Happy, happy Wednesday High Places!
Thanksgiving is nearly upon us and spent some time this week praying through people that God has brought to mind over the week. As I move down our database list of names, I am reminded of SO MANY peeople that I am truly thankful to have in my life, and in our church. Nearly 400 people will receive this email, all of whom we've had relationship with over the past few years, and all of whom are precious in the eyes of God and warm my heart to think of.
A sincerely felt "Happy Thanksgiving" to each and every person and family receiving this week's news and notes. May you be blessed, and be a blessing this week.
One of things in my sermon notes from two weeks ago that I didn't get to, was the reality that just as God chased Cain with His love even after there had been great brokenness in the family, so too the holidays can provide opportunities for us to mend, heal, and restore relationships in our families that might exist. I wanted to give a "nudge" for any who might need to hear it, that in the coming weeks, my prayer is for us to pray and to bless any members of our family that might be on the outside looking in, due to some hardship suffered. Would you be willing to pray for anyone that God brings to mind, and ask God to bless them over these holiday weeks? Our God is the business of healing and restoring, and we are all grateful to be on the receiving end of his grace and lavish love for us. Let's pray for all to know and experience that grace!
IMPORTANT NOTES
Wednesday 11/24 (Today) -- There is no youth or bible study tonight. We encourage everyone to spend this evening with family.
Sunday 11/28 (This Sunday!) -- Our annual "Tired of Turkey" gathering. We will have a brief time of togetherness in signing and sharing and then open up the lobby for fellowship. If you so desire, please bring a pot of your homemade soup or chili -- without turkey, haha! -- and plan to stay for lunch. Let's experience some wonderful holiday fellowship, share joy, and BE THE CHURCH as we close out Thanksgiving week.
Monday 11/29 -- Our ladies are having a gathering at the Grove from 6:30 - 8:00 PM, all our adult age women are invited to attend. We're asking that each person bring something from home Christmas related that they share with the group. Anna Childs will be leading the discussion and we're grateful for her willingness to coordinate and lead.
Friday Night 12/3 -- "Men's Night on the Groud" returns. We will find a spot at Robbie and Molly Lewis' residence, which is a gorgeous 11 acre plot in Dutch Valley, and set up for the night. If you have never cold-weather camped, be sure to talk with me about how to pack and prepare. Often times, you will stay warmer in a lean-to made from tarps near the fire and unless your tent is canvas, it probably will not be as warm. If you have additional tarps and would like me to build a warm lean-to for you, please get them to me and I can do that Friday so its ready for you Friday night after work.
Men who are planning to attend please get with me or with Chad about food. We will probably ask each man to create a "hobo meal" wrapped in foil that we toss into the fire.
In the event of rain, Chad suggested we change plans and go throw axes at an Axe-Throwing Pub in Knoxville. I thought it was a great idea and suspect we will do that in early 2022 regardless! Dudes throwing axes and talking about Jesus sounds like a great men's night out!
PRAYER --
Please continue to lift up Jennifer George and all the Sloan family this week as Cathy is now home on hospice. My eyes tear up every time I think of this family because they are so sweet, caring, and precious to us at High Places. The impact that all the Sloans have had on our church, and on our staff, is significant. We lift her up to Jesus, who she knows well, and lift the family up in prayer. Pray specifically for the comfort of God to surround them in these hours.
Thank you all for being such an amazing group of people. Thank you for loving me and supporting me despite my many flaws and shortcomings. I feel you grace every time I with you, and because of you, I experience God more fully each and every week.
You are all deeply loved. And I am grateful for you. BE BLESSED this holiday week, and BE A BLESSING to others as you go.
News and Notes - December 15, 2021
Merry Almost Christmas High Places!!
This Sunday we celebrate the birth of Jesus together as a FAITH FAMILY and we are excited for you to join us for the celebration! Festivities start at 10:30 AM, which will include music, special music, choir, Christmas readings, and communion. We will follow our meeting time with finger foods in the lobby for any who'd like to stay and fellowship.
Speaking of finger foods... if you're High Places regular and might be willing to bring something, please drop me a note so I can get a count of what more we might need. We're thinking veggie trays, fruit, chicken strips, pizza pockets, or other light/easy finger foods. You can either reply to this email, or drop me a text. And thank you!
Bible study will not formally meet tonight, and we will resume in January - most likely with a book and discussion. If you have a book you'd like to recommend to the group, send it over! We currently have a couple of potential titles circulating.
Our youth are having their annual Christmas gathering tonight at 6:00PM at the Grove. "Off the Wall" ministries have had quite a year, let's keep Chad and our teenagers in prayer for 2022.
Thursday January 6th, we will host a Periodic Table discussion on "Student Health and Safety" at the Grove from 6:00 to 8:00 PM. The community is invited. I am searching for 5 folks willing to bring a crockpot of soup for this event, so if you've been itching to try a new stew, let me know!
Saturday, January 29th, we are organizing and hosting "January Jams" a concert night that benefits the Family Justice Center here in Oak Ridge. We might not always sing on key, and our church power-points are sometimes misspelled but if there is one thing we do well it's throwing a community party! I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but folks around town love it when we organize a good concert for a good cause. Mark your calendars now if you're into that sort of thing!
Finally, please prayerfully consider 2022 and the spaces/places/ faces that you serve through High Places ministries. We're grateful to have you, and always making room for more. If you've been wondering where you fit, or how to plug into something specific, or maybe have a GREAT idea of your own for ministry -- I would love to hear about it. Give me a buzz and we'll do coffee or lunch to start out the New Year.
Thank you all for being such a great family to serve alongside in 2021. It's been a strange, bumpy, but beautiful ride. So many great passengers on this church bus!! :)
See you Sunday!
David
News and Notes - November 17, 2021
Happy Wednesday High Places,
What a gorgeous afternoon! We probably won’t get too many more like this until late spring, so I hope you enjoy the day. A few quick news and notes for the week:
1. Bible Study is tonight at 7:00 PM at the Grove. We usually go a little deeper from the past Sunday, or take a peek into the next one. I hope to see you tonight!
2. I am attaching the flyer for the Ladies’ Night gathering on November 29th. If you would, begin considering a special decorative Christmas item that has special memories, or special significance for you and if you can share it for the season, consider bringing that on the 29th to help the Grove Theater feel a little more like home this holiday as we focus on our families.
Don’t forget to open the attachment.
3. Men’s Night on the Ground is tentatively planned for Friday, December 3. Stay tuned for more details on time and location. Also, if you plan to use a tent or a sleeping bag and do not have these items, please let me know.
4. Community Thanksgiving is coming, and while we believe we have the needed volunteers, we would still much appreciate your prayer. Pray that connections can be made that bring a sense of family to all those who stop by for meal, and that the joyful Spirit of God will be shared with all.
Finally, it was wonderful to see so many folks out last Sunday and I believe a great spirit was in the building. Let’s keep that going as we continue to look at our families, and the faith family God is building both with us at High Places and in places all around the Earth.
One AWESOME request before signing out – if possible, would you be willing to wear BRIGHT COLORS on Sunday morning? It could be a t-shirt or something fancy, but let’s bust the fall trend of wearing bleak browns and see if we can put in summer yellows, lime greens, bright oranges, or any other bright colors in the seats on Sunday. Let’s do this for FUN, and to feel festive on what might be a cold November morning!!!
Thank you! And love to you all!
David
News and Notes- November 3, 2021
Good Wednesday morning High Places,
First up, thanks to everyone who had a role in making Sunday such a wonderful experience, starting with the Jollay family who served the church humbly and fantastically as our hosts. I also wish everyone could have taken the Monster Cruise and listened to the work that Kady Marcotte put into each stop, as well as the incredible performances by our volunteer monsters. High Places is steeped with creative, spiritually sensitive, and gifted members across all our age groups. Despite having a really rough morning, my soul was refreshed as we enjoyed each other and God’s magnificent creation. Each of you mean so much to me and seeing you all together, loving and living in harmony, fills my soul up and inspires me to work harder and become better in my day-to-day pastoral routines. When I move among us, I am compelled with a deep desire to share the love of Christ we enjoy with the wider community and to expand His kingdom of Grace with everyone I meet.
I remain convinced that God is preparing His people in our church and beyond to restore and renew our culture through the power of the Holy Spirit. Our “koinonia” as a church family is one of the major tumblers to turn in unlocking the fullness of His purposes in us. Koinonia is the Greek word for “fellowship,” but it is much more than that. The word implies a kind of “divine intimacy” that we are able to share with each other – one that runs deeper than the simple pleasantries of being acquainted with each other because we attend the same church. It implies that we share a deeper, eternal bond and that this bond produces the fruits of unity (the believers were of one heart and one soul), generosity (the believers shared all things with each other), spiritual power, and a fullness that produced no neediness among them (all this is Acts 4:32-35). We are a spiritual family, as I hope we will see clearing in the coming weeks of messages.
Tonight’s Bible study (Wednesday) will resume as normal. For several reasons, I will be less prepared than I am in a typical week, but I still look forward to discussing the theme of family in a small group setting. We will meet at 7:00 PM in the movie room at the Grove.
During the holidays, our church typically receives double the normal benevolence requests. In addition, our September and October months were tight. Let’s all prayerfully consider giving, especially during a season of greater needs. Thanks for all you do as a church family to serve our staff, our church, and the community at large.
As we move into the holiday season, I would ask that each of us pay great attention to our families. Accentuate the good, step over anything that might be problematic. Healthy families are foundational to healthy churches. Take the holiday season to strengthen all your family bonds, even bonds that may be strained or might have broken in the past. My prayer is that the grace of God, and the peace of Christ, will fill our homes always – but most especially during this holiday season.
Much love to you all,
David
“In a world of infinite choices, choosing one thing is the revolutionary act. Imposing that restriction is actually liberating.”
― Priya Parker, The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters
News and Notes - October 27, 2021
Happy almost Halloween High Places!
This Sunday we will NOT be meeting in the Grove, nor will we be broadcasting. Instead you will find us at 154 Walker Circle, Clinton TN. It's just a couple minutes over the Solway bridge, so don't fear a long ride! We are asking members to bring A) Side dishes that go with burgers and hotdogs, B) any extra life vests you might have that are kid-sized, C) try to arrive in one vehicle per family to assist with parking! I had to throw C in there because there have been Sunday's where my own family of four arrived in four cars. Ha!
It will be chilly in the early AM, but nice as our time continues. Wear layers, and if you have a few extra folding lawn chairs, bring those! We will have a fire pit going for the feint of heart, some great acoustic music, and a brief closing message. Then we will eat and our children will head out on a "Monster Cruise" along the lake, meeting a few friendly monsters passing out candy.
It's going to be a fun-filled Sunday, and with no virtual broadcast, we don't want anyone to miss out. So make plans now to join us for the fun and fellowship as we close out October as a faith family!
Other Notes of Interest:
* There is no bible study tonight, Wednesday, October 27th. Stay tuned for the November schedule where we plan to talk about the value of Families for the holidays.
* A ladies night is coming in late November / early December. Stay tuned for more information about this exciting event... and just so the men don't feel left out, for those antifragile fellows out there, we hope to do a "Men's Night on the Ground" in early December. Start dusting off that camping gear now!
* Remember, if you want to help with the annual Community Thanksgiving meal, please see Trina for more information.
Have a great rest of the week everyone. Can't wait to see you all on Sunday!
Love,
David
News and Notes - October 20, 2021
Happy Wednesday High Places,
Quick reminder, Bible Study is tonight (Wednesday) in the movie room of the Grove from 7:00 to 8:00 PM and we will be looking at a section of Paul’s writing that time won’t allow us to unpack on Sunday’s. Hope you can make it, or if you must miss, maybe hit me up for a coffee because I love talking about this chapter of Romans!
This Sunday we will meet back in theater 12. I had hoped that maybe the small auditorium could work, but I think we need just a little more time before transitioning back there. I suspect we will be meeting there the entire month of November if things keep moving as they are in our community. Our hospital capacities are finally starting to ease, although I know they are still extremely burdened by the spread of the Delta variant.
This Sunday, we will take a more practical look at Antifragility, and get into some specifics about the hopeful message Paul proclaims of Christ’s power being perfected in weakness. If you want to read ahead, check out 2 Corinthians, chapter 12. None of us like weakness, stress, or disorder – but in Christ we can find a strength we maybe never suspected was there!
Next Sunday on Halloween, we will meet on Melton Lake for a Jollay Good Time (pun intended!). Thank you, Lloyd and Stacy Jollay. Mark the address now -- 154 Walker Circle, Clinton TN, 37716. It’s basically just over the Solway bridge on the East side of Oak Ridge. We will have hotdogs and hamburgers… please plan to bring a side to enhance our feasting and celebration.
Our children have a great opportunity to trick or treat with a few “monsters” and learn about overcoming fears and doubts as they will take a “Monster Cruise.” While you are grabbing candy at the store this week, would you consider getting an extra bag and bringing it for the Halloween fun we will be having at Melton Lake? I also need a few more life vests that are kid sized just in case the turnout is larger than what we are planning for. Thank you all for pulling together to help make this happen!
During the month of November, our focus will be “Family” for the holidays and we will both explore the value of our earthly families as well as look at the church’s role to provide family for all those God loves and values. Stay tuned for some exciting “extra” family touches that we hope to integrate into the holiday season, including a ladies night and maybe… if we get brave enough…. Another men’s night on the ground in early December. Brrrrr!
I am not certain if the ministers will do another drive-by nativity this year, but we should know by the end of next week. Last year’s event was a huge success, so huge, the police had to stop by – haha! We had a great time and I hope we can repeat the experience this year, but it isn’t up to just me. We had 10 churches participating last year, so we’re going to put our heads together and get it worked out this week (hopefully).
Sending warm October hugs to each of you as things start to cool down.
Love,
David
“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.” ― Lao Tzu
News and Notes - October 13, 2021
Happy Wednesday High Places,
Happy to announce a few wonderful things this week, beginning with our return to the Jollay home for our main meeting, food, and fun. On Sunday, October 31st we will be heading back their place, right on Melton Lake, for some Halloween fun. "Monsters on the Melton" will be our theme and will also be how we wrap up our series on Antifragility.
We're hoping for a "Monster Cruise" that Sunday afternoon for our children and their friends, but to pull this off we will need some help. We will especially need children's sized life vests, so if you have these on hand, or maybe tucked away in your garage, please let either myself, or Kady Marcotte know. Also, if you have a boat and are willing to gently chauffer a few children to "Meet the Monsters" along the banks of Melton Lake, we would love your help. The cruise for kids begins after lunch that Sunday.
Please continue to keep our Mountain Movers kid ministries, and Kady, in your prayers. Children are being bombarded by so much these days, much it being displaced adult anxiety. Pray for our children to play, have fun, and enjoy life -- and to the degree we are each able, let's all do the same! Kids need play, and grown-ups do too. Let's have wonderful, playful Halloween this year. Thank you Lloyd and Stacy Jollay for sharing your home and dock with us!
I am also excited to announce that after quite a bit of deliberation, we will again be offering Thanksgiving Day meals. Like last year, they'll be carry out rather than "dine in." And like last year, we will need some volunteers to help make to-go bags, and serve as runners to the cars. I believe last year we easily served over a 100 vehicles, not sure how many people total, but typically we serve around 250-300 meals each Thanksgiving. We do this around the lunch hour so that our volunteers can schedule a Thanksgiving Dinner with their families. If you would like to help this year, please contact Trina Baughn -- trina.baughn@gmail.com
Bible study returns tonight (Wednesday) at 7:00 PM in the movie room as we talk a little more deeply about "Antifragility." This week we will review things from Sunday, which is probably especially needed due to Xfinity dropping services in our area last week. Sorry for those who missed it, I will try to do a quick recap tonight before our discussion -- and an even quicker recap this Sunday.
October and November tend to be busy times for our church and our staff. They are also important times to build our relationships through the holidays, both by becoming stronger family units for those who have families near, and also by being a good family to those who need one. The Bible is very clear in a great many places that God is supremely interested in how we treat "widows and orphans." What widows and orphans have in common is a special need for family because they've lost something (if not all) of theirs. The church is equipped by the Holy Spirit to provide family for those who need it most. I hope to speak more about this in the month of November.
Many blessings to you all. For those travelling to or back from fall break, our prayers are with you for safe travels. For the many who are experiencing hardships right now, we pray for you. And for all those we've missed since the pandemic began, we send you love and hope to see you return again soon.
David
Wind extinguishes a candle and energizes fire... Be the fire and pray for the wind. ~ Nassim Nicholas Taleb
News and Notes - October 5, 2021
Good morning High Places!
Thank you Kady Marcotte and children for a wonderful time together this past Sunday! It was nice to see so many of our children there and participating. Hopefully, as we each move through the rest of this week, we are being mindful in our prayer and putting all the things we learned last month into practice.
This Sunday, we begin a new theme that will carry us through October. “Antifragile” is both the name of the book by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, and the title we will organize our Sunday’s by for the next few weeks.
Consider this Scripture as a baseline for the month:
“Therefore, the Egyptians put taskmasters over the children of Israel to afflict them with their burdens…. but the more the Egyptians afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And Egypt lived in dread of the children of Israel.”
(Exodus 1:11-12)
It’s a strange for us to think, “The more they afflicted them…. the more they multiplied.” It is almost as though the people of God benefited from all the stressors placed on them by their task-masters; and it is definitely true that the Bible is full of examples of how hardship produces something irreplaceable and unbreakable in our lives.
Ours is a culture that goes to great lengths to avoid discomfort. We often run the other way when stressors hit us rather than embracing them as opportunities to grow. James writes, “Count it all joy brothers and sisters when you fall into various trials…” and still we work to avoid that joy by trying to make our lives as easy as possible.
Over the next several weeks, we will unpack many Scriptures around this idea as well as examine a few things from Taleb’s book. What does it mean to be “antifragile?” It is more than just being resilient in hardship, more than simply being “strong.” Antifragility is the state in which we actually benefit from stress or disorder, like the children of Israel in Egypt.
I hope you’ll make every effort to join us on this journey because I believe its important for understanding our role as Christian believers in our increasingly “fragile” Western Culture. I also believe that our response to the Covid-19 pandemic as a church family is ripe with opportunities to experience and develop antifragility, provided we are willing to embrace the power of the Holy Spirit in our community’s struggles.
I look forward to seeing you and hearing back from you as we move through this topic this month.
Important Note: Since we are between themes, there will not be Bible study this Wednesday (October 6) at the Grove. We will resume next Wednesday (October 13) at 7:00 PM.
Much love,
David
News and Notes - September 29, 2021
Happy Wednesday High Places,
This Sunday our children will lead us in an interactive "safari" type experience in the big theater. We plan to be considerate of space and too much mingling for any that have covid concerns, while at the same time being creative in presenting the experience our children had last month under Kady's creative direction. There will be music, skits, activities, and even a closing prayer station in the lobby with take-home items to help us stay focused in prayer in the coming weeks.
It will be a fun, meaningful Sunday for sure! Please plan to attend and bring a friend if you can to share the joy.
In preparation for our "not-overly-mobile" safari, we are looking for decorations to place in a few special areas of the large auditorium. We could really use your house plants and flowers; and if at all possible, we want to borrow them for a couple of hours! Kady will be at the Grove between 6:00 - 7:00PM on Saturday evening to collect what we borrow and decorate the stage and surrounding area. We want to go for a nice, "green" look to enhance our learning experience -- so if you have fake plants, real plants, pots of flowers that are easy to transport, bring them by on Saturday evening. And if you are up for it, stay a minute to help Kady decorate for this Sunday.
We're also looking for any safari themed items you might have around the house, like binoculars or eye-pieces, stuffed zoo animals, old maps and globes, or anything that says we are on an adventure! Drop these items by on Saturday evening as well and we try to put them to good use. And of course if you want to dress up like an adventurer for our time together, you go right ahead and just do YOU!
We plan to have a great time, share in laughter as we learn, and close our series on prayer where it all started -- with our children.
SPECIAL THANKS for all those who were able to attend our High Places meeting on Thursday last week -- wow, what a group! It was heartening to see so many and for so many of us to be all together again after so much separation through the pandemic. We look forward to re-energizing many of our teams and getting back to the vibrant ministries that always come from God's people working together and exercising their gifts. I heard from several who couldn't be there but wanted to be, and while we were unable to get a video recording of the meeting, we do have an audio recording which I hope to upload sometime next week.
In the meantime, I did put up a very quick "snapshot" video on vimeo if you'd like to watch it. The video doesn't come close to capturing all the in's and out's of our two system organization, but it is a short introduction into that world. You can see it here -- https://vimeo.com/540683595
Finally, I am cutting and pasting a very quick summary of our service and support teams below for any who might want to know more, or just review areas where they might want to serve. No one gets "locked in" on a team, and just because a person is formerly serving in one area, doesn't mean they can't jump in on the fun in another area as God leads. The teams are more just meant to connect our staff, our leaders, and our volunteers together in ways that can accomplish more by working together, as well as helping us streamline communication.
It's a long list, so I will close with that after saying again how wonderful it is to serve the Lord with each of you. Much love to you and thank you for all the gifts you bring week in and week out to our church.
David
SERVICE & SUPPORT TEAMS (Just a fun - in a nutshell - and maybe nutty -- description of each) If I forgot one, forgive me Martin!
Ambience Team - Works with the overall look and “feel” of the facility, including during seasonal or special events like Christmas or Easter. If you love decorating, or the feeling you get from transforming a space into something more beautiful, this is your team! Currently this team is led by Carmen and Joshua Fischer, with some big time help from Kathy Giles each week!
Finance Team - Don’t let the story of Judas managing the treasury affect your feeling for church finances! We couldn’t make it without this team serving our staff in finances, including making deposits, assembling budget data, helping make disbursements, shopping health care plans for staff, and communicating with the larger church family our financial needs. Our treasurer is Marilyn Parham, see her if you want to plug in!
‘Touchy Feely’ Team – Formerly called our “extra touch team,” this group reaches out to folks who need a touch from our church family, perhaps because of loss, grief, prolonged illness or other situations. They’re touchy and feely in all the right ways; join this team if you’re the kind of person that loves baking a casserole for a family who has lost a loved one, or if you just like sending pick-me up cards for no reason at all! This team is currently led by Katie Fischer with Carmen Fischer assisting.
Music Team (Includes choir team currently) – This team puts their musical gifts to work in all areas of our ministries: children, youth, and adult. This team is willing to practice, plan, and listen to God as they share in the gift of music. It’s not all guitars and drums either, any instruments are welcome – even kazoo’s (just ask around about that one!). This team also seeks out ‘special music’ for outreach or other occasions as well. If you have a song to share, see our team leader Martin Fischer for how to join this team.
Prayer Team – Currently led by Carmen Fischer, you can become a member of this team by requesting the prayer emails that come out a few times a week and becoming a prayer partner with High Places. The church that prays together stays together!
Security Team – Manages the safety and security of the building during our main meetings; works with fire department, sprinkler system, and alarm company to ensure overall building safety. Not a glamorous team and one we’re happy to keep under the radar, our security team loves our church and simply wants everyone to have a safe experience at High Places. See Trina Baughn or Dan Mantooth if you would like to know more about this team.
Kitchen & Food Team – Because what is church life like without tater tots? (Pastor joke!). This team works bring folks together around food, including snacks & coffee on Sunday mornings, with an aim to re-establish a fellowship meal once a month. They also work the food needs for special events, meetings, or other food related needs across all areas of ministry. We’re in the process of sorting out team members and team leaders here, stay tuned!
Facility (Including Mowing and Grounds) – This team likes to roll up their sleeves and fix things like light switches, carpet tears, or holes in sheetrock. When it comes to a thermostat, a roof, or a plumbing issue, this team helps us keep the gift of the Grove Theater up and running. Don Fleischer, Tim Fischer, and Jay Jernigan have often swapped around responsibilities for this team in the past. We’re in the process of regrouping post-covid, with most major projects being organized and led by Tim.
Cleaning Team – Looking for a team that isn’t in the spotlight? Our cleaning team helps us keep the facility clean and sanitary for everyone, keeps bathrooms stocked with paper products, soap, and other needs. Currently managed by Kathy Monger, with help always wanted. I love the smell of bleach in the morning!
Community Events & Hosting Team – The theater hosts hundreds of events, groups, and special occasions every year. Each of those groups need a touch and friendly face willing to unlock the door, give a tour of the building, or be available to answer question. As a bonus, team members who serve for special events often get to enjoy the event free of charge, whoo-hoo! This team needs a few more helpers, currently led by David Allred and mom, Norma, as well as Melanie Mitchell who help create and manage the community calendar.
Audio / Visual Team – With a sound board that resembles an airline cockpit, if you ever wondered what that button does and wanted to press it, this could be your team. Running lights and sound for our main meetings, as well as helping our community partners better understand our systems is big part of any successful event. This team has an ear for talent (pun intended). Tim Fischer leads this team with the irreplaceable theater expertise of Jason Herrera.
Office and Administrative Team – Keeping our copier full of toner, paper stocked, and files organized is important, especially with a lead pastor who leaves important items laying around all the time! This team keeps us organized, including helping us update our database, manage our calendar and websites, and anything that helps us streamline our ministries toward greater effectiveness.
Photography / Video Team – Sometimes things so amazing happen we wish we could see them again, or capture them in a photograph for other church members to see. This team helps us capture special moments and archive them for the whole church family. Are you a scrap booker, or do you like pointing a camera and things rather than being in the middle of them? You might be the perfect fit for this team! We haven’t made a scrapbook since our sweet Julie Crist passed away.
Extra Touch & Community Team – Often members of our church fall on hard times, and quite often our church is called to assist in helping someone in our community dealing with homelessness, missed utility payments, and other needs. Sometimes folks just need a ride to church, or a ride to a job interview but do not have reliable transportation. Chad O’Neal is taking the lead on working with families who have fallen on hard times or who have special needs. If you have a heart for this kind of service, see Chad for more details.
News and Notes - September 22, 2021
Good Wednesday morning High Places,
As we've been announcing in our main meetings, we're putting together an hour meeting for this fall quarter and everyone is invited. The meeting will be in the lobby at the Grove, tomorrow, Thursday September 23 at 7:00 PM. We will also have virtual join-in available through our pexip video channel. Please contact us for details on how to access.
If anyone wants to arrive a little early to chat or catch up in person or virtually, please do. Our hope is to begin very near 7:00 PM and utilize our time wisely. But that doesn't mean we can't play and have fun while we meet! I will try to record and upload the video for those who have conflicts tomorrow.
In this meeting, we will be reviewing our HPCC structure - which is to say - our High Places Service and Support / Touching, Teaching, Training Teams. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and social distancing, many of our teams have hit the "pause" button for the past year or so. We want to take a look down the road at the time when this pandemic finally wanes, and just take a little inventory of what we might need in terms of team leaders, team members, and general organization.
I would like to take the last 10-15 minutes of the meeting to review our five commitment vision for 2030, and update us on how we're doing, as well as remind us that these are a huge part of our overall church strategy and vision as we emerge from the pandemic. I also want to share some exciting things coming in the closing months of 2021, and early 2022.
I would be deeply appreciative if all our leaders, interested others, and just plain curious HPCC members would attend. Staying connected is important and there are many of you I miss terribly. Please, if God is leading, join in the fun! I need you, maybe now more than ever! It's very difficult to keep a "pulse" on the heartbeat of our church with so much absence during covid. Seeing you again will recharge my batteries.
Tonight, we have Bible study at 7:00 PM for any interested -- and we will continue our prayer theme this Sunday.
Thank you all for your continued prayer and support. It means much.
Love,
David
“Time and space do bend, but they bend for the engaged, not the disengaged.” ~ Dan Charnas