I’m praying for you today. Our Rise Up series ended with a sobering look at the way our common humanity tempts us to move out of God’s plan even though we know following His ways are in our best interest. I was sobered as I listened to Pastor John describe the way God’s people so quickly turned away from the commitments they had made to God. I read that, and my first thought was, "How could they do that?” My second thought was, “I’m just like them.”

Can you relate? I find that I am “prone to wander” as the old song goes and walk outside of God’s perfect will. God calls us to a way of living that is in alignment with who He is in holiness and character, and when we don’t, there will be consequences that we have to live with. The biggest is separation from Him. This is why the week on confession was so key to our spiritual health. We stumble. We even fall, but God is there to give us His mercy and grace each time we ask because He loves us.

I pray that we will allow our lessons from Nehemiah to influence our hearts and behavior in the coming months because I really do believe that within them is the spark of the revival we all want in our souls, families, community, nation, and world.

Let’s celebrate the good news that Nevada County has moved into level Orange concerning COVID-19 restrictions. Here’s what that seems to mean for us. We now can have 200 people per service here at TCC. That opens a lot of seats for you to come as we double our current adult attendance. If you’ve been waiting to come, let me encourage you that if you aren’t in the category of being vulnerable, at-risk, or sick, that we will have space for you. Over and over I keep hearing people say how meaningful it is to be together again. That’s why we hung banners over the fireplace that says, “We’re Better Together.”

We plan to add live music back in as soon as possible, but until we do, our Worship Arts Team will keep recording quality and inspiring song sets each week that will allow us to engage in worship together. We will still have the outdoor venue available for those who want to have more space and freedom.

We’ve already added an opportunity for families with children. It’s exciting to begin dreaming again about how we can offer even more ways for our families to connect as time goes on. Let me encourage our young families that we have space for you and to keep checking the website for new activities like a Family Film Night on the lawn just for you. Our Student Ministry Team has already moved to a format on Wednesdays at 6:30pm at the church that will allow more of our students to engage. They officially moved indoors this week with Junior High on one end of the building and High School on the other. 

Let me ask you to help us by respecting the needs of others during this time. We’re still going to be the best neighbors we can to each other and to those in our community. New people are coming each week, and we want to be at our best so that they see the love of Jesus in our actions and attitudes. Our goal is to still be a safe place for people to check out the claims of Jesus Christ and choose to follow Him with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength. Folks, people still need HOPE and that comes from knowing God and walking with Jesus, so let’s keep inviting our friends to a place where hope is found – where people can come meet Jesus.

I’m extremely pumped about our new look for Fall Family Festival for this COVID-19 year. You can look at our website and see the plan John Fairchild and Mare Dibert put together. I love the vision and dream behind our Drive-Thru Fall Family Festival experience this year. We’ve served our community 15 years now by offering a safe, fun, candy-filled experience for families each October 31, and even with the COVID-19 restrictions in place, we believe we can offer a fun and safe time this year as well. There are three things we need that will be essential to pulling this off: candy, volunteers, and invites. You can drop your candy off at the church or order from your favorite online retailer and have it shipped directly to TCC. You can sign up to serve online or at church. You can invite your friends using our website link.

I hope you’re getting excited about our Uncommon Sense series that we begin Sunday. We all know that if people just used common sense that our world would be a better place, right? Right! Well, not so quick. The idea behind common sense is that it’s a way of viewing life or making decisions based upon maturity or knowledge attained through experience. It’s the thing everyone gets from life, correct? Well, not so fast. If we all gain common sense by just living life, then why does it seem to be in such short supply?

One reason common sense is in such short supply is that the phrase itself is subjective. What common sense is to me may not be what it is to you and so on. When you add all the nuances and experiences we have in life over time, you get a whole catalog of what it is – and every single one of us strongly believes our view is the correct one. This is why it’s so important for us to get our wisdom from a common source as we live in community with others. That’s where this series comes in. We’re going to walk through the Old Testament book of Proverbs together as we learn to Walk the Way of Wisdom.

You are going to be surprised and even amazed at the depth of understanding of the human condition we’re going to see in this series. You’re going to learn that Proverbs is more than just a collection of pithy statements designed to make life better. The book of Proverbs does contain the keys to the good life, but they are not promises of blessing as much as they are probabilities of blessing. I can’t wait to begin on Sunday because we all need some Uncommon Sense.

Saturday is our moment of prayer at the cross. We’ve been hearing from many people asking us to offer opportunities for prayer. God wants His people to pray, and so we’re going to gather on Saturday, September 26, 9:00-10:00am around the cross in front of our facility to pray together. I hope you’ll join with your church family as we gather to pray for our community, nation, and world.

The deadline to register to vote in California is October 19, 2020. I can’t emphasize strongly enough how important each vote is, and I want to encourage you to register if you aren’t. Here is the link to online registration, which is probably the safest way to register during COVID-19. If you would like to register using a paper voter registration application, you can pick one up at your county elections office, library, Department of Motor Vehicles offices, or U.S. Post Office. It is important that your voter registration application be filled out completely and be postmarked or hand delivered to your county elections office at least 15 days before the election.

During this time when it’s impossible for us all to be on campus together, please make sure to stay engaged online if you can’t be here with us either outside or inside. Our services will continue to be streamed live at 9:00 and 11:00am, or you can watch them on demand any time you want right 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, just go to the APP store and search for TCC GRASS VALLEY and download it today.

Our outdoor venue is for people who want to have more freedom in their experience. We have tents and fans outside. Each week we’ll continue to adapt and flex as we expand that opportunity at both 9:00 and 11:00am. The air quality has been too smoky the past two weekends, so we’ve moved the venue indoors. In case you’re wondering what the threshold is for safety at our outdoor venue, we’ve picked 201 (Purple) or higher as our safety threshold. You can check that online.

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