Newsletter

A New Reason to Give

May 5, 2012 By Tom Leave a Comment

Peace Friends!

Why do you give? There are a lot of good reasons to give to Sycamore Creek Church. We’d like to suggest a new reason to give to SCC: Designated Special Giving (DSG). Beginning with this newsletter, we’re going to be listing ten DSG opportunities every quarter. They are various needs that already exist or new ministry opportunities that we’d like to move into but don’t yet have the finances to do so. We think that by sharing these ideas, God might speak to some of you in new ways about giving. A particular opportunity just might catch hold of your heart, imagination, or spirit, and God won’t let it get out of your mind. Would you prayerfully look over the list below and consider whether God is calling you to give to one of these DSG opportunities?

Let me share a couple of caveats. First, we’re still asking you to make an annual financial commitment. This year’s Commitment Sunday will be Sunday, May 20^th, and the theme for the two-week series (beginning on May 13^th) will be Not So Random Acts of Giving. One thing that is clear about the way the Bible approaches giving is that giving is best done intentionally. Commitment Sunday gives you an opportunity to seek God’s will for your own giving with intention rather than randomly deciding what you’ll give week by week. Watch for more info on Commitment Sunday in the coming weeks.

Second, DSG is an above-and-beyond giving opportunity, above and beyond other commitments you’ve made to the church such as your annual Commitment Sunday pledge, your 20 Years Deep Capital Campaign pledge, or your commitment to Dr. Mir in Nicaragua. Some of us are giving sacrificially to give intentionally and regularly in these areas, and this above-and-beyond kind of giving may not be for you. But God has given some the spiritual gift of giving, and DSG is especially for people with this spiritual gift.

Third, if you can’t give the total amount listed, don’t feel like you can’t contribute. Perhaps God will speak to five other people too, and their total giving meets the need or opportunity. Fourth, we’ve tried to give a brief description of the need or opportunity, but if you’d like more information, feel free to contact the office.

So take some time to consider DSG alongside your current giving, and watch what God will do in the coming weeks and months!

Peace,
Tom

P.S. Don’t forget that the easiest way to give regularly and intentionally is through Electronic Fund Transfer. Contact the church office fore more details. You can make future changes at any time by simply calling.

Designated Special Giving (DSG)

Staff Laptops ($600 each) – Tom, Jeremy, and Julie/Kids Creek are all using laptops that are several years old and running very slowly.

Main Projection Screen ($1,400) – The current screen is showing significant age.

Retreat Scholarships ($20 and up) – If someone needs help going on CRASH men’s retreat, Awakenings women’s retreat, or a youth retreat, this helps cover those costs.

Connection Café Tables ($200) – The current tables are aging and falling apart.

Presentation Laptop & Software ($1,500) – Currently we put together Sunday morning’s presentation on several different computers. Streamlining it to one laptop would save hassle, time, and the stress of making all three computers work together.

Youth Ministry Intern ($5000) – We’d like to hire a college student as a year-round youth intern.

Emergency Fund ($20 and up) – We help people in our church and community who are having difficulty covering basic expenses like rent, utilities, and food.

Leadership Training ($300) – Conferences, workshops and coaching help our paid and unpaid staff continue to improve their craft and grow our church.

Signage ($100 to $2000) – We’re working on a new office sign, street signs, signs going into Lansing Christian School, and signs inside LCS that show our new logo and improve visibility.

Digital Recorder to MP3 ($100) – This would allow us to more easily get audio of each week’s message on the website and podcast.

If you would like to give to one or more of these Designated Special Giving opportunities, simply drop a check in the offering bag and write “DSG” and the name of the DSG (i.e. “DSG: Staff Laptops”).

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Holy What?

March 22, 2012 By Tom Leave a Comment

Holy Week. You’ve heard of it, right? Since ancient times, Christians have remembered the last week of Christ’s life, his death and resurrection, by worshiping on special days of the week leading up to Easter. This year we’ll be having several special worship celebrations and times of prayer on some of these special days. Consider joining us for one of these worship services and begin thinking and praying about three people you’ll invite to our awesome Easter service: The Languages of Easter.

Day 1: Palm Sunday – Luke 19:28-40. Holy Week begins with the celebration of Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem, when the people sang and waved palm branches as if for a king. They thought he would be a political ruler who would conquer their Roman enemies. But Jesus came to conquer sin and death, to be king of our hearts. Palm Sunday reminds us that someday Christ will return to reign on earth as he reigns in heaven.

Worship with Sycamore Creek Church: 9:30 or 11:15 AM (Lansing Christian School) – We’ll be wrapping up a series on prayer and the Psalms – Prayers that Stick: DUH (Prayers of Confession)

Day 2: Holy Monday – Zechariah 9:9 and Psalm 118

Day 3: Holy Tuesday – Luke 19:41-20:47

Day 4: Holy Wednesday – Luke 21

Day 5: Maundy Thursday – Luke 22. Jesus spent his last evening with his friends sharing in a special meal known as the Passover (see Exodus 12:1-28). At Passover the Jews remember how, when they were slaves in Egypt, the angel of death “passed over” their homes if they placed the blood of a sacrificed lamb on their doorposts. Jesus deepened the meaning of the meal by referring to the sacrifice he would make for us. The word “maundy” comes from the Latin “mandatum,” meaning mandate, commandment—because on that night Jesus gave his disciples a new commandment as he washed their feet, that they “love one another” (John 13:34).

“Serve Service” & Communion: 7:00 PM at the church office. We’ll gather for communion then head out to offer free quarters for washing clothes at local Laundromats. Get it? Jesus washed…

Day 6: Good Friday – Luke 23. Jesus was arrested on false charges late Thursday and faced a grueling trial before religious leaders in the middle of the night. Early the next morning he was turned over to the Roman authorities, who eventually authorized his execution by crucifixion. He died a slow, painful death and then his body was taken away for burial in a nearby tomb. As the poet T. S. Eliot wrote in Four Quartets, “Again, in spite of that, we call this Friday good.” We know that Christ’s obedience and suffering has taken away our sin.

Good Friday Prayer Vigil (All Day) and Prayer Service (7-8PM at Pastor Tom’s house, 5058 Glendurgan Ct., Holt). Sign up in the Connection Café (or call the church office) for one or more 30 minute slots for the prayer vigil. Consider fasting this day (Full no-food-fast, Daniel fruit-and-vegi-fast, or other).

Day 7: Holy Saturday – Psalm 22.

Day 8: Easter Sunday – Luke 24. Because of the Sabbath, Jesus’ followers had to wait two whole nights before they could return to the tomb and prepare his body properly for burial. Early on Sunday morning, they found the stone rolled away and the tomb empty. Jesus had conquered death and was alive! Even though Sunday was the first day in the Jewish week (and the first day of creation in Genesis 1), ancient Christians called Sunday the “eighth day” because Christ’s resurrection constituted a new reality, a new creation. (Have you ever seen an eight-sided baptismal font? That’s why!) Through his resurrection, we claim the promise that death will not have the last word. Christ is risen: He is risen indeed!

Worship with Sycamore Creek Church: 9:30 or 11:15 AM. We’ll be exploring The Languages of Easter: Simple, Personal, Communal, and Reasoned Faith. Invite a friend or family member!

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Is Following Jesus Like Joining the YMCA?

February 13, 2012 By Tom Leave a Comment

Following Jesus is not like joining the YMCA...

Friends,

I recently looked into membership at the local YMCA. Membership there means paying a fee. That’s it. Then you get access to all kinds of great benefits (pool, gym, classes, etc.). Is that what it means to be a part of Sycamore Creek Church? Pay a fee? Get benefits?

Well, not exactly, although on the surface there on some similarities. Fee? We do ask members to make a commitment to give financially. Benefits? Well, you do get access to all kinds of things like live worship music, professional images, sermons, congregational care, small groups, and the like. But is that really what being a part of SCC is all about? Pay a fee? Get benefits?

No way! Being part of SCC is less about getting benefits for you and more about being part of a community that is joining the mission of God to give benefits away. What are those benefits? Eternal life! Living at peace with God and peace with others. The Old Testament word for this kind of peace is “shalom.” Shalom means a well-being of the whole person (mind, body, and spirit…home, work, and neighborhood).

In order to be this kind of peace-filled, shalom-filled community, it takes training and practice. It’s nearly impossible to be at peace with God and others by just showing up on Sunday morning. Let me say that again: you will never get to the deep stuff of life with other people and God just by attending worship on Sunday morning. Communities of shalom are built most fully in small groups.

Members of SCC make a commitment to building this kind of community by joining a small group. If you’re a member, how are you doing with that commitment? If you’re not a member, small groups are still a great place to connect to God and others. Below is a list of all the small groups here at SCC.

Whether you’re a member or not, I want personally to invite, encourage, and plead with you to join a small group, and if there isn’t one that works with your schedule, then talk to Mark Aupperlee (m_aupperlee@hotmail.com) and work with him on creating one that does fit your schedule. Don’t let make being part of SCC become like being a member of the YMCA. Pay a fee. Get benefits. Make it about a commitment to building a community of people seeking authentic life Christ. Now that’s my kind of church!

Peace,
Pastor Tom

SMALL GROUP LIST

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Newsletter – Holiday Seasoning

November 22, 2011 By Tom Leave a Comment

One time I was trying to make Caesar dressing from scratch. Have you ever made Caesar salad dressing? Raw eggs and anchovies are two surprise ingredients. When I was done, it tasted like an undercooked anchovy omelet. Yuk! The seasoning just wasn’t right!

How are your holidays seasoned? Too much seasoning? Too little seasoning? While the holidays are supposed to be about thankfulness, joy, peace, and the love we share with God, somehow they seem to get seasoned very differently for many of us. The holidays are seasoned just right for too few of us.

For some of us the holidays are mixed with a bitter seasoning due to family conflict, lost loved ones, finances stretched too thin, debt piling up, and too many expectations put on us by others. For some of us the holidays are mixed with just a little too much sugar. We run around this way and that trying to get everything done that we want. We spend way too much money, go to way too many holiday parties, and host too many family members or friends. Then the inevitable sugar-low crashes sometime around January 2^nd.

This season Sycamore Creek Church is giving you several tools for seasoning your holidays just right. On Sunday, November 27^th we’ve got a stand-alone message entitled Seasoned for Hospitality. How do you offer excellent hospitality whether you’re at home, work, or church? We’ll answer that question with simple practical steps that can be applied wherever you find yourself. If you missed it check it out online.

Next, this Christmas Sycamore Creek Church is joining a conspiracy. On Sunday, December 4^th we begin a teaching series called Advent Conspiracy. It’s a conspiracy to season Christmas the way it’s supposed to be. We’ll learn to worship fully, spend less, give more and love all. Christmas can still change the world!

Because Christmas day falls on Sunday, we’ll be offering three Christmas services that will all be basically the same worship service (Christmas Eve at 5pm & 7pm) except that the Christmas day (7pm) will be an unplugged communion service. Lots of choices to fit your Christmas schedule. And don’t forget to bring a friend!

Peace,
Tom

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October Newsletter – Ten Guests

October 12, 2011 By Tom Leave a Comment

Dear Friends,

A couple of Sundays ago we had ten guests in worship. They all came on the arm of a friend. I wondered how they would be welcomed.

Our Sunday morning team meets every Sunday before worship, and for several months I have been hitting on the importance of hospitality. I begin with a simple question, “Who is on the hospitality team?” The answer is: everyone who is present! We then walk through some basic reminders about how to be hospitable (the 5-10-link rule which says, five minutes before and after each service connect with people you don’t know within ten feet of you and link them to someone else who has similar affinities).

Well, that Sunday we were ready, and as I sat back and watched our team interact with these ten guests, I saw us hit a grand slam! No one was left unnoticed. Everyone had at least one if not two or three people approach them and welcome them. That week we got several notes from the guests. They said things like, “Your church is so welcoming. I feel like we fit right in.” It was a beautiful sight to see new people being welcomed by the church and experiencing God’s welcome in the process.

Do you realize that your giving to SCC makes moments and notes like that possible? When you faithfully give to SCC, we are able to organize this community of friends to meet regularly for worship and invite more people into that community of friends. All this ministry is toward the goal of igniting authentic life in Christ by connecting (to God and others), growing (in the character of Christ) and serving (the church, community, and world), and it all happens in large part because so many of you give generously. Thank you!

Also, because of your giving to the 20 Years Deep capital campaign, we have just made another $25,000 payment on the mortgage to the parsonage and have a current balance of only $30,634! In less than three years, we will have bought and paid for a house. We’ll soon begin accumulating a building fund for a future home for SCC. That’s awesome. Thank you, God!

One great way to continue to give faithfully and regularly is to sign up for Electronic Fund Transfer. It makes giving super easy. You don’t even have to remember to bring your check book to worship (what is a check book anyway?). You can change it at any time by contacting the church office (office@sycamorecreekchurch.org).

So keep offering radical hospitality to guests who join our community. And keep giving so that we have ministries to welcome people to.

Peace,

Tom

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Newsletter – Sunday Morning’s Not Enough

September 21, 2011 By Tom Leave a Comment

Peace Friends!

You will never grow in your faith if all you are doing is coming to worship on Sunday morning. Whew! That’s a heck of a way to start the newsletter, but it’s true.

Let me explain: You hear, you forget. You see, you remember. You do, you understand. Duke University’s Coach K, the winningest coach in NCAA history, said that. He obviously knows something about helping people grow into all that they can become.

Mostly what we do on Sunday morning is hear. We hear the songs. We hear the message. Our worship team tries hard to also help you see and do, but there’s only so much seeing and doing you can accomplish on a Sunday morning with such a large crowd. So if all you do is hear, then what happens? You forget. Nothing in your life changes.

In order to see and do you must join a small group. In a small group you will more fully see how others are living the faith (faith is caught more than it is taught), and you’ll have the chance to be held accountable to “doing” the faith between one meeting and the next. I’d like to share with you part of an email I recently received from someone in our church:

I have grown spiritually more from small group participation than from anything else (bible study, church attendance, prayer, and other efforts at personal spiritual growth.) I am a better Christian and closer to God because I admitted in my small group exactly who I was, my sins, my fears, my failures, and my hopes and dreams. It was a safe place to let my habits, hurts, and hang-ups, be admitted and addressed. These people who cared about me and didn’t judge me, gave me things I needed to think about. Some of my beliefs and attitudes that were written in stone started crumbling. Thank you God!

Wow! That’s awesome. And it will never happen just on a Sunday morning. So are you in a small group? There are a lot of excuses we all use to not join a small group. We don’t have the time (then you’re too busy!). None of the small groups fit my schedule (then start one with your friends!). I’ve tried it before and didn’t get much out of it (then try it again!). I’m too shy to go meet a bunch of people I don’t know (then get over you shyness and be assertive!). I’m scared of opening up to people (then ask God to give you courage!). There are no excuses. Join a small group! You’ll find listed below all of the small groups that our church offers. Do it right now. Email the leader. Get connected. Start hearing, seeing, and doing and soon you’ll begin to experience real transformation in your life. That’s what I’m praying for each person in our church. May it be true in your life.

Peace,
Tom

P.S. Each small group also makes a commitment to a local mission. So joining a small group means you’re knocking out two birds with one stone: growing and serving in the community. We can’t make it any easier than that!

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Newsletter – Summer at SCC

June 20, 2011 By Tom Leave a Comment

Tom & Micah at Lake Lansing

Is your summer jam packed like mine? I’m looking at my calendar and between conferences, retreats, meetings, and vacation, I’m going to be traveling a lot of miles this summer. How am I going to fit everything in that I want to do? And keep up my regular commitments? Not to mention the new six-month-old in my house. Yikes! I love summer, but…

When things get busy it’s tempting to throw out two practices that nurture my soul amidst the hectic pace of our culture these days: Sabbath rest and community worship. These two practices will help you not just survive your summer schedule, but have the presence of mind and fullness of spirit to experience God at work amidst it all.

Sabbath

What is “Sabbath”? Sabbath is the seventh day of creation. It is the day when God had finished creating and took time to enjoy it all by resting (Genesis 2:1-3). It is interesting to note that the Bible literally says that God “finished” creation on the seventh day. Work isn’t finished until it includes rest. It strikes me that when we don’t take a day to rest and reflect, what we’re really claiming is that we’re better than God. God may have needed a day of rest, but we don’t.

It’s easy to get caught up in debating what day should be the Sabbath or what you can and can’t do on the Sabbath and end up missing Sabbath. Don’t let that happen this summer. Take a day each week to rest. Otherwise all the taxiing of kids here and there, family BBQs, vacations, days at the beach, gardening, exercising, and more will fly by, and you will have missed God’s presence the rest of the time.

Community Worship

What is community worship? Community worship is when we gather to encounter God and respond with everything we’ve got. Worship attunes our hearts, minds, bodies, spirits, and souls (every part of us!) to God. Worship and Sabbath are closely related. They go together like burgers and brats. Like sand and water. Like sun and sunscreen. One way we rest is by taking time to worship God.

It’s so easy in the summer to wake up and see that’s it’s a beautiful day and skip taking time to join other Christians for worship. It’s so easy to be on vacation camping or at the family cabin and decide to sleep in rather than worship in community. It’s so easy to think of worship like we grew up thinking about school, the summers are off.

Commit

Will you commit to staying connected to God through community worship this summer? If you’re on vacation, find a church to visit (it’s always a good experience to remember anew what it’s like to be a visitor at church). If you’re feeling like you’d rather sleep in, remember the other times you didn’t want to go to church and when you did, you were glad because God showed up in your life. If you’re too busy because you’re running your life ragged, maybe it’s time to rethink your time commitments to include rest and community worship.

When we take time to practice Sabbath and community worship, time is transformed and God’s purposes play out in our lives. Now that’s something I don’t want to miss this summer!

Peace,
Tom

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So Many Reasons to Make Commitments

May 16, 2011 By Tom Leave a Comment

Peace, Friends!

What kinds of commitments do you make? When I think about my own life there are several that come to mind. The first one is probably the very public commitment I made to Sarah, my wife, when we were married. I committed to loving her for the rest of our lives. Another big commitment I made was when I signed the mortgage documents to our house. I committed to paying the loan back. I also made a commitment on my day of commissioning to be your pastor. I committed to Word, Sacrament, Order, and Service. Two other commitments come quickly to mind. Sarah and I made a commitment to Sycamore Creek Church’s capital campaign, 20 Years Deep, and we also make a yearly commitment to give to the church’s ministries. Why make commitments like these? There are so many reasons.

Some people might say that I don’t need to make a commitment like this to be faithful. That may be true. But I am not among those people. I find the public commitment to be part of what helps me keep the commitment. If a commitment is a private commitment, then I’m more likely to let it slide or fudge it. I also find that a public commitment helps me stretch and challenge myself. If I just keep it to myself, I’m more likely to make an easy commitment that really doesn’t help me grow.

Another reason to make a commitment is because God has committed so much to us. We are a very non-committal culture, but our God is a God who has made such a strong commitment to us that God sent God’s very own son to live among us, teach us, die for us, be raised from the dead, and create a community of friends seeking to love God and others with everything we’ve got.

On Sunday, May 22, we’ll be providing an opportunity for everyone at Sycamore Creek Church to make a commitment of giving. Commitment Sunday is an annual event. Ken Nash from Cornerstone Church in Grand Rapids will be our guest speaker for the day.

The goal of Commitment Sunday is not to fulfill a budget. We trust that God will provide what is needed to accomplish God’s will for our church. Rather, the goal is to help each person in our church grow spiritually by having the opportunity to make a financial commitment to the church.

Following our Commitment Sunday worship at the second service we’ll be hosting a celebration lunch to share the results of the day. Because this is a catered meal, an RSVP would be very helpful for our planning. If you have not already RSVP’d, would you do so now by emailing Susan Bigger. It is our goal to have every member and regular attendee at worship that day. Please make it the highest priority to join us for that day of commitment, worship, and celebration.

Peace,
Tom

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