Scott's Thoughts: Sun, Apr 10, 2022

Just a few Friendly Reminders, Updates, and FYIs. Total Reading Time: 3 min, tops.

A Few Quick Bullet Points

• On the app (fccgreene.org/app), on “Stay Informed” or “Pulse,” you can find pretty much everything you need to… stay informed… or keep your finger on the pulse of what’s going on.
• Our Pillar Peeps (fccgreene.org/pillar) have been away this weekend on a couple retreats. Thanks for praying for them. Make sure to ask them how it went.
• Our Brown Bags & Bibles video podcast has recently begun a series on the Doctrine of the Word of God. Go to fccgreene.org/bbb.
• Check out the most recent ST from Sun, Mar 27 for a listing of links to important things you may have missed from the previous 3-4 ST:
• Reinstitution of Sun Morning “Connect Card Culture”
  • “‘Childish’ Meme Theology: How Only the Discipline of Time in God’s Word Enables us to See the World (and People) Rightly”
  • Kids Check-In Changes
  • “We Can Disagree on Things Like the Logical/Chronological Order of Repentance/Faith and Still be in the Same Local Body”
  • “Helping Men/Women Find and Follow Jesus”
  • The Weekly Prayer Guide
  • The Importance of “The Big 3” for Meaningful Life-Changing Connection at FCC
  • Travis Chapman is our New Next Gen/Students (and Eventually Residents) Director – (And yes, we have yet to update fccgreene.org/leaders page to reflect Travis’ arrival.)
  • ”As a parent, your personal example of faithfulness or lack in meaningful church participation and everyday boring faithful service is training your kids for their future behavior.”
• Easter Jam, Tonight, Sun, Apr 10, 6-8p, at Greeneville campus – Basics at fccgreene.org/easterjam. Childcare for babies only.
• Good Friday Prayer Service, Fri, Apr 15, 6-7p, at Afton campus. – Our Residents have “praypared” a great way to get your head and heart ready for Resurrection by first remembering the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. Childcare for just preschoolers and younger (I think. Going off the top of my head here.)
  

New Next Steps Debuts to Much Acclaim – Ok, that’s a smidge of hyperbole. While we’ve definitely got some docs to finish and tech to tweak, what last week’s first session of our re-remade Next Steps made clear is that a combination of an in-person class led by Next Steps Helpers who then connect with NS participants to continue the process is going to be an important part of getting people connected and involved in the body and their own growth. If you missed this past one, come on the first Sunday of next month. Details at fccgreene.org/nextsteps.
Brief Recap of Recent Multisite Vision Night and Q & A – We covered these 7 topics:

1. 100 Years of FCC Faithfulness – Mark 16:15 is still our mission.
2. Why Multisite? – Because many Greene Countians are liars and there are ~45,000 people in our county not meaningfully connected to a church.
3. Our Multi Vision/Strategy (“Campus Constants”) – Basics of how multi works, the role of Campus Pastors, what ministries are centralized and decentralized, etc.
4. What We Have Learned in the Last 3 Years – Relatively homogeneous rural community, lots of people moving into Greene County, smaller campuses, full-time Campus Pastors, ongoing school/community outreach and positive feedback, and continued frugal spending means we think multisite continues working well in our context post-Covid drama.
5. How We Have Been “Prayparing” – Uhh, by being a multisite church for the last 3 years?! We touch on how it’s been going, hear a little from our Campus Pastors about how local campus outreach works
6. Financials: How Do We Pay for This? – Launching the South Greene campus by this mid-October will cost us around $300,000. (Yes, that theoretically accounts for recent inflation.) Fortunately, because we’ve been wise and careful the last few years, we are ready to pull the trigger debt-free now!
7. Where Do You Fit In? – We’re asking for (1) a commitment of 125 people who will Worship & Serve (any capacity/frequency) at each of our 3 campuses and (2) $100,000 of giving above our regular general fund to help us launch strong so we don’t deplete existing funds. (While we have around $475,000 and are entirely debt-free, much of that reserve is spoken for.) Multisite Response Cards are available in The Hub at every campus and we will be collecting them until we launch.

If you want to watch it, go to the top of the “Home” page on the app (fccgreene.org/app). Campus Pastors will soon be giving weekly updates like this at the end of our worship services:

• Afton: 31
• Greeneville: 18
• South Greene: 47

Financial Commitments (of $100,000)

• $14,195 pledged
• (Dunno yet exactly how much given yet. Will update soon enough, as we go.)

Pick up a Multisite Response Card to begin praying about how you can help. Also be on the lookout soon for another Elders Letter with further details, timeline, etc. We’ll begin Launch Team Meetings in the summer.
Preaching Schedule: Currently Wonky. Will Realign Soon. Few Other Random Ramblings – Mentioned this a few weeks ago, but worth saying again… Since we are rotating 3 Campus Pastors into our normal rotation, things are a bit wonky till we launch our South Greene campus mid-October. That means it’ll be some combination of 2 of our 3 CPs once every 3 weeks or so till then, (so less of me. I think you can suffer through that till then.) ;o)