The
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Love God. Love others.
onnection
Summer 2016
Sunday Worship Services: 9:00 a.m. (Blended) 10:30 a.m. (Contemporary)
Stuck by James C. Jones Ever since I moved into my office at TCC at the beginning of February 2014, there has been an empty nameplate holder on my office door. When I first began ministry at TCC, life was really busy. Our family was getting settled, and I was finding my way in a new ministry. That nameplate holder sat empty. It wasn’t very high on the priority list. Many days, I would look at that empty nameplate holder when I unlocked my office door in the morning with slight irritation and move on. A few times, people in the church said that I should get a nameplate to fill the holder. Some time along the way, our youngest daughter Lillie took a large Post-It note and drew a (very unflattering) picture of me with the words “James Clyde Jones, Preacher Man” underneath, and her artwork served as my nameplate for several months. The truth is that I wasn’t sure where to get a nameplate, and I was pretty sure that a custom item like that would probably be expensive. What’s the big deal if the nameplate stayed empty? It all seemed like too much trouble, and I wasn’t sure where to begin. Nonetheless, it bugged me. That empty nameplate made my office look like a supply room when the door was closed. But strangely enough, I was stuck. I didn’t know who to ask or where to look or if it was worth the money. On the morning of Saturday, April 16, I arrived early for a funeral service that would take place later in the morning, and for some reason, I looked at the nameplate and thought, “Enough. I’m going to at least look for some way to get my name in this door.” Five minutes later, after a Google search and a few questions on amazon.com, I ordered the nameplate for less than ten dollars. It shipped later that morning and arrived in less than a week. I know. You’d have thought the elders would have had higher standards when they hired me! Have you ever felt stuck? You were dealing with a problem in life, maybe small (like a nameplate) or large (like sickness, death, or divorce), and you didn’t know how to go at the problem. You didn’t even know where to begin. You didn’t know if there was even a solution to the problem. Chances are that the solution to the big problems won’t be as easy as spending five minutes online and ten bucks. It will take much more than that. But here’s what the nameplate ordeal did teach me: if I never try to deal with the problems, they won’t ever get solved. Most of the problems that I have in life will never be solved by my ability. They won’t be solved because I am particularly strong emotionally or bright intellectually. What will solve them is my willingness to acknowledge how stuck I am and how much I need help. I need God’s help. I need the wisdom that comes only from God. I need his insights. I need his direction. But I also need the help of his people. I need the wisdom that comes from godly people who have walked the path that I’m walking now. I need their prayers. I need their encouragement. So, don’t stay stuck for years like I did. Seek out the knowledge and wisdom that you need in the God who created you and loves you deeply and in a Christian community that values you and wants to strengthen you.
Current Sermon Series:
Upcoming Sermon Series:
Love God. Love others.
May 22nd and 29th
Better Left Unsaid: What We Wish Jesus Hadn’t Said Begins June 5th Marriage Is Forever Think Like a Kid Get Rid of Your Stuff Let Go of Your Titles
Listen to sermons online at taylorvillechristian.com Connect and stay updated on Facebook at Facebook.com/taylorvillechristianchurch Facebook.com/tccyouth1 Facebook.com/tccchildrensministry
Love God.
Ministry Spotlight: Intentional Design by Mary McNeely So what is intentional design? How does this new ministry team play a role in Kingdom work at TCC? It’s been less than a year since this new team was formed, and we are still in the process of learning. In the past 50 years, our church building, and those before it, have provided a meeting place for hundreds, even thousands, to share God’s Word and grow deeper in our walk with our Creator and our Savior. How do we continue to win souls to Christ in this ever changing high tech visual world? Yes, I said visual. Many come to worship each Sunday at TCC to check us out. That first impression includes relating with others and worship, but in a very large way is impacted by what they see. God created us to be highly visual! Did you know that twelve of the forty chapters in Exodus are devoted to aesthetics? God provides a wildly creative and very visual image of what you experienced in the holy of holies. There is no question that the details mattered. We want to tell a positive story about TCC as you look around the church building. We want to create an environment for connection and community. We want a space that is comfortable, attractive, and appealing for old and young. We want all to know that we are good stewards of God’s resources. Although attention to the details of design, decor, and basic housekeeping is extremely important, it’s really about the potential of what can happen within the walls of those intentionally crafted spaces. Great design is not intended to impress our guests with dazzling finish, but to prepare a place where people can experience connection to God and community with others the best way possible. Please pray for our ministry team as we work at fulfilling our mission of providing an improved environment of connection and community to LOVE GOD and LOVE OTHERS.
How you can help with the 9 a.m. worship service... If you attend the 9 a.m. Sunday morning worship service, you might have noticed it is crowded. Here are a few things you can do to help: Open additional parking spaces by using the north rock lot or the Extension office lot. We have permission! Drop off any passengers who don’t want to walk too far. Let’s make it easier for guests to find a parking space and easily get into the building. Make room for others. Sit in the center of the pews, so those who come in after you can readily find seats without a lot of shifting. If you are on the end of a pew and see someone looking for seats, make room whenever possible. If it’s someone you haven’t seen before, offer him or her your seat. It’s easier for regular attenders to squeeze in with others than someone who is new and already feels uncertain. Notice unfamiliar faces. Smile and introduce yourself. Perhaps they, like you, have been attending for months. That’s okay! You will both get to meet a potential friend. If it’s someone new to TCC, ask if they need any help. If you don’t know the answers to their questions, find a Welcome Ministry Host near one of the doors. Offer a Welcome packet, which are brown envelopes located in clear wall hangers just inside the Main Entrance doors and the lobby wall by the hallway that leads to the church kitchen. Thanks for your help!
Love others.
How Can You Worship Well? Try these tips for growing in worship: Prepare yourself. Arrive at church about five minutes earlier than usual. Ask God to help you prepare by weeding through all the concerns and baggage you’ve carried with you through the week. He wants you to bring it all to him, so your mind doesn’t have to be completely clear as you walk through the church doors. But let him do the sifting. He knows what’s ahead in song, teaching, and interactions. He will meet you where you are. Stay focused. It’s not easy. No matter how engaging James and the praise band are, your mind will wander. Bring it back to the here and now. Listen to yourself sing the words of the songs so you commit to what you’re singing. Jot down the main points of the sermon or what stands out to you to emphasize it and commit it to memory and application. Sit where you have the least distractions. Be humble. Worship isn’t about our comfort and preferences but about our willingness to acknowledge and praise God. When we get distracted with matters based in our pride, we miss out on the worship experience God intends.
(Parents) Try these tips for growing in worship: Prepare yourself. Arrive at church slightly less late than usual. Ask God to help you prepare by helping you survive the morning of trying to get your kids out of bed, dressed (completely), and fed before coaxing them into the car and keeping them from fighting or spilling something on the way to church. Do your best. Sometimes just getting everyone (and yourself) to church is the victory worth celebrating. Sit down and sigh deeply. God will meet you where you are. Stay focused. It’s not easy, even when your kids aren’t beside you, let alone when they are. No matter how engaging James and the praise band are, your mind will wander. Bring it back to the here and now, at least until you notice you are wearing two different shoes, have three stickers and part of breakfast stuck to your pants, and can’t remember if you brushed your hair before you left home. Be humble. Worship isn’t about our comfort and preferences but about our willingness to acknowledge and praise God...from wherever we are. All distractions aren’t based in pride; sometimes, we have to focus on the little ones around us. We’re worshiping alongside them (or enjoying a moment without them!). Savor the worship experience.
Worship is more than a Sunday morning service. It’s an attitude, a choice, a lifestyle. Worship every day of the week.
3rd quarter students who joined the Accelerated Reader Million Word club. (Read one million or more words for fun.)
A 1st grader who used her resource points to purchase a Bible.
Youth Minister Zach Crowley getting taped to the wall during the Hoops for Heart assembly.
How Can We Care For One Another? The TCC Care Ministry has a long list of ways they care for others throughout TCC, including writing notes, visiting people, coordinating meals for individuals and families in need, encouraging people at TCC to get involved in community-wide ministries, such as Angel Tree and Meals On Wheels, and much more. They care for others in tangible ways, and so can all of us. Care is something each of us is responsible for doing for one another. It’s not delegated to a single ministry team. But where do we start? How can we care well? Caring for people close to us. We often find this kind of caring the easiest...and the most challenging. We can see and know the needs of people close to us, so we feel as if care almost becomes second nature. Sometimes it becomes so comfortable that we don’t notice the changes going on in the person who needs care. We continue to go through the motions, and in the process, we miss caring for the person well. We think the same old thing will work when we need to adjust. Caring for people we bump into. Then there are people we don’t know well, but we certainly cross paths with them regularly. We may not have a strong voice of influence on their lives, but we have an impact. We can share a smile, invite someone ahead of us in a line, help someone carry groceries, listen to a story of celebration or frustration. We can sacrificially give ourselves for the other person’s benefit. Caring for people we don’t know. We often make excuses for why we shouldn’t or can’t care for someone we don’t know. We question their motives and true need. We make a lot of assumptions in the process. If our assumptions are wrong, we miss out. If our assumptions are right, our care may not be received well. But our responsibility isn’t on the receiving end; it’s on the caring end.
5th -Jr High students who were awarded free ice cream or pizza for completing a math enrichment problem.
3rd grade boys working on science enrichment activity.
Try these tips to help you care well: Notice. Simply keep your eyes, mind, and heart wide open to noticing the needs around you. Refuse to only notice the needs you want to see. Care is often not convenient. Identify the need. Sometimes needs present as one thing but are a sign of something else. Refuse to let your own perspective cloud the reality of the situation. Meet the need with generosity, compassion, and wisdom. In your enthusiasm to help, you might jump in and do things the way that makes the most sense to you. Get outside your comfort zone. Invite God to stretch your willingness to serve with more patience, sacrifice, and mercy than ever before.
Boys basketball team presenting tournament trophy to Mrs. Tolliver.
Missions Update: Oblong Christian Children’s Home
Easter Celebration 2016
What could be more exciting than new life at Oblong Christian Children’s Home? In their recent newsletter, Oblong Christian Children’s Home announced the welcome of Kaleigh and Sabrina to the family of God: “These two beautiful young women have grown in so many areas of their lives since coming to live at the children’s home. Their baptisms the day after Easter were an early highlight to our spring season. May God bless you both richly; know that there is amazing potential ahead of you, and the family of God is here to walk with you.”
Book Review: The Heaven Promise by Scot McKnight (reviewed by James Jones)
People in church occasionally ask me for a book recommendation about something related to faith. The topics vary widely, but the one recommendation that I am asked to make most often is for a book about Heaven. People want to know what we should expect about the afterlife. Some of them have read Revelation and have come away wondering what it meant. Others may be recognizing their own mortality and are thinking about what follows death. The problem with this request is that I have not always had a good response. It is not that there is a lack of books about Heaven; a quick trip to Family Bookstore or even a search on amazon.com could prove that. While Christians have produced many books describing Heaven and the afterlife, many of them are not particularly biblical. They are often based on complicated systems developed by well-meaning Christians which attempt to pull together prophecy about when, where, and how Jesus will return. The church had a need for a book that dealt with Heaven on a thoroughly biblical basis, and Scot McKnight (author of The Jesus Creed) has met that need with The Heaven Promise. In this book, McKnight lays out a biblical picture of what we can expect from Heaven.This picture will challenge many people who have adopted the thinking popular in our culture, and it will frustrate others because McKnight is unwilling to go beyond what the Bible actually says about Heaven. McKnight first makes the case for why Christians need to talk about Heaven. If resurrection is at the heart of our faith (and it is!), we should be concerned about life after resurrection. McKnight makes the case that we should find hope in what Scripture says about Heaven. He then lays out some of the basic, biblical truths about Heaven by way of six promises, which range from God’s and Jesus’ place in Heaven to what we will enjoy about Heaven and each other in eternity. After setting out much of what Scripture has to say about Heaven, he answers ten questions commonly asked about Heaven. Over my twenty years in ministry, I have been asked all of these questions, and I have wondered about some of them myself. Just the answers to these questions make The Heaven Promise an excellent resource. As with any book, I could identify a few shortcomings. Though most of the book is unquestionably biblical, the chapter McKnight calls “The First Hour in Heaven” is less so and based more on his understanding of the nature of the Gospel. Overall, though, this is the best addition to current literature about our eternal destination written for a popular audience.
Let’s Celebrate Baptisms!
April 10, 2016: Liam Piatt, Blake Daugherty, Brock Daugherty, Phil Bliler April 17, 2016: Steve Courtney
Taylorville Christian Church 1124 N. Webster Taylorville IL 62568 217.824.6621 TaylorvilleChristian.com office@taylorvillechristian.com Ministry Staff: James C. Jones Lead Minister james.jones @taylorvillechristian.com
Hello, Camp (Pre-K and K)
July 14 or 15, 9 a.m.-noon ($10) Beth Piatt will be attending!
Trailblazer Camp (Grades 3-4)
Ken Manning Worship/Seniors Minister ken.manning @taylorvillechristian.com
July 3-6, 3 nights/4 days ($170) LeAnn Jones will be attending!
Explorer Camp (Grades 4-5)
Zach Crowley Youth Minister zach.crowley @taylorvillechristian.com
July 10-13, 3 nights/4 days ($170) Zach Crowley will be attending! Register for these and many other camps at lscacamp.org TCC Families get a 50% discount.
CIY MIX (Grades 6-8) July 31-August 4 Holland, MI $200
Zach Crowley will be attending. Register at taylorvillechristian.com Deadline is May 29th.
CIY MOVE (Grades 9-12) June 12-18 Anderson, IN $200
Zach Crowley and Mike Profeta will be attending. Register at taylorvillechristian.com Deadline is May 29th.
Support Staff: Steve Basham Ministry Assistant steve.basham @taylorvillechristian.com Debbie Frye Administrative Assistant deb.frye@taylorvillechristian.com Susan Lawrence Small Groups/Communications susan.lawrence @taylorvillechristian.com Mike Profeta Jr. High Youth mike.profeta @taylorvillechristian.com Beth Piatt Early Childhood beth.piatt @taylorvillechristian.com Susan Boyd Custodian