SCC News

I know what you are thinking.  You are thinking, “Scott, where have you been?  You have not been doing much blogging lately.  What is going on?”  Tell me about it.  Things have been a little busy.  I feel like I have been running the “hurry-up” offense lately.  There is a lot going on.

First of all, the walls in the Family Ministry Wing are down.  There will be new carpet, new paint, new seating, new technology.  In other words, we will have a whole new look for our Excite ministry.  This renovation will give our children’s ministry a little bit more room for elementary worship.   A huge thanks goes to everyone who has volunteered their time, treasure and talent to make it possible.  I want to especially thank Jason and Jennifer Jacks for being the Project Team Leaders.  It should be completed by Sunday, February 21.

Speaking of February 21, I want to remind you our new times for worship, 9:30am and 11:00am, begin on February 21.  That is also the day our middle school ministry, The Flow, will move to 9:30am.  I know this is an inconvenience for some of you.  I know these new service times are not your preferred times for worship on Sunday.  Making this change will help us overcome the challenges of a growing church.  I really do appreciate your willingness to sacrifice for the vision of being able to help more people take their next step toward Christ. I really, really do.  And I am proud of how you taking the changes in stride and with joy!

If you typically come to the 10:45am worship experience, I would ask that you make the 9:30am worship experience your new service.  We simply need more space at the later service.  Your great commitment to the Great Commission will grow a great church, and this is an easy step that will make a huge difference!

Another challenge of a growing church is parking.  Pastor Jim is looking for able bodied men and women to serve on his parking team on a rotating basis.  If you are willing to help out, please contact him at jim@stonescrossing.com. We need this team in place by February 21.

As many of you know, we are going to be moving our administrative offices back into the church building.  Our target date for this move is the week of April 5-9.  We are excited about the fact we will be able to save a lot of money on rent.

Married Life Live is almost here!  I am going to blog more about this later, but for now, I need volunteers to help us with set up on Wednesday, February 17 at 7:00pm at the church.  Let me know if you can help by emailing me:  scott@stonescrossing.com.

Okay…that is it for now.  There are so many great things happening at SCC.  Thanks for all you are doing to make it possible!

 

 

 

 

Goal Setting for 2010 pt. 2

I love this time of year.  It is our family tradition to spend the holidays, Christmas and New Year’s, in Florida.  It has a huge impact on me.  I like how Mark Batterson says it in the following formula:  “Change of pace + change of place = change of perspective.”  That is exactly what happens.  My perspective is completely different.  My normal routine is gone;  I don’t have job deadlines.  I see more clearly.  It is a great time for reflecting on the past year and setting goals for the year to come.  In my previous post on goal setting, I shared with you Mark Batterson’s steps 1-5 to setting goals.  I would like to give you steps 6-10.

6) Write Down Your Goals:  if you want to remember it, then write it down.  I just downloaded a new computer program call Evernote.  It syncs with my cell phone and my laptop.  I use this note taking software to keep track of everything in my life.  I have my 2010 goals listed in the very place where I will see them everyday.

7)Include Others: It is very important to share your goals with your closest friends and family members.  Our family has a tradition of sharing our goals during dinner on New Year’s Eve.  I also know that at some point, Luann and I will sit down and go over our goals together.  This provides accountability and encouragement.

Celebrate Along the Way: during our New Year’s Eve dinner, I know we will all have the opportunity to share how we did on our previous year’s goals.  Some goals I will have not attained(like my goal to memorize Ephesians); there are other goals I did accomplish(like running my first two triathlons).  We need to celebrate our successes!

9)Think Big: Michelangelo said:  “The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it; but that it is too low and we reach it.”  Goals will always vary in size and scope.  Setting a big goal will make you depend on God like never before.  Even if you don’t achieve the goal, setting a big goal has changed you.  You are depending on God more and that is what being a Christ follower is all about.  And besides, with God’s help, you just might hit your goal!

10)Keep Dreaming: if you stop dreaming, you will stop growing.  And if you stop growing, you start dying.  As long as you have air to breathe, God has a purpose for you being here.  Goal setting is really about living life to the fullest.

One last point.  You might say, “I am not a goal oriented person.”  You might want to become one.  I really believe goal setting is all about being a good steward of what you have…your time, your treasure, and your talent.  As I get ready to turn 40 this year, it is becoming ever so clearer to me that I don’t have as much time left.  I better max out what I do have.  Goals help us to do just that.

 

 

Why Use So Many Translations?

We will have people who visit our church from “KJV only” churches or churches that use just one translation and inevitably I will get asked, “Why do you use so many translations.”  The underlying and unspoken concern for many who pose this question is this:  a pastor who uses a variety of  translations of Bible passages in a sermon is not being faithful to “The Bible”…he is somehow using them to make the points he wants to make with a slight disregard to what the Bible is actually saying.   The other concern is the belief that you simply cannot trust the modern translations of the Bible; the only God inspired translation is the King James Version.  Both of these assertions are completely false.  What I believe most Christians(especially in our community) fail to understand is that none of us would be able to read the Bible were it not for a huge company(most of them anonymous) of translators.  In fact, the translation of Scripture became necessary several hundred years BEFORE the time of Jesus and the early church when its original language, Hebrew, was gradually replaced in the everyday lives of the people of God by Aramaic and then by Greek. The Bible is the most translated book in the world.  The Bible is so wonderfully complex not one translation could communicate it’s depth adequately.  The most accurate way to read the Bible is to read multiple translations.  The Bible was originally written using 11,280 Aramaic, Greek and Hebrew words.  But the typical English translation uses around 6,000 words.  Clearly, nuances and shades of meaning can be missed.  So, if you are looking for one silver bullet translation, you won’t find it.  The bottom line is this:  the Jewish and later Christian community believed that the same Spirit of God at work in writing the Scripture is also at work in translating the Scripture.