Scott's Thoughts
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A Few Misc Updates, Heads Ups, & FYIs
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Ordaining And Sending Brandon Ivy Family—Yay?!
Many of you—and especially our South Greene Campus folks—know Brandon, his wife Jamie, and their family well. Brandon goes back 20-plus years to my youth ministry days at FCC, and, long story short, he’s come up through our ministry ranks the whole way: Kids Coach, 180 Small Group Leader, Pulpit Supply Team, and more. He was theologically trained at Johnson University and Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary (we’re proud to say our first CBTS graduate), and in a week we get the joy of having helped train, ordain, and send him to pastor Hardin’s Chapel Church.
I’ve watched this man grow up here—come to faith, marry Jamie, raise his kids, and step into leadership—and what strikes me most is the fruit you’d want to see in anyone the church sends out: ‘a settled confidence in the sufficiency of Scripture, a deep love for Christ and His Church, and an ever-increasing desire to serve God's people faithfully wherever He sends.’ (Those single quotes are there because that’s almost verbatim a quote from what he submitted to the Elders as part of the Ordination process.) That’s exactly what makes this bittersweet. Being a multisite sending church means we keep aiming at the mission even when the mission costs us dear friends. So: yay, and also boo.
Join us in praying for the Ivy family, for Brandon’s ministry at Hardin’s Chapel Church, and for the Lord to use them to advance His Kingdom in Greene County and beyond. If you’d like to join us, be on the lookout for info for the Ordination Service for Brandon, which will be at our South Greene Campus after an upcoming Sunday service in mid-late July. (As soon as the date/plans become available, I’ll (try to remember to) post them here.
For more about Brandon, check out these previous FCC posts here, here, and here.
Staff Changes
New Booklet – “Ruth: From Emptiness To Fullness—God’s Sovereign Hand From Moab To Messiah”
In basic terms, I’ve taken our seven sermons from Oct-Nov 2025 and turned them into what I’m calling “sermonic prose.” It isn’t quite pretending to be a story, but it reads like a storylike sermon in book form... or something like that. It'll probably take the average reader about an hour and a half. Available today in hardcopy at any campus, or in digital and PDF format at fccgreene.org/ruth.
My Upcoming Sabbatical: Aug–Oct
Just a quick heads-up that, per the Elders’ sabbatical policy we began implementing last year—basically 8-12 weeks once every 5 years for me and once every 7 for Campus Pastors—I’ll be on sabbatical Aug-Oct. This will involve family time, marriage investment, personal spiritual retreat, church leadership research and study, and writing (Daily Devotional Commentaries, a theological booklet or two, and a book I'm working on called The Word Does The Work). Please pray for the time to be fruitful for me, for the Wakefields, and for us as a church. In the meantime, pray for our Campus Pastors and Staff who will be covering things in my absence, (and who will obviously be struggling just to make it through the as they learn how much I really do and that the church can't go on without me.) ;o) More specific info to come in a Scott’s Thoughts blurb at the end of July. For more on the whats and whys of sabbaticals, see this previous Scott’s Thoughts blurb.
Many of you—and especially our South Greene Campus folks—know Brandon, his wife Jamie, and their family well. Brandon goes back 20-plus years to my youth ministry days at FCC, and, long story short, he’s come up through our ministry ranks the whole way: Kids Coach, 180 Small Group Leader, Pulpit Supply Team, and more. He was theologically trained at Johnson University and Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary (we’re proud to say our first CBTS graduate), and in a week we get the joy of having helped train, ordain, and send him to pastor Hardin’s Chapel Church.
I’ve watched this man grow up here—come to faith, marry Jamie, raise his kids, and step into leadership—and what strikes me most is the fruit you’d want to see in anyone the church sends out: ‘a settled confidence in the sufficiency of Scripture, a deep love for Christ and His Church, and an ever-increasing desire to serve God's people faithfully wherever He sends.’ (Those single quotes are there because that’s almost verbatim a quote from what he submitted to the Elders as part of the Ordination process.) That’s exactly what makes this bittersweet. Being a multisite sending church means we keep aiming at the mission even when the mission costs us dear friends. So: yay, and also boo.
Join us in praying for the Ivy family, for Brandon’s ministry at Hardin’s Chapel Church, and for the Lord to use them to advance His Kingdom in Greene County and beyond. If you’d like to join us, be on the lookout for info for the Ordination Service for Brandon, which will be at our South Greene Campus after an upcoming Sunday service in mid-late July. (As soon as the date/plans become available, I’ll (try to remember to) post them here.
For more about Brandon, check out these previous FCC posts here, here, and here.
Staff Changes
- Carl DelSorbo is our new Executive Director of Operations. As we announced at our 2025 Vision Bash, Carl is coming on staff full-time to help protect and sustain our operational health and growth. He spent nearly three decades at Artazn, our local metals manufacturer, much of it as Vice President of Operations, and joined our staff in 2026 after six years serving as an Elder. He and Christa attend our Afton Campus, where you’ll often spot Carl with clipboard in hand as a (soon-to-be-former) Guest Services Leader while Christa serves on the Worship and Care Teams; together they lead a Life Group and coach Merge, our premarital ministry. Away from church, he’s up for basketball, pickleball, and home-improvement projects—and will seize any chance to show off pictures of his granddaughter. And while Carl technically starts this week, he’s basically been a full-time volunteer for a good 6-8 weeks already. Thanks for the extra time, Carl!
- A friendly reminder that Travis Chapman is becoming Campus Pastor for our fourth campus in Mosheim (meeting at West Greene High School). Please pray for Travis and his family as he turns his attention toward the launch, and that the Lord would already be knitting his heart to that community. See below for more on our emerging Mosheim campus plans.
- David Bowlin is becoming our Director of Next Gen/Students/Pillar. (Btw, did you know they had 65 at their recent Becoming Pillars Retreat?!) Great to see our young adults ministry so central to their growth and ours.
New Booklet – “Ruth: From Emptiness To Fullness—God’s Sovereign Hand From Moab To Messiah”
In basic terms, I’ve taken our seven sermons from Oct-Nov 2025 and turned them into what I’m calling “sermonic prose.” It isn’t quite pretending to be a story, but it reads like a storylike sermon in book form... or something like that. It'll probably take the average reader about an hour and a half. Available today in hardcopy at any campus, or in digital and PDF format at fccgreene.org/ruth.
My Upcoming Sabbatical: Aug–Oct
Just a quick heads-up that, per the Elders’ sabbatical policy we began implementing last year—basically 8-12 weeks once every 5 years for me and once every 7 for Campus Pastors—I’ll be on sabbatical Aug-Oct. This will involve family time, marriage investment, personal spiritual retreat, church leadership research and study, and writing (Daily Devotional Commentaries, a theological booklet or two, and a book I'm working on called The Word Does The Work). Please pray for the time to be fruitful for me, for the Wakefields, and for us as a church. In the meantime, pray for our Campus Pastors and Staff who will be covering things in my absence, (and who will obviously be struggling just to make it through the as they learn how much I really do and that the church can't go on without me.) ;o) More specific info to come in a Scott’s Thoughts blurb at the end of July. For more on the whats and whys of sabbaticals, see this previous Scott’s Thoughts blurb.
Preparing For 4th Campus, In Mosheim
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What an exciting time to be about our Kingdom business of Helping People Find and Follow Jesus... in Mosheim! We’ve been waiting for enough official behind-the-scenes confirmation and planning before we started talking much about our Mosheim campus launch in February 2027, but here we are—it’s time. The Greene County Board of Education has formally agreed to continue our existing lease for West Greene High School, we’ve had a couple of multisite consultants help us map out plans, our staff has been preparing, and you’ll hear more over the coming months. (Special thanks to Tommy Staggs for being Mr. Behind-The-Scenes Multisite Launch Coordinator & Guru. There’s an official title for this; I just can't remember exactly what it is, and I ain’t got time to doublecheck right now lest this Scott’s Thoughts never get published.)
As Travis Chapman becomes Mosheim Campus Pastor, David Bowlin is becoming Director of Next Gen/Students. We’ve been managing that transition for the last few months so that, as early as August, Travis can focus on preparing for the Mosheim launch and David can hit the ground running as another school year gets into gear. (Btw, we’re already at something like 60 FCCers committed to helping launch Mosheim—pretty cool, eh?!)
A friendly but very important reminder that, in tandem with launching a fourth campus, we are also relaunching our existing campuses (with prayer times, outreach events, and inviting family and friends to fill the vacuums that launching creates) and helping to launch and build a church in Bogota, Colombia called “La Barca.” (Much more about our emerging relationship with La Barca here: fccgreene.org/blog/search/colombia.)
A letter from the Elders is going out this week that enumerates much of the above. Btw, though we already have two-thirds of the funds needed for launching our 4th campus, the letter alludes to a short, focused capital campaign beyond normal General Fund giving. More details about that will be forthcoming.
Please be in prayer with us about these important initiatives in our church's history—that God will bless our vision of Helping People Find and Follow Jesus to expand His Kingdom and reach the lost in Mosheim and Western Greene County!
As Travis Chapman becomes Mosheim Campus Pastor, David Bowlin is becoming Director of Next Gen/Students. We’ve been managing that transition for the last few months so that, as early as August, Travis can focus on preparing for the Mosheim launch and David can hit the ground running as another school year gets into gear. (Btw, we’re already at something like 60 FCCers committed to helping launch Mosheim—pretty cool, eh?!)
A friendly but very important reminder that, in tandem with launching a fourth campus, we are also relaunching our existing campuses (with prayer times, outreach events, and inviting family and friends to fill the vacuums that launching creates) and helping to launch and build a church in Bogota, Colombia called “La Barca.” (Much more about our emerging relationship with La Barca here: fccgreene.org/blog/search/colombia.)
A letter from the Elders is going out this week that enumerates much of the above. Btw, though we already have two-thirds of the funds needed for launching our 4th campus, the letter alludes to a short, focused capital campaign beyond normal General Fund giving. More details about that will be forthcoming.
Please be in prayer with us about these important initiatives in our church's history—that God will bless our vision of Helping People Find and Follow Jesus to expand His Kingdom and reach the lost in Mosheim and Western Greene County!
Daily Devotional Commentary
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This might help your daily Bible study if you keep a simple chapter-a-day pace. About a year and a half ago, as a way to “persuade” my kids to interact with Scripture a little every day, I started writing what I called “Dad’s Daily(ish) Devos.” At first it was a simple two-to-three-sentence verse, thought, and prayer for their day, but because God made me a little extra, it quickly grew into what I now call a “Hermeneutical-Devotional Commentary of About 500 Words” that covers one chapter of Scripture per day and takes no more than 5-10 minutes to read both the chapter and the devo. After a solid year of developing a distinct pattern, I started thinking, ‘Hey, this may be something folks in our congregation can use’—whether for yourself or as something to copy-and-paste to your own kids and family to encourage-slash-force them into God’s Word a little every day. We’ve covered about 30% of the Bible, are in the home stretch of the New Testament (should wrap it up in about a month), and expect to finish Psalms and Proverbs a couple of months after that. So if you want to track with it, I’ve started an online feed at fccgreene.org/devos. You can read it there or have it emailed to you every day. We’re looking into other ways to make it more available—integrating it into the app, online, on the socials, etc.—but that's the easiest way to get it for now.
Miscellaneous Musings
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Bearing Fruit Among (Despite?) Thorns
Been thinking a little about church unity and mission lately as I study 1 Corinthians, which led to this thought: after 30 years of anecdotal ministry data, I’ve grown to believe that a sign of Christian maturity is when you stop complaining about the body of Christ not being perfect and instead consistently bear fruit among the thorns and thistles. The principle is simply that the church this side of glory is a field where wheat and weeds grow together until the harvest, so loving an imperfect church is itself part of being conformed to the Christ who loved her and gave Himself up for her (Matthew 13:24-30; Ephesians 5:25-27). The nuance is that this is no call to ignore sin or stop lamenting what's broken—faithful correction is a form of love—but there's a world of difference between the saint laboring to cultivate fruit and the critic who only catalogs the thorns. This “thorns and thistles” language—that reaches back to Eden’s curse (Genesis 3:17-18)—shows that Kingdom fruitfulness has always been hard ground worked in hope.
Leadership That Costs You Something
If your leadership doesn’t incessantly require quite uncomfortable amounts of humility, flexibility, sacrifice, energy, and time, you probably aren’t doing much actual leading. The principle is that Kingdom greatness is cruciform—the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many, and He makes that the pattern for anyone who would lead His people (Mark 10:42-45). The needed nuance is that discomfort isn’t itself proof of good leadership—suffering for your own foolishness earns no credit (1 Peter 2:20)—but Christlike leading, the kind that takes responsibility and lays itself down for others, will cost you something real. If it’s costing you little, you probably aren’t doing much leading.
You Become What You Prioritize
This is another 30-years-of-anecdotal-ministry-data thought. It’s simple—and some will accuse me of being simplistic—but you become what you prioritize. I’ve watched it go both directions thousands of times: the more you show up, the more you grow; the less you show up, the more disconnected and atrophied you become. And it always irks me when Christian parents or adults expect of their kids what they won’t promise themselves. The basic principle—though it certainly isn’t a 1:1 formula—is that we reap what we sow and that God ordinarily grows His people through ordinary, repeated means—gathering, the Word, prayer, the fellowship of the saints—which is exactly why Scripture warns us not to neglect meeting together (Galatians 6:7-9; Hebrews 10:24-25). The nuance is that showing up earns nothing and guarantees nothing—God alone gives the growth (1 Corinthians 3:6-7)—but He has appointed the means, and our kids aren’t going to suddenly treasure the Lord and love the body for whom He died if we never modeled it for them (Deuteronomy 6:6-7).
Variation On The Theme Of Obedience As Gratitude For Grace From 1 Peter 1:14-19
Ever since becoming fully convinced 6 years ago of the so-called Reformed “doctrines of grace” (which (a) took me a good 25 years to embrace, (b) go by a label I’ve always thought must sound a bit offensive to non-Calvinists, (c) aren’t something we have to agree on to be brothers and sisters in Christ, and (d) are summarized here if you wanna know more), I’ve been on the lookout for the biblical cause of—and motivation for—obedience. (The reason I point out my Reformed leanings will become apparent right about… now.) In other words: if God chose me, and faith and grace are gifts He grants despite my sinful, rebellious heart, then what’s left to drive my obedience at all? Now, while that question itself smuggles in a false dilemma—it assumes grace and obedience must compete, as if one cancels the other—and then trades on a non sequitur, the very inference Paul anticipates and demolishes: “Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means!” (Romans 6:1-2). Grace doesn’t abolish obedience; it re-grounds its motive, moving it from earning to gratitude.
While recently writing a Hermeneutical-Devotional Commentary on 1 Peter 1—and, as Peter is doing there, circling the theme of motivation for holiness—I settled on this truly profound thought. (Don’t worry, I don’t think my thoughts particularly profound. Everything true or deep anyone has ever said is just a reiteration of the wisdom of God—here, the wisdom His Spirit superintended as it flowed from Peter’s amanuensis’ quill. Wow, how’s that for a strange phrase?!) So here ‘tis: we obey soberly because our redemption was infinitely costly. We obey because Christ’s blood is eternally valuable. If God paid everything for my salvation, my obedience is not the purchase price of His love but the glad return on it—the reasonable worship of a ransomed life that is no longer my own (1 Corinthians 6:19-20; Romans 12:1). We love because He first loved us (1 John 4:19).
Been thinking a little about church unity and mission lately as I study 1 Corinthians, which led to this thought: after 30 years of anecdotal ministry data, I’ve grown to believe that a sign of Christian maturity is when you stop complaining about the body of Christ not being perfect and instead consistently bear fruit among the thorns and thistles. The principle is simply that the church this side of glory is a field where wheat and weeds grow together until the harvest, so loving an imperfect church is itself part of being conformed to the Christ who loved her and gave Himself up for her (Matthew 13:24-30; Ephesians 5:25-27). The nuance is that this is no call to ignore sin or stop lamenting what's broken—faithful correction is a form of love—but there's a world of difference between the saint laboring to cultivate fruit and the critic who only catalogs the thorns. This “thorns and thistles” language—that reaches back to Eden’s curse (Genesis 3:17-18)—shows that Kingdom fruitfulness has always been hard ground worked in hope.
Leadership That Costs You Something
If your leadership doesn’t incessantly require quite uncomfortable amounts of humility, flexibility, sacrifice, energy, and time, you probably aren’t doing much actual leading. The principle is that Kingdom greatness is cruciform—the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many, and He makes that the pattern for anyone who would lead His people (Mark 10:42-45). The needed nuance is that discomfort isn’t itself proof of good leadership—suffering for your own foolishness earns no credit (1 Peter 2:20)—but Christlike leading, the kind that takes responsibility and lays itself down for others, will cost you something real. If it’s costing you little, you probably aren’t doing much leading.
You Become What You Prioritize
This is another 30-years-of-anecdotal-ministry-data thought. It’s simple—and some will accuse me of being simplistic—but you become what you prioritize. I’ve watched it go both directions thousands of times: the more you show up, the more you grow; the less you show up, the more disconnected and atrophied you become. And it always irks me when Christian parents or adults expect of their kids what they won’t promise themselves. The basic principle—though it certainly isn’t a 1:1 formula—is that we reap what we sow and that God ordinarily grows His people through ordinary, repeated means—gathering, the Word, prayer, the fellowship of the saints—which is exactly why Scripture warns us not to neglect meeting together (Galatians 6:7-9; Hebrews 10:24-25). The nuance is that showing up earns nothing and guarantees nothing—God alone gives the growth (1 Corinthians 3:6-7)—but He has appointed the means, and our kids aren’t going to suddenly treasure the Lord and love the body for whom He died if we never modeled it for them (Deuteronomy 6:6-7).
Variation On The Theme Of Obedience As Gratitude For Grace From 1 Peter 1:14-19
Ever since becoming fully convinced 6 years ago of the so-called Reformed “doctrines of grace” (which (a) took me a good 25 years to embrace, (b) go by a label I’ve always thought must sound a bit offensive to non-Calvinists, (c) aren’t something we have to agree on to be brothers and sisters in Christ, and (d) are summarized here if you wanna know more), I’ve been on the lookout for the biblical cause of—and motivation for—obedience. (The reason I point out my Reformed leanings will become apparent right about… now.) In other words: if God chose me, and faith and grace are gifts He grants despite my sinful, rebellious heart, then what’s left to drive my obedience at all? Now, while that question itself smuggles in a false dilemma—it assumes grace and obedience must compete, as if one cancels the other—and then trades on a non sequitur, the very inference Paul anticipates and demolishes: “Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means!” (Romans 6:1-2). Grace doesn’t abolish obedience; it re-grounds its motive, moving it from earning to gratitude.
While recently writing a Hermeneutical-Devotional Commentary on 1 Peter 1—and, as Peter is doing there, circling the theme of motivation for holiness—I settled on this truly profound thought. (Don’t worry, I don’t think my thoughts particularly profound. Everything true or deep anyone has ever said is just a reiteration of the wisdom of God—here, the wisdom His Spirit superintended as it flowed from Peter’s amanuensis’ quill. Wow, how’s that for a strange phrase?!) So here ‘tis: we obey soberly because our redemption was infinitely costly. We obey because Christ’s blood is eternally valuable. If God paid everything for my salvation, my obedience is not the purchase price of His love but the glad return on it—the reasonable worship of a ransomed life that is no longer my own (1 Corinthians 6:19-20; Romans 12:1). We love because He first loved us (1 John 4:19).
Posted in Scotts Thoughts