TMG
Tom’s Midweek Greeting
Crossroads Community Church
Nevada MO
July 25, 2019
www.nevadacrossroadschurch.org
Hi everyone!
I’m excited about our new Sunday sermon series, “Scrappy Church”! Thanks for the feedback I received from some of you this week concerning last Sunday’s start to the series! I hope that the Scrappy Church idea will take hold and prompt more thinking, praying, and action at Crossroads!
Let me just review here the six qualities of a scrappy church that we saw in the the Thessalonian church last Sunday, and add to that the transition in attitudes Thom Rainer writes about in his book Scrappy Church : God’s Not Done Yet.
Scrappy Qualities in the Thessalonian Church:
- commitment 1 Thessalonians 1:2-4
- power 1 Thessalonians 1:5-6
- learning 1 Thessalonians 1:6-7
- proclaiming 1 Thessalonians 1:8
- willing to change 1 Thessalonians 1:9
- expectancy 1 Thessalonians 1:10
Transitions in Attitude That Say, “God Isn’t Finished With Us Yet!”
- a transition from excuses to ownership (taking ownership of the church as it is, rather than making excuses for what it’s not)
- a transition from obstacles to allies (unconditional love for everyone in the church, instead of viewing some people as obstacles)
- a transition from limitations to abundance (Your church has everything it needs to do what God wants it to do right now.)
- a transition from discouragement to joy (focusing on the positives rather than the negatives)
- a transition from fear to courage (willing to cast vision and take positive steps toward the future)
- a transition from inward to outward focus (A danger of a highly relational church such as ours is to become insular and miss out on the joy of reaching people outside our group.)
This Sunday we’ll look at some nuts & bolts of the scrappy church. We’ll move from 1 Thessalonians, a letter written to a scrappy church, to 1 Timothy, a letter written to the pastor of a church.
- What is the church?
- What’s it supposed to be doing?
I look forward to seeing you this Sunday at 10:00 at the Y so we can dig into the nuts and bolts of what it means to be a scrappy church! Come early and enjoy some fellowship!
Notes From Sunday’s Elders Meeting
Thanks for your prayers for our Elder Board meeting last Sunday, and thanks to our elders for their thoughtful participation in the life of our church! Here are a few notes from the meeting:
- A barbecue is scheduled for Sunday, August 25, at the Y. Please mark your calendars and plan to stay after church that Sunday to enjoy some hamburgers and hot dogs right off the grill! We’ll need everyone to bring a side dish and/or dessert. The church will provide drinks and paper products.
- We’ll have a Congregational Meeting on Sunday, September 15, immediately after the worship service. Everyone is invited to attend and participate, whether you’re a voting member at Crossroads or not.
- A children’s party is being planned by our Children’s Church team for Friday, September 6, 5:00 pm to celebrate the start of the new school year and to make connections. Place to be determined. More details coming!
- Tom is planning to organize a team from Crossroads to participate in The Big Serve service project in Nevada on the weekend of September 28-29. If you have some free time that weekend and would like to be a part of that team, please let me know!
- Home Group and Youth Group activities will start again in September and will likely meet one Wednesday evening per month. Sunday morning 9:00 studies this fall for adults and youth are still in the planning stages.
- Finances: Our income for 2019 is about $2000 behind actual expenses for the year. Thank you for your faithful giving to God’s work at Crossroads! We’ll need to continue to be faithful in order to meet expenses for the year. Some financial decisions made at the meeting:
- approval to purchase some new plants for the worship area
- approval to increase Tom’s health insurance $25/mo. in September if the vote for an increase at Samaritan Ministries passes this month
- approval to purchase some Bibles and some more Crossroads pens to have available on Sundays
- An idea was made in our Scrappy Church discussion groups on Sunday to order a Crossroads logo for the church family to have embroidered on a shirt if they would like, in an effort to boost our unity and our visibility in the community.
- We committed ourselves and the church to the Lord in prayer.
Finally…
There will be Thursday afternoon prayer today from 4:00 – 5:00 on my front porch if you’re free during that time and would like to join a few others! **contact us for location**, in Nevada. We’ll meet today and next week to close out this summer-time season of prayer. Thanks to all who have been a part, and to all who pray for Crossroads!
I’m very happy to announce to the church family that I have a new granddaughter! Even though ultrasounds said for months that Emma and Jason were about to receive their fourth boy, it turned out that God had a girl in mind! Amy Diana Harms was born yesterday, July 24th, weighing 6 lbs, 3.5 oz. We are very thankful and excited for the addition to the family!
“For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith toward God has gone forth ….” (1 Thessalonians 1:8)
Looking forward to seeing you Sunday!
–Tom
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