Southside Family News (June, 2014) Shepherds Grant Fowler Kyle Heffley Tom Williams Lawrence Waggoner Matt Matthews Jackie Chesnutt Bill Bohannon Keith Brown Lafe Caton Jim Canfield JULY 27th - 30th VBS. RE-IMAGINED. We are getting very excited about Southside F/X! Plans are coming together nicely for service projects, wor- ship, kids’ activities and much more! And guess what? WE NEED YOU! Sign ups are outside Wild’s Fellow- ship Hall and work has already begun! If you have any questions, please contact the office. We raised $7,500.00 for Vilonia tornado relief! e Heavens Rejoice! (And so do we) Juan Hernandez was baptized into Christ May 19th! Did you know? ere are FREE DIAPERS in the nursery and toddler classrooms!
Transcript
Southside Family News (June, 2014)
ShepherdsGrant Fowler Kyle HeffleyTom Williams Lawrence WaggonerMatt Matthews Jackie ChesnuttBill Bohannon Keith BrownLafe Caton Jim Canfield
JULY 27th - 30th
VBS. RE-IMAGINED.
We are getting very excited about Southside F/X! Plans are coming together nicely for service projects, wor-ship, kids’ activities and much more! And guess what? WE NEED YOU! Sign ups are outside Wild’s Fellow-ship Hall and work has already begun! If you have any questions, please contact the office.
We raised $7,500.00
for Vilonia tornado relief!
The Heavens Rejoice! (And so do we)
Juan Hernandez was baptized into Christ
May 19th!
Did you know?There are
FREE DIAPERSin the nursery and toddler
classrooms!
An excerpt from Joe’s Blog series.
You can find his blog at:
www.rehearsingresurrection.orgQuick. What do you think of when you think of a car dealership? Sales? Aggressive sales people? A car lot filled with fancy new cars?
When we think of business, we tend to immediately consider the “sizzle, not the steak.” We tend to tune into the more glamorous aspects of those in-stitutions. At a car lot this is the sales side of things – the circumference. We rarely think of the tedious, behind-the-scenes, middle-work that holds the circumference together – the center.
Every institution has a stabiliz-ing and magnetic center around which the circumference moves and works. An unhealthy and ineffec-tive center leads to an imbalanced and ineffective circumference. In other words, the wheels fall off.
I recently spent two of my Friday Work-days with “Center-Workers” for sales companies. Lindsey Mitch-ell does inventory and title work (and a host of other things) for a local car dealership. Tracy Smith does sup-ply, stock and factory order work for a global hat manufacturer. Both of these ladies have “center” jobs. They are both the “steak, not the sizzle.” Their work provides their institu-tion a healthy center around which the circumference can exist. With-out them – everything falls apart.
It is amazing to me how habitually trained we are in our culture to miss the center for the circumference (miss the forest for the trees). Even in churches we tend to think of the more glamor-ous and “up-in-front” positions as the “more important positions.” Saint Paul recognized, so long a go, that the
hidden positions within the body of Christ are “more honorable.” In our culture of “look at me” – of glitz and glam – fame and fortune – it is difficult to cultivate and nurture habits that help us see the true center of things.
In my day with Tracy, I helped her check expected shipping dates for or-ders from her company’s factories. I wrote down the dates the manufactur-er provided on a work-list that Tracy then sends to her receiver. I have nev-er been so nervous. I was immediately and suddenly aware that if I messed this up, then EVERYTHING gets out of balance. (Good thing she double, and probably triple, checked my work!).
In my day with Lindsey, I saw her spend one hour organizing car-part invoices for accounts payable, then another hour doing title work on all the new vehicles they had received that week. Title work. Bank work. Financing. We are dealing with the part of the car deal that is at the core of someones financial investment (two people’s financial investment actually. Both the dealership and the buyer). Lindsey literally cannot make a mistake at this part of her job.Tracy and Lindsey’s job re-quire an intense focus.
Focus is about habit and discipline –
not trying harder. Just so happens I am preaching on Spiritual Discipline in a couple of weeks. Spiritual hab-its are about seeing past the circum-ference of our lives. If our eyes never move past the circumference, then any attempt at transformation will be a failure. Because at the circumfer-ence we just try to outperform our past performance, or perhaps our competitors performance. And the hardest thing to admit in a culture of performance, is that there are lim-its to human potential. I cannot do everything. “The world is not ours to save.” We have to learn to see past the circumference to the center. The center is a more humble place, but it is a more honorable place. This is true of the institution and the human per-son. The heart (seat of emotions and desire) is a more central place than the skin. And Spiritual Discipline, any discipline, is about reshaping the center – the heart. It is about created the habits necessary to live life well at the margins, edges, circumference.
Lindsey and Tracy are habit peo-ple, discipline people, center people. Without them every-thing falls to pieces at the edges.
Meet Lindsey Mitchell and Tra-cy Smith. See what you can learn about the humble center of human life. They know more about it than most of us do. By the way, while I do love steak, I also got to sit in one of those sizzles! Thanks Lindsey and Tracy for letting me into your world of everyday kingdom work!
Ethos, Hefflos & Teens are combining for Sunday morn-
ing class this summer in Ethos Room!
SYDNEY NEWSLETTER vol 1. 2020
The Spiritual See-Saw
Imagine a see-saw labeled ‘talking’ on one side & ‘doing’ on the other side. Riding this see-saw is similar to Kingdom activity. Talking is necessary to plan & prepare. But, it must give way to doing or you don’t go anywhere. Doing requires a return to talking for evaluation & more planning. Back & forth it goes until there rhythm is established, you don’t stop & you enjoy the ride. The challenge churches face is spending too long on either side. Too much talking never gets to doing. Too much time on doing can bring narrow vision, isolation, martyr complex or burn-out; a ministry that long ago lost its effectiveness keeps right on producing tired members & zero results. If asked to recommend a place to begin Bible reading I usually point to Book of James. It has the ingredients I like in reading material: it’s simple; it’s short; it’s direct; and, it’s hard to misunderstand. Consider these 2 passages:James 1:22 “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive your-selves. Do what it says.”James 2:18 “Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.”Both verses address the talking & doing see-saw. Both sides are nec-essary & are intended to work together. I encourage you to talk about Jesus, talk about your faith, talk about your church family; I also en-courage you to find a doing place – a place where you can serve. You are greatly needed!
- Jackie
Prayer ListRoy PaquetCarol Little
Preston GarrettSylvia Padubny
Pat SnyderJennifer Roberts
Condolences
To the family of Fred Barnhill
Sherri BarnhillJenna DickeyJill BrightwellJared Green
Crossroads Church of Christ Newport Arkansas
Do you know about Southside’s new-est mission location? Crossroads is a Church Plant located in the Crossroads apartment subdivision in Newport, Arkansas. This work is overseen by the Highway Church of Christ. They have about 100 people in attendance each Sunday. The lo-cal minister is Ryan Lloyd and has the help of a few Harding University student Interns. Southside provides financial support for these interns.We have committed to Ryan our in-volvement and support for a back to school neighborhood event and a Christmas party event. The back to school party will take place Au-gust 18th, we plan to travel to New-port Friday evening and return after
Church time on Sunday. The cost for two nights in a motel and transporta-tion will be about $125.00 per person double occupancy in the motel, you will be responsible for meals. I need to know who is going by June 30th.Our plan is to take 50--75 back packs with school supplies, these will be pro-vided by Samaritan Community Cent-er and Southside’s Golden Age Group. We will need a couple of vans in ad-dition to the Church van to transport the supplies to Newport. The event will be located on the street and yards inside the housing project, games and food will be offered. Last year we pro-vided food for about 200-225 people
Tuesday Ladies’ Classresumes in September.
This past year, there were 71 in attendance with a weekly average of 45! Thank you, ladies; and, thanks to our guest speakers: Shane, Joe & Doug
Parker
Thursday Community Lunchserved 171 meals May 30th!
SYDNEY NEWSLETTER vol 1. 2020
Schools Out Waterslide Road TRIP!!June 7th Leave Southside at 9am. Bring a change of clothes $10 for the slide and $ for 1 fast food meal
We’ll be home before dinner time.
June 16-18 Six Flags/Cardinals trip!! We’re going to St Louis this year!!June 27-July 4: TREK Backpacking trip to The Rock Mountains of Colorado!!
We’ll be home on the afternoon of the 4th for your fireworks showsJuly 6-12: Green Valley Bible Camp Rogers Week
July 18-25: Honduras Medical Mission trip
Summer Calendar Highlights
DeaconsKris Page Dennis McDowell Ty King David Chesnutt Kevin Snyder Jim Stewart Chad Brown Roger Clark Kent Chambers Howard Conley Steve Gardner Rocky Jones Mark Lundy Ed Patterson Mike Tibbs
In our Kingdom series, we’ve occa-sionally confronted the concept of a false narrative. Some of these come from the world. Others come from a faith-based source, often from within the Church. They are almost al-ways well-intentioned, but still false. One such false narrative is the idea of simply being yourself. That seems in-nocuous enough. It might even seem like good advice, especially if we are trying too hard to be something or someone we are not. We are all born with personalities, character traits and tendencies to behave in certain ways. Some of these tendencies are genetic and no doubt inherited from our parents; others we learned over time. As individuals, we continually evolve into this wonderful and dis-tinct mixture of nature and nurture. That’s as it should be. God made us all unique, each with special gifts and talents to contribute to the Kingdom. But the danger arises with the de-lusion that God made us a cer-tain way and that’s all we will ever be. The world perpetuates this falsity in lots of subtle ways like: “Just be yourself . . . .” “That’s just who I am . . . .” And who can forget the old Bil-ly Joel song I Love You Just the Way You Are : (“don’t go chang-in’ to try and please me . . . .”) As Christians, we are called to a dif-ferent narrative. We are called to
change. We are called to forego our natural tendencies and align our lives with the one perfect life – Christ. We are called to be imitators of Christ (Ephesians 5), which may mean giv-ing up certain aspects of our own lives when they don’t align with His. One of the benefits of this life in the King-dom is that we are not left to won-der what the perfect example looks like. The model life has already been lived. The King showed us the way. The life of the Christian – the Christ-imitator – must be characterized by change. Or more specifically, transfor-mation. It is a never-ending process of change. Paul understood this. After he urged the Romans to be the “living
on toward the goal . . .”
Our transformation does not end with baptism. Nor does it end with age, wisdom or our own perceived spiritual maturity. We are a work in progress. We’re not there yet. If we become static or satis-fied or proud or even tired, we can be in a precarious place. The world offers a different narra-tive. At various times, many “move-ments” have advocated giving in to one’s perceived default settings. It is even viewed as a strength if we are authentic and true to ourselves. This is lazy thinking. It is arrogant think-ing. And worst of all – it’s false. The world calls us to be who we are. Christ calls us to be who we can be. Just last week, Jackie’s daily text in-cluded this gem from Gail Sheehy: “If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we aren’t really living.” Finally, I haven’t heard this little hymn in years, but its simple, al-most child-like lyrics still ring true:
“He’s still workin’ on me,To make me what I oughta’ be
It took Him just a week to make the moon and stars,
The sun and the earth and Jupiter and Mars.
How loving and patient He must be,He’s still workin’ on me.”
- Kyle
Being Transformed:The blessings of spiritual
disciplineby Kyle Heffley
sacrifices” we so often quote (12:2), he also urged them to be “transformed” by mental renewal. He expanded on the concept later when he re-minded the Corinthians (2 Cor. 3:18) “We all . . . are being trans-formed into his image withever-increasing glory . . . .” Paul said it yet again to the Philip-pians (3:13) when he told them“Not that I have already ob-tained all this, or have alreadyarrived at my goal . . . I do not consider myself yet to havetaken hold of it . . . I press
SYDNEY NEWSLETTER vol 1. 2020
Goal: $100,000 May Total: $890.00 To Reach Goal:
YTD Total: $87,301.35 $706/week OR $3175/month
DeaconsKris Page Dennis McDowell Ty King David Chesnutt Kevin Snyder Jim Stewart Chad Brown Roger Clark Kent Chambers Howard Conley Steve Gardner Rocky Jones Mark Lundy Ed Patterson Mike Tibbs
Welcome to Southside!
The BolingersWayne & Marnie
Grayson, Wyatt, Cameron & Reese
OVERFLOW 2015 SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 28 2014
If you are new to Southside, We use one Sunday each year to raise money for missions OVERFLOW SUNDAY all contributions on that day are used for missions. You can give a one time amount or make a pledge to pay dur-ing the year weekly or monthly. Of course you can do both. Southside
supports the following outreach pro-grams: Preacher support in Honduras and Mexico, Preacher training in Cen-tral America, Crossroads Church in Newport AR, Childrens homes, Green Valley Bible Camp Rogers, AR, Truth for Today printing ministry and other worthy programs. Our Sisters in Ac-tion group provides support for the Benton County Children Shelter, this
is in addition to the Overflow giving.The cost for this work is about $100,000 per year. Please pray for all of these efforts and make plans to contribute all you can.
Sisters In ActionNeeds Plastic Grocery Bags
(Drop off in Wild’s)
SYDNEY NEWSLETTER vol 1. 2020
The month of June in Journeyland (Pre-K through 4th Grade) is about the Unity. Each week our students will learn a “lesser known bible story” or about a “lesser known bible character” that will emphasize Unity. Unity is such an impor-tant characteristic of God’s people. John says in one of his letters that it is by our love for one another that the world will know we belong to God. So we hope that this outline for the month of June helps you nurture that characteristic in our children!
June 1st - Abram and Lot part ways with one another. At first glance this feels like a story about division. But this is a story about peacemaking. Abram says to Lot, “let us not quarrel for we are brothers.” Abram then tells Lot he may take whatever land he wants. “If you go East, I will go West...” Abram is willing to give Lot the first and best pick of land to keep the peace between loving brothers. This week’s memory verse is “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” Peace and Unity are not he absence of conflict, but deal with conflict in loving and even sacrificial ways.
June 8th - Joseph tests his brothers and they come to one their youngest brother’s defense (Benjamin). Once revealed, they realize they should have defended Joseph the way they defended Benjamin. But Joseph does not take the oppor-tunity to shame them but to restore them. Joseph uses his testing in Genesis 44, not as a way to get back at his broth-ers, but as a way to deal with the truth. Joseph’s goal is one of restoration, not retribution. This week’s memory verse is from Jesus’ prayer in John 17:23 and says “May [my people] be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me.” June 15th - In Mark 9:38-41 there is a very short but very cool story about the disciples getting upset because some people are driving out Jesus in Jesus’ name. They come to Jesus and ask him if they should stop him... and here is their reasoning... “They are not us.” Sometimes we get caught up in making sure that everyone who is doing good is doing good they way we want them to. We forget we are on the same team, This week’s memory verse comes from Jesus’ reply to them and is a good lesson for our children, “Who ever is not against us is for us.”
June 22nd - There is a really cool story in Exodus 17:8-16 about Israel defeating the Amalekites in battle. What is in-teresting about this story is that it is a very significant battle in the life of Isreal, yet only eight verses are dedicated to its telling! If the Amalekites defeat them, that’s that! And a character appears only for a flash - His name is Hur. I mean,
SYDNEY NEWSLETTER vol 1. 2020
Her name is.... no... wait... it’s Hur. Hur holds up Moses’ hands because as long as Moses’ hands are lifted high the Isra-elites are victorious in battle. But if his arms tire and his hands fall the Israelites begin to lose. So Hur holds up Moses’ hands. We are victorious when we support each other and provide strength when others are weak. Another point here is that Hur only appears in Scripture for a brief moment. He probably thought to himself that his actions were alto-gether insignificant in the grand scheme of things, but in reality, Israels future is in part owed to Hur’s single act of love and support. Every small action counts in the kingdom of God. This weeks memory verse is Matthew 10:42 “If anyone gives even a cup of cold water... that person will not lose their reward.”
June 29th - Nehemiah rebuilds the temple. This may not be a lesser known bible story, but one part of it is. Nehemiah begins with prayer. Chapter one of the book is a long prayer where Nehemiah weeps and fasts and pours his heart out to God in prayer. Israel was brought to unity for the first time since the Exodus out of Egypt. Mother Teresa once said, “Everyone wants to save the world, but no one wants to do the dishes.” We read Nehemiah and we all want to do great things for God’s people and we forget the most important endeavor is to pray. We want unity? Let us pray first. “If we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us” (I John 4:12)
Thursday, January 15, 2009 was an-other ordinary day in New York City or so it seemed. But by that even-ing people were talking of a miracle.
They may have been right buy the full explanation is even more inter-esting and exciting. It is a perfect example to discuss spiritual disci-plines and development of character.
Flight 1549 took off bound for Char-lotte, North Carolina. Captain Chlsey Sullenberger III known as “Sully” did all the usual checks. Everything was fine with the Airbus 320. Fine until, two minutes after takeoff, the aircraft ran straight into a flock of Canadian geese. Almost at once both engines were se-verely damaged and lost their power. The plane at that point was heading north over the Bronx, on of the most densely populated parts of the city.
Captain Sullenberger and his copi-lot had to make several major deci-sions instantly if they were going to save the lives of people not only on board but also on the ground.
The only option was the Hudson Riv-
er. Its difficult to crash land on wa-ter: one small mistake- catch the nose or one of the wings in the river and the plane will turn over in the river.
In the two or three minutes they had before landing, Sully and his copilot had to do the many vital things… Shut down the engines so it would glide as long as possible, disconnect the auto-pilot and override the flight manage-ment system. They had to activate the “ditch” system, which seals vents and valves, to make the plane as waterproof as possible once it hit the water. It was a complicated effort, that resulted in everyone safely getting off the plane.
It illustrates a vital truth which many today have either forgotten or never known in the first place. You might call it the power of right habits. You could call it character.
It wasn’t natural or first nature to re-spond calmly for Sully. It was a sec-ond nature that came from years of flying, training, preparing for that time. Like an aquired taste, such choices, actions, which started off being practiced with difficulty, end-
ed up being, yes, “second nature.”
Jesus, calls us to a way of life not a ser-vice, or event. A life each day of train-ing, preparing. Spiritual Disciplines, Soul training. This way of living is the abundant life promised in John 10:10. At the end of the sermon on the mount, Jesus says the wise man is the one who puts these things into practice.
Spiritual Disciplines are not to earn favor, but to begin the abundant life now. In this journey, we will still face challenges, but with time, and the Holy Spirit, we can respond differ-ently. We can have new eyes to see things from a new perspective, we have fellow followers of the way to comfort and encourage. Disciples to model and learn from their victories and mistakes. We have ears to hear differently. Hearts to love differently.
My encouragement and challenge are to approach the journey with the confidence and comfort that Spiritual disciplines will yield fruit now and when we least expect.
- Grant
When the power fails: the need for spiritual disciplinesby Grant Fowler
June Events Calendar
● 7th : Widows and Widowers: Dixie Stampede, Branson. (Leaving @ 1:15pm)● 7th : Teens: School’s Out Trip. (Leaving @9am)● 16th: Teens: Six Flags St. Louis Trip. (Returning the 18th)
WEDNESDAY NIGHT SCHEDULE!5:30-6:30: Fellowship Meal (Wild’s Fellowship Hall)
6:30-6:45: Together Worship (Wild’s Fellowship Hall) 6:45-7:30: Class (Listed Below) 6:30-8:00: JourneyLand in Session
In the Garden w/ Andy & Megan BrazleF/X Prep w/ Shane Sturdivant
Scripture & The Authority of God w/ Paul Woodhouse (Wild’s Fellowship Hall)
