Exercising Confident Trust + Sunday Morning Resources

TCC • March 26, 2021

I’ve been reflecting a lot this week about where we find ourselves after one year of this COVID logjam. I’ve been excited to see how God has used this time in my life to form me to be more like Jesus. As I think back on this past year, I’ve had to pivot more times at work, at home, with family, and plans, than at any time in my life.

We’ve done all of this with limited information, changing narratives, political uncertainty, cultural tensions, economic insecurity, and relational tension. Wow, I am amazed at how God built such resilience and flexibility into us when He designed us as human beings. As much as I’ve leaned into Him during this past year, I have found myself more fatigued, anxious, guarded, insecure, and flummoxed than I can ever recall. It’s like a tsunami of waves coming one after another.

I’m super proud of our church and the way we’ve navigated these choppy waters during this past year. It’s stretched us, redirected us, and challenged us, and I’m glad God has been here with us the entire time. We have exercised confident trust (we used that phrase last Sunday to describe what it means to become more like Jesus) and faith as we’ve leaned hard into Him.

We continue to grow in our COVID awareness and how we observe the guidelines and restrictions. We will continue to observe safety precautions such as wearing masks, distancing socially, and disinfecting common areas.

Since we’ve been meeting again in person, our process has been to play music that was recorded during the week for that portion of our worship. We had been doing that during our online only phase. Beginning this Sunday, our music team will join us as we worship together. They will be socially distanced on stage, and over 20 feet away from any person not on the stage. Our room is large and extremely well ventilated with great air flow, and we feel this is a safe approach for us as we move into the summer months.

Folks, as we continue to take steps out of our COVID logjam, it’s imperative that we place all our hope in God and our mission to Love Everyone Always. We love people by giving them the freedom to be where they are – even if we may disagree – allowing God to be the ONE we follow. That means we give people the freedom (without judgment) to continue worshipping online or to begin gathering in person. I’m excited to be taking more steps to reopen our services and ministries and provide opportunities for people to hear about the love Jesus has for them.

Easter is just one week away! We’re going to have four identical services so you can invite your friends to attend in person with you or gather online with you. You will be able to make sure we can have plenty of space by choosing to attend at 6:00pm on Saturday or at the 8:00am service on Sunday. That will allow us to have plenty of room for everyone.

Our Children’s Ministry team has adapted and creatively changed the annual Easter Egg Hunt into an Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt. Families will go on an adventure by car to various locations around our community where they will snap a photo, collect candy, and meet some of our Ministry Partners. They will then race to the church and celebrate victory by having a picnic. You can bring your own lunch or buy a Domino’s cheese pizza for $5. Join us on the lawn for live music and games. Make sure to check out the website for all the details.

We’re also going to baptize at all the services for Easter. If you’ve never been baptized, please consider this opportunity. We’ll make sure to be COVID safe, and you’ll be part of making our services even more Spirit-filled. If you’re interested in going public for Jesus, please contact Mare. She’ll give you the scoop and get you ready.  You can attend the baptism class that will meet this Sunday at 9:00am.

We will wrap up our Journey with Jesus series on Sunday as we talk about the third aspect of the spiritual growth vision we’re adopting for TCC. In this series, we are laying out a paradigm of spiritual growth and personal transformation that is powerful for our church family. If you’ve missed the first two messages, you’ll want to watch them soon and be ready to engage with the rest of the series. The key idea is that we’re called to be Followers (Apprentices) of Jesus. Our quest is to carve out space to Be with Jesus so that we Become Like Jesus and then we naturally Do What Jesus Did.

Our message on Sunday is Do What Jesus Did. I am so excited to listen as Pastor Mark explains the pillars of this key component of our vision.

Here are the links you’ll need to be fully prepared for Sunday’s Service:

If you aren’t ready to attend a public gathering yet, let me encourage you to keep your Sunday rhythms by watching the service live at either 9:00 or 11:00am. I believe that will help you stay disciplined as we walk this road of COVID restrictions together and help our church family feel your nearness and encouragement as we continue to “gather” in His name.

You can watch the current service or an archived service on demand any time you want from our website or APP. Here’s an idea: When you’re watching online, please invite your friends to join you. If you haven’t downloaded the TCC APP, go to the APP store and search for TCC GRASS VALLEY and download it today. You can watch the service right from your device.

Joyfully living everyday life on mission in intimacy with Jesus and others,

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A Message to the Watchmen + Sunday Morning Resources

By TCC • October 23, 2026

Think about the people whose lives intersect with yours: your family, friends, neighbors, coworkers, even people you encounter in the ordinary rhythms of life. Some of them may be walking through difficult circumstances, wrestling with questions about faith, or quietly drifting away from God. What if God has placed you in their lives for a reason? What if you have a responsibility toward them that goes beyond simply being a good friend, neighbor, or coworker? This weekend, as we continue through Acts, we’ll listen in on Paul’s emotional farewell to some people he had poured years of his life into. His words are deeply personal, surprisingly challenging, and raise some important questions about the responsibility we have toward the people God has placed in our lives. I believe this is a message every follower of Jesus needs to hear, and I hope you’ll join us! Church Work Day | Saturday, 9:00am–noon Our Fall Family Festival is just around the corner, and we’re getting ready to welcome thousands of our neighbors! We could use your help sprucing up the church property this Saturday from 9:00am to noon. Bring a pair of work gloves and a willingness to pitch in. Whether you can help for an hour or the whole morning, we’d love to have you join us! Here are some helpful resources to get you ready for the weekend: Message Notes and Study Guide Weekly Spotify Playlist Children's Ministry Student Ministry See you Sunday,

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By TCC • October 16, 2026

We all want a little security in life. We work hard, save what we can, plan for the future, and do our best to protect the things that matter most to us. And there’s nothing wrong with any of that. But have you ever stopped to consider just how much of your peace depends on things going according to plan? It’s easy to say we trust God when life is comfortable. But what happens when something we depend on becomes uncertain, or when following Jesus threatens something we’ve worked hard to build? This Sunday, as we continue through Acts 19, we’ll encounter some people who were forced to wrestle with that very question. And I suspect their story will challenge us to examine our own hearts as well. Here are some helpful resources to get you ready for the weekend: Message Notes and Study Guide Weekly Spotify Playlist Children's Ministry Student Ministry See you Sunday,

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By TCC • October 9, 2026

Have you ever found yourself frustrated because, no matter how hard you try, you keep falling into the same old patterns? Maybe you’ve made promises to yourself, set new goals, or even asked God to help you change, only to find yourself right back where you started. What if the problem isn’t that you’re not trying hard enough? This weekend, as we continue our journey through Acts, we’ll discover something about the Christian life that’s easy to overlook, but makes all the difference. And if you’ve ever wondered why lasting change seems so difficult, I think you’ll find this passage particularly relevant. Here are some helpful resources to get you ready for the weekend: Message Notes and Study Guide Weekly Spotify Playlist Children's Ministry Student Ministry See you Sunday,

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By TCC • October 2, 2026

Paul always seems almost superhuman. He gets beaten, threatened, run out of town, and somehow just keeps going. But when he arrives in Corinth in Acts 18, we get a glimpse of something we don’t often associate with Paul: fear and discouragement. After everything he’s been through, it appears even Paul may be wondering how much more he has in him. Then Jesus meets him in the middle of that discouragement and gives him a promise that gives Paul the encouragement he needs to keep going. This weekend, we’ll look at what Jesus says to Paul in that moment, and why that same promise still matters when we’re tired, discouraged, or unsure we have much left in the tank. I hope you’ll join us Here are some helpful resources to get you ready for the weekend: Message Notes and Study Guide Weekly Spotify Playlist Children's Ministry Student Ministry See you Sunday,

Contempt or Compassion? + Sunday Morning Resources

By TCC • September 25, 2026

This weekend, as we continue our journey through Acts, Paul steps into a city filled with competing ideas, misplaced worship and people searching for something more. Sound familiar? What stands out isn’t just what Paul says, but how he responds to people whose beliefs deeply trouble him. He doesn’t mock them, avoid them, or write them off. He moves toward them with compassion, listens carefully, finds common ground, and points them toward Jesus. That raises a challenging question for us: When we see people looking for hope in all the wrong places, does our conviction move us toward them or tempt us to look down on them? Paul shows us how to hold firmly to truth without losing compassion for the people we’re trying to reach. I’m looking forward to unpacking that together this weekend. Drive-Thru Food Drive — Today, 8:00–10:30am Today we have a simple opportunity to help combat hunger right here in Nevada County. Bring non-perishable food to the church anytime between 8:00 and 10:30am for our Drive-Thru Food Drive. Find more information here . Missed One Church, One Mission? Last week, churches from across Nevada County gathered to worship, pray and consider what God can do when His Church serves together. If you weren’t able to join us, you can watch the gathering here . Here are some helpful resources to get you ready for the weekend: Message Notes and Study Guide Weekly Spotify Playlist Children's Ministry Student Ministry See you Sunday,

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By TCC • September 18, 2026

This weekend we’re continuing through Acts 16, where Paul, Silas and Timothy discover that following the Holy Spirit doesn’t always mean going where you planned to go. The Spirit speaks in different ways, and sometimes what He says isn’t what we expected or wanted to hear. So how do we learn to recognize His voice? How do we discern what He’s saying? And when He speaks, how do we respond in the way of Jesus rather than simply reacting out of our flesh? That’s where we’re headed this weekend. I hope you’ll join us! One Church, One Mission — Tonight at 6:30pm @ First Baptist Church, Grass Valley I hope you’ll join me and our brothers and sisters from across Nevada County tonight for One Church, One Mission . This will be an opportunity for us to dream about what God can do in and through His Church when we stop competing against one another and start uniting around our shared faith and calling. I’m excited to get to be a part of this, and I hope you’ll join us tonight at 6:30pm at First Baptist Church in Grass Valley . I’d love to see you there! Here are some helpful resources to get you ready for the weekend: Message Notes and Study Guide Weekly Spotify Playlist Children's Ministry Student Ministry See you Sunday,

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By TCC • September 11, 2026

Last week, we were reminded that Jesus is enough. You don’t have to earn God’s love, prove yourself worthy, or clean yourself up in order to belong. This truth brings incredible freedom. But freedom in Christ doesn’t mean we can simply do whatever we want. Jesus set us free so that we can follow Him, and sometimes following Him costs us things we value. Eventually, following Jesus will collide with something we don’t want to surrender. This weekend, as we continue through Acts, we’ll wrestle with a question every believer has to answer for themselves: How far am I willing to follow Jesus when obedience becomes costly? Here are some helpful resources to get you ready for the weekend: Message Notes and Study Guide Weekly Spotify Playlist Children's Ministry Student Ministry See you Sunday,

Is Jesus Really Enough? + Sunday Morning Resources

By TCC • September 4, 2026

Last Sunday, we gathered as a church family for our All-Church Picnic and had the privilege of celebrating 68 brothers and sisters as they went public with their faith through baptism! Sixty-eight stories. Sixty-eight eternities forever changed. Sixty-eight people declaring that they belong to Jesus. I’m still smiling thinking about it. And in a beautiful way, that celebration sets us up perfectly for where we’re headed this Sunday, where we’ll grapple with the question: Is Jesus really enough? Most of us know the right answer. Of course He is! But if we’re not careful, we can unintentionally add things to our faith that God never intended. The early church grappled with this exact question in Acts 15, and the answer they arrived at was wonderfully simple and incredibly freeing. Here are some helpful resources to get you ready for the weekend: Message Notes and Study Guide Weekly Spotify Playlist Children's Ministry Student Ministry See you Sunday,

Mixing Gods and Missing God + Sunday Morning Resources

By TCC • August 28, 2026

This Sunday, in Acts 14, we’ll meet a crowd that sees God do something incredible... and totally misunderstands what they’re seeing. But before we sit in judgment, the truth is we’re not that different. We all come to Jesus with ideas about what will make us happy, secure, and whole. The danger is that instead of allowing Jesus to challenge those beliefs, we simply try to fit Him inside them. But Jesus didn’t come to play a supporting role in the story we’re already writing. He came to be Lord of our lives. This Sunday, we’ll wrestle with a simple question: Am I allowing Jesus to be Lord of every part of my life? Also, remember that this Sunday afternoon is our annual All-Church Picnic & Baptisms ! Join us at Pioneer Park beginning at 4:00pm for food, games, and time together, followed by baptisms at 7:00pm . Our cooking team will be grilling up the main course free of charge. We just ask you to bring a side or dessert to share . It’s going to be a great Sunday together. See you there! Learn more and sign up. Here are some helpful resources to get you ready for the weekend: Message Notes and Study Guide Weekly Spotify Playlist Children's Ministry Student Ministry See you Sunday,