Good morning High Places,
We're all set for a GREAT weekend of fun and togetherness, starting Saturday at 2:00 PM as our Mountain Movers hold their first post-pandemic party, "Mega Funfest." There will be music, entertainment, games, and art as our children gather for three hours to party and enjoy the summer with each other. For more information, or volunteer to help, contact Kady Marcotte, 865-850-3112.
Then on Sunday, we will return to the smaller auditorium to mix things up a little for Father's Day. We will have music, a children's message from Kady, a video, and then our message. The passage I have selected is from 2nd Samuel 6, which we often describe as David "dancing naked" before the Ark of the Covenant as it entered Jerusalem. In truth, he was only half naked because he wore something akin to underwear, so that's our Bible trivia for the day!
Perhaps more interesting is the criticism David faced when he got home for behaving in an "undistinguished" way before the people. We discuss the pressure men, and especially dads, face in our modern culture and how to value them for their "spiritedness" when they seem not to conform to social expectations.
IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT THIS SUNDAY: Because I plan to show a short Ted Talk, I suspect the Facebook livestream will cut out, and perhaps drop altogether. If you plan to stream, I recommend using our Vimeo site -- www.vimeo.com/highplaces or the stream from our website, www.highplaceschurch.org
Facebook has algorithms that do not allow streaming from any other source to its livestream services. It's algorithms sometimes drop us if a particular song we sing resembles something to close to the original, or seems familiar to the software. So far, we haven't had these issues with Vimeo. For the most part, streaming will always be a dice roll - partly because we don't have enough invested in the technology to do it perfectly, and partly because so many other churches are also demanding bandwidth during that same hour.
In person attendance is always the best way to get the best High Places experience!
Last Week
We had a wonderful time at the lake last week with our graduates, and thank you Chad and staff for all you did while I was away. If you missed news and notes and/or the announcements the past few Sundays, and arrived to the Grove only to find it empty, I apologize.
We will be on the move some this summer, especially in the three weeks following Father's Day, so read carefully if you can. We will also have a sign up each week with the location of our gathering on the mobile Sundays this summer. It will be different and exciting, so plan on extra flexibility, sunshine, and a warm heart shared among friends.
Young Adults to Watch Movie, June 25
On Friday next week, our young adults and recent graduates will have a get-together at the Grove to watch the recently released movie Hosea (which is available on Amazon Prime and EXCELLENT if you haven't seen it). Hosea is a re-telling of the famous book of the Bible set in modern times, but told through a woman's perspective. It is thought-provoking and in my opinion, does maybe the best job I have seen in describing why we needed Jesus to be a bridge to God for us -- and it accomplishes this without be preachy or churchy in any way.
The movie comes with a warning however (it is rated R) and has a few scenes that can be triggering, most especially to those who've experienced violence or sexual abuse. These moments will be marked during the showing of the film and we will pause to allow any who need to step out a moment to do so.
Young adult movie night begins at 7:00 PM with the film, and a discussion to follow.
Post-Pandemic Church
We're back to in-person gatherings, but still mostly trying to figure out what a post-pandemic High Places will look like. We added several new families during 2020 and early 2021. Many of them would love to meet our entire High Places family, but we haven't managed to get us all back together at the same time. We've been slow to return, many for good reasons involving health at the Coronavirus.
We will trust that folks will return on their own time and at their own pace. Just know you're missed, not just by High Places staff and regulars, but by new families too who would like to meet the whole High Places family.
Until then, stay safe and take care of yourselves. Know that you are loved, and that we're still here busy being us... busy being awesome. :)
Love to you all,
David
"Without love, and a little effort, we run the risk of being quarantined by more than a virus."
~ Pastor Dave