Scott's Thoughts: Sun, Aug 29, 2021
Fairly short touch up this week, promise. I’m trying… (to keep these short(er than they have typically been.))
Pillar Young Adults Launch Last Tue! – We had 30 young adults here, (not counting FCC adults/helpers,) many of whom were first-timers and not connected to a church home! So. Cool. Check out today’s Pulse Video for a great summary and continue to pray with us for this ministry.
Daniel Starts Next Week! Grab an Invite Card! Buy Your Book Today! – Help us get the word out by taking an Invite Card and praying for opportunities to invite someone to join us next week! And don’t forget to buy your Bible Study book to follow along for the 13-weeks. We’re using this book to guide our series and Life Groups. They’re available today in The Hub or at fccgreene.org/danielbook, for $10 ($3 goes to help fund books for our Pillar Young Adults!) For basics on the 13-week Daniel series, called “Faith Enduring Through Adversity,” go to fccgreene.org/daniel.
A Quick Plug for Re:gen – As I’ve said a number of times over the years, Re:gen is a foundationally important discipleship and spiritual growth training environment. It’s so important we ask all our leaders to go through it because it’s not just for ourselves, but it becomes our churchwide vocabulary for soul care. Here’s how the re:gen process breaks down:
Catalyst Coffee Company – Nathan Dickerson, our Interim-for-Now-and-Maybe-for-Good Catalyst GM, is hard at work to continue building missional momentum.
Reprint Because Important, if you Missed it the First Time. > 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. 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).
Reprint Because Important, if you Missed it the First Time. > New Website: fccgreene.org – There’s much more than the following to say, but here are some basics…
Pillar Young Adults Launch Last Tue! – We had 30 young adults here, (not counting FCC adults/helpers,) many of whom were first-timers and not connected to a church home! So. Cool. Check out today’s Pulse Video for a great summary and continue to pray with us for this ministry.
Daniel Starts Next Week! Grab an Invite Card! Buy Your Book Today! – Help us get the word out by taking an Invite Card and praying for opportunities to invite someone to join us next week! And don’t forget to buy your Bible Study book to follow along for the 13-weeks. We’re using this book to guide our series and Life Groups. They’re available today in The Hub or at fccgreene.org/danielbook, for $10 ($3 goes to help fund books for our Pillar Young Adults!) For basics on the 13-week Daniel series, called “Faith Enduring Through Adversity,” go to fccgreene.org/daniel.
A Quick Plug for Re:gen – As I’ve said a number of times over the years, Re:gen is a foundationally important discipleship and spiritual growth training environment. It’s so important we ask all our leaders to go through it because it’s not just for ourselves, but it becomes our churchwide vocabulary for soul care. Here’s how the re:gen process breaks down:
- Steps 1-3 – Realizing Your Need for God's Grace: Admit, Believe, Trust
- Steps 4-6 – Receive God's Grace: Inventory, Confess, Repent
- Steps 7-9 – Respond to God's Grace: Follow, Forgive, Amends
- Steps 10-12 – Regeneration Because of God's Grace: Continue, Intimacy, Regeneration.
Catalyst Coffee Company – Nathan Dickerson, our Interim-for-Now-and-Maybe-for-Good Catalyst GM, is hard at work to continue building missional momentum.
- Needs New Employees – Things are going well, but kids are going back to school, we're about to expand our hours, and we need a couple/few new employees to help with this marketplace ministry who come with FCC DNA (and it would be quite ok if they had a few decades behind ‘em, we tracking?!) If you're interested or have questions, email Nathan.
- Beans in The Hub Soon – We’ve recently upped our game with the number of FCC volunteers who roast coffee, (and could still use a few more, frankly!) This means we can offer fresh and locally roasted Catalyst beans for you every Sunday in The Hub soon! Boom. You’re welcome.
- Thanks for Helping with Lightbulbs! – We needed a bunch of work of with lightbulbs, so thanks Dave!
Reprint Because Important, if you Missed it the First Time. > 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. 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).
Reprint Because Important, if you Missed it the First Time. > New Website: fccgreene.org – 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 on the Home Page.
- You may find a few links still going to nowhere and a few editorial comments to self in a few places, but most of those are fixed now.
- Yes, 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 few days.
- 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.
Posted in Scotts Thoughts