Scott's Thoughts: Sun, Aug 28, 2022

Yes, I know… “Lots of words today!”

• (A) It’s 2022, the internet exists, and there are only 7 weeks before we launch a 3rd campus.
• (B) As the cool kids say about those with a “little too much” in ‘em, God made me a little “extra” when it comes to words and ideas. (Believe me, I live it—this is way more tyranny than benefit.)
• A + B = “Need I say more?!”

1. Buncha Multisite Vision, Thoughts, and Updates
2. Few Misc Items
3. The Crucial & Growing Importance of Disciplemakers, esp in Next Steps, (But also with Campus Pastors, Life Group Leaders, Serve Team Leaders, Small Groups Leaders, and Regular Old You) at 3 Campuses
4. Thank You for Your Everyday Boring Faithfulness
5. (Yes, we know. Our website has problems with numbers and bullets. [Inflammatory words about how much we pay per month for that deleted.]) 

Buncha Multisite Vision, Thoughts, & Updates

• Why go to 3 Campuses Now? – We answered this at some length in our Multisite Vision Night at the beginning of April. (Go here to watch the MVN or here to watch the recent South Greene Multisite Update Dinner, though it is more practically focused on upcoming plans for launch/relaunch.) For those who want more specificity, here are some additional metrics and good reasons: w/in the last year, more than 1.5 first-time guests/Sun become avg attenders; we’re back up to 90% of pre-Covid attendance, which is quite good given all the drama; we’re seeing many people being baptized and becoming members (0.8+/Sun, I know, weird!?, trend is for 42+ in 2022); in a time when many have been especially wary of personal space, the Greeneville campus is trending quickly toward 75% of capacity in both services (recently sometimes already above that in 2nd service) and we get ~3 times more first-time guests there; staff continues to adjust well toward taking seriously the Ephesians 4:11-16 command to equip the body for service and growth; we have the human and financial resources to continue growing and to create capacity while tweaking our strategy toward “keep campuses smaller and more personal” (fccgreene.org/multisite) with around 250 in Sun worship attendance per campus (not a hard and fast number as Afton has plenty of room for many more); our positive and growing relationship with the schools has precipitated many outreach projects at South Greene High School over the last year; many folks are still moving into Greene County; the Elders have consistently prayerfully monitored timing related to these 7 factors; the world needs healthy Great Commission-focused churches who evangelize and equip the lost, grow by teaching the Word and standing by its truths, and develop and deploy young Kingdom-minded leaders who become long-term community strength in Greene County and the world; and we’ve got a trustworthy and well-known Campus Pastor (which is the #1 factor in a campus’ health). All of that paints a rosey (rosy? Rosie?) picture, as if it couldn’t possibly fail. But the Christian life and being a healthy church are constant challenges fraught with dangers that could derail us. Please pray we all continue to do our part—remaining focused on communicating the goodness and glory of God, keeping unified around the gospel of Christ, following Him daily in prayer and Word, and humbly and seriously keeping our eyes on Helping People Find and Follow Jesus.
• Is Multisite Biblical? – Good question. Important question. We’ve answered it here and there along the way since we began planning in 2017 to go multi in 2019, but we may have a few skeptical long-time FCCers—and we’ve definitely got tons of new FCCers from all over creation—who may wonder about all this multisite stuff, so some quick thoughts for those wondering and those new to Greene County/God’s Country. (I promise, I mean no offense at all to those of foreign lands. As a church that loves and cares for this community for the long-term, we are super glad you’ve decided to move to East TN and I’m only pointing out your newness as a factor in why I’m addressing it here. Welcome to the Promised Land, y’all!) ;o) So for those who may care, for whatever your reason, here’s at least part of our answer from an old sermon: “What is a Multisite Church and Why are we One?” (Acts 1:6-11; 2:41; 4:4) More specific answers *may* be slowly developing in the slowly emerging answer to this slowly developing Great Questions Answered post, “What Should I Look for in a Church and When Should I Leave One?” (which today was supposed to include a new section toward the end on “Christ-centered worship” (“Essential #3”) but there has been so much extra campus launch stuff that GQAs are currently… slow. Teaser, though, as proof I’m working on it.. The main proposal is that you and I don’t get to determine how we worship God.) Also, FWIW, especially given that multisite is a relatively new(ish) phenomenon, (though see the above sermon re a form of multi in the Jerusalem church in Acts), a few things I’ve found lacking in many, if not most critiques of multisite, is that they are often too unaware of how it actually works on the ground, are typically directed at megachurches and/or celebrity Pastor culture, don’t account for a number of things about our rural demographics, and misunderstand or are unaware of some things we’ve done to address so-called “problems” of multisite and tightly guard unity across campuses: full-time Campus Pastors who do much more than jazz hands on stage and who act as local shepherds; one budget and pool of money, not 3; confessional membership; sermon-based Life Groups; a couple other things I thought of and have since forgotten to write down; and the ability to guard such things centrally by means of ongoing personal relationship and meetings among Elders, staff, lay leaders, etc. (I mean, have you been to Catalyst Coffee on a weekday morning?!) That being said, as with the rosy picture above (“Wait, who’s Rosie?”), all churches trying to be faithful to the Kingdom of God and the Lordship of Christ have their challenges, and multisite can be uniquely so. Pray we are faithful in our temporary stewardship of God’s flock.
• The Latest Info (through Sat, Aug 27):
  • Worship & Serve Commitments (of 125 per campus)
    • Afton: 127
    • Greeneville: 146
    • South Greene: 84
    • FYI, to “Worship & Serve” simply means we’re asking those committing to a campus to commit to Worship & Serve at some capacity, (not necessarily every Sun.)
  • Financial Commitments (of $100,000) – As of Today: $97,900 already given!
• Upcoming Campus Launch/Relaunch Info & Dates – See the Launch Guide for more.
  • Launch Guide — Contains important reminders of big picture multisite vision/strategy, 3 campus-specific and color-coded (“Fancy!”) calendars of events leading up to launch (and “relaunch,” for existing campuses!), and a prayer guide. PDF available here or pick up a hardcopy in The Hub “at any campus.” (<-- Gotta get used to saying this since we will soon be 3.)
  • Sun, Oct 16 — South Greene Launch Day!
  • Sunday is Pray Day (see the Launch Guide)
  • Launch/Relaunch Team Mtg #1, Tonight, Sun, Aug 28, 6-7p, Greeneville campus, childcare provided up through preschool — For everyone, whether committed to specific campus or still deciding. More info in this news/blog post here (or the “Pulse” tab on the fccgreene.org/app.)
  • Wed, Sept 7 – Direct Mailing #1 – This mailing is being sent throughout the South Greene school district to announce the South Greene launch. Please pray today!
  • Sun, Sep 11 – Sunday is Pray Day
  • Sun, Sep 11, 4-5p – Prayer Walk at South Greene Campus
  • Sun, Sept 11 – “Shock & Awe” Promo Campaign Begins (billboards, yard signs, t-shirts, and stickers) – Our goal is to coordinate an all-at-once saturation of our #ForGreene promo that cannot be missed throughout Greene County! Since billboards begin Mon, Sep 12, we want everyone!—on Sun-Mon, Sep 11-12—to put out FCC yard signs, car stickers (bottom left of back window, preferably), and to begin wearing our t-shirts around town. Yeah, that’s right, be annoying with your FCC merch. You’d be surprised at how many folks around town talk about those “FCC car stickers.”
  • Sun, Sep 18 – Sunday is Pray Day
  • Sun, Sept 18, 6-7p – Launch Team Mtg #2 (of 2) at Afton Campus, for all campuses/launch teams
• How You Can Help – See the 3 Ps of “Pray, Participate, and Promote” in the Scott’s Thoughts from Sun, Jul 31, 2022 (fccgreene.org/st).
• Have You Turned in Your Multisite Response re Which Campus? – Tonight’s Launch Team Mtg #1 (of 2) would be a good time to nail that down, if you’re still unsure. (Btw, if you’re still unsure, we’d like your answer to be South Greene.)
• We Need More South Greene Launch Peeps – I repeat, we need more South Greene launch team folks. We’re at almost 70% of our goal, and I don’t think we need to worry about having enough (yet) because people will come out of the woodwork (even new non-FCCers closer to launch), we’re pretty adept at flexing to whomever we’ve got serving on Sundays (though Kids definitely could use more people!), and we can already make one campus happen with fewer than 60 serving on a Sunday. (<— This is not a goal; just a stated fact.) But, we nonetheless need more SG peeps (esp in Kids Min.) So come to SG. Please. Help Bob rest a little easier at night. Also, check out this recent H7 Story about how one family decided on SG!
• Preaching Rotation Reminder & Preminder – (Yes, I’ve coined a neologism. If “re” in “reminder” refers to minding again, as if minding from the past, then “pre” is to mind beforehand. You’re welcome.) Worth covering again because our rotation the last 6-8 months or so has been wonky, new folks may perhaps be unaware of our normal pattern, I’m at Afton for the 2nd week in a row, (and because I’m apparently feeling vulnerable about all that being less well executed as planned! Plus, a few folks have asked for some clarification.)
  • In basic terms, we always do live preaching at all campuses. About 60% of that is in-person and the rest is onscreen. This usually means ~4 straight Sundays of me in-person, rotating between each campus, one per Sunday, and then the Campus Pastors (CP: Tommy, Tyson, and soon Bob) in-person at their respective campus on the next one (~5th Sunday).
  • But because of some complicated scheduling needs, I’m at Afton today.
  • In case you weren’t at our recent Multi Update Dinner which kicked off our 2 months of ramp-up to launching our South Greene campus on Sun, Oct 16, the “preminder” we talked through then is that the plan, for just the beginning of 3 campuses, is for me to preach ~5 in a row for every 1 of the CPs live at their campus. When the time is right, (hopefully no more than one cycle?!), we’ll go to a 4:1 ratio.
  • If any of that is confusing, just ask your CP or someone with a nametag.
• Campus Names – In our Team Code (fccgreene.org/teamcode), we say that “feedback helps.” So, in last week’s ST, I mentioned that I was making (what I thought was) a minor executive decision to use FCCGV (GreeneVille), FCCAF (AFton), and FCCSG (South Greene) as shortcuts for campus names. Well apparently that was too much too soon and created no small amount of controversy and “helpful feedback.” Sheesh. You’d have thought I suggested we abandon worship of Jesus! So, anyway… For now, until something better and less triggery emerges, how ‘bout we just use “Greeneville,” “Afton,” and “South Greene”?! Sheesh. #eyeroll
• “What do you do all day anyway, Scott?” – If I had a nickel, well, I’d probably at least have $5 or so. Basically the answer is that I sit around and dawdle, telling everybody else what to do—duh. Seriously, though, it occurs to me that, when we go to 3 campuses—where we try to focus on “keeping campuses small and personal” and our Campus Pastors become more local shepherds—some may wonder how that may change my role. In some ways, not much changes from the last 3.5 years of multisite: preaching/teaching, helping keep our doctrinal focus, working with the Elders and leading Staff, leading implementation and needed course corrections in vision, meeting with lots of people beyond Staff, representing FCC in the community, on the Hope Center Board, yada, yada… But multisite has already meant a few changes toward more intentional leadership and organizational development inside and outside of FCC, more writing of GQAs, more org-wide leading of otherwise loose ends, and more time for sermon prep (which, frankly, is needed.) The Elders and I have occasionally revisited my role throughout my time at FCC, so I’ll try to remember to circle back to this and give more clarity.

Few Misc Items

• Elders Letter & Vote – Some of you have probably already received yours in the mail. But if not, you probably will in the next couple days, or go here or the “Pulse” tab on the fccgreene.org/app, where it’s available now. There’s a lot of important info there about Life Groups, our 3rd campus launch, and how FCC members vote—by the end of Sept—on a newly proposed Elder. A quick points about the process the Elders use for discerning a new Elder: we are always praying for direction, watching for spiritually mature already-leaders fitting the biblical descriptions in places like 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1, occasionally talking to/with some, and have had some visit Elders Mtgs to talk through what’s involved, answer questions, etc. This October, Mark Liebert rolls off and we are proposing that Mike Schubert come back on. Members can vote here, at fccgreene.org/vote. More details about our bylaws are at fccgreene.org/bylaws.
• Pillar Young Adults – Check it out: Just this past week, the Pillar band led the singing for a worship service with students at Tusculum University, and Pillar also celebrated its 1-yr anniversary! Read this new and really cool post from David that recounts some of God’s work among our Pillar peeps in their first year!
• Steve & Kay (and Natasha) Carpenter Visit – Our missionaries in Mexico City came to visit us a couple weeks ago and spent a lot of time with our Pillar and 180 groups talking about their work, what it’s like to be missionaries, and doing Q&A. Good stuff. In the Carpenters’ most recent email they wrote, “Shout out to the youth and young adults and leaders at FCC Greeneville. Your enthusiasm and love for the Lord touched us deeply.” Nice. Also, not a done deal yet, but Travis and Bob are working on maybe taking a youth mission trip in 2023 to visit the Carpenters and encourage them in their work?! Really good stuff.
• The Role of Deacons – Since going to multisite just 3.5 years ago, (which has been a blur of crazy involving 1 year of getting used to multisite while going from 425 to 575 and then hitting 2 years of the-virus-that-I-refuse-to-name), we’ve struggled to include Deacons and direct them well. But, the Elders have (long been discussing, but hopefully soon implementing) some plans that I think will be really helpful for our congregation, especially as we go to 3 campuses. Just giving y’all a heads up, Deacs.
• Kids Min Help (Pretty Much Always) Needed – Just saying it again… This is the area we most need help. Let us know on the Connect Card (fccgreene.org/cc or on the fccgreene.org/app) or talk to Charity or Samantha or someone at Kids Check-in!
• Sign up for a Life Group! – I repeat, sign up for a Life Group! As well said in the Aug 2022 Elders Letter, (and hopefully also in our recent 3-weeks series), being well connected in a LG is becoming an increasingly important part of your growth, especially as we are “keeping campuses small and personal” and becoming 3 campuses in 7 wks! For more re how LGs work, check out fccgreene.org/lifegroups, which has just recently been updated with more current info (and is getting more soon re specific groups you can connect with.) To find out more, talk to me, another Elder, a Campus Pastor, or Chris Oakes, find someone with a lanyard, fill out the Connect Card, or just randomly show up at someone’s group! (I suggest one at the South Greene campus.) ;o)

The Crucial & Growing Importance of Disciplemakers (esp in Next Steps, but also with Campus Pastors, Life Group Leaders, Serve Team Leaders, Small Groups Leaders, and Regular Old You) at 3 Campuses
You need to understand something very important about what we believe and how we operate: we are stubbornly structured to become crazy good at making disciples. Here’s what I mean… There are many good things that lots of other churches do that we don’t. And many of those good things are things we could do. And believe me, many people have many suggestions about how we should be doing more of those good things that we don’t currently. But… (and this is very important “But…”) … We shouldn’t do even one of those good things if we don’t yet do the best and eternally most important thing of making disciples. To be clear, as a church, we care more about what Jesus calls us to be doing in the Great Commission than whatever else you or I think we should be doing. If we aren’t making disciples, we aren’t churching right, no matter what other good things we might be doing.

Now, when it comes to Next Steps… Becoming crazy good at making disciples, caring for souls, and helping people find and follow Jesus, means we need to keep developing an army of well-trained Next Steps Helpers at every campus who are working well at getting folks connected to the body and to God’s 7 Habits vision for their lives!

All it takes is going through NS, understanding the process well, connecting with Bob and/or a NS Coach, and helping lead someone else through the process: connect with a NS participant, help them understand how things work, how they can grow at FCC, and function as an ongoing personal resource. Hmm… sounds like disciplemaking!?

Building and equipping followers and learners of Christ who reproduce themselves in the lives of others who will replicate the process is what Next Steps does. And it becomes, not just important, but absolutely mission critical for being a church where the body of Christ grows to be the ministers. That is how the Bible says it’s done—through all of the body doing its part in making disciples. It’s Matthew 28:18-20 and Ephesians 4:11-16 in action.

While the body-in-action is something few have seen work well because they believe in or grew up in a model of church that institutionalizes the unbiblical and man-centered idea that it is a top-down Pastor-driven system or maybe even because they think those who are paid should be the ones doing it. But here’s the bottom line: If the people in the pew aren’t learning to care for souls and make disciples, none of this works—not just our church “model,” but their own growth in Godliness! So when we say that our mission as a church is Helping People Find and Follow Jesus, we don’t mean primarily people like me who are the “experts” or who are paid. We mean you.

The “crucial & growing” part is this, and it’s part of why we occasionally stretch the congregation toward a growth goal—at 3 campuses, it’s not just the Next Steps process and Next Steps Helpers that become crucial. It’s also Campus Pastors, (as Life Groups Coaches who shepherd and equip Life Group Leaders, e.g.), Life Group Leaders, Serve Team Leaders, Small Group Leaders, and really, anyone who thinks like a disciplemaker, who all become increasingly crucial for shepherding our people well on the front lines. And that means you. We are not here to raise more fat and lazy spiritual consumers, but to produce healthy producers. Welcome to your growth.

A (Repeated and Mostly Verbatim) Thank You
While I’ve said this many times before—and starting with the next sentence this “thank you” is, in fact, 90% verbatim what I posted a couple months or so ago!—I never tire of saying it and it needs to be said over and over and over. We are a church whose growth depends (way more heavily than most recognize) on the “everyday boring faithfulness” of so many FCCers who open doors with a smile, high five kiddos on their way into church, press tech buttons, manage the baptistry, clean bathrooms, sweep floors, tow trailers, hand out literature, count things, make coffee, roast coffee beans, mow and manicure and weed, meet with people for mutual encouragement and growth, pray for their small group, stand ready to protect our door and children, park away from the doors so guests have open spaces, prep food, find great deals on things we need to buy, post socials, write blog posts, create spreadsheets, come to the Greeneville campus during the week to clean, setup, refill, and do whatever else is needed, etc., etc., etc. When I think of all the practically countless ways our people faithfully embody humble service week after week, I am amazed at how God uses you! I wish you could see it all from where I sit because I often think of our everyday boring faithful servants when I read passages like Ephesians 2:19-22; 4:1-16; Romans 12:3-8; or 1 Corinthians 12 that teaches, in verse 27, that each “individual member” of the body is “indispensable” (cf. v 22)!

I. Love. This. Church. And I am grateful to the Lord for the privilege of being arm-in-arm with Christ followers who humbly serve with the gusto the cross deserves, no matter the role! Thank you for your everyday boring faithfulness. It encourages me, and I hope it encourages you—for God is using it to advance His mission of Helping People Find and Follow Jesus!