Scott's Thoughts
Click title to jump to a section and ^ TOP ^ to return. Or just scroll like a normal person. And apologies for links that make getting back here annoying. We’re annoyed, too, but it’s an app limitation. And yes, Scott once had hair that could be combed.
Disclaimers & Désolés
(‘Enough with the “D” words!’ Btw, désolés is pronounced DAYS-olé and is French for “sorry,” despite having just used Spanish to communicate a French pronunciation. Donc, je suis désolé pour tous les mots en D. Moving on…)
Forewarning, über run-on ahead: Last Sun, Nov 10, my intent was to publish most of this Scott’s Thoughts, which I already had ~75% completed, (which is why what I’m about to say is bordering on pathetic), but (a) I am more-than-a-little obsessed-slash-paralyzed with getting all the facts and thinking straight when it comes to words written for public consumption and when announcing big things like “1 Service Everywhere” (1SE, see below), but then, (b) this week was busier and more disjointed than most (which is saying something!), and (c) I am often not good at my job. So, my apologies, especially to a few Kids Min volunteers who were wondering about our answer to how we were making things work in 1SE and world. You can breathe now that it’s finally published.
(Parenthetically, for the new folks…) YesI am too sarcastic and have an alter ego who shows up in my writing, (and even in my preaching!) It’s a personal coping mechanism—a poor one to be sure—but nonetheless one I use often. It’s called beating you to the punch. Years of ministry do weird things to a person.
While we’re being all awkwardly publicly vulnerable, je suis désolés to all of you who are awaiting a text msg or email response from me this past week (month, year, decade, etc.), but it probably ain’t ever gonna happen. I have been many thousands of comms inputs behind for years now and it’s not for lack of overworking for decades. This is not ultimately excusable, and I am truly sorry that I can’t get to all the things, but in our infowhelm world, it’s just “facts,” as the kids say. If you knew the reality of how many local church leaders live there you wouldn’t believe it.
All-Church Christmas Candlelight Service in Pioneer Arena at Tusculum University (and the Kickstart of 1SE) on Sun, Dec 22, 10a
Please be praying about who to invite! Starting next Sunday we’ll begin passing out Invite Cards, so please be praying about who to invite! Also, friendly reminder, as we spoke about this past Sun, Nov 10, we begin “1SE” (1SE, for the cool kids who actually read Scott’s Thoughts) on that Sun, Dec 22. If you’re still lost re 1SE, keep reading—there’s more info below.
Church Planting Vision Trip to Colombia
In the last ST and in this post re our 2024 Christmas Giving Projects, we mentioned that 4 FCCers are going on a church planting vision trip to Colombia where a few of them, along with our friend Camila, who lives there and attends FCC when in Greeneville, have been developing relationships and working toward planting a church there. They are meeting with Camila’s planting partner and church, praying for them and the people nearby, where a population of 70,000 Colombians are without a single church, building relationships, looking into future opportunities, and taking books for the church planters and Bibles to hand out. The cost per person is $1,750, which means a total cost of $7,000, of which $2,400 has already been donated, (which is lovely, thank you, friends!) If you would like to help by giving toward the remaining $4,600, go to fccgreene.org/colombia.
Jim and Laurie Barnes: Missionaries to Czech Republic
It was really great to have the Barneses with us for a few days. They were at all 3 campuses on Sunday morning, visited Life Groups, had lunch and dinner with at least a couple FCC groups/families, stayed at Longview Ranch, and even stayed late at Pillar! I’ve long admired their faithfulness and creativity but it was cool to hear again of all the great work God is doing through them! They’re the type of missionaries who consistently communicate wisdom and care in how they do their work and I always have two prevailing thoughts: “What a cool work that is!” And “Every dollar invested feels like it’s well stewarded!” Special thanks to the folks who took ‘em into their homes or out to eat, the volunteers who facilitated their campus visits last Sunday, and to Bobarino Radank, who oversees Missions as one of his “slashes,” for doing a great job coordinating and communicating.
Speaking of Being World Travelers, A Few Prayer Items
Beyond our normal weekly Prayer List, (available as hard copying The Hub, or on the app or at fccgreene.org/prayerlist), I want ask you to prayer for a few special items. Over the next few days and up to a couple weeks for a few, some of our folks are out-of-the-country or out-of-town. Bob is going to Germany to finish up some loose ends from the Radanks’ time in Germany, where they were missionaries for 10 years. Then, Travis and the aforementioned Colombia crew are going to… well, Colombia to continue scoping out some church planting opportunities. (See blurb above.) And finally, I am overdue on a few big items that require me basically skipping town for a few days this week (to an undisclosed, and frankly, still undetermined location) to focus and get ahead. This may not sound like a big deal to you, but it is for me because… well… I’m a psycho extrovert nutjob who needs to be literally away from people in order to get any significant content-producing work done.
Quick Updates re Giving to Local Relief Efforts
We’ve received almost $29,000 in donations for flood relief. That’s great, y’all! Interestingly, $15,000 of that has come from friends outside of FCC and Greene County. To date, we have given away $12,000, comprised of (1) $5,000 to an FCCer who is a widow and pretty much lost everything, (2) $5,000 to an FCCer whose construction company has taken a lead role in helping rebuild by paying out-of-pocket, and (3) $2,000 to Longview Ranch, to help pay for food and housing for those who have come mostly from out-of-state to help with relief efforts and for a few mucking supplies for volunteers working on houses in Mosheim around the camp. For the remaining $17,000 (and whatever else is donated), we will be giving that to at least these 3 aforementioned folks ASAP, which at this point also means when needed and wise. In other words, in situations like these some things have to go in a certain order to ensure they’re done correctly—insurance, FEMA, acquiring construction materials, electrical before walls, etc.—so it’s simply a matter of waiting a bit for those details to emerge at which time we will gladly pass on those donations! Thank you so much for pursuing generosity—we’ll letcha know more ASAP!
Also, if you’ve missed ‘em, here are 5 straight H7 Stories we posted about these efforts: Oct 12, 19, 27, Nov 3 and 17. An H7 Story is a weekly post where we “Tell the story” of God’s work in the lives of our people, (even in tragedy.)
Also, pt 2, it’s worth continuing to keep in mind that some are still struggling with the aftermath, awaiting answers, and needing our help and prayers.
(‘Enough with the “D” words!’ Btw, désolés is pronounced DAYS-olé and is French for “sorry,” despite having just used Spanish to communicate a French pronunciation. Donc, je suis désolé pour tous les mots en D. Moving on…)
Forewarning, über run-on ahead: Last Sun, Nov 10, my intent was to publish most of this Scott’s Thoughts, which I already had ~75% completed, (which is why what I’m about to say is bordering on pathetic), but (a) I am more-than-a-little obsessed-slash-paralyzed with getting all the facts and thinking straight when it comes to words written for public consumption and when announcing big things like “1 Service Everywhere” (1SE, see below), but then, (b) this week was busier and more disjointed than most (which is saying something!), and (c) I am often not good at my job. So, my apologies, especially to a few Kids Min volunteers who were wondering about our answer to how we were making things work in 1SE and world. You can breathe now that it’s finally published.
(Parenthetically, for the new folks…) YesI am too sarcastic and have an alter ego who shows up in my writing, (and even in my preaching!) It’s a personal coping mechanism—a poor one to be sure—but nonetheless one I use often. It’s called beating you to the punch. Years of ministry do weird things to a person.
While we’re being all awkwardly publicly vulnerable, je suis désolés to all of you who are awaiting a text msg or email response from me this past week (month, year, decade, etc.), but it probably ain’t ever gonna happen. I have been many thousands of comms inputs behind for years now and it’s not for lack of overworking for decades. This is not ultimately excusable, and I am truly sorry that I can’t get to all the things, but in our infowhelm world, it’s just “facts,” as the kids say. If you knew the reality of how many local church leaders live there you wouldn’t believe it.
All-Church Christmas Candlelight Service in Pioneer Arena at Tusculum University (and the Kickstart of 1SE) on Sun, Dec 22, 10a
Please be praying about who to invite! Starting next Sunday we’ll begin passing out Invite Cards, so please be praying about who to invite! Also, friendly reminder, as we spoke about this past Sun, Nov 10, we begin “1SE” (1SE, for the cool kids who actually read Scott’s Thoughts) on that Sun, Dec 22. If you’re still lost re 1SE, keep reading—there’s more info below.
Church Planting Vision Trip to Colombia
In the last ST and in this post re our 2024 Christmas Giving Projects, we mentioned that 4 FCCers are going on a church planting vision trip to Colombia where a few of them, along with our friend Camila, who lives there and attends FCC when in Greeneville, have been developing relationships and working toward planting a church there. They are meeting with Camila’s planting partner and church, praying for them and the people nearby, where a population of 70,000 Colombians are without a single church, building relationships, looking into future opportunities, and taking books for the church planters and Bibles to hand out. The cost per person is $1,750, which means a total cost of $7,000, of which $2,400 has already been donated, (which is lovely, thank you, friends!) If you would like to help by giving toward the remaining $4,600, go to fccgreene.org/colombia.
Jim and Laurie Barnes: Missionaries to Czech Republic
It was really great to have the Barneses with us for a few days. They were at all 3 campuses on Sunday morning, visited Life Groups, had lunch and dinner with at least a couple FCC groups/families, stayed at Longview Ranch, and even stayed late at Pillar! I’ve long admired their faithfulness and creativity but it was cool to hear again of all the great work God is doing through them! They’re the type of missionaries who consistently communicate wisdom and care in how they do their work and I always have two prevailing thoughts: “What a cool work that is!” And “Every dollar invested feels like it’s well stewarded!” Special thanks to the folks who took ‘em into their homes or out to eat, the volunteers who facilitated their campus visits last Sunday, and to Bobarino Radank, who oversees Missions as one of his “slashes,” for doing a great job coordinating and communicating.
Speaking of Being World Travelers, A Few Prayer Items
Beyond our normal weekly Prayer List, (available as hard copying The Hub, or on the app or at fccgreene.org/prayerlist), I want ask you to prayer for a few special items. Over the next few days and up to a couple weeks for a few, some of our folks are out-of-the-country or out-of-town. Bob is going to Germany to finish up some loose ends from the Radanks’ time in Germany, where they were missionaries for 10 years. Then, Travis and the aforementioned Colombia crew are going to… well, Colombia to continue scoping out some church planting opportunities. (See blurb above.) And finally, I am overdue on a few big items that require me basically skipping town for a few days this week (to an undisclosed, and frankly, still undetermined location) to focus and get ahead. This may not sound like a big deal to you, but it is for me because… well… I’m a psycho extrovert nutjob who needs to be literally away from people in order to get any significant content-producing work done.
Quick Updates re Giving to Local Relief Efforts
We’ve received almost $29,000 in donations for flood relief. That’s great, y’all! Interestingly, $15,000 of that has come from friends outside of FCC and Greene County. To date, we have given away $12,000, comprised of (1) $5,000 to an FCCer who is a widow and pretty much lost everything, (2) $5,000 to an FCCer whose construction company has taken a lead role in helping rebuild by paying out-of-pocket, and (3) $2,000 to Longview Ranch, to help pay for food and housing for those who have come mostly from out-of-state to help with relief efforts and for a few mucking supplies for volunteers working on houses in Mosheim around the camp. For the remaining $17,000 (and whatever else is donated), we will be giving that to at least these 3 aforementioned folks ASAP, which at this point also means when needed and wise. In other words, in situations like these some things have to go in a certain order to ensure they’re done correctly—insurance, FEMA, acquiring construction materials, electrical before walls, etc.—so it’s simply a matter of waiting a bit for those details to emerge at which time we will gladly pass on those donations! Thank you so much for pursuing generosity—we’ll letcha know more ASAP!
Also, if you’ve missed ‘em, here are 5 straight H7 Stories we posted about these efforts: Oct 12, 19, 27, Nov 3 and 17. An H7 Story is a weekly post where we “Tell the story” of God’s work in the lives of our people, (even in tragedy.)
Also, pt 2, it’s worth continuing to keep in mind that some are still struggling with the aftermath, awaiting answers, and needing our help and prayers.
Details of “1 Service Everywhere” (1SE)
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Gist of My Pre-Sermon Chat from Sun, Nov 10 (with Just a Few Small Edits for Clarity)
We’ve got a pretty big announcement to make and to chat through for about 5-6 mins or so…. And yes I have accounted for the “or so” part by reducing my sermon to a devotional sermonette! :o) And for all you stressball nerds out there who struggle with “INFO FOMO”™ like I do, don’t worry, all of this and more is also being communicated in today’s Scott’s Thoughts (or… not!) and in an Elders Letter being sent out this week (which did happen!)
So, to make things simple, while we are indeed continuing to grow as a church, both numerically and in terms of overall health, in this new post-Covid world, we are experiencing some new challenges that mean we need to right-size some of our strategy to maintain our focus on our mission and best take care of our people.
So without further ado…
Beginning Sun, Dec 22, we will offer only one worship service at all three campuses, at 10 AM.
Now, I’ll explain why in just a minute, but just to be clear, 1SE isn’t a one-time thing or a temporary thing but a new every-Sunday-morning thing at all 3 campuses, including Greeneville where, at first, it may seem like it doesn’t need it! :o)
In basic terms, moving to one service will simplify some things that are increasingly challenging in our post-Covid context where people are needing and wanting community more but are participating less… and our two-services everywhere structure isn’t helping things! That’s worth saying again because I think it gets at the crux of the problem: people are needing and wanting community more but are participating less… and our two-services everywhere structure isn’t helping things! So we think that moving to 1SE will help! And before telling you the 3 main reasons we are making this change, it is not because the sky is falling or we aren’t growing. We have averaged just under 11% in the years post-Covid, we are seeing people young and old come to Christ, we are raising up young leaders, and there are tons of really encouraging signs!
But nonetheless we need to right-size our structure to relieve some pressure, facilitate relationships, and help us move forward in our mission of Helping People Find and Follow Jesus.
Specifically, there are 3 main reasons for shifting to 1SE.
Might there be other ways to adjust our strategy to maintain focus on our mission? Sure. But given our ministry structure and strategy, what we’re seeing among our people, and the cultural moment, we believe this is the best one for us because, with God’s help and yours, we won’t stop being a church that is all about Helping People Find and Follow Jesus!
FAQs
A couple of these answers are still a tad short and need more explanation, especially where volunteers who are involved, but this is good enough for now. If needed, I’ll add more here.
“Why are we beginning ‘1SE’ (1SE) on Sun, Dec 22 and not Sun, Jan 5, which would make more sense?”
Because we are already doing a form of 1SE for the All-Church Christmas Candlelight Service at Tusculum University, launching 1SE that day will make for better awareness and momentum, and we will avoid adding the confusion of doing one service on Dec 22, two services on Dec 29, and then going back to one on Jan 5.
“How does ‘Worship & Serve?’ change”
In essential purpose, none. In practice, a little. Worship & Serve worked so well pre-Covid that for years over 70% of Sunday morning attendees participated in ‘Worship 1, Serve 1,’ as we said in its early days. But were the conditions today in place when we first went multisite, it probably wouldn’t make sense to make “2 Services Day 1” a “Campus Constant” as we had. Things have changed and, frankly, people are tailoring their commitment and participation so particularly and cautiously that our previous 2-services-always structure doesn’t make sense anymore. Were we planning to go multi or launch a campus now, with our current serving patterns, it would probably be unwise to do so with 2 services because we don’t have the people resources to execute the many serving needs. So while we are still calling our people to practice both of the first 2 Habits—Engage in Worship and Serve on the Team— it just may not always happen on Sunday morning.
“What are we doing about Kids?”
Because we value making “Engage in worship” a habit, we are doing a couple things which, taken together, drastically lessen the effect of 1SE on our Kid vols. We will begin (a) scheduling volunteers on a rotating basis with the goal of having no one serve more than twice per month (and not on consecutive Sundays) and (b) keeping elementary kids in the service through communion, at which point they will go to class with Kids Min staff (or with parents or guardians—up to you.) Check-in will work like normal, at the beginning of the service (and, well, 10 mins late, when frazzled parents walk in with their kiddos! < That’s not a dig; it’s an “I get it!”) We foresee two results, first, Kids Min vols can be in the service at least some of every Sunday and, second, children and their families will be together and more fully integrated into wider church life! Think of the impact it makes when kids watch their parents sing God’s praises and see the gospel displayed in the Lord’s Supper!
“What does this mean for the Greeneville campus and how are we going to fit everybody into one service?”
In 2018, right before we launched our Afton campus, we had 280 chairs in the worship space and made it work just fine. For comparison, during 2024 we’ve been using 226 chairs and averaged 194 total adults and teens 6th grade and up. So, we’ll be fine for a while, especially if a bunch of Greeneville campus peeps move to either South Greene or Afton to help make more capacity! ;o)
“Is this decision really being made because we have bitten off more than we can chew with multisite?”
Fundamentally, no. We are dedicated to our multisite campus-launching strategy and are currently growing even with these challenges, but we are beginning to notice our resources slightly stretching toward ineffectiveness and want to make course corrections before it’s too late, for the sake of the strength and health of our church.
“What does this mean for Next Steps, which met during the 9a hour so that participants could still attend the 10:30a service?”
Remains to be seen… We are still talking and praying. … Will likely be more centralized and a bit more informal. … And at a time and place that will mean that I (and Campus Pastors and/or other Staff) can be there. Like Catalyst, perhaps? … We’ve ruled out Sunday mornings before or during the worship service time because that would defeat the purpose for doing 1SE in the first place. … Will letcha know more ASAP.
“Is the plan to go back to two services at any or all of the campuses?” At this point, no. We are treating this as a change to our “Campus Constants”, from launch-two-services-day-one to… launch one and plan on staying at one.
Friends, please pray with us about this important change, that God will use our efforts to advance His Kingdom! :o) While on the one hand this is kind of a big change to our multisite campus strategy, we are excited about how God might use this to simplify things, decrease frustration, restore some joy, bring us closer together, and ultimately to move us forward in our vision of Helping People Find and Follow Jesus by launching smaller and more personal campuses all over Greene County that just so happen to meet for worship once a Sunday instead of twice! :o)
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to hunt me or your Campus Pastor down or to contact one of the Elders.
We’ve got a pretty big announcement to make and to chat through for about 5-6 mins or so…. And yes I have accounted for the “or so” part by reducing my sermon to a devotional sermonette! :o) And for all you stressball nerds out there who struggle with “INFO FOMO”™ like I do, don’t worry, all of this and more is also being communicated in today’s Scott’s Thoughts (or… not!) and in an Elders Letter being sent out this week (which did happen!)
So, to make things simple, while we are indeed continuing to grow as a church, both numerically and in terms of overall health, in this new post-Covid world, we are experiencing some new challenges that mean we need to right-size some of our strategy to maintain our focus on our mission and best take care of our people.
So without further ado…
Beginning Sun, Dec 22, we will offer only one worship service at all three campuses, at 10 AM.
Now, I’ll explain why in just a minute, but just to be clear, 1SE isn’t a one-time thing or a temporary thing but a new every-Sunday-morning thing at all 3 campuses, including Greeneville where, at first, it may seem like it doesn’t need it! :o)
In basic terms, moving to one service will simplify some things that are increasingly challenging in our post-Covid context where people are needing and wanting community more but are participating less… and our two-services everywhere structure isn’t helping things! That’s worth saying again because I think it gets at the crux of the problem: people are needing and wanting community more but are participating less… and our two-services everywhere structure isn’t helping things! So we think that moving to 1SE will help! And before telling you the 3 main reasons we are making this change, it is not because the sky is falling or we aren’t growing. We have averaged just under 11% in the years post-Covid, we are seeing people young and old come to Christ, we are raising up young leaders, and there are tons of really encouraging signs!
But nonetheless we need to right-size our structure to relieve some pressure, facilitate relationships, and help us move forward in our mission of Helping People Find and Follow Jesus.
Specifically, there are 3 main reasons for shifting to 1SE.
- (1) We need to provide margin for volunteers. As you can imagine, it takes a lot of time and energy to do 6 services at 3 sites! For example, at all 3 campuses 40% of our volunteers are at church between 4-6 hours on Sunday mornings, and at the 2 portable sites, 45%. On a recent Sunday, one of our Serve Teams had 22 people either call off or just not show up to serve—over half needed that day! Moving to one service will add to the available pool of volunteers, provide needed breathing room, decrease frustration, simplify complexity, help restore some joy in Sunday worship and serving, and will give back as much as 60-90 minutes on Sundays!
- (2) We need to foster a context of togetherness. Ever since Covid, many are feeling disconnected and in need of relationship. As a church, we have been experiencing more “people churn” [LINK] than ever and we need to find ways to bring our people together. What better way than doing so at the main place and time that happens most?! Not only does a worship service that is full always feel better but it’s important for you to know who goes to the same church and campus you do! We believe that keeping our campuses “small and personal” [LINK] by limiting them to one all-campus worship gathering will mean more encouragement, unity, accountability, and fellowship around the gospel.
- (3) We need to recapture vision and gain momentum for our campus-launching strategy. Some quick context: We started this whole multisite journey because, in 2017-18, 2 (then 3, then back to 2) services weren’t enough and building or expanding would’ve been at least 2-3 or 7-8 million dollars more than we had, depending on which we did. And on the whole, multisite is working out great. The overwhelming majority of our plans are working as planned or better. It expands our reach, creates more opportunities to develop leaders, and has meant easily many hundreds of opportunities to serve the schools in ways we otherwise couldn’t. But, frankly, in post-Covid world, where so many Christians are in retreat, we’ve lost our fervor for reaching the lost and we need to recapture that vision and gain some momentum for the reason why we went into multisite in the first place—to be focused on making disciples by expanding our reach in the community. So we’re going to keep working towards launching the next campus when the time is right, but, as you can tell by this 1SE thing, we are working toward doing so in smaller, leaner, and more people-focused ways: with 1 worship gathering, in closer community, and with fewer up-front resources. We think that lightening the launching load like this will help build stronger campuses. … BUT, here’s the wrench, and I need to be straight up with you right now: Because people think GVL is somehow different or more official than the others, our GVL campus gets easily 4 times more visitors than either of our portable campuses. And so it grows faster. In my almost 23 years here we’ve hit the ceiling at GVL at least 3 or maybe 4 times and it’s likely only a matter of time until we get there again in another year or so. So we need to learn to get people to leave GVL and go to one of our other campuses. Why? Because we need that seat for someone who isn’t connected to the body or doesn’t know Christ. It’s time to start thinking again about the fate of those who die without Christ. The proper Christian response to our post-Covid culture of confusion isn’t retreat or isolation—it’s engagement and evangelism! … To make the point clear, there are currently ~250 open seats at GVL, (which sounds like a lot, but most of them are 1st Service.) So there are a ~265 open seats at GVL but there are 1,050 open seats at our other two campuses. So, think about it like this: We have 4 times as many guests at GVL than the portable campuses but ¼ as many open seats. So, straight up, we want as many of you from GVL as are willing to think like a missionary again and open up some seats here and fill some there! So, you may not like this, but reality isn’t easy… Part of 1SE is about recapturing vision and gaining momentum for our campus-launching strategy.
Might there be other ways to adjust our strategy to maintain focus on our mission? Sure. But given our ministry structure and strategy, what we’re seeing among our people, and the cultural moment, we believe this is the best one for us because, with God’s help and yours, we won’t stop being a church that is all about Helping People Find and Follow Jesus!
FAQs
A couple of these answers are still a tad short and need more explanation, especially where volunteers who are involved, but this is good enough for now. If needed, I’ll add more here.
“Why are we beginning ‘1SE’ (1SE) on Sun, Dec 22 and not Sun, Jan 5, which would make more sense?”
Because we are already doing a form of 1SE for the All-Church Christmas Candlelight Service at Tusculum University, launching 1SE that day will make for better awareness and momentum, and we will avoid adding the confusion of doing one service on Dec 22, two services on Dec 29, and then going back to one on Jan 5.
“How does ‘Worship & Serve?’ change”
In essential purpose, none. In practice, a little. Worship & Serve worked so well pre-Covid that for years over 70% of Sunday morning attendees participated in ‘Worship 1, Serve 1,’ as we said in its early days. But were the conditions today in place when we first went multisite, it probably wouldn’t make sense to make “2 Services Day 1” a “Campus Constant” as we had. Things have changed and, frankly, people are tailoring their commitment and participation so particularly and cautiously that our previous 2-services-always structure doesn’t make sense anymore. Were we planning to go multi or launch a campus now, with our current serving patterns, it would probably be unwise to do so with 2 services because we don’t have the people resources to execute the many serving needs. So while we are still calling our people to practice both of the first 2 Habits—Engage in Worship and Serve on the Team— it just may not always happen on Sunday morning.
“What are we doing about Kids?”
Because we value making “Engage in worship” a habit, we are doing a couple things which, taken together, drastically lessen the effect of 1SE on our Kid vols. We will begin (a) scheduling volunteers on a rotating basis with the goal of having no one serve more than twice per month (and not on consecutive Sundays) and (b) keeping elementary kids in the service through communion, at which point they will go to class with Kids Min staff (or with parents or guardians—up to you.) Check-in will work like normal, at the beginning of the service (and, well, 10 mins late, when frazzled parents walk in with their kiddos! < That’s not a dig; it’s an “I get it!”) We foresee two results, first, Kids Min vols can be in the service at least some of every Sunday and, second, children and their families will be together and more fully integrated into wider church life! Think of the impact it makes when kids watch their parents sing God’s praises and see the gospel displayed in the Lord’s Supper!
“What does this mean for the Greeneville campus and how are we going to fit everybody into one service?”
In 2018, right before we launched our Afton campus, we had 280 chairs in the worship space and made it work just fine. For comparison, during 2024 we’ve been using 226 chairs and averaged 194 total adults and teens 6th grade and up. So, we’ll be fine for a while, especially if a bunch of Greeneville campus peeps move to either South Greene or Afton to help make more capacity! ;o)
“Is this decision really being made because we have bitten off more than we can chew with multisite?”
Fundamentally, no. We are dedicated to our multisite campus-launching strategy and are currently growing even with these challenges, but we are beginning to notice our resources slightly stretching toward ineffectiveness and want to make course corrections before it’s too late, for the sake of the strength and health of our church.
“What does this mean for Next Steps, which met during the 9a hour so that participants could still attend the 10:30a service?”
Remains to be seen… We are still talking and praying. … Will likely be more centralized and a bit more informal. … And at a time and place that will mean that I (and Campus Pastors and/or other Staff) can be there. Like Catalyst, perhaps? … We’ve ruled out Sunday mornings before or during the worship service time because that would defeat the purpose for doing 1SE in the first place. … Will letcha know more ASAP.
“Is the plan to go back to two services at any or all of the campuses?” At this point, no. We are treating this as a change to our “Campus Constants”, from launch-two-services-day-one to… launch one and plan on staying at one.
Friends, please pray with us about this important change, that God will use our efforts to advance His Kingdom! :o) While on the one hand this is kind of a big change to our multisite campus strategy, we are excited about how God might use this to simplify things, decrease frustration, restore some joy, bring us closer together, and ultimately to move us forward in our vision of Helping People Find and Follow Jesus by launching smaller and more personal campuses all over Greene County that just so happen to meet for worship once a Sunday instead of twice! :o)
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to hunt me or your Campus Pastor down or to contact one of the Elders.
Posted in Scotts Thoughts