Scott's Thoughts: Sun, Aug 15, 2021
Sheesh, feels like I’ve got a hundred things to cover, so I’ll try to be painfully brief and bullet pointy, (which goes against every fiber of my being, i.e., the aforementioned may end up being more apology for what follows than disclaimer for lack of specificity! There’s just too much that needs to be said.)
Sorry I Accidentally Lied… Twice! – Speaking of apologies, … (not that anybody cares much, though I did have one person who swears they were practically grieving, (but I don’t believe them. Pretty they were just trying to validate my crippling insecurities.)) On Sun morning, Aug 1, I announced, at our services, that you’d have to wait for that evening for the latest ST, then I had the audacity (perhaps better stated as stupidity?) to declare this past Sun morning, Aug 8, that I was “cautiously optimistic” that we may have an Evening Edition that evening. (Dummy.) For some odd reason the events of the days kept right on ticking (So rude!) and I wasn’t able to get it all done in time. Yeah, yeah, I know… “Why don’t you just write it first, and then just tell us when it’s done?” (Because Sundays work best for communicating most clearly and consistently.) Anyway, my apologies for reneging and forcing you to wait an entire 8 days for this scintillating new edition of ST. You can start breathing now.
FYI re FCC People Dynamics, Asking for a Little Patience, How Connection Works Here, Next Steps Relaunch – I’ve said this numerous times in the last 10-12 months or so, in numerous mostly personal and informal contexts, (though a few times in ST), but it’s worth saying again for how it names and helps account for changing people dynamics among us as we slowly-and-painfully come out of a solid year-and-a-half of Covid-related upheaval, frustration, total drama, yada, yada, yada. (Yes, I know, that was a run on and I overuse parenthesis and improperly use ellipses for pauses–I’m tired and temporarily grammatically apathetic, ok?!) Anyway… The gist is this: Easily 50% of our current attendance is brand new folks, largely not from Greeneville/Greene County, and thus not yet relationally well connected. I think this is something both veteran FCCers and new folks need to keep in mind. For veteran FCCers, it means that we need your help getting these new folks connected: introduce yourself and ask about new faces you don’t recognize, invite someone to lunch after Sunday morning services, invite someone to try out your Life Group, become willing to be a Next Steps Helper, etc. For new folks, be aware that a ton of folks around you are just as new as you. It’s easy to feel like everybody else is already connected, knows what they’re doing, how it works, etc., but that’s not remotely as true as it feels. I say all this because, as will be no great surprise to anyone, long and painful story short, the last 17 months of Covid have meant a ton of upheaval that has yet to settle. We’re figuring out how to rejigger all our (what at least by comparison previously felt like) fairly well-oiled and effective systems with now fewer resources for a different cultural moment where people are less willing to attend worship, serve, give, go to Life Group, get connected, etc. So I’m asking for a little patience with us and grace for one another. Our previous Next Steps process is almost ready for a relaunch in a better, scaleable, and more flexible format (that will quickly help a TON), but a couple unforeseen circumstances are slowing us down. So we’re limping along for another couple weeks until a (hopeful) early-September relaunch. But, as we’ve said many times, church only works if you’re “meaningfully participating” in the “First 3” Habits. Doing so doesn’t require going through Next Steps or waiting for the aforementioned unforeseen (<-- That’s a mouthful for two words!) circumstances to settle. In the meantime, if you’re interested in knowing more about how it all works here, how to connect, where to serve, etc., go to The Hub, talk to an Elder, Campus Pastor, Staffer, or anyone with a lanyard, or visit our new (almost-ready-for-the-public) website, especially the Next Steps page (fccgreene.org/nextsteps).
Our New (Almost-Ready-for-the-Public) Website: fccgreene.org! – This item gets an exclamation point because it has required TONS of extra time, pain, agony, and personal frustration. There’s much more than the following to say, but here are some basics…
Online v In-Person Preaching, Daniel Series & Bible Study Books – Couple quick bullet points…
“Pillar” Young Adults Launching Tue, Aug 24 – Please pray for David Bowlin and our Young Adults Ministry launching very soon! See fccgreene.org/ya for more info re overall vision, our new name, the basic format of Tue nights, and other plans.
Mon Morning Missives, Brown Bags & Bibles, and Coffee Convos – They’re all back in full-swing, if you’ve not noticed. They’re available on our app and socials.You can also subscribe to BB&B as a podcast. (Mental note to self: Put podcast links on website. Creative Team/Nathan: consider podcasticizing MMM, y’know, bc it’s so outrageously popular?!) We had FB Live issues last Wed, so we’re gonna do CC this Wed at 7:30p on FBL (fb.com/fccgreene/live) with Sarah Varnell, Pastor at nearby Trinity United Methodist.
“Great Questions Answered” Returns – A revamped version of an old GQA article is live today, marking the return of this occasional series where I’ll answer such important questions like, “Is Church Membership Biblical?” from a Christian worldview and using biblical-theological argumentation. GQA is intended to become a long-term repository of written biblical/theological resources for you. They’ll show up on the Pulse Tab, under “Latest News”, on the app. When we get enough GQAs, it will become its own handy link/pic on the Pulse Tab.
3rd Campus Launch Updates
“Pulse” Tab on the App, Pt 327 – Ok, so this is technically only the 2nd time this has appeared in ST, but in case you missed it, I want to reiterate how and where to keep a “pulse” on FCC goings-on: the “Pulse” tab on the app. And, FWIW, for the throngs of dozen(s?) who may have already read this, I’ve added and rejiggered (some of) the previous verbiage. It’s at least a smidge more helpful and interesting(er) now, (which, given the previous verbiage, won’t be hard to achieve.)
A Slightly Edited Repeat of a Repeat Worth Repeating > Please Pray With Us – Please continue praying with us about church and staff and organizational transitions. Things are fine, (quite good, in fact), but we have a lot to manage, folks are tired, we need a new Student/Youth Ministry Director, we’re taking over Catalyst (from the volunteer Board), we’re launching a revamped and agile (and I think, super innovative) Next Steps (on Sundays again), we’ve got many new folks we need to connect with and connect to our 7 Habits vision, we’re needing to launch new pop-up Life Groups (and another couple such LGs), we’re launching a new Young Adults ministry, we’re working hard behind the scenes toward a 3rd Campus Launch at South Greene High School late Fall, we are going to likely need around 100 (mostly) Greeneville campus people to go to that new campus, we are likely needing have a small congregational capital campaign (of something like, still a guesstimate here, around $125,000ish) in order to ensure we launch strong, (and that daggone new website still isn’t done!), so just pray for us all–from paid leaders to lay servants within FCC to newcomers considering coming on-board with our crazy vision–to listen closely to the Lord’s leading. (I’m still daily struggling with dreaming about going into ice cream as I wrestle with feeling like going to 3 campuses is akin to driving a whole buncha folks off a cliff–seems like fun while you’re in the air, but the landing, not so much. Pray I don’t need to go into ice cream. (But I’m a big fan of ice cream going into me, y’know what I’m saying?!))
Sorry I Accidentally Lied… Twice! – Speaking of apologies, … (not that anybody cares much, though I did have one person who swears they were practically grieving, (but I don’t believe them. Pretty they were just trying to validate my crippling insecurities.)) On Sun morning, Aug 1, I announced, at our services, that you’d have to wait for that evening for the latest ST, then I had the audacity (perhaps better stated as stupidity?) to declare this past Sun morning, Aug 8, that I was “cautiously optimistic” that we may have an Evening Edition that evening. (Dummy.) For some odd reason the events of the days kept right on ticking (So rude!) and I wasn’t able to get it all done in time. Yeah, yeah, I know… “Why don’t you just write it first, and then just tell us when it’s done?” (Because Sundays work best for communicating most clearly and consistently.) Anyway, my apologies for reneging and forcing you to wait an entire 8 days for this scintillating new edition of ST. You can start breathing now.
FYI re FCC People Dynamics, Asking for a Little Patience, How Connection Works Here, Next Steps Relaunch – I’ve said this numerous times in the last 10-12 months or so, in numerous mostly personal and informal contexts, (though a few times in ST), but it’s worth saying again for how it names and helps account for changing people dynamics among us as we slowly-and-painfully come out of a solid year-and-a-half of Covid-related upheaval, frustration, total drama, yada, yada, yada. (Yes, I know, that was a run on and I overuse parenthesis and improperly use ellipses for pauses–I’m tired and temporarily grammatically apathetic, ok?!) Anyway… The gist is this: Easily 50% of our current attendance is brand new folks, largely not from Greeneville/Greene County, and thus not yet relationally well connected. I think this is something both veteran FCCers and new folks need to keep in mind. For veteran FCCers, it means that we need your help getting these new folks connected: introduce yourself and ask about new faces you don’t recognize, invite someone to lunch after Sunday morning services, invite someone to try out your Life Group, become willing to be a Next Steps Helper, etc. For new folks, be aware that a ton of folks around you are just as new as you. It’s easy to feel like everybody else is already connected, knows what they’re doing, how it works, etc., but that’s not remotely as true as it feels. I say all this because, as will be no great surprise to anyone, long and painful story short, the last 17 months of Covid have meant a ton of upheaval that has yet to settle. We’re figuring out how to rejigger all our (what at least by comparison previously felt like) fairly well-oiled and effective systems with now fewer resources for a different cultural moment where people are less willing to attend worship, serve, give, go to Life Group, get connected, etc. So I’m asking for a little patience with us and grace for one another. Our previous Next Steps process is almost ready for a relaunch in a better, scaleable, and more flexible format (that will quickly help a TON), but a couple unforeseen circumstances are slowing us down. So we’re limping along for another couple weeks until a (hopeful) early-September relaunch. But, as we’ve said many times, church only works if you’re “meaningfully participating” in the “First 3” Habits. Doing so doesn’t require going through Next Steps or waiting for the aforementioned unforeseen (<-- That’s a mouthful for two words!) circumstances to settle. In the meantime, if you’re interested in knowing more about how it all works here, how to connect, where to serve, etc., go to The Hub, talk to an Elder, Campus Pastor, Staffer, or anyone with a lanyard, or visit our new (almost-ready-for-the-public) website, especially the Next Steps page (fccgreene.org/nextsteps).
Our New (Almost-Ready-for-the-Public) Website: fccgreene.org! – This item gets an exclamation point because it has required TONS of extra time, pain, agony, and personal frustration. There’s much more than the following to say, but here are some basics…
- For an intro to the purpose and vision for the website itself, to understand to whom it’s directed, read through the first couple sections.
- Yes, I know, there are some links still going to nowhere and pretty junky-and-informal-looking editorial comments to self in a few places.
- Yes, I know, it’s often too wordy, (for now.) But that’s for a good reason, (for now.)
- In basic terms, the website is (eventually going to be) focused on giving non-FCCers looking for a church a comprehensive understanding of our vision, (but eventually, with fewer words.) As we’ve said numerous times, the website is for non-FCCers needing info about us and is focused on communicating that they can trust our intentions and vision enough to come visit. The app is for FCCer engagement. So, no news feeds/updates, events calendars, forms, sign-ups, etc., on the website. That’s all in-app, in theory.
- However… the website is currently for you! Yes indeed, all existing FCCers should absolutely read every word of our new website as it is because again, since it is intended, (for now), to be a comprehensive online presentation of our churchwide vision of Helping people find and follow Jesus by implementing a multisite strategy of 7 Habits for Discovering God’s Vision for Your Life that militantly fights against Christian consumerism to produce community-and-people-building producers, it is worth your time to read through it, especially as we continue to grow beyond 2 campuses. Many of you think you know who we are, why we exist, how it works, etc., and that may be true enough, but I promise, we all need a refresher as we go to 3 campuses. It’s been helpful for me to work through the verbiage and vision. It’s imperative we have the same language and are unified about our mission and vision, as well as specifics of strategy and processes. So please take the time to read through the site in the next week. Starting in a week, (after getting all the kinks out and links working), we’re gonna start annoying the Greeneville-Greene County online world with our website, as part of some promo for the Daniel series.
- Another factor in wordiness that may mean leaving more info on our site than conventional web wisdom says is that I’ve noticed (and have had a couple folks I’ve talked to from other churches notice) that our guests are reading and watching much more on our website ahead-of-time and doing more investigative work before visiting us. I suspect this is not going away and we’ll see more folks wanting to know more before they trust us enough to even visit the first time.
Online v In-Person Preaching, Daniel Series & Bible Study Books – Couple quick bullet points…
- Online v In-Person Sermons – Over the last many months, folks have asked about the similarities and differences, so voila… 90% of the time, the online sermon is the first draft version. We record it on Thursdays and it is a miracle if I’m ready by our 1p recording “deadline.” (I prefer the term “goal” here.) So no, the online sermon is not exactly like Sun mornings. It’s mostly the same, in terms of content, but in-person delivery changes the sermon a bit every time. Most of the time, in-person sermon is (more) finished and (theoretically) ready (enough), though I’m still quite unhappy with it 100% of the time, especially for the 4-5 years of growth, adjustment to multisite, Covid craziness, becoming an increasingly-physically-and-emotionally tired man in his late-40s, etc. I’ve been struggling for the last year, especially, to get past first draft for Sundays because, coming out of lockdown in Summer 2020, our strategy of both online and in-person (and everything else associated with tons of ongoing staff and church transitions) has made things beyond unmanageable. Please pray I can get to more sermon prep. I feel it continuing to slowly slip into last place of priorities.
- Daniel: “Faith Enduring Through Adversity” – We start our 13-week series on Daniel on Sun, Sep 5. We will have Invite Cards for you starting next Sun, Aug 22. Also, as I’ve mentioned before, we are doing an accompanying Bible Study together during this series. It will serve as fodder for Life Groups Discussion/Questions, Sermon Guides content, and personal daily study, if you’d like. The books are available for purchase in The Hub right now, and we are charging $10 per book because we want to offer them to our Pillar Young Adults for free. They will be following the same preaching series on Tuesday nights. (More info on Pillar YA below.) So you pitching in a couple/few extra bucks per book will help us cover that.
“Pillar” Young Adults Launching Tue, Aug 24 – Please pray for David Bowlin and our Young Adults Ministry launching very soon! See fccgreene.org/ya for more info re overall vision, our new name, the basic format of Tue nights, and other plans.
Mon Morning Missives, Brown Bags & Bibles, and Coffee Convos – They’re all back in full-swing, if you’ve not noticed. They’re available on our app and socials.You can also subscribe to BB&B as a podcast. (Mental note to self: Put podcast links on website. Creative Team/Nathan: consider podcasticizing MMM, y’know, bc it’s so outrageously popular?!) We had FB Live issues last Wed, so we’re gonna do CC this Wed at 7:30p on FBL (fb.com/fccgreene/live) with Sarah Varnell, Pastor at nearby Trinity United Methodist.
“Great Questions Answered” Returns – A revamped version of an old GQA article is live today, marking the return of this occasional series where I’ll answer such important questions like, “Is Church Membership Biblical?” from a Christian worldview and using biblical-theological argumentation. GQA is intended to become a long-term repository of written biblical/theological resources for you. They’ll show up on the Pulse Tab, under “Latest News”, on the app. When we get enough GQAs, it will become its own handy link/pic on the Pulse Tab.
3rd Campus Launch Updates
- Tommy, Tyson, Bob, & I Gone Mon-Fri, Sep 20-24 – Mostly a heads up, but we’re off to “Campus Pastor Assessment”, which is a boot camp of assessment and preparation for Campus Pastoring.
- Please Pray With Us – We cannot formally begin to gather people for a launch team and talk publicly about where we’re headed, etc., until the Greene County Schools Board of Education approves the lease agreement on Aug 26. So please pray for God’s continued favor toward that end. Signs look good, but we want to remain faithful and humble in approaching it all open-handedly, to serve our community in ways that take our cues from the school’s needs and desires.
- (Having Said That), Outreach is Already Happening – As there were some relationships and momentum we needed to begin cultivating, we’ve already been doing pressure washing, cleaning, gathering with faculty/staff for prayer, feeding staff/faculty, helping with registration and refreshements, helping with football, etc.
- FCC Stickers – We’ve chilled out on this for a while, but be ready for us to inundate you with stickers for the back windows of your vehicles soon, as part of a shock and awe promo campaign for 3rd campus launch.
- I’m Staying at the Broadcast Campus for Both Services – I hesitate to include such details here, as if everyone is asking for clarification on such Scott-focused stuff, (which, I promise, mercifully, they aren’t!) … but, a few folks here and there have asked a form of this question, and someone asked me this morning, so I thought it would be helpful to include here.
- Upcoming “Factors in Deciding My Campus” Article – We’ve been saying that everyone needs to talk to their Campus Pastor before deciding where to land. Still true. And I’m going to be sharing an article about the factors involved in that so that can serve to function as organization-wide filters for us all, so we’re on the same page about where to go, why, what the needs might be that are different from one campus to the next, etc. So, I hope to have that to ya in another couple weeks, after we solidify some important launch plans.
- Campus Launch Team Meetings – Not happening yet. Need to nail down a few other things. But, in case you’re wondering, yes, we will have these, and they will be helpful, and we will want you to attend, but not yet. We’ll letcha know when the time is right.
“Pulse” Tab on the App, Pt 327 – Ok, so this is technically only the 2nd time this has appeared in ST, but in case you missed it, I want to reiterate how and where to keep a “pulse” on FCC goings-on: the “Pulse” tab on the app. And, FWIW, for the throngs of dozen(s?) who may have already read this, I’ve added and rejiggered (some of) the previous verbiage. It’s at least a smidge more helpful and interesting(er) now, (which, given the previous verbiage, won’t be hard to achieve.)
- The “News Feed” is our blog on our new website, where we post weekly content as it’s produced, ongoing ministry updates, reports of past events (pics/videos/highlights), Pulse Video/Email, Scott’s Thoughts, Great Questions Answered (see below), and write-ups and sign-ups about significant and/or irregular upcoming events.
- The “Event Calendar” is constantly updated, so go there for quick and easy access to times, dates, basic info, and often, links to more detail, sign-ups, etc.
- The “Our Socials” feed is an RSS feed of our many outlets, including Kids, Students, and Spotify playlists of our Sunday morning songs.
- “Latest Elders Letter” is just that… that latest Elders letter, (which was Dec 2020, so we’re still way behind, guys. Can one of you Elders please bring this up at the next meeting if I forget? (... which I will.))
- Also, there are sign-up forms for Kids/Students Emails/Texts and Weekly Pulse Emails. (Btw, Alicia and Kelly, maybe we should have a Subsplash “List” of oft-used PCO Forms there? ← Kelly, can you and Alicia Ping to/fro re this and tell me y’all’s thoughts?)
A Slightly Edited Repeat of a Repeat Worth Repeating > Please Pray With Us – Please continue praying with us about church and staff and organizational transitions. Things are fine, (quite good, in fact), but we have a lot to manage, folks are tired, we need a new Student/Youth Ministry Director, we’re taking over Catalyst (from the volunteer Board), we’re launching a revamped and agile (and I think, super innovative) Next Steps (on Sundays again), we’ve got many new folks we need to connect with and connect to our 7 Habits vision, we’re needing to launch new pop-up Life Groups (and another couple such LGs), we’re launching a new Young Adults ministry, we’re working hard behind the scenes toward a 3rd Campus Launch at South Greene High School late Fall, we are going to likely need around 100 (mostly) Greeneville campus people to go to that new campus, we are likely needing have a small congregational capital campaign (of something like, still a guesstimate here, around $125,000ish) in order to ensure we launch strong, (and that daggone new website still isn’t done!), so just pray for us all–from paid leaders to lay servants within FCC to newcomers considering coming on-board with our crazy vision–to listen closely to the Lord’s leading. (I’m still daily struggling with dreaming about going into ice cream as I wrestle with feeling like going to 3 campuses is akin to driving a whole buncha folks off a cliff–seems like fun while you’re in the air, but the landing, not so much. Pray I don’t need to go into ice cream. (But I’m a big fan of ice cream going into me, y’know what I’m saying?!))
Posted in Scotts Thoughts