Scott's Thoughts

Click title to jump to a section and ^ TOP ^ to return. Or just scroll like a normal person. And apologies for links that make getting back here annoying. We’re annoyed, too, but it’s an app limitation. And yes, Scott once had hair that could be combed.

As I mentioned during this morning’s pre-sermon banter, we need 15-20 Middle School registrations this week or we’re going to have to make some last-minute changes to plan something similar. For details, see here. And if cost is an issue, it’s not an issue—talk to Travis Chapman, Next Gen/Students Director (travis@fccgreene.org) and we’ll make arrangements to make sure your kid gets there. And if you wanna help make sure we can make sure Middle School kids get there, talk to Crista Larsen, Financial Director (crista@fccgreene.org) and we’ll make sure you can help make sure Middle School kids get to camp.

Just a quick heads up that last week’s mostly-finished GQA (“Great Questions Answered”) is complete and also available in booklet form today in The Hub at every campus. You can read it online at fccgreene.org/gqa or in booklet form (PDF) at fccgreene.org/resurrectionbooklet. (Btw, you can also read and refer to our booklet called “The Gospel: What It Is and How it is Key to Discovering God’s Vision for Your Life” at fccgreene.org/gospelbooklet.) While I’m writing all stream-of-consciousness, just wanna reiterate what I’ve said a couple times here before that I’m continuing to work on GQAs like this because I’m increasingly convinced that, in a world of seemingly endless resources and all-too-handy information, people ironically need personally-known-and-trustworthy theological resources. While I think it has always been true, modern infowhelm and the unreality (and often deceit) of many modern means of communication means that local-level resources are more needed than ever. If local churches and organizations aren’t teaching people locally, unknown and not-local resources will continue to fill the gaps. It’s like ‘farm/buy/build local’—the subsidiarity of communication—people best learn the truth from people they actually know and can talk to. (‘So what you’re saying is you’re gonna keep writing GQAs? Gotcha.’) Yep, that’s what I’m saying.

Basically, we need good people who will work hard for about $13/hr (with tips) for the mission of creating a warm and loving environment that is smack-dab in the middle of our community and that gives away profits to support already-existing ministries and nonprofits: “Producing Goodness” and “Promoting Others”. And oh yeah, we also serve coffee, tea, espresso drinks, frappés, smoothies, and light fare.

While we are close to hiring a couple new young employees—and that’s fine, and we like them, and our church is super-pro-young-people, and we have no qualms about dealing with the transience of youth—we nonetheless also need a couple older folks who can work a couple/few regular shifts a week. For more info, go to fccgreene.org/catalyst. You can also call (423-588-5146) or email (nathan@catalystcoffeecompany.com) Nathan Dickerson, Catalyst GM, and he’d be happy to answer your questions.

Or as the kids these days are saying online, “ICYMI”. And while we’re at it, here’s the “TL;DR” bottom line: In the interest of catching up the many who aren’t losing sleep waiting for my thoughts to be published, and because I’m well aware that, if half our Staff don’t read Scott’s Thoughts until weeks after and they’re paid to do so, many of you may need some friendly reminders of things we’ve recently covered in ST. Toward that end, some links to some recent blurbs:

• Y’all Need Re:gen
• Updates & Reminders re Brown Bags & Bibles, Weekly Bible Study Podcast, Life Groups Discussion Guide, and the App
• Some Thoughts re Our Mission and Why Engagement and Growth Work as They Do
• Flood Relief Funds (Almost) Fully Disbursed
• Greeneville Campus Seating is Getting Tight… Yet Again
• Friendly Reminder of Upcoming Sermon Plans
• Some Miscellaneous Everyday Observations

As 30 years of anecdotal ministry data have made clear to me, I know well that the last person on earth that anyone wants to hear complain is… their Pastor. But, the Lord has you in a church where the Lead Pastor is a bit more raw than most, so you’re going to have to bear with me for about two sentences. (You can handle it.)

Frankly, at 52 years old I’ve learned that being a half-as-effective-as-needed husband, father, son, and pastor who shows up for work every day is easily two to three times harder than I knew just 10 years ago. Because of the countless weights and anxieties I see in the lives of people all around me everyday—let alone my own, as if there’s any margin for that—I am daily tempted to quit it all. It’s too hard. It’s not worth the sacrifice. It feels like all I do is fail. The responsibilities are too many and too weighty. I leave untold things undone every single day.

But I’ve learned to keep telling myself, “I’ll quit tomorrow.” Not today. Never today. But I’ll quit tomorrow.

Even if my sermon was half-baked, nowhere near what’s needed, and I feel irresponsible about how much more work it needed, today I’ll deliver what I’ve got with my whole heart, pray God uses it despite me, and I’ll quit tomorrow. Though my Scott’s Thoughts was first-drafty and I didn’t complete my-still-emerging GQA re why we Protestants oppose the concept of a pope, I’ll do what I can for 15-20 mins today, and I’ll quit trying to develop a trustworthy repository of good biblical and theological answers… tomorrow. Even if my time and words to my wife and kids yesterday were rather brief and undone compared to the fullness of their needs, my love for them, and my expectations for myself, I’ll let what I did and said be enough for now, pray God’s Spirit multiplies it in their hearts, show up as much as I am able today, and though it sounds sacrilegious at first, … I’ll quit being a husband and father tomorrow.

I’m sure there are better and healthier ways you do all this self-talk than I, but often all I can muster is one-moment-at-a-time faithfulness that is rooted in the knowledge that—apart from Jesus—God has only and ever used broken people to advance His Kingdom. It is in the gritty, everyday, and often-unexciting God-given responsibilities—where nobody is following us around with balloons and pom poms—that God’s Spirit moves His Kingdom forward and strengthens us for tomorrow.

Here are a few Bible verses to remind us this week to endure, show up for work, and depend on God’s sustaining grace to multiply our efforts:

• Galatians 6:9 – “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” Everyday faithfulness is often quiet and unremarkable, but it’s what God uses to build something eternal. Don’t quit today.
• 1 Corinthians 15:58 – “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” Even when it’s hard and it feels like nothing’s changing, ordinary labor done for Christ is never wasted.
• Lamentations 3:22-23 – “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; 23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” For tired men and women who keep getting up: His mercies are fresh every day, even when it feels like yours are dried up.
• Ecclesiastes 9:10 – “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might…” … even if what your hand finds to do is laundry, sermon prep, a difficult conversation, or bedtime prayers.
• 2 Timothy 4:7 – “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” This is the long view. You finish the race not by sprinting, but by not quitting today.
• Proverbs 20:6 – “Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a faithful man who can find?” Faithfulness is rare. Show up. Stay. Do the work. Therein lies the real work.