Can You Hold A Baby?

"No really, could you hold a snuggly baby for one hour once a week? I mean, sometimes they need to have a bottle or a diaper change or something, but very often we need someone to hold a sweet baby. The infant room first service is in need of a consistent volunteer and some subs, and second service could use occasional subs. 

If every Sunday sounds like too much, could you partner with another individual or family and cover all the weeks each month? We have a form and will do a background check and could then get you plugged in to a great group of volunteers.

Also, we have a need for a consistent adult in the Two year old room first service and Three year old room second service. The requirements for this are to be adept at puzzles and coloring and building with blocks. If you are out of practice with these skills, I am sure they can quickly whip you into shape :) !"

Our Totzone (0-3) Team at Shoal Crek shared this with me last night, and I wanted to make sure it got pushed out far and wide because holding a baby could be an insanely easy way to 1) get your student plugged into serving which, 2) helps teach them that they are a part of God's bigger plan by 3) integrating them into Shoal Creek's mission to provide a safe environment for children on Sundays so that parents can experience God's message to them in the auditorium on Sundays.

Contact me if interested.

Big Issues, Bigger God

What kinds of conversations have you had this week, this month? With your spouse? With your kids? With whatever voices reside inside of your head and heart? We tend to go-go-go as fast as we can all day long, and plop down at night on our couches and in our beds. In our fatigue we're often able to tune out the questions and insecurities that would latch to our consciousness, if we were to give them the chance.

Each day we have to make choices that affect us, and our loved ones in very personal ways. We will have to make decisions without always having the benefit of being sure we are making the right choice. We won't be able to take back what we cause to happen, and we will have to live with the results for better or for worse.

There are ways to gain a sense of balance and steadiness in our own tumultuous situations, and even in the bigger peaks and valleys that we find ourselves in as a society. One of the most fundamental ways to gain a sense of peace and direction amidst our insecurities and uncertainties is seeking God through prayer.

Shoal Creeker Lynne Haynes has recently felt led to open up her home as a place where you are welcome to gather to share about the big issues that break your heart, and to pray in the company of others seeking to come under the peace and security of a bigger God. From Lynne,

So this is my idea.  I would like to invite people who have a heart to pray for big issues to come together.  I would love to include those people whose hearts break when they hear a news story, but also the people (like myself) whose hearts don’t break, but know they need God to help their hearts break. I would like to invite people who will be obedient, if God prompts them to action, to move out of their comfort zone to do something, knowing they may never know if it will make a difference or not. I would like to invite those who love God and want to worship Him, knowing He alone is worthy of worship and He alone has the power to make a difference. 

If any of this intrigues you, I would like to invite you to my house for a prayer “experience” this Tuesday, July, 19th at 7:00.  Please bring a picture or an item that represents an issue that breaks your heart. Bring a heart willing to listen to see issues through God’s eyes and a willingness to move if God so calls you. At the end, we will take some time and download the experience and see what this could look like going forward. I know this is a short timing, but I am feeling a sense of urgency about this.  If you are interested in the idea but cannot be there on Tuesday, let me know.  If enough people are interested, we will do it at another time as well. Also, feel free to share this with anyone you think might be interested that I may not have included.    

My hope is we will create an environment to encourage each other to pray, both corporately and individually.  I hope you will join me in this.

If you are interested in attending, please contact me and I will forward your information onto Lynne and get you connected to this gathering, and/or future gathers.

I would highly encourage parents to see this as a prime opportunity to bond with your child and expose them to the efficacy of prayer. Take your son or daughter with you and let them engage this gathering with the things that break their own hearts. Help them see the power of prayer, especially the power of prayer in a group.

As the Apostle Paul said in Philippians 4:6-7, "Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus."

Shoal Creek Student Family Connection - "Fireworks, works-works-works-works!"

Hi Families, here's your "need-to-know" info for your Buya and Crash Students:

Fireworks Tent Is Here! The Shoal Creek Fireworks Tent has arrived. The Fireworks Tent is a extremely significant fundraiser that supports vital roles of Shoal Creek's mission, and there are lots of opportunities and needs for helping make the Tent another huge success. Check out here what makes the Tent such a unique place to meet others, and then...

Click Here to Get Involved

Here's are the events/programs that are available for our Shoal Creek "Buya" and "Crash" students:

1. "Buya" program every Sunday at 11am in the Underground for all 6th-8th grade students.
2. "Crash" (9th-12th grade) students can meet in The Attic every Sunday from 10:35am-11am for free breakfast, then attend the 11am service in the Auditorium as a group by sitting in the balcony.

Wanting more information about what Shoal Creek offers for students that you don't see here? Contact Justin Talley, or start following @SC3Students on twitter--to be connected with the latest happenings. 

Right Being > Right Doing

Right Being > Right Doing

I read a line from an author commenting about Jesus this morning that really surprised me. 

"Jesus Christ never gives us rules and regulations. Try, for instance, to use the sermon on the Mount as a series of rules and regulations and you find you cannot do it. They are truths that can only be interpreted by a new spirit that Jesus Christ puts in us." Oswald Chambers, Studies From The Sermon On The Mount

The world is much bigger on the inside than on the outside, which is why Jesus is about giving us a new heart, not rules and regulations. If we think Jesus is about rules and regulations, then we haven't really met him yet. Jesus doesn't confront us with a list of rules and regulations to guide our doing. Jesus confronts us only with truth, truth that we can choose to either accept or reject, into or from, our being. Jesus wants us to know that having the right heart is more fundamental than doing the right things. 

At the end of the day, before reflecting on whether or not on if we did the right things, we must reflect on if we lived with the right heart. Or, at the very least, use what we did or did not as a way to trace our motives back to the root of our problems--our heart. Our actions are the stalk, stem, flower and fruit; our heart is the root from which everything grows. Through enough effort and sweat equity, we may be able to have a modicum of success in our right doing; but, it is only through accepting into our hearts the truths that Jesus presents us with that will ever affect our capacity for right being.

We cannot be who we were created to be without first letting Jesus confront us with his truth, and then very quickly asking him for his help to incorporate that truth into the deepest fiber of our being. On our own we do not have the power to get to the "root" of who we are, where our actions originate and flow out of that deepest part of ourselves. The only way to "be right" (or, to be in a state of right-heartedness), is, as Chambers also said, to "let Jesus have his way with you, letting him give you his Spirit, by letting him alter you from the inside."

An Outpost of Community - The Shoal Creek Fireworks Tent

Yes, fireworks are cool in and of themselves. 

For sure, the money raised absolutely supports vital functions of Shoal Creek's mission to positively affect the Northland.

But perhaps the most overlooked, yet consistently present, benefit of volunteering at the Shoal Creek Fireworks Tent is the connections you get to make with the other volunteers that are giving up their time to support Shoal Creek's mission to change lives. 

Year in and year out, the amount of new people I get to meet when I work at the Tent astounds me. I see many faces in passing on Sunday, rarely interacting with other attenders for more than a few seconds at a time. The Tent has become place where I get to take the journey from Stranger to Friend, with so many other people who call Shoal Creek home, but whom I don't normally get the chance to interact in the one hour service we call "church" on Sundays. 

Maybe you're newer to Shoal Creek and have been wondering how to jump in and form some relationships with the other people that sit beside and around you on Sunday mornings. Or, maybe you've attended for years, and still find yourself only knowing one or two other families in your life stage with whom you frequent the auditorium. Regardless of what your personal journey at Shoal Creek has looked like thus far, there's a communal journey to be had that offers immense value to you in the form of new relationships with others that are created in the same image of God that you are. 

If forming new relationships with others is truly an invaluable experience that God has designed for each one of us to take part in, then you can't afford NOT to sign up for a shift at the Tent. There is someone that if you were to meet them, they would add value to your life. The opportunity is waiting.

SIGN UP HERE

Shoal Creek Student Family Connection (6/21) - BBR, Fireworks Tent

Hi Families, here's your "need-to-know" info for your Buya and Crash Students:

1. The "BBR" -  We have about 3,000 kids in the Northland, living in homes that are not food stable. 

Sign Up Here

2. Fireworks Tent Is Here! The Shoal Creek Fireworks Tent has arrived. The Fireworks Tent is a extremely significant fundraiser that supports vital roles of Shoal Creek's mission, and there are lots of opportunities and needs for helping make the Tent another huge success.

Click Here to Get Involved

Here's are the events/programs that are available for our Shoal Creek "Buya" and "Crash" students:

1. "Buya" program every Sunday at 11am in the Underground for all 6th-8th grade students.
2. "Crash" (9th-12th grade) students can meet in The Attic every Sunday from 10:35am-11am for free breakfast, then attend the 11am service in the Auditorium as a group by sitting in the balcony.

Wanting more information about what Shoal Creek offers for students that you don't see here? Contact Justin Talley, or start following @SC3Students on twitter--to be connected with the latest happenings. 

The Power of Pancakes

"When I first started making pancakes for the high schoolers my motivation was to simply volunteer for something easy that didn't require a commitment outside of Sunday mornings.  I like to cook, pancakes are easy and kids love to eat!  It was a good match.  It was a no pressure volunteer spot and I enjoyed it.  I had no idea that God had plans of blessing me and many others way beyond pancakes!

Soon after being in the kitchen on a regular basis, a few kids began to wonder in and chat with me as I was cooking.  I even had one or two who liked to help me flip and serve the pancakes.  God had easily opened the door to hearing kids' stories and getting to know them.  To a few, I think it meant a lot just to be seen and heard, even in small ways.  God started to develop a softness in my heart for teens.  Even though I had a teen and pre-teen in my own home I still assumed that teenagers were a group that had little interest in community and certainly wouldn't be interested in talking to someone like me, I'm just a mom!  I was wrong, and God showed me that teens are people just like the rest of us!  They are seeking, have questions, want to be known and loved and are just trying to figure out life like us all!!  

God continued to open my heart and give me a passion for young people.  From there I began leading a girl's small group once a week and had the opportunity to take teens to Colorado for an awesome, God led adventure for 3 summers in a row. I just wanted to make pancakes, but God had others plans and I'm so glad He did!"

That's the true story of Lydia Goodwin, a Shoal Creek mom who has had her three children grow up and enter into the Shoal Creek community. Each week we want our high school students to feel welcome at Shoal Creek, so between the 9:30am and 11am services we cook a free pancake breakfast to try to show them we care about them. 

As you can probably guess--those pancakes don't flip themselves! Would you reflect on Lydia's story and maybe consider seeing yourself take the same steps she did to make our Shoal Creek community a more loving and accepting place for teenagers? Would you contact me, Justin Talley, if you think you might have time to flip pancakes on a regular, or rotational basis on Sunday mornings?