Scott's Thoughts: Sun, Mar 27, 2022

Total Reading Time: 5 min 30 sec.

Holy Moly, There’s A Lot (Too Much) Going On at FCC! – (Btw, what is a “moly” anyway?!) Now, I know we all live in a world of infowhelm/overwhelm and, like me, you’ve got more things to do and digest than physical and emotional time and space allow. You have to pick and choose. I get it. So, without time nor space to enumerate all the various special days, retreats, events, Easter things, Good Friday, yada, yada, lemme just say that we try to keep you informed in ways that can be tailored to your needs and margins. So please be intentional with how you receive our regular comms outputs like the Worship Guide, Pulse Video, Pulse Email, Scott’s Thoughts, the “Events” calendar on the app, not to mention the numerous ministry-specific emails, texts, tweets, and socials posts. By simply going to the “Pulse” page on the app (bc here you can “keep your thumb on the pulse” of the goings-on!) and/or the Connect Card, you can both sign-up to receive what you need/want as well as “Stay Informed” (which also shows up on the “Home” page of the app.)

You May Need To Read A Couple Recent Scott’s Thoughts – As already noted, you’ve got more things to do and digest than physical and emotional time and space allow. But in case you missed ‘em, here are recent things covered in the last 3-4 STs from which to cherry pick:
Middle/High School Parents, Meet Travis, Q&A, Etc. – There’s some sorta upcoming 180 night of “Meet Travis, Hear Some Student Min Vision, Ask Questions” happening, so make sure you receive youth emails and texts. I think it’s the first Wed in Apr?

TONIGHT! > All-Church Multisite Vision Night and Q & A – Sun, Mar 27, 6:30-7:30p, Greeneville campus, Childcare for preschoolers – An Elders Letter recently went ou to inform “all y’all” about this very important meeting that formally begins the public assembly of our “3 Launch Teams” (“What?!”) for launching/relaunching our multisite vision late this Fall with our newest campus at South Greene HS!!! (<— 3 exclamation points seems excessive. Btw, New Californians, Arizonans, Texans, Floridians, and Yorkers, and other such recent replants and refugees, “all y’all” is East Tenn 2nd person plural for “everybody,” as in, “All y’all are now FCC vols.”) Tonight we will touch on our church’s history, outline our multisite vision, why we are multisite, how it works, and talk about how we’ve been “prayparing,” how to choose a campus, how to get involved, as well as overall launch timeline, specifics about South Greene campus launch plans, why we’re asking for 3 Launch Teams of 125 people committed to Worship & Serve, and where we are financially, followed by at least 20 minutes for Q & A. Only an hour of drinking from a firehose of multisite info. Don’t miss it. (Btw, those wanting to know more about, or who may be skeptical of, multisite, see this page (fccgreene.org/multisite) and this sermon (“What is a Multisite Church and Why Are We One?” (Acts 1:6-11; 2:41; 4:4), which makes an argument for the biblical precedent for a form of multisite like ours that is found in the early church.)

Brown Bags & Bibles Begins News Series on the Doctrine of the Word of God – One of our Elders, Mark Liebert, and I, (we went to the same seminary) recently started a new extended series where we work through Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology to cover some foundationally important theological truths about the history of the Bible, its writing, preservation, and Spirit-led compilation, the importance and function of God’s Word(s) (which take more forms than just written), and its authority, clarity, necessity, and sufficiency. (<— Yes, that’s a run-on.) We’ve already talked about the different “forms” of the Word of God that became the Bible, the process of “canonization” whereby God superintends the preservation of His Word by guiding the church through faithfully deciding what is and isn’t included as Scripture, and we’re now getting into the authority of the Bible. It’s worth your time because it’s just good old fashioned theology. It’s on the “Watch” (> “Media”) page on the app, our socials, and fccgreene.org/bbb.

Preaching Schedule: Currently Wonky. Will Realign Soon. Few Other Random Ramblings – Mentioned this a few weeks ago, but worth restating as I’ve gotten this question more than a few times, (as in, maybe 4 or 5, so not “throngs of dozens” like our Brown Bags & Bibles podcast fan club. New folks: This is me being absurdly sarcastic. It’s a personal coping mechanism. We don’t likely have “throngs of dozens” following BB&B closely. Maybe literally 1.9 dozen? That technically qualifies as “dozens.”) :o) Where was I? So until we launch our 3rd campus at South Greene HS late this Fall, and because of vacations, a couple conferences, and, tbh, (<— “to be honest,” in interwebese), because I wanna make sure I get to preach a few key passages, we are currently having to do some janky rotation of preachers to get Bob Radank some at-bats as we near the SG launch. (… which he obviously needs, amiright?! I mean, really! J/K, of course. Actually, the feedback about Bob’s preaching has been great—every bit as stellar as Tommy’s and Tyson’s, which is to say, I get it, folks, I get it. Our Campus Pastors do a great job. I hear you already for crying out loud. ‘They tell more stories. They speak slower. They anunciate betterly. They are more relatable.They are nicer. They don’t have ADD.’ Blah, blah, blah… <— Yeah, that “Blah, blah, blah… was me.)

Seriously, though, (no sarcasm), I am grateful that you—our regular old everyday boring faithful FCCer—regularly support and encourage our Campus Pastors in their gift of preaching and teaching with your positive comments online, in text message responses, to them personally, etc. I really believe it’s so important for us to be a church that encourages and supports one another’s spiritual gifts. Paul tells us they are Christ’s gift to the church to build it up (Ephesians 4:7-16; Romans 12; 1 Corinthians 12; Colossians 1:24-29; just to name a representative few.) So I am grateful that the secret sauce at FCC is ultimately hundreds of laypeople who faithfully embody the 7 Habits and who thus build up our Campus Pastors, Elders, Paid Staff, and others serving the Lord in whatever ways He has called. I am grateful the Lord has raised up for us three men who care about pastoring His flock by preaching the unvarnished Word that He uses to do His work. I am grateful that we are led by Elders and Staff who are all-in to embody a vision of shepherding God’s flock with His heart a là king David, (who God intended to be a contrast to ‘the people’s choice’ of Saul. See 2 Samuel 7:12-13, e.g.) FCC works because God gathers and leads His flock through His Word working in peoples’ lives and I’m so grateful to be part of it.

So all that is to say that I guess you could say our currently spazzy preaching rotation is mostly Bob’s fault, really. I mean, he did publicly decry my love for The World’s Game™ in one of his recent sermon intros because he thinks it isn’t a “real man’s sport.” And yes, when we get to 3 campuses late Fall, the preaching rotation will more consistently be what we’ve been doing before: approximately 3-5 Sundays of me (if you can bear to suffer through my ADD) followed by 1 Sunday where the 3 Campus Pastors will preach in-the-flesh at their own campuses. Till then, sorry, but it’s gonna be wonky. And no, we will not prepublish who is preaching when and where (bc, of course, the campus where I am preaching in-the-flesh will be absolutely inundated. Duh.)

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