Scott's Thoughts: Sun, Feb 27, 2022
Total Reading Time: 6 min, tops. And forewarning, I’m feeling a little saucy and confrontational today.
(What Turned Out to be More Than A) Few (Not So) Quick Misc Thoughts, FYIs, and ICYMIs (In Case You Missed Its)
Annual Membership Renewal & Spiritual Health Survey Follow-up – While it usually takes years to establish a new church culture and we’ve only been doing our renewal and survey for 3 years now, we had a great response during this past January. (For more about all this, visit fccgreene.org/membership.) Long story short, we’re continuing to work hard on going from where we used to be, where we had easily 3 times more “members” than actual average attenders, toward a more biblically faithful definition of local church participation that establishes a long-term faithfulness that builds God’s Kingdom, produces strong kids, and keeps our community alive. I’ll be following up in subsequent Scott’s Thoughts to talk about implementation of the survey results, to show where our people see themselves needing further sanctification in the Lord, but for now, here are the renewal data of the past few years:
The Ongoing Evolution of the Sermon Guide, Study Questions, and the Imminent “Inductive Bible Study Guide” – When it comes to our weekly Sermon/Study Guide (on the Home page on the app), over the last 15 years we’ve had everything from a super-detailed and over-the-top published and actual book, to a self-published booklet, (which I loved! But it was too much work for me to maintain.)... to 4-5 quite simple questions that never changed from week to week and everything in-between, which is somewhere close to where we are today. Over the last 3-4 years we’ve had a few different folks adapting and writing our sermon-based questions for personal or small group study in a way that changed some based on the passage, but not so significantly that there were no patterns. Well, having said all that, in the vein of a BUNCH of behind-the-scenes details like this we are continuing to figure out, streamline, and prepare for scaling, in another week or two, after I chat some with our Campus Pastors, Chris Oakes, and Kelly Radank, (btw, y’all I’ve got a first draft in another day or so to send your way), we’re going to be introducing a new Inductive Bible Study Guide that will be applicable to individual study, Life Groups, Sundays when I preach, and Sundays when all 3 Campus Pastors preach. I think it will become a helpful guide Life Group discussion as well as for teaching about how to study the Scriptures on your own!
(What Turned Out to be More Than A) Few (Not So) Quick Misc Thoughts, FYIs, and ICYMIs (In Case You Missed Its)
- Team Bash Video Highlights – Whether you made it to TB or not, this is good stuff here, folks! See the top of the Home page on the app (fccgreene.org/app) for a couple great videos.
- New session of Merge (link) – Please pray for the 3 or so young couples going through Merge (and those currently in re|engage.) See the top of the Home page on the app or fccgreene.org/marriage for more.
- Our Prayer List is published weekly on the Pulse tab on the app (fccgreene.org/app) or at fccgreene.org/prayerlist. It’s also available as a hardcopy in The Hub or at main building entrances. (And despite all appearances, no, the dude in the picture at the top of the online Prayer List is not me.)
- Re:gen is slowly and steadily growing, and it’s because… (Take a deep breath because a typical Scott sentence follows.) … as our main discipleship training curriculum and churchwide vocabulary for soul care that rests in Christ’s righteousness alone, it’s a deep dive into the centrality of the gospel of grace that forms Christ-centered identity that is a foundation for a lifetime of spiritual growth. Do you need tools for dealing with your sin or the sins of others against you? Anxiety? Depression? Abuse? Porn? Anger? Fear? Abandonment? That thing from way back when that you’ve pretended no longer affects you but you’re finally old enough to see how it still does? The answer is the gospel. Come to re:gen and find a community of people well-versed in caring for souls well. Details about re:gen are at fccgreene.org/regen.
- Did you know?!… Our own Hunter Snelson, a homegrown FCCer whom many of you have gotten to know well from over the years, is married to a wonderful and beautiful young woman who loves Jesus and is already faithfully serving and in the Next Steps process! How cool is that?! (Pinch yourself, Hunter. God is gracious and you’ve come a long way.) What’s cool about all that is that it shows how the local church is meant to work, in the long haul. We invest in people in long-term and comprehensive ways no other community institution can. No other institution comes alongside, as intimately, over the entire lifespan, to build people who are fruitful for the sake of an entire community. And Hunter and his wife (<— He likes saying that!) are already doing the same for the sake of others. Are you? Because we have no interest in catering to consumers here. We want to produce producers, for the long haul, to make this community strong.
- Last Sun, Feb 20, before the sermon, we introduced you to Travis Chapman, who has accepted the role of Next Gen/Students Director! We’ll let ya know more about Travis and his family in the coming weeks, when they move to Greeneville, (prob end of Mar), but please join us in praying for their transition and in thanking God for matching us with them. (And bigtime thanks to the family (you know who you are) who’s helping with temporary housing! So helpful. Thanks.) ;o)
- Check it out! Not only have we seen a recent uptick in folks committing to Christ and to His work through the local church, we’ve got quite a few folks in the pipeline who are being baptized and becoming members. Next Steps is continuing to morph into an essential element for effectively Helping People Find and Follow Jesus at 3 campuses because it helps people discover God’s vision for their growth and provide the tools to make that happen. Bigtime thanks to y’all fledgling Next Steps Helpers (and Participants!) who are being faithful and flexible as we keep learning how to implement it best.
- Having been in ministry for 25 years, I can tell you this is true… Regardless of the reasons you believe warrant your behavior in this area—like it or not, Covid or not, masks or not, mandates or not, inflation or not, financial security or not, war in Ukraine or not, feeling motivated or not, feeling worthy or not, blah, blah, blah, or not—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. Don’t for a moment believe the world’s pathetic and frivolous lies that you don’t need the body of Christ. That. Is. Foolishness.
- Just worth saying out loud… Easily half our current Sun morning attendance is brand-new in the last year or so (except maybe in our 9a services, which tend to have more FCC veterans), and we’re seeing new guests every week at both campuses! How cool is that?! (“Super cool, Scott. Super cool.”) Yes. Yes it is. So, a few quick implications… (If you’re new around here, I like to improperly use ellipses, copious parenthetical statements, and I (mostly) write ST informally, as if we’re just talking. Anyhoo…) So, a few quick implications… As we used to occasionally say around here, ”People are the environment.” The church needs to be more than just a friendly environment; it needs to be a place where people can find actual friends. In fact, in our increasingly fractured culture, where every word is seen as a politically-charged weapon, the world needs the church to be a place of biblical koinonia. (That’s a Greek word from the New Testament that incorporates and encompasses Christian community that binds a church and ultimately meaningfully shapes the wider culture.) So… If you’re new, most likely, someone around you is also new. If you’re a veteran FCCer, most likely, someone around you is new. So introduce yourself. Chances are you’re not alone in feeling alone! Invite someone to your Life Group. For that matter, invite yourself to someone else’s Life Group!
- Quick heads up that we’ve got a number of vacations and conferences to work around, so you’ll occasionally see a smidge more variety and frequency of preachers for a couple months. (And no, we will not pre-publish who’s preaching when. Not only is it often unhelpful to train people to “follow” a particular preacher in that way, but I can’t deal with the insecurity of knowing someone’s choosing to not come when I’m preaching!)
- Late Fall 3rd Campus Launch at South Greene HS – Don’t worry, you’ll hear plenty more with time, but in case you’re a little behind…
Annual Membership Renewal & Spiritual Health Survey Follow-up – While it usually takes years to establish a new church culture and we’ve only been doing our renewal and survey for 3 years now, we had a great response during this past January. (For more about all this, visit fccgreene.org/membership.) Long story short, we’re continuing to work hard on going from where we used to be, where we had easily 3 times more “members” than actual average attenders, toward a more biblically faithful definition of local church participation that establishes a long-term faithfulness that builds God’s Kingdom, produces strong kids, and keeps our community alive. I’ll be following up in subsequent Scott’s Thoughts to talk about implementation of the survey results, to show where our people see themselves needing further sanctification in the Lord, but for now, here are the renewal data of the past few years:
- 2022 – 222 members (which is daggone good #consideringcovidmadepeoplecrazy)
- 2021 – 181
- 2020 – 177
The Ongoing Evolution of the Sermon Guide, Study Questions, and the Imminent “Inductive Bible Study Guide” – When it comes to our weekly Sermon/Study Guide (on the Home page on the app), over the last 15 years we’ve had everything from a super-detailed and over-the-top published and actual book, to a self-published booklet, (which I loved! But it was too much work for me to maintain.)... to 4-5 quite simple questions that never changed from week to week and everything in-between, which is somewhere close to where we are today. Over the last 3-4 years we’ve had a few different folks adapting and writing our sermon-based questions for personal or small group study in a way that changed some based on the passage, but not so significantly that there were no patterns. Well, having said all that, in the vein of a BUNCH of behind-the-scenes details like this we are continuing to figure out, streamline, and prepare for scaling, in another week or two, after I chat some with our Campus Pastors, Chris Oakes, and Kelly Radank, (btw, y’all I’ve got a first draft in another day or so to send your way), we’re going to be introducing a new Inductive Bible Study Guide that will be applicable to individual study, Life Groups, Sundays when I preach, and Sundays when all 3 Campus Pastors preach. I think it will become a helpful guide Life Group discussion as well as for teaching about how to study the Scriptures on your own!
Posted in Scotts Thoughts