Sun, Nov 29, 2020
Total Reading Time: 3 mins
Misc Points of Interest and Import, Briefly Stated
In case you missed any of these, see the last couple ST posts, from Nov 15 & 22:
- No more live-streaming of re:gen and 180.
- Brown Bags & Bibles (& Books!) begins discussing The Gathering Storm, by Al Mohler, on Tue, Dec 8. (We finish up our 3-week series on Baptism this Tue, Dec 1.)
- Meet Charity Damrau, new Kids Min Director, on Coffee Convos.
- Alison Stollenmaier Resignation Info
Christmas/Advent Series
(Yes I know, church nerds, “Christmas” and “Advent” are not the same things.) Beginning next Sun, Dec 6, we begin a 3-week Christmas series called “Lying in Wait”. It’s about the lies we believe as we wait for Jesus’ coming (his “advent”, both the first, and ultimately, second times.) While we wait for the consummation of God’s work of reconciling the world to Himself, understanding how we are believing in personal self-righteousness, political power, and earthly security, will help us align ourselves properly.
- “Holy Fear” (John 9:35-41)
- “Hopeless Fear” (Luke 24:13-21)
- “Overwhelming Fear” (Matthew 1:18-21)
Upcoming Service Time Changes
I hope this will be the last time we need to make some service time changes for a good, long while. Starting on Sun, Dec 20, we’re going back to 2 services per campus on Sundays.
- 8:45a – 1st service
- 10a – 2nd service
There are quite a few reasons we need to do this. Here are a few highlights:
- Many of our volunteers are burned out with 3 services a Sunday and we just don’t have the human resources to sustain it all much longer. Covid has messed up everything.
- Allows services to be a little longer and more normal. (We’ve been doing ~45 mins, but are going to ~52-55ish mins. This will add back a little more singing and sermon time. Plus, we’re going back to live preaching instead of pre-recorded.)
- Allows us to continue to provide plenty of personal distancing at every service. We’ve been averaging 42 per service at Afton and 37 per service at Greeneville.
- Allows us to add a 3rd service at Greeneville when needed, which we likely will eventually. It’ll be 11:15a (out by 12:05-12:10p.) with the 2 aforementioned service times still in effect at Afton, 8:45a & 10a. But, for now, just 2 services.
- Allows Afton setup peeps to not have to adjust much (only 15 mins, if I’m remembering correctly) and cleanup peeps to get done earlier (and not have to stay till 1:30p or so… which some of them have been doing… for a long time.)
Stay on the lookout for our Christmas Week Candlelight services. Not only is this the first week of the new service times, but we’ve got some special days/times planned. We’ll be sending out an Elders letter in the next week or so to inform everyone of these changes and other end-of-year info.
(A Few More) Lessons Learned (Particularly from Leading Through Covid)
- When it comes to relationships and ideas, most are too scared and/or lazy to do their homework and find out the truth for themselves. Matthew 18 needs to be applied to our online interactions and public communications.
- Everything is mediated. All information, data, and news sources are mediated by fallible human beings with a worldview, personal bent, and emotional history.
- The more consistently offended you are, the more self-righteous.
- If you are not desperate to be fed by worship, prayer and God’s Word, it is because your mission doesn’t need it.