Richard Sims

The Big Move

Yes, it's been a while since I've blogged, but this one is worth the wait!

Just in case you haven't heard, Tapestry Church is making the big move!

One of our key environments at Tapestry is our Sunday worship gathering, and like a foyer in a home, it's a place where people can come, meet us, check things out, and hopefully find it enjoyable and helpful and want to come back.

In January 2009, God blessed us by allowing us to meet on Sunday nights at New Covenant Church. It's been a tremendous opportunity for ministry and we're grateful for it. But all along we've been praying this prayer together: "Father, please provide us with a Sunday morning location, one that can become an irresistible foyer environment, a place where unchurched people would love to attend."

So many of you have been faithful over the last seven months of meeting on Sunday nights, and you've been praying this prayer. We haven't been asking God for this because we prefer Sunday mornings or because we'd rather not sit in pews or for any other reason than this: we desire an environment that will help us reach the most people for Christ. Period.

And now, God has provided.

On Sunday, October 4, 2009, we'll begin having Sunday morning worship services at Gold's Gym in West End Commons, Cartersville!

God is so faithful!

More details to come in future posts, but for now, let's begin to pray that God will work through us in our new facility to lead people from all over this county into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ!

Ok, so how many of you guessed that we'd open our Prayer series with "Livin' On A Prayer"? Thanks to Jason Sartain and the band for opening us up with that song and for leading us in worship.

Prayer is so vital to the Christian life, yet many of us just don't pray enough. How about you? Do you have a strong prayer life? Or does your prayer life need a boost? Are you completely honest with God when you pray? Do you pray throughout your day? Do you pray about everything that's important to you?

Since we're talking about prayer, here's something important that we'd like to ask you to pray about. We're currently blessed to be meeting at New Covenant Church, a church who has opened her arms wide to us and to whom we're so grateful. We still view this location, however, as a temporary one, and we're praying and searching for property that will allow us to move back to a Sunday morning meeting time.

But not just any property. We want to create an irresistible foyer environment. So would you consider praying this prayer on a daily basis? "Heavenly Father, please provide us with a Sunday morning environment where we're comfortable inviting unchurched people to attend." 

If you'd be willing to pray that prayer with us, let me know by adding your comment to this post. I am pumped about what God has in store for us!

Why Is The Music So Loud?

I haven't been asked this question in a really, really long time, but just in case you're wondering why our music is a little loud, or just in case you invite someone to Tapestry and they ask you, you can give them a great answer.

First of all, keep in mind that our Sunday service is a foyer environment. That means that not only do we want to provide a place for believers to worship and learn, but we also want to provide an environment where someone can attend church for the first time and have such a great experience that they want to come back. Remember, we want to create a church that unchurched people would like to attend, so on Sundays our focus is on making outsiders feel welcome. You can read more about the foyer environment here.

With that as our basis, here are three reasons why our music can be a little loud...

1. We want to create an environment that is familiar to an outsider. When a person attends church for the first time, we want them to recognize the feel of the place. They may have never been to church, but they've been to a concert. And most of the concerts they've been to are even louder than Tapestry! So when they walk in and see drums and guitars, and when they feel the bass thump them in the chest, they immediately get a familiar, welcoming, and positive feeling about the place. A long time ago, after a rather loud service in another church, a woman came up to me and said, in a derogatory tone, "that sounded just like a nightclub!" I said, "Thanks! That's exactly what we were shooting for! Because night clubs are full of people, and our church isn't!" I know, kind of a smart answer, but you get the point. It's for the unchurched!

2. We want to make sure the average person (who is uncomfortable singing) can sing and still feel like no one can hear them. Let's face it, lots of people don't sing in church. Why? Because they don't sing well, and they know people around them can hear them. And usually the lights are up so high that they know everyone can turn and see who is singing so badly. When the music is loud, people tend to sing more and forget about the people around them, because they know no one can hear them. And with the lights low, no one can see them either. Louder music actually encourages people to sing.

3. We want to maintain a volume that makes the band comfortable. OK, this reason is not as important as the first two, but it's still important. We have some of the best worship leaders and musicians anywhere around here coming to Tapestry. We want them to play like they mean it, and that means letting them rock it. Because if the musicians are comfortable, then their music is going to be even higher in quality.

So there you go, three reasons why our music can be a little loud. Now if a friend comes to Tapestry with you and asks you about the volume, you can give them three good reasons. Special thanks to Ryan Fitzgerald for helping me with this a long time ago.

See you Sunday, loud and proud!

What Now?

Last Sunday was a huge day for Tapestry as we formed small groups for both adults and teenagers. That's huge because it means that we now have all 3 environments in place.

We now have the structure to truly lead people into a growing relationship with Christ. Because we think "steps" rather than "programs," we can invite people into the foyer, help them take the next step into the living room, and eventually step into the kitchen, where life change and spiritual growth happens best. (If you're new to TC, you're really not going to understand anything I just said unless you break down and click on that link above.)

So what now? There are still over 20,000 people within 5 miles of where we meet who do not know Christ. 20,000 people who are going through life without knowing their Heavenly Father. They work with you, go to school with you, work in the stores where you shop, live near you. So what now? Continue to invest in their lives and invite them to our gatherings at Tapestry.

You can start by inviting them this Sunday to part 1 of "Text." More on "Text" tomorrow, but your friend will learn more about the Bible than ever before during this series. Plus they'll have the chance to actually read their Bible and interact with others right here on this blog about what they read. You'll have the opportunity to do that too, but you'll just have to come Sunday night to see how it all works!

Invest...and invite!

Sunday Evening Start Time

There are some advantages to a 6:00 pm start time for our worship services at the New Covenant building, and we want to seize those!

One is that people seem to be more interested in hanging out after the service on a Sunday night. So from time to time we'll have some snacks and drinks afterward, just "hang time" to get to know each other a little better.

Another is that there are people who are active in their churches but who are also interested in Tapestry. Maybe they're already praying for us or supporting us. Or maybe they're just interested in watching Andy Stanley's messages. Whatever the reason, you can invite them to our 6pm services. Ask them to join us this Sunday (January 25), February 8 or February 15, just to name the next few dates of services.

God has led us to move our meeting times to Sunday nights for a while. Let's take advantage of it while we can!

It's Time to Party!

We have a great opportunity to hang out and get to know each other a little better at our Tapestry Christmas Party this Sunday night, December 14, 6:30 pm at Excel. I'm really, really looking forward to it! We'll have desserts, a nice little contest (you'll have to wait to find out what it is), and just time to talk to each other. No big agenda, just a good living room environment. (It'll be a lot more fun than the picture looks, and you won't have to wear a goofy hat).

Feel free to bring someone with you! Maybe you know someone who has been hesitant to come to church. Hey, you never know, they might prefer the party!

You can help us to plan for the party by doing us a huge favor...could you e-mail us at information@tapestrychurchonline.com no later than tomorrow, December 11, and let us know you're coming?  That would be great, but whether you let us know or it's a last minute thing, come join us. It's gonna be great!

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!

What's This About the Foyer?

Last week we looked at the three environments at Tapestry Church, including the foyer. In your house, the foyer is the welcome area for visitors and new friends. It's where you first meet. It's where you can help them want to come back. Not a whole lot of conversation takes place in the foyer, but it isn't designed for that.

At Tapestry Church, our foyer is the Sunday worship gathering. It's where we welcome visitors and new friends. It's where we first meet. It's where we can help people want to come back. Not a whole lot of conversation takes place here, but it isn't designed for that.  Of course we worship in the foyer, and we learn here, but everything we do in this service is looked at through the eyes of someone who is new, someone who has never been to church.

Here's the bottom line of why Tapestry Church exists...we want to create a church that unchurched people would like to attend. That's it, bottom line. There are people living and dying every day in this community who don't know their Savior. That should break our hearts! That should make our blood boil! That should fire us up to do something! That should fire us up to do something NOW!

Our foyer environment is designed so that unchurched people can attend, find it enjoyable, find it helpful, and want to come back. Simply put, Tapestry Church is here to introduce people to Jesus. And if we don't do that successfully, we are not successful as a church.

The question I am burdened with right now is not "Are we reaching some people?" The question that gnaws at me is, "Are we doing everything we can to create the best foyer environment possible to reach the most people possible for Christ?"

How would you answer that question?

 

InsideOut @ Tapestry

InsideOut comes to Tapestry this Sunday at 6pm, and as a pastor, I'm really excited! As the father of a 7th grader and a 9th grader, I'm really, really excited!  Josh has done a great job pulling this together. You can read more about the details here. There will be games, food, great teaching, and Moxie and the guys will be leading worship. Invite every middle and high school student you know. Call your friends who have children that age and make sure they know about it. It's gonna be great!

Summer Vacation is Over; UpStreet is Back!

Today each year is like the worst day for me. After spending the last 10 weeks with the kids at home, today they went back to school. It's so strange not seeing them for 7 hours. But they all have good teachers, and even Anslee is excited about high school. So...I'll get used to it again.

School starting back means something else, too: UpStreet will be back this Sunday! UpStreet is our environment for children in Kindergarten through 5th grade, and it takes place each week at 10:00am. This is where children learn from the Bible, they learn to worship through singing, and they build quality friendships with other kids and adult leaders. UpStreet has both a large group energetic worship experience and small group time. By the time a child transitions to the sixth grade, we want them to have made the following 3 decisions:

I need to make the WISE choice.
I can TRUST GOD no matter what.
I should treat OTHERS the way I want to be treated.

If you have a child UpStreet age, bring them this Sunday! And if you have any questions at all about UpStreet, please e-mail upstreet@tapestrychurchonline.com.