Scott's Thoughts: Sun, Apr 24, 2022
Total Reading Time: Smidge more than 4 min.
Some Quick Friendly Reminders, Did You Knows?!, and In Case You Missed Its
Easter Jam Did, in Fact, Totally Jam – Wow! The Greeneville Worship Center was full, raucous, and hopping! Thanks to the many dozens of parents, families, and grandparents who joined us. Easter Jam was a great night of family fun, with interactive onstage and offstage games and trivia. But it was also a cool way to tell the resurrection story of new life in Christ, complete with “After Party” of fellowship, games, crafts, face painting. Be on the lookout for a retrospective blog post and video, (as well as Jingle Jam this Christmas!)
H7: Tell the story. “The Fantastic Four” at Afton – Need a reason to go read the post about the aforementioned 4 students who faithfully show up to serve? Listen to just some of what Ainsley Ford said about the reward of developing the 2nd Habit, Serve on the team: “At the end of the day, I can look back and see all the smiling faces that were brought closer to the Lord through a few hours of lost sleep and a little hard scrubbing.” Don’t miss the chance to be encouraged by what all 4 said! (And btw, if you will commit to Worship & Serve, which we’ve intentionally made possible on Sunday mornings, it doesn’t take even one hour of lost sleep for you to humble yourself to the everyday boring faithfulness of sweeping floors, serving coffee, shaking hands, playing an instrument, or teaching kids that are the very things God can use to further form your character and show you how the Kingdom is expanding through the church’s faithful witness.)
Next Steps is Next Week, Sun, May 1, 9a – This new re-remade Next Steps, that is a combination of an in-person class led by Next Steps Helpers who then connect with NS participants to continue and finalize the process, is a great way to renew or Discover God’s 7 Habits Vision for Your Life! If you missed this past one, come next Sunday. Details at fccgreene.org/nextsteps. Sign up on the Connect Card (fccgreene.org/cc or the app).
Multisite Campaign Update, Response Card/Form – We are a church that doesn’t like to make extended asks for money, but rather, we preach the habit of Pursue generosity. (H5) and we spend frugally so we are continually building up a surplus that enables us to finance our ministries, pay our 16 staff, have needed emergency funds, and launch a new campus when the time is right. (See this blog post re our “7 Factors in Launching Campuses”). But, (<-- You knew this was coming.) as the recent Elders Letter indicates, we are shooting for 125 committed to Worship & Serve at each of our 3 campuses as well as $100k to help replenish the estimated $300k we are spending to launch our new South Greene Campus. (FYI, as we mentioned at the Multisite Vision Night, as a result of the basic ‘financial vision’ mentioned above, we already have this $300k on-hand. But the $100k helps us launch strong and ensure our general fund and savings needn’t be used.) Btw, you can watch MVN on the app.
Also, Campus Pastors (or whomever is closing the service as the “Host” for that day) will be giving weekly updates like this at the end of our worship services:
Bigtime thank you to everyone who has already committed to Worship & Serve and/or to help us launch with financial strength that retains savings/reserves and helps set a course for future campus expansion. If you haven’t yet decided, please pick up a Multisite Response Card (or go to the rotating carousel at the top of the Home page on the app) to begin thinking and praying about how God has called you to be involved. And don’t worry, we’ll tell you plenty soon about further needed details like outreach opportunities, timeline, and Launch Team Mtgs (which involves all 3 campuses) starting this Summer. We’ll letcha know here in ST, upcoming Elders Letters, and in Campus Pastor spiels at the end of every service. If you’ve got any questions, hunt down me, a Campus Pastor, an Elder, a Staff Member, or someone you know who is in the know.
Some Quick Friendly Reminders, Did You Knows?!, and In Case You Missed Its
- It's Important to Know How to be in The Know – 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.
- H7: Tell the story. Stories – If you haven’t been seeing them, we have regular blog blurbs on “Latest News” (on the aforementioned “Stay Informed” and “Pulse” pages on the app) that are quick 3-5 minutes stories of how God is using FCCers in cool ways. See below for a quick teaser on the most recent one about 4 youths who serve with “everyday boring faithfulness” that builds their characters and strengthens the church.
- Watermark Church Leaders Conference – Paid Staff, Residents, and a number of key volunteer leaders at the Watermark CLC (churchleadersconference.com) this week being refreshed in God’s Word, learning best practices, and spending some bonding time together. Bigtime thanks to you, FCC, for taking up the call to create leaders and pursue generosity (fccgreene.org/7habits) with us in a way that means we can help fund leaders’ ongoing development. That’s super important and helpful for long-term healthy ministry. Thank you. (Btw, this means no Pillar this week, but that’s about it. Everything else is normal.)
- Brown Bags & Bibles on the Doctrine of The Word of God – Did you know that the app’s media player lets you watch or listen, vary the speed, and play in the background?! 🤯 So far we’ve covered: Forms of the Word of God, The Process of Canonization, The Authority of Scripture (<-- Where we are currently.) And we’re going to cover… The Clarity, Necessity, and Sufficiency of Scripture. BB&B is on the app (under "Watch") or at fccgreene.org/bbb.
- Preaching Schedule: Currently Wonky. Will Realign Soon. – I’m including this yet again as a few folks are apparently confused, (which makes sense. It is kinda confusing.) 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. This means that, in addition to me preaching 2-3 weeks in a row, every 3-4 weeks some combination of 2 of our 3 Campus Pastors will preach for a week (or two in a row) until we launch our new South Greene campus mid-October. Clear as mud?!
- Vids Recently Added to App: Good Friday Service & Multisite Vision Night – We’ve had a few folks ask if these were available and the answer is yes! Go to “Watch” on the app and choose the generic FCC logo. Boom. And did you know you can share media from the app? And did you know we’ll soon also have a “Marriage Ministry” feed of videos and resources on the app?!
- New Elders Letter – We just sent out a new letter this past week. If you haven’t received one, and want to read it now, go to the app! Also, did you know you can always see all our Elders Letters on the “Pulse” page of the app?!
Easter Jam Did, in Fact, Totally Jam – Wow! The Greeneville Worship Center was full, raucous, and hopping! Thanks to the many dozens of parents, families, and grandparents who joined us. Easter Jam was a great night of family fun, with interactive onstage and offstage games and trivia. But it was also a cool way to tell the resurrection story of new life in Christ, complete with “After Party” of fellowship, games, crafts, face painting. Be on the lookout for a retrospective blog post and video, (as well as Jingle Jam this Christmas!)
H7: Tell the story. “The Fantastic Four” at Afton – Need a reason to go read the post about the aforementioned 4 students who faithfully show up to serve? Listen to just some of what Ainsley Ford said about the reward of developing the 2nd Habit, Serve on the team: “At the end of the day, I can look back and see all the smiling faces that were brought closer to the Lord through a few hours of lost sleep and a little hard scrubbing.” Don’t miss the chance to be encouraged by what all 4 said! (And btw, if you will commit to Worship & Serve, which we’ve intentionally made possible on Sunday mornings, it doesn’t take even one hour of lost sleep for you to humble yourself to the everyday boring faithfulness of sweeping floors, serving coffee, shaking hands, playing an instrument, or teaching kids that are the very things God can use to further form your character and show you how the Kingdom is expanding through the church’s faithful witness.)
Next Steps is Next Week, Sun, May 1, 9a – This new re-remade Next Steps, that is a combination of an in-person class led by Next Steps Helpers who then connect with NS participants to continue and finalize the process, is a great way to renew or Discover God’s 7 Habits Vision for Your Life! If you missed this past one, come next Sunday. Details at fccgreene.org/nextsteps. Sign up on the Connect Card (fccgreene.org/cc or the app).
Multisite Campaign Update, Response Card/Form – We are a church that doesn’t like to make extended asks for money, but rather, we preach the habit of Pursue generosity. (H5) and we spend frugally so we are continually building up a surplus that enables us to finance our ministries, pay our 16 staff, have needed emergency funds, and launch a new campus when the time is right. (See this blog post re our “7 Factors in Launching Campuses”). But, (<-- You knew this was coming.) as the recent Elders Letter indicates, we are shooting for 125 committed to Worship & Serve at each of our 3 campuses as well as $100k to help replenish the estimated $300k we are spending to launch our new South Greene Campus. (FYI, as we mentioned at the Multisite Vision Night, as a result of the basic ‘financial vision’ mentioned above, we already have this $300k on-hand. But the $100k helps us launch strong and ensure our general fund and savings needn’t be used.) Btw, you can watch MVN on the app.
Also, Campus Pastors (or whomever is closing the service as the “Host” for that day) will be giving weekly updates like this at the end of our worship services:
- Worship & Serve Commitments (of 125 per campus)
- Afton: 52 (up from 31 two wks ago)
- Greeneville: 37 (up from 18 two wks ago)
- South Greene: 59 (up from 47 two wks ago)
- Financial Commitments (of $100,000): $25,480 actually given (of $31,845 pledge)
Bigtime thank you to everyone who has already committed to Worship & Serve and/or to help us launch with financial strength that retains savings/reserves and helps set a course for future campus expansion. If you haven’t yet decided, please pick up a Multisite Response Card (or go to the rotating carousel at the top of the Home page on the app) to begin thinking and praying about how God has called you to be involved. And don’t worry, we’ll tell you plenty soon about further needed details like outreach opportunities, timeline, and Launch Team Mtgs (which involves all 3 campuses) starting this Summer. We’ll letcha know here in ST, upcoming Elders Letters, and in Campus Pastor spiels at the end of every service. If you’ve got any questions, hunt down me, a Campus Pastor, an Elder, a Staff Member, or someone you know who is in the know.
Posted in Scotts Thoughts