Richard Sims

Thank You!

Here's a great big THANK YOU to all who helped us provide Thanksgiving meals for 24 families!

Andi Lannom - thanks for helping us get organized, coming up with the grocery list, and providing the bags and examples!

Thanks to ALL of you TCers and friends of Tapestry who bought the food to fill the bags! You were awesome!

Special thanks to the Cranes, Halls, Putmans, Temples and Watsons who spent a lot of time yesterday delivering the bags of food and turkeys to the families! These families were located from below Emerson and north to Rydal, west to Floyd County and east to the Cherokee County line. You were amazing to get the food in their hands no matter where they were!

24 families will now have a great Thanksgiving meal, all because of your love and sacrifice. Even more than that, they've been shown the love of Christ.

Wow. Again, THANK YOU!

Time to Show We Care

Some estimates show that nearly 5000 people in the Atlanta area have lost all of their possessions because of the recent flooding. Most of Bartow County escaped any problems, but our neighbors around us were not so fortunate.

It's time for the church to be the church and stand up and show we care. Please visit www.HopeATL.com and show the love of Christ to those who are hurting.

There are a number of ways you can help:

• Volunteer to help with cleanup, moving assistance, and with collecting, organizing and distributing donations.

• Donate care packages: clothes, diapers, socks, underwear, toiletries, and more.

• Send Cash & Gift Cards from places like Wal-Mart, Target, Home Depot, etc. Mail them to Courageous Church, 1330 West Peachtree Street, Suite 560, Atlanta, GA 30309

Visit www.HopeATL.com for more information about how you can make a difference in someone's life.

Tea Parties and Tithes

I didn't get to attend a "tea party" yesterday, but I certainly was there in spirit. I don't want to get too political here, but I have always been in favor of smaller government and a balanced budget, regardless of which political party is in charge. I am totally against high taxes, big government spending, and a "redistribution of wealth" policy.

But here's my thought: as Christians, we are to take care of the poor. You can't seriously read the Bible and not come away with the understanding that God cares for those in need and expects his followers to help. I believe that God's plan is for the church to lead the way in serving the needy, and his desire is for believers to give 10% of their income so that the church can use a portion of that to efficiently take care of the poor.

But most Christians don't come close to a tithe, and too many churches spend too much of their income on themselves. God is most definitely going to take care of the poor, so he allows the government to take 30% or more from us and inefficiently take care of the poor. 

So as we call for lower taxes and less government spending, let's make sure that as individuals we're giving God what belongs to him. And as churches, let's make sure we're giving a lot of that away.

Those are my thoughts. What are yours?

The Diaper Church?

Tapestry Church may become known as the "diaper church," and it's wonderful!

Now, it isn't wonderful that there is a need. That part is not good. But we've been contacted by one of our local school systems with a short-term need that was unexpected by them: diapers!

There are lots of local families with special needs children who are struggling right now, and the church has been called in to help. We've been asked to provide diapers for three different families. It seems to me that whenever Jesus went through a town, he tried to leave it a little better place. So shouldn't our community be a little better off with Tapestry here?

So here's the bottom line: bring the following sizes of diapers with you to any of our services or activities in the month of February (or, if you don't attend TC, send a donation marked "community ministry" and we'll use it strictly for serving the less fortunate in our community).

Every time a parent uses one of these diapers, they'll think not just about Tapestry, but the incredible Savior we serve.

Diaper sizes are:

• Diapers, size 6
• Depends underwear, size small
• Huggies Good Nite, size 60-125 pounds

It's Christmas @ Tapestry

It'll be Christmas at Tapestry this Sunday!

• I've been waiting a while for this Sunday's worship leader to be able to lead at Tapestry. You'll hear lots of Christmas music!
• If you took ornaments off the tree, bring the gifts back this Sunday, wrapped and with the ornament attached. We'll start a pile in the lobby. You're going to make some children very happy!
• I get to speak (but don't let that keep you from attending...)
• This is our last gathering of the year! In fact, we'll meet next on Sunday, January 11 at Excel. 2009 is going to be a tremendous year at Tapestry!

Going Glocal

Let me start by saying THANK YOU to all who gave to our Advent Conspiracy offering! What you gave will go to help local needs and will help provide clean drinking water to other parts of the world. Local + Global = Glocal. I'm so excited for your vision of serving others!

Plus, nearly every ornament was taken from our Christmas tree! Four deserving individuals gave us their wish lists for Christmas, and once again you put others first by sharing what you have with them. Bring the wrapped gifts this Sunday with the ornament attached (so we'll know what's inside) and we'll get the gifts to the right people. They'll know that their gifts came from this church, and our message will be that we love them and the Father loves them.

Great job, Tapestry!

Advent Conspiracy - Local and Global

This Sunday we get to place our focus on others, something we do regularly at Tapestry.

First, we'll receive a special offering at the end of the service as our part of the Advent Conspiracy. Every penny we receive will go to those in need, both locally and globally, as a portion will go to Living Waters International, a group that builds wells and provides clean drinking water to people around the world. Check out the Living Waters website!

And here's something else...we've been contacted by Hickory Log Vocational School and by one of our local school systems, and they've asked us to help provide Christmas gifts for some wonderful folks. Take a look at our Christmas tree in the lobby this Sunday and you'll find "ornaments" that have gifts written on them. Take an ornament, or two, or three, go buy those gifts, bring them back the following Sunday, and you'll help provide Christmas gifts for a total of 4 students. Cool, huh?

Attack the materialism of the season, join the conspiracy, and be a blessing to others!

Weekend Summary

What an incredible Thanksgiving weekend!

It all started with Thanksgiving Day, as my parents drove up from Warner Robins to spend some time up here. Kim cooked the best Thanksgiving meal ever, and I ate way too much! (I helped cook too; my side dish was the cranberry sauce). Michael Temple got to join us, so that made the day even better.

Then the Sims crew headed up to Excel about 1:15 am on Friday, and by 3:00 am we were serving free hot chocolate and coffee to folks waiting in line at Kohl's. By 5:00 am all of our volunteers were out serving. A great big THANK YOU to all who made our Black Friday service project a HUGE success!!

Which leads right into yesterday's gathering...

Danny Dukes led worship, and Danny always does a wonderful job. We are so fortunate to have him with us. He is a true friend of Tapestry Church.

Andy Stanley had some great things to say in part 2 of It's Personal.  He talked about Abraham's faith, and he talked about Jesus telling his disciples to have the faith and humility of a child. We should want to know God more than we want to know the answers to our questions.

Which leads us to our huge announcement...

After one year in our current facility, we asked ourselves the question, "Are we doing the best job we possibly can to reach the most people we possibly can for Christ?" Not "are we doing good?" or "are we reaching some people?," but are we doing the very best we can. And our answer was NO. We are not providing the best foyer environment we can to reach the most people we can.

So...and here's the big news...we have notified Excel that we will not renew our lease with the current building.

But where will we meet?  I DON'T KNOW!  And I LOVE it! Abraham didn't know either, but he obeyed. God is so honored when His people exercise faith. And if He gave us all the answers, we wouldn't need any faith! But HE knows, and when it's time, He'll tell us where.

In the meantime, we're busy looking for long-term space and we're looking for temporary space. Stay tuned to this blog and to your Tapestry e-mail (if you're not subscribed, go here and click on "Join Our Email List") and be here every Sunday through December 21 for possible updates!

See? I told you it was an incredible weekend!

Advent Conspiracy

Here's what Tapestry's focus will be this Christmas season...what will your focus be?
(If you can't see the video, click here)

Ike Update

First of all, this isn't a post about Tina Turner's ex-husband. I'm talking about the hurricane, and just to let you know, I finally had contact with my cousin Julia yesterday. I have two cousins in Houston, and everyone is fine. They still don't have power, and even my aunt and uncle up the road in Huntsville are without power. But they're fine, and that's the main thing.

This Sunday, Tapestry Church will collect a special offering which will go directly to hurricane relief. We're a church that will always put others first, and here's another opportunity to do that. And please keep all those effected by this and all the other storms this season in your prayers.