Scott's Thoughts: Sun, Jun 20, 2021

A Few “This Week” Items – Just to keep you in the loop…

• re:generation – Monday evenings, at 6:30p, as always. Just mentioning it for those of you who may not know about it and need/want a place to work through life’s hurts and pains by means of a deeply rooted relationship with Christ.
• Monday Morning Missives – In case you missed it, this past week was a cool (at least I thought it was!) little 2-minute defense of the veracity of the New Testament writings, for the Bible nerds. It’s on the app, under “Watch” > “Media”. Also, please help us by liking and sharing on the socials. MMM is posted Monday mornings by 8:30a (usually, theoretically, hopefully, sometimes.)
• “Brown Bags & Bibles: Where we break down life’s biggest befuddlements with biblical basics” –  2 things: (1) We just finished 2 weeks of “Adoption”, as part 6 of our 10 part “Order of Salvation” series, and we continue with “Sanctification” this Tue at noon, on the socials and app. (2) The “Brown Bags” part of our title refers to how we used to do BB&B during last year’s quarantine, live, during lunch, so folks could tune in and interact and ask questions. Well, that part’s kind of over, so we’re working on a new name that retains our purpose (see above, “break down… .”) Feel free to suggest something.
• Coffee Convos – Thanks to Dale Thompson for joining us last week! This Wed, at 7:30p, we go live with Noelle Smith, Asst Principal at Greeneville HS and veteran FCCer. (Next week is Bob & Kelly Radank.) Join us in the comments and help steer the convo.
• “CYA20s” (still tentative name) Bonfire @ the Bowlins – This Tue, at 7p, invite your college, young adult, and 20-something children and friends to join us! Details on the Blog on the app (see below.) Please continue to pray for our emerging ministry.

A Personal and Slightly Cryptic Thank You – Because I may forget, or they may not make it today, or 20 other potential hindrances that may happen, there are a few of you who have pulled me aside and said encouraging words about praying for me and/or who have slipped me a little thank you note or card. Thank you so much for your quiet and faithful support. I so appreciate your prayers and kind words (and the Chick-fil-A gift card! You know who you are! I’ve already used it to take a few out to eat.)

Team Bash – We had a great turnout last Sun evening! Thanks for coming, thanks to all who participated, and thanks to all who helped make it happen! Make sure to check out a couple highlights videos on the blog, which is available exclusively on the app (“Pulse” > “Latest News”).

Blog on the App – In case you’re not yet aware, the Blog, which is only on the app, (bc, friendly reminder, our website is mostly static info for church shoppers and our app is for FCCers), is a place we put a running feed of news, events, and info for all-things FCC. One might say that the app (and the Blog/News feed) is where you can keep your thumb on the “Pulse” on all-things FCC. “Oh, now I get it!”

Kelly Radank is on Staff as ¾-Time Admin/Communications, Alicia Gourley Needs to Reduce Hours & Approximately 17 Other Staff/Structural Changes – Kelly Radank, (whom you may at least vaguely recognize as having the same last name as Bob, our new Next Steps/Missions Dir!), is stepping into staff as 30-hrs-per-week Admin/Comms. She has an (Alicia-Gourley-approved) admin-bent and has experience in church office and ministry. Long story short, what was Alicia’s full-time role is now divided between her continuing to do 5(ish) hours a week, (because she is needing to learn to live with serious Chronic Fatigue Syndrome), and Kelly filling in some of those gaps. So, please be praying for Alicia and the Gourleys (and Kelly) as they adjust to an emerging new normal. We already miss Alicia’s presence and faithfulness to use her (freakish) Admin gifts in ministry! In case you’re wondering what the “17 staff/structural changes” are, read the last 2-3 Scott’s Thoughts.

Super Quick 3rd Campus Update – This past week, we had our friend Jeff, from Portable Church Industries (portablechurch.com), come walk through South Greene HS with us. PCI is one of the main multisite/portable consulting firms we’ve used who helped us setup and learn how to execute Chuckey-Doak HS. So, he has begun engineering a plan for us that will allow us to launch as early as mid-Oct through early-Dec! We walk through his initial presentation of the plan later this week, so we’re excited! Please pray with us, for 75-100 to be committed to the launch team (i.e., not just warm bodies, but those who are 6th grade or older who are committed to serve, preferably from Greeneville more than Afton), for God’s leading, for wisdom to how to proceed, for ongoing financial strength, and for the souls of those we’re trying to reach.

Thanks for Helping Keep us Unified for Mission – Two Quick Disclaimers: (1) I hesitated to keep this item, but things like this occasionally need to be said in any group of people. (2) This may feel a bit random to some of you, but to a few FCCers who regularly find themselves in relational-informational tensions like this that are normal for meaningful local church involvement and ministry, this will totally make sense… A small but very important thank you to so many of you who help keep us unified for mission by actually seeking firsthand information by personal inquiry instead of someone’s seventeenth-hand piece of information that has often been misconstrued by others’ misinterpretation or emotional social media drivel. Straight up, I cannot do all this relational-informational tension management myself, (and haven’t for many years, actually. A few folks still expect me to be able to personally engage everyone who has any such difficulty with me, us, the church, society, “the system”, etc., whether small or large, and that is straight-up illogical and unbiblical insanity. Frankly, literally zero people who are meaningfully personally connected to others do so with everyone with whom they have any such relational-informational tension.) So, anyway, those of you who are consistently demanding relational-informational integrity of yourselves and others help keep us strong and unified in mission. Those of you who are consistently acting in grace with others help keep us relationally-informationally strong. Thank you. The sad reality is that, instead of seeking biblical reconciliation, done in-person, most would much rather confirm their internal biases and personal pains by gossiping and thinking ill of others instead of acting with grace because of what they cannot know, be sure of, or heal-through-others-and-apart-from-biblical-reconciliation. (Btw, a helpful little 6:45 video for this dynamic that we’ve long used on staff: https://youtu.be/RgdcljNV-Ew. Don’t let yourself become triangulated/undifferentiated. You’re welcome.) Anyhoo… enough of that.