In my last message wrote about The Alderson Fence project…

To recap, Erin Aderson’s (Erin was formerly on staff at FCC in FirstKids) husband serves with the Army National Guard (18 yrs.) and is deployed to the middle-east.

Erin has been holding down the fort, so-to-speak, since last September, at their home in Warrensburg, caring for their four children and keeping things going. Their long (over 350 ft) privacy fence is in disrepair and literally falling down in places, at times, due to weather.

Sgt. Brandon is currently planning on spending the ONE week he has free when he returns at the the end of July before returning to his “regular” job to work on fixing the fence.

He shouldn’t have to do that...   he should be able to focus on spending that time with his family, which he has been separated from for months, while serving our country, and not worrying about this fence.

So we’re going to do it for him (them).

On July 21, we will go out to Warrensburg, disassemble the fence, and replace about 50 fence posts, meaning dig 50 fence post holes three feet deep, and re-assemble the entire thing.

He shouldn’t have to do that

I hope you can be there to help!

For the couple of weeks preceding the 21st, and we will have a sign-up table in the lobby. Please stop by and sign-up to help this deserving young family  – and this man who stepped up to help protect our freedoms – or just respond directly to me and let me know you can help.

Blessings…

Care Ministries Pastor

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Hello, awesome Ten+Men men!

We are blessed to live in the greatest country on earth, the United States of America. Many of you, like myself have served to help protect the freedoms that we have as Americans… including the freedom to openly and freely worship our Lord and Savior – Jesus Christ; the rest of you appreciate and support others who have served in our military.

I need to tell you about a BIG project coming up in July.

“What does the military have to do with this?”, you might ask.

Well, some of you know Erin Alderson, who was an part-time employee of FCC in FirstKids, that is until last September. That is when her husband, Sgt. Brandon Alderson, who is currently serving in the Illinois Army National Guard, was deployed to Herethe middle-east.

Brandon has served now for 18 years and this is his second deployment (serving also in Operation Iraq Freedom; aka, Iraq 1). Please understand that Erin has also been serving during this time, as spouses of those deployed do, staying at home with their four young children (which is why she had to stop working at FCC).

Here’s the deal…

Prior to deployment, a privacy fence was built around their yard to help protect the family while Brandon was away. Unfortunately (I’ll spare the details here for now), sections of the fence have been repeatedly blown in recent months due to extreme weather.

You can see in the picture below that is currently being held up with temporary braces on the back side.

But even this temporary bracing did not hold and the section in this pic was blown down again by a storm last Friday evening (there are now some garbage cans on the front side to help support it!!).

Sgt. Alderson is returning home at the end of July and will return to his “regular” job about a week or so later. He is planning on taking this precious time to ‘fix’ the fence.

Brandon should NOT have to take this short amount of time
to do major repairs to their fence!

Rather, he should be able to use this valuable time to
reconnect with his wife and children,
and get some well deserved rest
(before having to return to work).

Here’s where you come in, FCC men… we are going to do the job for them.

On Saturday, July 21st, we are going to disassemble this quite long entire fence, dig about 50 three foot deep post holes, set new 4×4 posts in concrete, and re-assemble the fence. This is a huge project that is normally well beyond the scope of Ten+Men projects, but we are making an exception in this case to help a well deserving FCC family out. As you can tell from what I have described, this is a big project that will require you all to help.

We are asking – even if you are not currently serving in Ten+Men – please plan on coming and helping out… even if it’s only for a few hours (this is an all day project for sure).

Please help us help this awesome FCC family and in doing so, say “thank you” to Sgt. Alderson for serving this great country of ours.

Reserve the date now:  Saturday, July 21st

Please RSVP to me, Pastor Tim, as soon as possible, if you can help be the tangible touch of Jesus Christ to this awesome family.

BTW… if you’re reading this and happen to be friends with Brandon, he is not  aware we are doing this for him – it will be a surprise. So, mum’s the word.

I look forward to serving beside each and every one of you on this great project!

In Christ…

Care Ministries Pastor
Ten+Men Coordinator

Crew Chief – A-10A Thunderbolt II (aka, Warthog)
354th Tactical Fighter Wing / 356 Tactical Fighter Squadron
Myrtle Beach A.F.B.
1978-1982

If you’re reading this, you likely saw my previous post(s) concerning the 2016 FCC Men’s Fall Cookout…. in which I said it started at 5pm…. well… it meal actually begins at 4:30 (please don’t come late, if you can make – we hope you can!!!!)

In my last post I encouraged you to attend the FCC Men’s Fall Cookout this coming weekend – Sunday at 5:00pm.

One thing I didn’t mention is … if you haven’t already signed-up (i.e., let us know you’re coming), please drop Pastor Jonathan a note (jgrunden@firstdecatur.org) or call the church (217.875.3350) and let him know, so that we can plan appropriately!

Thanks, guys – look forward to seeing you there!

 

The trees will be turning colors and dropping their leaves soon. Football weather is already upon us. That means a lot of things, but included in that – it means it’s time for the FCC Men’s Ministry Fall Cookout!

Ten+Men is an important part of the the FCC Men’s Ministry, and you all have done a great job of reaching out into the community and being the Tangible touch of Jesus Christ to many people this past summer, working on Ten+Men projects. We’ve (you have) completed about 20 or so projects this year. Great job, men!

We still have a thing or two going on that could perhaps use some extra help. So, if you’re reading this and haven’t had the opportunity or haven’t been able to jump in on some of these projects, let us know how you can help and we’ll get you hooked up. You don’t necessarily have to have special skills – other than showing up. We’ll take care of the rest.

In any case, we’d still love to have you connected to Ten+Men and the FCC Men overall.

So… please plan on coming to the Men’s Ministry Fall Cookout this coming Sunday, Oct 9, starting at 5pm. Come on out and hang out with the guys – and bring a friend along who may want to get involved as well.

 

Gentlemen…

Scripture tells us to “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” (Gal 6:2). This command keyholes very nicely with the ‘second greatest commandment’ given by Jesus, which is to “Love your neighbor as yourself.” We sometimes mistake the word “neighbor” in that verse as the person(s) who live next door (or in our neighborhood). However, the Greek word plésion used for “neighbor” here is more generic in the context it is used in Mark 12:31, and this verse should really be read (in English) as “love other people as you love yourselves.”

While Ten+Men is connected to FCC’s TEN initiative, it’s this reason – along with other commandments in Scripture that point to helping the elderly, widows, those in need, etc. – that underscore the purpose of Ten+Men.

But those in need are sometimes hesitant to reach out and ask for help. Perhaps it’s due to pride or even just an ignorance that help is available. In any case, we desire to be the tangible touch of Jesus Christ to those in need of Ten+Men help.

If you know of a senior, widow, single parent, or other person with a unique situation where Ten+Men can help, please refer them to Ten+Men. You may even fill out a Request on their behalf (though you should consult with them before doing so). Remember, also, that they do not need to be directly connected to First Christian Church. So long as it’s a project that a T+M team can knock out in 3-4 (or so) hours (if in doubt ask myself, Brad Bjerke, or Mark Kuhn) – we’re here to help those in need and to Love our neighbor as ourselves.

In Christ….

Pastor Tim

 

Well… I’m obviously calendar challenged!

This Saturday is actually MARCH   12th…..

Sorry for the confusion (on my part).  

Pastor Tim

Many of you know our Lead Pastor’s wife, Leslie Kent. Ms. Leslie is an awesome individual, and one of her favorite ‘exclamations’ is “Yippy skippy to the Lord!”  I say, amen to that as far as our weather is concerned!

With the weather flipping over to more favorable temps for working around a house (and outside in particular), we are kicking off the 2016 Ten+Men season with a breakfast – this coming Saturday, March 8 – at 8:00am.

We would love for as many of you Ten+Men men to come as possible. It would be a HUGE help to the FCC Kitchen Team if we could give them a reasonably accurate count in order to ensure the proper amount of food is prepared.

If can come (and we sincerely hope you can) please RSVP to men@firstdecatur.org by the end of the day Wednesday (tomorrow) to let us know to expect you (and have food for you!!!). It’s going to be a great breakfast and an awesome time together!

Thanks, in advance, for responding.

If you haven’t already picked up your Ten+Men t-shirt we’ll have one ready for you at the breakfast.

Brad, Mark, and I look forward to seeing you and launching the 2016 Ten+Men season together!!

In Christ…

 

 

Care Ministries Pastor

 

Greetings, Men!

I can hardly contain myself thinking about Spring being just around the corner. That also means we can expect Ten+Men Project Requests to crank back up full-steam, probably beginning in March.

Reaching In and Reaching Out…

As you know, Ten+Men have helped many people connected to First Christian Church. We have also done a number of projects for people in the community not directly connected to FCC.

Some of you have expressed a desire for Ten+Men to help people in Greater-Decatur community more than we have in the past – for Ten+Men to have more of an impact outside the four walls of the church. Let me say that you are right to desire this – particularly since the word “Ten” in this ministry’s name comes from FCC’s greater ‘TEN’ initiative.

So, while it’s important to serve those already connected to FCC (those on the inside), it’s also important to reach outside the four walls of the building as well.

This past year, most of those ‘outside’ projects were focused on The Block (FCC’s Adopt-A-Bock neighborhood). However, I anticipate that this year we will see a significant upturn in projects from the larger Decatur community.

Allow me to explain…

We Made the List?…

Pastor Wayne recently spoke about FCC expanding our Chaplaincy program beyond DMH to also cover Crossings Healthcare (formerly called the CHIC clinic). Crossings provides healthcare services to Decatur’s underserved. He also mentioned that Crossings expects to serve over 30,000 people this year. Crossings has a list of various other services or ministries around town that they will sometimes refer their patients to.

I learned just this week that one of the items on that list is Ten+Men. I don’t know how we made that list – but, fair enough! This is our chance to reach out and be a blessing to those people in need!

An Important Note…

As a Ten+Men man, this has an important affect on you. While these things are already important, the following will be even more important:

• Promptly make that initial contact with the “client” when you’re assigned a new project
• Respond back to us (i.e., Mark Kuhn) if, for some reason, you (your team) cannot take on a project
• Quickly contact your team on when you can get together to do the work (the sooner the better)
• Get the work done in a timely manner
• Report back that the work has been completed

All (or at least most) of these things have one thing in common – communications! Effective communications keep the Ten+Men ministry that you are a vital part of running smoothly.

The Main Thing…

To use a phrase that Pastor Wayne used this past weekend, it’s important in the middle of all of this that we “keep the main thing the main thing.” For Ten+Men the “main thing” is serving others through the skills and talents that God has blessed us with, and /or simply being willing to simply show up a pair of hands and feet and help.

Blessings…

Care Ministries Pastor

 

Gentlemen,

I want begin by wishing you “Happy Winter!” We’ve absolutely been spoiled by the awesome, unusually warm January (and December), but we knew it would catch up to us eventually. So, here it is

As you may know, winter is a slow time for Ten+Men. However, that doesn’t mean that a project or two won’t pop up somewhere along the way, especially if it’s an indoors project.  Please be prepared to jump on it if one comes your way.

Since this is the start of a brand new year, it’s a good time to reflect on our purpose.

The second chapter of the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesian church reminds us that we are God’s “handiwork,” as it is put, and God intends for us to do good works. There are other places in Scripture that speak to this issue – but let’s stick to this one for now.

It’s worth mentioning that the “For” that this verse begins with points back to the previous verse that says we are saved by God’s grace, through faith in Jesus Christ. In other words, while God intends for us to do good works, we are not save by our works. What this really means is that God intends for us to do ‘good works’ because we are saved.

For those of us engaged in the Ten+Men ministry, those ‘good works’ take the form of each of us stepping up to help the elderly, widows, single parents, and others in need of our help (as we are called to do in several other places in Scripture), do what they are not able do for themselves. What’s really important here – the take away, if you will – is that we are a group of men willing to help those in need; and in doing so, we are fulfilling God’s plan for us not only to do work, but to do good works.

So, please continue to enjoy the winter months and reflect on how you might respond when a T+M project comes your way to walk in (which could be sooner rather than later!).

Blessings…

Care Ministries Pastor