Scott's Thoughts: Sun, Sep 25, 2022

Why No Scripture Onscreen During Preaching, (For Now)?
I’ve tried this “radical” experiment a couple times before, but to little avail. So… why not try again?! (<— This is me trying to be ironic and self-deprecating.) I think they didn’t work because we didn’t truly try it, but going to 3 campuses is a good time to try again.
So… Why no Scripture onscreen during preaching for now?! Basically, to keep things simple and to encourage individual Bible usage. More specifically, in no particular order of priority:

• It greatly simplifies the complexity of our pre-sermon tech work. This frees up more time to focus on people and other processes on the Tech Team.
• It allows all 3 Campus Pastors to more easily preach live at their respective locations without us having to produce 3 different onscreen presentations.
• The system for syncing our presentation software between the 3 campuses is unwieldy and unreliable. It is apparently a limitation of “the cloud” and not us.
• It forces people to thumb through the Scriptures themselves. This is my main angle. I want us to fight Biblical illiteracy and laziness, so I’d like us to try having folks thumb through a couple/few passages each week, to get people in the habit of physically looking to the Bible for answers.
• We can put in the onscreen stuff (called “lower-thirds” in the biz) in post-production, for those watching later.

Why So Many Repeats Of Info?
While I know there are many of you who are faithful readers of ST and our 27 other communications outlets, and I’ve said this before, it is worth saying again. (And yes, I am repeating something about repeating something. (I feel like I’m looking into one of those mirrors-inside-a-mirror from the 70s that every other kid had next to their ABBA or Kiss posters. (However, as a conservative evangelical kid, I obviously did not have such worldly posters. Duh.)))
Because we are a church of multiple campuses and we live in a world of infowhelm, people seem to be increasingly shutting off, skipping town, not at church, and there are what feels like thousands of SoCal and Northern transplants to Greene County, we need to repeat things, more than seems needed to those of us in the loop. (Btw, if you’ve lived here more than 10 years, can you believe how much traffic there is on the bypass?! It’s. Crazy.)

Why Capitalize Every Word In A Title?
Because at almost 50 years old… (Can you believe it, FCC vets?! I swear it was yesterday when I was 29!) … we’ve got too many comms outlets to manage, I don’t care enough anymore, and even some major newspapers are doing it, so free yourself from having to notify us, FCC Grammar Nerds like me. (Hey Kelly, btw, we’re doing this, even if “In” and “Of” look ridiculous. It’ll be good for me.)

Buncha Multisite Campus Launch/Relaunch Updates & Thoughts
WE NEED EVERYONE TO PITCH IN & HELP WITH THIS! >>> Our #ForGreene “Shock & Awe” Promo Campaign Began Last Sunday (and Lasts Through Sun, Nov 13)!
I hope you’ve seen our #ForGreene billboards, yard signs, stickers, and new t-shirts all over the place! It’s cool to drive through my neighborhood and see 4-5 yard signs! Our goal is to coordinate an all-at-once saturation of our #ForGreene promo to announce the launch of our new South Greene Campus on Sun, Oct 16. So grab a yard sign, a t-shirt, and a couple stickers on your way out today and please consider putting ‘em in your front yard, perhaps at your workplace, maybe against the side window of your car to block the sun from your baby’s eyes or the back window of your truck to help hold up by your gun rack, y’know, whatever! :o) We want everyone to know that we aren’t done preaching the gospel for the sake of Helping People Find and Follow Jesus, so join in the shock-and-awe, keep praying, and invite your family, friends, and all those new Greene Countians from SoCal and the boreal regions to our North to join us!

A Painfully Brief Defense of Yard Signs & Onscreen Preaching
For those out-of-hand opposed to technology like onscreen preaching and promotional materials when it comes to anything church, I get it. Honestly, I’m no great fan of putting stickers on my car or promotional paraphernalia on my lawn. I don’t like happy-clappy stuff that communicates theological kitsch. And I’ve read the classic The Democratization of American Christianity and taken many church history classes that warn against the like. But, I present 6 reasons to suck it up and stop worrying: I love this church, I’m a fan of clearly, winsomely, and accurately teaching God’s Word, I revel in being an outlier compared to anecdotal evidence to the contrary, the presence of promotional accidents and use of technology like screens for preaching are not at all necessarily tied to theological downgrade, in our particular multisite model said screens may actually heighten the focus on the content of the Word than the preacher, and 100% of those purporting to oppose such “innovations” are apparently not opposed to living in a building or reading about my arguments opposing them via the internet. There are numerous fallacies at play in assuming we at FCC do church carelessly because we are multisite, use screens, and launch a campus with promotional material, [preeminently the fallacies of “faulty deduction” such as anecdotal evidence (flimsy testing), hasty generalization (small sample size), composition and division (assuming characteristics of some apply to all, or vice versa), and jumping to conclusions, etc.] We are in the business of highlighting good theology, redeeming technology for gospel use, and carefully and intentionally doing so to “Tell the story” of God’s work in Christ. So instead of writing us off simply because it feels like something you fear, (which isn’t an entirely wrong or bad impulse), test it/us. If you are a relative Luddite like me who can stomach the moment of what may initially feel like giving into commodification of the gospel, the Lord just might use putting up something as relatively benign as a yard sign or a car sticker to help you—and us, joining together—to invest in Kingdom growth.

South Greene Delivery/Training with Trailers and Equipment
Just wanna say it was so cool to see about 50 folks gathered yesterday at FCC SGR to learn the specifics of setup/cleanup. They were excited, flexible, and ready to work. So. Great. Thanks for jumping in, y’all. Be praying for The Lord to bless our/their efforts to reach the lost with the gospel in South Greene community.

Upcoming Dates to Remember – The List Is Becoming Shorter!

• All outreach plans for all 3 campuses, AFT, GVL, SGR… (and yes, I am wantonly abbreviating willy nilly, on the fly) … are in the Launch Guide.
• Sun, Sep 25 – Every Sunday is Pray Day! – See the Launch Guide.
• Sun, Sep 25 – South Greene Sunday Morning Practice – Normal service, with all normal programming, setup, kids, guests, worship, tech, etc., (but do not invite family/friends till next week.)
• Sun, Oct 2 – Every Sunday is Pray Day! – See the Launch Guide.
• Sun, Oct 2 – South Greene Sunday Morning Preview #1 – Normal service, with all normal programming, setup, kids, guests, worship, tech, etc. Do invite family/friends this week!
• Sun, Oct 9 – Every Sunday is Pray Day! – See the Launch Guide.
• Sun, Oct 9 – South Greene Sunday Morning Preview #2 – Normal service, with all normal programming, setup, kids, guests, worship, tech, etc. Do invite family/friends this week!
• Oct 10-14 – Direct Mailing #2 goes out throughout the South Greene area.
• Sun, Oct 16 – Every Sunday is Pray Day! – See the Launch Guide.
• Sun, Oct 16 – South Greene Launch Day!
• Sun, Nov 13 — Take down yard signs.

The Latest Info (through Sat, Sep 24):

• Worship & Serve Commitments (of a goal of 125 per campus)
  • Afton: 130
  • Greeneville: 149
  • South Greene: 90 (up by 3!)
  • FYI, to “Worship & Serve” simply means we’re asking those committing to a campus to commit to Worship & Serve in some capacity, (not necessarily every Sun.)
• Financial Commitments (of $100,000) – As of Today: $105,500 already given! Thank you so much for those who contributed to help ensure we remain financially healthy. I have to double check some numbers, but I’ll have more detail in the next couple weeks about where we are in terms of total financial health. (We’ve still got a couple big multisite bills due.)
• Have You Turned In Your Multisite Response Card? – Asking bc a lot have not. If you have, no sweat, you’re accounted for in the above numbers. But if not… yeah… please do. It’s important we know who’s where so we can shepherd people well.

Friendly Reminder of Some Multisite Vision: Keep Campuses Small and Personal
Just worth saying again, as we have a number of times in the last 6-8 months of ramp-up to 3 campuses… We are continuing to learn how to keep campuses small and personal. We think our particular version of multisite—which is actually a people-building strategy more than a campus-launching strategy—is well-suited for bringing people into a deep and growing relationship with God and one another. So, while each campus has a different capacity, we wanna make sure none of them feels impersonal. Most services rarely get above 125 lately. Each campus has a Full-Time Campus Pastor who is responsible for creating and maintaining FCC culture and programming while acting as the local shepherd for his people, especially by leading the Life Group Leaders. Each service at every campus has Serve Teams serving our people in Kids, Guests, Worship, Tech, Next Steps, Safety Response, etc.

Buncha Old & 1 New Miscellany (And Yes, “Miscellany” Is A Plural Noun)

• New Church “Directory” on the App — After much wrangling, we now have an easily-accessed directory of info for FCCers. It’s on the “Pulse” tab. Now… very important point… You alone control what other folks can/cannot see (and you don’t even need to remember a password.) Just go in, enter your cell, then enter the temporary password they’ll immediately text you, and follow the prompts. If you need help, ask someone under 35, find someone at The Hub, or email us at office@fccgreene.org. (Hey Staff, please go in and at least make sure your picture and FCC email’s in there (as firstname@fccgreene.org.))
• New “Events Calendar” on the App — There is a new regularly updated calendar with details about events on the “Pulse” tab.
• New Background Video on fccgreene.org — Nice and smooth, works on mobile, and also now includes all 3 campuses. Boom.
• Sunday Recap Vids on Socials — If you haven’t seen ‘em on the socials, check out this weekly recap vid that we post on Saturdays, as an invite for Sunday: https://fb.watch/ft6qJb7YC9 or https://www.instagram.com/p/CiEX44OomJN/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=. I chose this one because of how cool it is to hear preaching about Christ’s death to self over the video of 4 baptisms! If you’re on FB or Insta, share away on Saturdays!
• “Resources” Menu on fccgreene.org — We’ve now had more than a few of our folks and a few non-FCCers ask where they can get to sermons, Brown Bags & Bibles, Coffee Convos, Great Questions Answered, and Scott’s Thoughts, so we’ve put ‘em all under the “Resources” menu.
• Yet Another Example Of Mocking God’s People & His Sexual Design — I hesitate to open this can of worms because there isn’t time nor space to work through all the important issues and questions it raises. But I was recently assaulted by a commercial that is yet another data point in the world’s current fascination with undercutting Scripture’s authority and mocking God’s design. NBC has a new slasher/horror movie called “They/Them”—that I definitely will not see and suspect you shouldn’t either—that is set in a so-called Christian “gay conversion camp?” One of the main messages, sine qua non to the storyline, which was written by a man who calls himself gay, is that the obvious consequence of conservative Christian belief that does not “affirm” the LGBTQ+ lifestyle is terrible abuse. Without too much detail, a representative example of what I’m referring to: a teen is subjected to horrific electroshock therapy, another is sexually harrassed by a counselor, there are photos of past campers covered in bruises and other such disturbing injuries, and the camp director orders a teen to ‘prove his masculinity’ by shooting his dog. While it’s safe to assume that many such horrifically abusive things like this have happened in the name of Christian “charity,” none of which is excusable, I bring this disgusting and evil movie to your attention to make two small points. One, this movie represents what many non-Christians and “progressive” and theologically liberal churches believe about theologically conservative, evangelical, Bible-believing, or “non-affirming” Christians and churches, namely that believing the Bible alone is the preeminent authority over our lives and personal identities equals abuse. Two, if you think we are not in a spiritual battle for the hearts and minds of our kids, you have your eyes closed. It’s everywhere and it requires vigilance to teach ourselves and our kids the sufficiency of the Word of God to be the template for our life’s purpose and the first and last words on personal sexual identity. Making “Pray and study the Bible” a habit matters more than you may think.