so we try to be what we think everybody wants us to be.  We live in a society that tells us on a daily basis what we need to look like, what we need to wear, and what car we need to drive in order to be considered sucessful.  Then Jesus comes along saying things like, “In order to be first, you must be last”, and it turns our lives upsidedown.  Our surroundings teach us to be selfish, to be greedy, to have a false sense of self-love.  We build fences around our properties to keep our neighbors out, because we are obsessed with our right to privacy.  No matter what quality the wood or how pretty you make it a fence is always a fence and its purporse never changes, to keep something out, or to keep something in…  We feed our need for love by the things we buy, the masks we where, and even our relationships become charades that only fuel our selfish life styles.  It is impossible to truly love people without accepting and knowing the love of God…  If we want to truly love people we not only need to love God but a big part of loving God is accepting Gods love in your own life and brokenness.  Somewhere in the midst of legalism and “religion” many of us have forgotten what it is like to be loved by God.  When was the last time you just sat in silence and pondered the love of God, when was the last time you asked God what He thinks of you, how He feels about you, and what He see’s in you?    

Joshua Wynn

I have often wondered if aliens did exist, and they did come to earth to see what kind of life form exist here, what would they’re critique of us be? I tend to think it would be something like; they are busy group, they work, sleep and eat. They try hard to get ahead in life but often times forget why. They are tired, and many seem to be mechanical in their daily life which leads them to depression. They seem without life, without form, and every attempt to conquer their own fears and habits seem to fail. We really are our own worst enemies.

When we were kids we saw things that our parents did that we hated and declared from the mountain tops, “I will never be like that” only to finally embrace that we not only inherited the good traits from our parents, but also the bad. No matter how much we want to believe we are in control, we are simply not. Don’t get me wrong I’m not saying we have no will power at all, I’m saying over time our will power tends not to last. For instance there have been many times I decided to eat right, exercise, and get enough rest in order to lose weight, but two to three weeks go by and I’m right back where I was before I started. There is something innately flawed about us, we have an idea of what we want to do, or who we should be, but when we try to put the idea in motion we find it to be nearly impossible to fulfill. We make resolutions, spend millions in self-help books, gyms memberships, and special seminars just trying to fix our problems, reach our goals, and grasp our dreams only to see all fall by the way side. We want to believe the power to achieve is in us, because that sounds nice, you mean all I have to do is believe in myself, it sounds so much better than facing the truth that we don’t have this “power” in us. We are broken, some more than others, but we are all broken. And it goes beyond our actions, for instance they say a recovering alcoholic will always crave alcohol for the rest of their lives. I’ve seen drug abusers keep coming back to the drugs that are killing them, and wives keep going back to husbands that are beating them. What is it that makes us so self-destructive, and so powerless?

We could get into all the discussions about addiction, psychology, and human behavior, but it all comes down to brokenness. I think this is why the message of Christ is so beautiful. That while we were yet sinners or although we were broken, although we were damaged, Christ died for us; Christ gave himself to heal our brokenness. When I was a little boy my uncle would take me to go see the latest Disney Film at the local theatre. I remember seeing the movie Sleeping Beauty. The premise of the story is about a young girl who has a curse placed on that causes her to fall into a deep sleep. She can only be awakened by true loves first kiss. I remember watching as the handsome prince knelt down and to kiss the sleeping beauty on the lips. Even as a kid I knew this was a risk. All I could think as my eyes got wider and wider in suspense what if she doesn’t wake up, what’s going to happen to them? Of course, he kisses her and she awakes to see her handsome love and they live happily ever after. I think this is such a beautiful metaphor of what God does for us, when we are finally kiss by that love we are for the first time truly awake and all that stuff around us seems to fade as we look into the face of our true love. As we stare deeply into the eyes of our true love we stop trying to measure up, we stop trying to find our own power source and for the first time we are simply allowed to just be, and let loves embrace heal our brokenness.

This is our vision for the youth ministry.  We are going to begin moving toward this vision in every move we make.  Let me know what you guys think and begin to think of ways to move this vision forward.

Embrace:  Embrace will be our youth worship service.  Our purpose will be to connect students to a church home and to connect them with the love of God and His redeeming grace.  This will be a place where both college and youth can come and hear the word of God and worship God in a way that is driven toward embracing God’s love.  This will be seen in to ways 1) those who have never embrace the love of God, and 2) those who have for one reason or another experienced a disconnect in their relationship with God.

Emerge:  Emerge will be our student bible studies. Our purpose will be to go deeper in the word of god and in christian community with the intent of emerging from our sin and brokenness.  God does not just leave us in our sin, but through His grace and the power of the Holy Spirit we can begin to pursue living lives that are wholly devoted to God.

Engage:  Engage will be our student service projects.  Our purpose will be to move the focus from being saved from sin to being saved for service.  This is were risk taking mission and selfless service are embodied in order to engage the world for Christ.

I just want to thank all those who have been supportive of this process and those who have been with me through it all.  It has been an amazing ride and I just wanted to let you know I couldn’t have done it without you guys.

Thanks,

Joshua



I can tell you countless stories of people’s lives that have been changed at Embrace.  One guy who has been transformed will be getting baptized this Sunday so it gives us more of a reason to celebrate.  Mark Hyde first started attending Embrace this past summer.  Right from the start he started serving at Embrace through setting up our portable worship atmosphere, making coffee, and tearing down after services.  Mark runs around doing whatever needs to be done.  Never once did he want recognition or anything in return.  I believe Mark was a Godsend for me.  We quickly became friends and one days when Mark was over at my place I introduced him to another pastor, Aaron Mansfield as my armor-bearer because even though Mark weights about 110 soaking wet he’d take out anybody messing with his pastor.

The week I moved into my new place I was stressed out because moving is always such an ordeal, especially around the holidays in the middle of winter.  I asked Mark to help me out those few days.  There was a moment when we were resting when he put his arms around Scott and I and said, “We are kind of like a family.”  In those few days of moving something awesome took place.  We encouraged Mark by telling him how gifted he was as we saw his hard work ethic.  About a week later Mark asked me if I could help him find a job.  My friend Sammy interviewed him and immediately hired him.  Sammy said when talking about Mark, “He didn’t even ask how much he was going to be paid and wanted to start that day.”

The next prayer we saw answered was Andrew asking God about how to use his home for ministry.  Andrew received clear direction about asking Mark to live with him.  Now Mark has a job, his own room, kitchen and bathroom.  Mark has gone from being without a home and jobless to a person whose rich beyond measure with a church family and people who love him.

Mark’s story is only one of many from the people of Embrace.  It’s moments like these, which encourages me to keep pressing on and not to quit.  I believe 2010 will be a year of many more lives changed.

If every one in the Bluegrass Region of Kentucky gave $1 that would be great. If everyone in the Bluegrass Region of Kentucky gave $1 and waited to see what they could do next towards relief efforts with an open, willing heart that would be amazing!

So we are asking for $1 to start. Our Facebook Fan Page and web site have an easy button to give $1 or you can give that $1 to any organization. Just give $1. Everyone has $1… Everyone. It will mean so much for your heart to know that you did something. There will be plenty of places to give and help. We are just one of them. We do ask that you go public with your giving and post on our Fan Page Wall that you “Gave $1 to Haiti” and we will communicate any other opportunities that may arise towards this much needed effort.

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