Elders Letter - Nov 2024
Dear FCC Family, Nov 2024
We are excited to celebrate Christmas together on Sun, Dec 22 in one location! Please join us at 10a for a special Christmas Candlelight service in the Pioneer Arena at Tusculum University. You don’t want to miss it! Grab an Invite Card at church on an upcoming Sunday and begin praying about who to invite!
As announced on Sun, Nov 10, beginning Sun, Dec 29, we will offer only one service at each of our three campuses, at 10a. We are making this change for the following three main reasons:
Strength in Gathering Together
Physical gathering is indispensable to spiritual, mental, and emotional health. In a post-Covid world, people are more isolated than ever and social media is a poor substitute for actual relationships. Sunday morning is one of the few places left where people can gather consistently. When we meet for worship, we are practicing the ministry of presence and find tremendous encouragement from being with other like-minded Christians on mission together for God’s kingdom. However, while we have been averaging 540 people on Sunday mornings (combined), our current two-service model dilutes the sense of community and weakens the impact of shared worship. Instead of being encouraged by corporate worship, a smaller crowd often has the opposite effect. By moving to one service, we expect to generate encouragement, build momentum, foster new relationships, renew old relationships, draw people into the body, show visitors that God is at work, and remind everyone that gathering together is both good for the soul and God’s design for human flourishing.
Volunteer Health
Serving is part of worshiping (Romans 12:1; 1 Peter 4:10). As a multisite church, FCC simply cannot function without an army of volunteers. We have many dedicated people who serve on Sunday mornings and throughout the week. However, it’s a lot of work to set-up early, staff and maintain two services, and then clean-up afterward. Moving to one service will shorten the day significantly and reduce the required time on Sunday by 1.5 hours. Having only one service will also eliminate the stress of managing back-to-back services and provide flexibility within the service itself. Our functional model will remain “Worship and Serve,” but how it plays out will vary depending on the role. Talk to your Service Leader or Coach if you have questions about how this impacts your specific involvement. If you are not yet involved at FCC, let your Campus Pastor know that you are ready to begin serving.
Campus Strategy
If our only goals were to emphasize the corporate gathering and reduce volunteer effort, we could return to being one church in one location (e.g. Afton holds 500 people). However, this misses a key piece of the church’s vision. We believe God has uniquely gifted and placed us in Greene County as a light for the gospel in our local schools. We don’t take it for granted that our Greeneville campus has a strong relationship with GHS and that the Greene County Schools Board of Education allows us to meet at Chuckey-Doak and South Greene. Our presence is a blessing to these schools and a witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Moving to one service at each campus keeps us strong in each strategic location. It will also make it easier to launch an additional campus in the future. If you currently attend the Greeneville campus and are concerned about the number of people in one service, we would encourage you to consider worshiping at Afton or South Greene, as these locations have more space!
For more detail—including answers to some Frequently Asked Questions like, “What are we doing about Kids Min?” and “What are we doing about the Greeneville campus?”—see the recent Scott’s Thoughts (fccgreene.org/st)
As we approach Thanksgiving, let us all remember that, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17).
Your FCC Elders (Carl DelSorbo, John Hamilton, Mark Liebert, Mike Schubert, Scott Wakefield)
As announced on Sun, Nov 10, beginning Sun, Dec 29, we will offer only one service at each of our three campuses, at 10a. We are making this change for the following three main reasons:
Strength in Gathering Together
Physical gathering is indispensable to spiritual, mental, and emotional health. In a post-Covid world, people are more isolated than ever and social media is a poor substitute for actual relationships. Sunday morning is one of the few places left where people can gather consistently. When we meet for worship, we are practicing the ministry of presence and find tremendous encouragement from being with other like-minded Christians on mission together for God’s kingdom. However, while we have been averaging 540 people on Sunday mornings (combined), our current two-service model dilutes the sense of community and weakens the impact of shared worship. Instead of being encouraged by corporate worship, a smaller crowd often has the opposite effect. By moving to one service, we expect to generate encouragement, build momentum, foster new relationships, renew old relationships, draw people into the body, show visitors that God is at work, and remind everyone that gathering together is both good for the soul and God’s design for human flourishing.
Volunteer Health
Serving is part of worshiping (Romans 12:1; 1 Peter 4:10). As a multisite church, FCC simply cannot function without an army of volunteers. We have many dedicated people who serve on Sunday mornings and throughout the week. However, it’s a lot of work to set-up early, staff and maintain two services, and then clean-up afterward. Moving to one service will shorten the day significantly and reduce the required time on Sunday by 1.5 hours. Having only one service will also eliminate the stress of managing back-to-back services and provide flexibility within the service itself. Our functional model will remain “Worship and Serve,” but how it plays out will vary depending on the role. Talk to your Service Leader or Coach if you have questions about how this impacts your specific involvement. If you are not yet involved at FCC, let your Campus Pastor know that you are ready to begin serving.
Campus Strategy
If our only goals were to emphasize the corporate gathering and reduce volunteer effort, we could return to being one church in one location (e.g. Afton holds 500 people). However, this misses a key piece of the church’s vision. We believe God has uniquely gifted and placed us in Greene County as a light for the gospel in our local schools. We don’t take it for granted that our Greeneville campus has a strong relationship with GHS and that the Greene County Schools Board of Education allows us to meet at Chuckey-Doak and South Greene. Our presence is a blessing to these schools and a witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Moving to one service at each campus keeps us strong in each strategic location. It will also make it easier to launch an additional campus in the future. If you currently attend the Greeneville campus and are concerned about the number of people in one service, we would encourage you to consider worshiping at Afton or South Greene, as these locations have more space!
For more detail—including answers to some Frequently Asked Questions like, “What are we doing about Kids Min?” and “What are we doing about the Greeneville campus?”—see the recent Scott’s Thoughts (fccgreene.org/st)
As we approach Thanksgiving, let us all remember that, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17).
Your FCC Elders (Carl DelSorbo, John Hamilton, Mark Liebert, Mike Schubert, Scott Wakefield)
fccgreene.org / 1130 Temple Street / Greeneville, TN 37745 / 423-639-0126
Posted in Elders Letter