News and Notes- September 15, 2021

Good Wednesday afternoon High Places,

In a few hours at 7:00 PM we will continue our bible study at the Grove in the movie room. Everyone is invited each Wednesday to join us!

Thank you Orion for covering for me last Sunday while I officiated a wedding ceremony out of state. We appreciate you for all you gifts and talents, and look forward to seeing you grown and develop in ministry. 

Important Note: Due to several factors, our High Places Meeting will be pushed back one week to Thursday, September 23rd in the lobby. We will have a virtual connection set up also for those who cannot join us in person. In this meeting, we'll review our ministry teams and talk about how they attach to the whole. We will also briefly review our 5 Commitments in our ten-year vision plan, as well as announce some exciting things coming in October. 

All HPCC folk who are interested in learning more about High Places and our ministries are encouraged to attend this meeting, not just leadership. In the coming season, we will be re-energizing our leadership teams across the board with the aim of coming out of COVID-19 with increasing levels of clarity, commitment, faith, and vision.

This Sunday, we're back on the prayer theme and our topic will be repentance. Repentance literally means to "make an about face" or to turn and go in the opposite direction. If there are areas in our lives that keep us from experiencing the fullness of God and living into His purposes, they're things we are asked to set aside. We will look at the life of King David as an example of repentance (he was kind of an expert on the subject for all the wrong reasons!).

I trust everyone is staying safe and keeping healhty during the pandemic. Please pray for our frontline health care workers who are extremely burdened and overworked right now due to the numbers of covid patients crowding hospitals, predominately unvaccinated. I have personally spoken with three different people this week alone who were in situations requiring medical attention who either were unable or severely delayed in getting treated due to staff and bed shortages at our local hospital. This is concerning for us all and is a matter for prayer as is the condition of the State of Tennessee right now as we lead the nation in covid infections. Keep all these things in prayer, and pray for your staff as well as we daily try to determine the best way forward and seek God's wisdom and grace.

Thank you all for being so awesome. Love you and hope to see you in a bit for Bible Study. 

David

News and Notes - September 9, 2021

Good morning High Places,

This Sunday, Orion Wilson will be sharing with us and its going to be a real treat! Orion has come through both our children’s and youth ministries and is now exploring ministry thanks to a grant we received in March from the Forum on Theological Education. This grant allows Orion to be trained by our staff and provides opportunities for him to put some of the training into practice as he leads and organizes our young adult ministries. Orion has been an unshakeable volunteer through the years, performing in our Mountain Mover skits, being a summer camp counselor, and helping with music on Sunday’s and Wednesday’s. I hope everyone will come out in support as he shares from his heart this week!

I mentioned that we had to postpone our Periodic Tables event that was scheduled for the closing hours of the Secret City Festival. It was a difficult decision and one that didn’t come with a lot of heaviness attached to it. However, our team excited to again begin the “brainstorming” phase as look at opportunities to bridge with other initiatives happening in Oak Ridge. Some great ideas have been tossed about, so if you would, please be in prayer for this team as it works. I still very much believe in the power to build community through guided conversations during a shared, joyful meal.

All this month, we’re focusing on prayer as a church family. For me, this means becoming increasingly “mindful” of when, where, and how we pray. Stopping to deepen our prayer habits can only produce even better results in our prayer life. I will be praying for you as you pray. Please pray for me too! And please join us for bible study and prayer on Wednesday's at 7:00 PM at the Grove if you're able.

A High Places Meetin’ is on the books for next Thursday (the 16th) at 7:00 PM.  We plan to do a blended meeting in the lobby at the Grove, but with virtual join-in available. I could use some help with getting that arranged from someone more technically literate than I am!

This meeting is for leaders and interested others, and in it we will look at our teams and review how High Places is organized under the surface of it all. Invitations to join teams will be open as God leads and directs. I also want to review our 10-Year Vision plan and look at a couple areas there. As much as anything, I simply look forward to connecting with our church family outside of the busyness of a Sunday morning meeting and having some fun together! I hope everyone commits to being there!

We have some GREAT stuff coming our way in October, so hold onto your hats ladies and gentlemen. That’s my only tease for next month. Ha!

Love to you all,

David

“Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity, show yourself an example to those who believe.”

 1st Timothy 4:12

News and Notes - September 1, 2021

Happy Wednesday High Places,

As we begin September’s focus on prayer, I invite us all to a month of prayer in however it is you pray. Some pray religiously (pun intended!) every day using wrote prayers or devotionals. Others pray on their commutes to work, in the shower each morning, or simply offer up prayers throughout the day as things move or inspire them. Our goal this month isn’t to say what’s the right way or wrong way to pray, but simply to encourage us all to pray.

The Bible mostly says there is only one “bad” way to pray, and that is selfishly, or to pray without any regarding to making changes in our lives. (See James 2:14-17, and again James 4:2). Outside of that, provided we aren’t making a show ourselves as Jesus warned, anything humble and heartfelt is something beneficial. God longs for that kind of communication, whether we are “at church” (quotes intended!) or at the grocery store, or on the golf course. God wants us talking.

However, you are talking and listening with God already, our aim for September is multiply that. Pay careful attention to the times you pray this month and let’s agree to pray “mindfully” as a church for each other and for our community.

We’re going to follow our children’s lead in prayer, using their event four-part praying guide:

PRAY = Praise, Repent, Ask, Yield

We have much to gain by taking such a simple approach to prayer, and I believe much to gain by “becoming as a little child” as Jesus instructs when it comes to our prayer life.

This week, we will start with prayer… but because I can’t help myself, we will take a very short amount of time to look at the history of prayer in our earliest texts. Challenge question before Sunday:

“Where do we find the first prayer in the Bible?”

Believe it or not, you could pick a couple of different places that answer this question and not be wrong. I would like to say I will have a cupcake ready to give away to the person with the right answer, but I know myself enough to know I will forget to bring it between now and then!

In the meantime, be mindful of where, when, and how you pray between now and Sunday. We’re all in this boat together and together we’ll navigate as ONE body of Christ, with MANY members. Each of us brings something to the table.

SPEAKING OF TABLES… Keep our Periodic Tables initiative in prayer. There is serious talk of pushing this back a couple of months due to the spike in the Delta variant. When all this began many months ago, I said that our hospitalization rate would be the determining factor on what we did or didn’t do – meaning if our doctors and nurses were overwhelmed, we would dial back on too much closeness. We’re at that point again unfortunately, and while we won’t be returning to all virtual meetings like we did at Christmas, I am really struggling with the idea of getting 100’s of people around a dinner table. Please keep our steering team in prayer as we try to figure the best way forward.

Pray for Orion as he leads our young adults with some exciting opportunities coming up this fall and winter, pray for Chad as he too is navigating all the quarantines, contact tracings, and other issues affecting a regularly attended youth group. And pray for Kady as she ministers day in and day out in our school system alongside scores of teachers who are struggling to teach in half-full classrooms due to the sickness spreading in the schools. I have spoken with two teachers this week on the verge of tears because they just want their classrooms back to normal.

We have a ton more exciting things coming up, but I don’t want to wear us out.

Love to all you beautiful people. There are so many of you I miss, but certainly understand. And so many that have lifted my spirits lately with your smiles during these difficult times.

As Bob Williams said this week, “We need more HOPS.” Hope, Optimism, Purpose, and Spirituality. I see a group forming here around this HOPS thing. Haha!

David

“In prayer it is better to have a heart without words than words without a heart. ”
― John Bunyan

News and Notes - August 18, 2021

Happy Wednesday High Places,

Thanks for sitting through a tough one this past Sunday with the parable of the Sheep and Goats. There is so much mixed up in this parable -- like the question, "Do good works save us?'

I feel like I did my best trying to unpack it, after years of struggling with it too... but I also feel like there is only so much that 30 minutes can accomplish. Last week in our bible study we opened up some, especially about how hard isolated passages can feel sometimes. The measure seems to constantly be something so hard to live up to, but it doesn't have to be when we take Our Lord in context, and with a recognition that He times things perfectly.

So in our bible study tonight (Wednesday) at 7:00 PM, we wil dig into the way Jesus ordered his two ending parables. We will look at the parable of the talents and ask why he told this one first, then we head straight way into the sheep and the goats.

We're called to make the most of what we've been given - not the most of what others have - and Jesus asks us to invest that. When we refuse, Jesus goes onto to tell another story, one that says we are actually refusing His provisions to the "least of these."

Excited to share this little insight that has kept me feeling too beat-up over the years. We will be in the movie room tonight at 7:00 PM.

In other news, Martin will be sharing this Sunday. Tracy and I have the once in a lifetime opportunity to visit her mom for her 80th birthday. Pray for us as we travel, as we share some time with mom, and as we make the choice to focus on the "good stuff" that lays a beautiful foundation on which we build our spiritual lives. We all need more of that, regardless of any age.

Finally, we have a few irons in the fire. I realize it can feel overwhelming and trust me that I am seeking God about places and times to slow down. The Periodic Tables are happening and momentum is building, even without me trying to be the pitch man for it. People are hungry (pun intended) to bridge differences and come together to build a better community. Look for sign-up sheets in the coming weeks for any that want to help Oak Ridge pull this off!

Fall, Winter, and even Winter 2022 plans are starting to take shape. Personally, I am excited! Pray for me to find ways to share that enthusiasm, because I truly do believe we're positioned in a unique, wonderful way to share love for each other and the world right now -- especially now -- as we crawl out from under the thumb of this pandemic and social distancing.

I truly hope EVERYONE comes out to support the fellowship of the spirit we will be sharing this Sunday. It mattes when we are all together. Stay safe out there, and until the time we can embrace again - please know you are loved.

In Him,

David

“Sometimes, reaching out and taking someone's hand is the beginning of a journey. At other times, it is allowing another to take yours.”
~ Vera Nazarian

News and Notes - August 11, 2021

Happy Wednesday everyone!

As we appear to be in the middle of another wave of coronavirus in our county, many are contemplating what to do. I spent an hour with several other pastors in our community yesterday sharing thoughts and ideas. Their responses in their own congregations have ranged from A to Z. For High Places, we will move back from the small auditorium to the larger one for the next week or two and keep watching.

I didn’t realize how much I missed the smaller auditorium over the last year until we returned to it a few months ago. The main thing I miss? – Hearing your voices singing. When we get so spread out in the larger auditorium it makes singing together much more complicated. I have missed hearing your voices so much over these past months and the thought of not hearing them for the next few weeks is frustrating.

I can only ask that you extend us whatever grace you can as we adjust and move around. Navigating community life for the last 18 months has been exhausting. Since we’re a church filled with people from A to Z, there is never a decision we make that leaves everyone feeling great. From shut-downs, to masks, to distancing, to singing, to arranging music – what one person loves one week, could be the thing that encourages another to stay home the next week.

I can only say, we’re doing our best and that we love each and every one of you, wherever you may fall on the spectrum of decisions each week. I promise you that my phone was filled with texts Sunday morning of people who wanted to be there, but due to health concerns, elected to take the week off and watch online. I tend to get dozens of these each week and it warms my heart to know that even when we are absent in body, we can still be together in spirit. I miss having our entire church family together – like more than I can put into words.

Whatever your circumstance or situation, just know you are loved.

Here’s our News & Notes….

Tonight (Wednesday) 7:00 PM, we will meet in the kid movie room for Bible study while the youth gather in the rest of the building. Tonight, we expand from the parable of the prodigal son to the three-part story arc Jesus shared upon receiving criticism that He hung out with “sinners.” We will identify real-life places that we might be able to share these stories with others and spread the love and grace of God as we go.

This Sunday… We will meet in the large auditorium. We will not require masks, but those who are comfortable are encouraged to wear them as they are comfortable (but I do love seeing your face you sing, so there’s that!).

We will work hard to get song lyrics in folks’ hands because it is too hard to sing along without words sometimes. To the degree we are each comfortable, I would love to have us stand up and move a little closer together during music this week. Those who are not comfortable, I totally understand – no pressure.

Periodic Tables…. Although the article will not appear in the printed paper until Friday, an online version of it is here. This was part three in a story sharing series I did for the Faith Column. The other two are also online. God has truly been working in Oak Ridge because of this initiative. I am seeing so many come together in ways we were not pre-pandemic. Please stay in prayer for the next six weeks that we might honor God and wonderful power of His love in this event. The city is watching us, and we’re moving in the Spirit in great anticipation for what God is about to do.

You can read the article here: https://www.oakridger.com/story/opinion/2021/08/11/periodic-tables-sharing-elements-community/5544469001/

Our website is almost ready for “prime time.” Get a deeper view of what we will be doing and what is coming, pull up a chair and give it a look: https://www.oakridgeperiodictables.com/

Again, GREAT things are happening. Sometimes, when all we may see are Sunday’s, we can forget how powerfully God SHAPES us and our community Monday through Saturday. I don’t think I have ever been more excited since transitioning to the lead pastor role as I am right now. I can literally SEE OUR 10-YEAR VISION plan taking shape, day by day.

There are many other things to announce – like our partnership with the school system, our food deliveries from the Farmer’s Market, our Community Thanksgiving meal, young adult ministries shaping up, youth and children’s fall plans, our Christmas program, and our February adult retreat in Gatlinburg (which I need to take deposits on by next month).

Oh, and I forgot to mention – Darlene Roby’s sewing class, which happened last week. I just popped my head in twice and there were a dozen ladies having so much fun in there I almost joined myself!

Good, good stuff.

Love you all. Miss many of you but understand.

“To Him who is able to do exceedingly above anything we can think, or even imagine, be all glory.”  ~ The Apostle Paul

News and Notes - July 28, 2021

Good afternoon High Places!

I hope you're excited for our first "Chili Dog Days of Summer" concert and gathering happening Saturday night at the Grove. We have some great bands lined up. Check out The Afternooners on Spotify. They are from Chattanooga. Or Blue Willow from Nashville for a taste of what we have coming. Also, our own Greg McPeak from the local band Silver Trailer will be playing us into the late hours, so if you like Psychedelic Hillbilly Rock (think Pink Floyd on steriods), be sure to stay late and enjoy them!

Of course we will have our own Robbie Lewis, alongside his friends and family, providing fun throughout the night, as well as a set of newcomers from Coalfield called "Suite 101."

If I can find a light weigh television, we could stream the Olympics from a Roku stick in the lobby too, so no one would have to miss out if that is more your jam. We will have chili dogs and snacks enough to keep you well fed (expect them again on Sunday afternoon if we don't sell them all! haha!) and beer is availalbe for 21 & up with valid ID. 

Invite your friends... volunteer to make a pot of chili, bring a jug of ice tea or lemonnade if you can, anything to help the night run smooth. Most of all bring yourself and a friend! Plan to make new friends too because there will be plenty of new faces around. We even caught a corporate sponsor today who's paying the way for all their employees! 

It's going to be hopping Saturday night, so please come support this event and pour some more heat on the dog days of summer with post-pandemic jams. Share our on social media as soon as you can. Tell your co-workers and help us spread the word. All donations go to helping us continue our work in and through the Grove Theater. 

Thank you, thank you, thank you!


TONIGHT (Wednesday) -- Jesus Stories Bible Study continues, 7:00 PM. I was genuinely excited by the turn out last week. We had six attend with almost no promotion and me forgetting to announce it or put it in News and Notes. If it fell off your radar, or this is the first time you are hearing about it -- come on down! 7:00 PM in the movie room at the Grove tonight. 

This Sunday we will pick the theme back up after a GREAT summer camp Sunday last week. Thank you Chad, Orion, Jackson Linn, and all the folks that made last week possible. It was definitely our highest attended Sunday post-pandemic. More importantly the spirit was truly contagious and I am certain everyone had a wonderful experience at High Places last week.

Hope to see everyone back for another round of Jesus Stories this week!

Love to you all!

David


 

“This is what you shall do;
Love the earth and sun and the animals,
despise riches, give alms to every one that asks,
stand up for the stupid and crazy,
devote your income and labor to others,
hate tyrants, argue not concerning God,
have patience and indulgence toward the people,
take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men,
go freely with powerful uneducated persons
and with the young and with the mothers of families....
re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book,
dismiss whatever insults your own soul,
and your very flesh shall be a great poem."

-- WALT WHITMAN

News and Notes - July 21, 2021

Good morning High Places,

Just a quick reminder that our summer camp Sunday is this week, so come enjoy some camp music, a video of our week, and learn how a great group of teenagers and their leaders spent the week. We tend to have more guests on camp Sundays, so having our regular High Places family out to support, meet, and give warm welcomes to these families is always a big plus.

We had have people out for our "Jesus Stories" bible study last night, which I anticipate is going to grow significantly in the next week or two. For those interested in going deeper with the stories we share on Sunday, and learning how to share Jesus naturally with friends and family, we will be meeting the next five weeks on Wednesdays at 7:00 PM at the Grove.

August is going to be a busy month, but before we get there, we have one last big July event on July 31st. "Chili Dog Days of Summer" is Saturday, July 31 and I could use a few volunteers to make crockpots of chili, assist in the kitchen, or perhaps take up donations at the door. The bands / music we have lined up are truly incredible. Check them out on our Facebook page -- https://www.facebook.com/events/870818253867339/?active_tab=discussion which has links to some of their Spotify pages.

Would love to see great participation from our High Places family for this great opportunity, and all the proceeds from this event will go to help us maintain our ministries in the theater. Invite your friends, share the event page on social media, and help us spread the word.

Look for another leadership meeting in August and an end-of-the-year plan that will cover our involvement in Periodic Tables, our Thanksgiving and Christmas schedules, as well as discussion for our 2022 Adult Retreat in February. There will be much on this agenda, so please plan to attend.

Lastly, Saturday this week is our Saturday to glean the Farmer's Market. It is highly possible that once again we have more vegetables that we can distribute to families, so please be thinking of families that YOU know who need a little extra help post-pandemic. We typically have plenty of squash, cucumber, and zucchini to give away and I always appreciate help delivering that food to food pantries and other areas of our community experiencing food scarcity.

Thank you for all your support. We are still taking donations for the Oak Ridge 85 celebration, Periodic Tables, and Lewis's funeral. We have not finished tallying the final camp numbers, but camp donations are always appreciated as well. We also lost Brenda Lisenbee recently, so pray for Joe and that family. You may remember them as the couple who often sat in the back, Brenda had stomach cancer.

Please keep Lauren and Julie Tauber in prayer after the passing of their mother (Chole's grandmother) Joyce. The memorial service is Friday at the Grove. Also remember Danny Brannon in prayer as he begins the long journey of hip rehab. Pray for Tony, Barbara, and others who are recovering from cancer treatments, and for Regina Fleischer as she has been mostly isolated during the pandemic because her kidney struggles do not allow her to receive a vaccine. We miss her and look forward to the day she can rejoin us in worship.

God is doing some wonderful things at High Places. He seems to be "adding to our numbers daily" as the book of Acts suggests He will when the Spirit is moving.

Love to you all,

David


If I should die, let this be my epitaph:
"THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD WAS MUSIC."

-- Kurt Vonnegut

News and Notes - July 14, 2021

It’s a “stranger things” Wednesday at Big Ridge State Park!

Summer Camp 2021 is on, and it has been a great one so far. Chad and his team are leading some great games, insightful bible studies, and wonderful conversations. Regina and team are cooking up three great meals a day, plus an evening snack. Hearts and stomachs are being filled and your prayers are being felt this week. Please keep them coming!

Approximately forty people are enjoying the Big Ridge State Park group camp. The weather has been ideal, some of the coolest camp temperatures I can remember in quite some time. That’s great news for the kitchen team who typically labors in a tinderbox of sweltering heat. Campers are swimming and playing four-square between sessions, staying up late and getting up early (oh, to be that young again!). The “Stranger Things” theme has been a hit, but more than anything it has been the spirit of this young group that is inspiring. It’s a rebuilding year for our youth ministries post-COVID and it is looking really good so far at camp.

REMINDER: Family Night is tomorrow, Thursday night, at camp. Just punch 1015 Big Ridge Park Rd, Maynardville, TN into your GPS and come on over to enjoy the scenery, some great BBQ, and infectious joy of a bunch of teenagers and their leaders. We will have a baptism after the meal tomorrow. If you can, please bring up a side dish to go along with the BBQ. I plan to deep fry some squash, so if that’s your thing, there will be plenty! Let’s enjoy our time together in the great outdoors.

NEW SERIES begins this week: “How to Talk About Jesus Even if You Skipped Sunday School” is a practical set of messages that I hope will help us feel a little more confident in sharing the good news about Jesus with those we meet. Far too often, those of us who know Jesus feel inadequate talking about Him with our friends and family because feel like we just don’t know enough. We sometimes meet people who seem to know all about Jesus, and yet when we listen to them share about Him, it doesn’t really fit with what we know on the inside.

We will follow a three-step approach that is being used in some Methodist Dinner Churches called “Fresh Expressions.” You may remember that name because we used some of their material in our APEST retreat (Remember: APEST stands for apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, teachers) in February 2020.

We will also supplement our Sundays for those interested with a Wednesday evening one-hour small group focused on taking the concepts and the stories just a little deeper. Look for more information on these coming soon.

Opportunities to Give: We are always extremely thankful for the week-in & week-out support we receive from so many of you. Without it, we could not do what do. With so many new folks coming around post-pandemic, I have been asked a half dozen times – “How do you give?” I love that giving is so internalized at High Places, with such little external effort, that visitors feel free enough to seek out ways to support. In addition to our on-going needs as a faith family, we have a few opportunities that need some extra loving coming up:

***  Summer Camp… camp is always an investment. We have kept the price of camp at $49 for nearly 30 years and hope to continue to do so. It’s difficult to just feed a child for $49 a week (trust me I have two!) and yet we’ve been able to provide lodging, food, and a t-shirt for the same price all these years thanks to the faithful support we receive from you. We are grateful – and that investment is being put to work right now!

***  Oak Ridge 85.  We will take Oak Ridge 85 donations for one more week. These funds will go directly to supporting the September celebration for the surviving members of the first black students to integrate into public schools in the Southeast. They happen to be our neighbors right here in Oak Ridge.

***  Chili Dog Days of Summer… come listen to some great music, toss a couple of $5’ers in the bucket and eat well. All the donations for this event go to support our ongoing ministry efforts through the theater.

***  Periodic Tables… I am looking for donations of time, talent, and resources to help pull our community together post-pandemic. We will share and listen to our community’s stories – and feature storytellers from the hospital, the school system, small business owners, and others impacted by COVID. There is real momentum happening here. I would like to fly our friends Sean and Lennon back to Oak Ridge for a few weeks in September, so any airline miles you may have saved up and are willing to give, lodging you can offer, or just donations can help make that happen. I also would love to have a strong showing from High Places to host table discussions during the Secret City Festival, where our music team has also been invited to play.

***  Giving Time to Feed Folks… the farmer’s market has been extra generous this year as God has been extra generous to our local farmers. I always need help collecting and delivering food to families who are struggling. See me for more details!

As always, thank you all so much for support in helping to make “earth as it is heaven.” Your continued giving, support, and prayer is what makes these wheels actually turn and gain traction. Without you, we’d all be stuck in the mud!

Much love & see you tomorrow night at Big Ridge,

David

“We were created from relationship for relationship, invited to experience this other-centered, self-giving love not only with God but also with each other.”  – Karl Forehand

News and Notes - July 8, 2021

Good Thursday morning High Places,

Due to the number and frequency of guests we're having lately and the rain predicted on Sunday, we will again meet at the Grove for our main meeting this Sunday. I had hoped to return to Briarcliff Park, and perhaps we will as the weather cools a little in the coming months. We've had an outstanding few weeks in late June / July. Your attendance and continued support has been inspiring. We will plan to meet in the small auditorium again this week as it seems much easier to hear your singing in there. :)

Summer Camp begins Monday and we move in on Sunday afternoon. We would love to have a few extra volunteers moving camp food to Big Ridge on Sunday, as well as helping to inspect the grounds for poison ivy, wasp nets, etc. If you can assist us on this day, we typically load up what we need around 2:00 from the Grove (the food goes up separately), and try to be at the park by 3:00 PM.

Please be in prayer for our campers, counselors, and staff this week. Camp is traditionally a powerful week of spiritual growth and connection for all who are involved. Pray that God would move and speak as only he can, and that lives will be forever changed by His love.

On Thursday, July 15th all High Places members are invited to come to Big Ridge, located at 1015 Big Ridge Park Rd, Maynardville, TN. The group camp is located in the very back, past the grist mill on the side of the lake opposite the swimming area (a left hand turn will get you there). If you can come visit, please bring a side dish and if you are so inclined, a singing voice. It will be parent night, so feel free to mingle and meet some new faces also. Baptism typically follows dinner, weather permitting.

We are extremely grateful to Chad and all our volunteers for this week they are giving to our students.

"The Oak Ridge 85" is the name for the first 85 black students in the southeast to integrate into public schools and it happened right here in our own town, before even "Brown vs. the Board of Education" was settled and integration became federal law. Only 30 of these original 85 students are still living, and many of them are friends of High Places.

Organizers for the Oak Ridge 85 celebration reached out to our church this week to ask for support in paying for a bus to bring in a marching band from Nashville as part of the September festivities. High Places will be making a contribution and it if you would like to contribute to this as a show of support, please let me know by Sunday. It was honor to be one of the few asked to support, and I believe, representative of the many ways our church reaches into all places of the Oak Ridge Community. If you want to assist, please let me know.

You can learn more about the Oak Ridge 85 here (and it is an excellent read when it comes to learning about our history!) https://www.wbir.com/article/news/history/the-secret-in-scarboro-the-oak-ridge-85/51-2a202693-2ac8-4318-b162-10ef5e43972c

There is quite a bit happening and upcoming. Chili Dog Days of Summer is July 31st and is a community wide invitation to just come enjoy good food, good music, and good company. Any donations that come in for this event will go toward upkeep on the theater. It would wonderful to have our entire church out for this event, just meeting and greeting new people. The energy around High Places right now is high, and the spirit growing contagious. Let's ride the wave of togetherness and enjoy each other in these summer months.

Periodic Tables (formerly People's Supper) is set for a huge re-opening post-pandemic at the Secret City Festival. Momentum from all over Oak Ridge is behind this, and as I have mentioned, I would really love for our church to be behind this as well. Most people in Oak Ridge know this began with us, and that we've been the silent voice behind it.

Our purpose for this round of suppers is to gather and share our stories from the pandemic. We will hear from nurses, front line medical staff, teachers, first responders, as well as people who lost family members to CoVid. We will also share together ways the shutdown affected our families -- some of whom lost their businesses, jobs, and income last year. Then the suppers will move to openly share our sources of strength and moments of need.

Look for a slate of articles to begin appearing in the Oak Ridger tomorrow in the Faith Column. Support for this round of suppers has been good, but we are still looking for continued assistance. If you would like to help us bring the community together around good food and good conversation, we will need prayer above all, volunteers at every level, as well as financial support. Thank you for the GREAT work you do, for your support, and we thank God for the spiritual fruit that flows from this church into the larger community on a week by week basis.

May we stay strong and focused in our joy. And may we find grace as we draw close to one another in love and fellowship.

David

“Joy is the infallible sign of the presence of God.”
― Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

News and Notes - July 1, 2021

“Oh, Say Can You See!”

Happy 4th of July everyone. We hope you all have a safe, happy, and full weekend as our country turns 245 years old on Sunday! This week we will meet at the Grove Theater again for the second part of our series, “Sex, Soil, and Showing Up.”

Special thanks to Lloyd and Stacy Jollay for the GREAT time we had at their place last Sunday. The turn-out was wonderful and spirits were sailing, a good time was had by all. The breeze was perfect, and we had enough shade to really enjoy our time together in Genesis chapter one, before eating a fabulous lunch and jumping in the lake!

SUMMER CAMP is two short weeks away and Chad and company are working really hard to bring our tradition back to life after missing it in 2020. We are putting out the all-call for food sign-ups (contact Regina Wilson - reginaplus3@comcast.net) and for any other donations that folks would like to make as we once again create a super-special experience for our Off the Wall teenagers. Chad has a great group of volunteers and is still taking forms, so if you know of a student would enjoy or benefit from our Big Ridge experience, let us know as soon as you can.

CHILI DOG DAYS OF SUMMER. We are also hosting a community concert at the Grove – and by “we,” I mean High Places & Friends of the Grove. So far, we have four solid bands to rock the place out, and I will have a volunteer sign-up sheet this Sunday recruiting helpers. Our goal is to simply open our doors to the community for fellowship and to joyfully represent our church and ministries through our smiles, handshakes, and hugs. It won’t be a “bait and switch” spiritual event, and yet it will be spiritual as we bring the fruits of the Spirit with us into the space. I hope you will consider coming out anytime between 5:00 and 10:00 PM on July 31st to share in this community event that we’re calling “Chili Dog Days of Summer.”

We continue to lurch back to life post-Covid and I have heard from many of you about how life is working for you post-pandemic. Look for an article in next Friday’s Oak Ridger (one week from tomorrow) that I hope to kick off as a series in the Faith Column about coming back to life after such a long time of social distancing. The articles will hopefully reveal the upcoming fall supper series, “Periodic Tables” which is really coming to life in ways that are outpacing even me. Excitement abounds!!

Keep our church, our ministries, camp, and our nation in your prayers this weekend.

Eat a burger for me while you’re at it.

Love and miss you all.

David


"What constitutes the bulwark of our own liberty and independence? It is not...the guns of our war steamers, or the strength of our gallant and disciplined army...our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted in our bosoms..."      ~ Abraham Lincoln