A Culture of Caring

There is a real comfort and stability that comes from being like-minded. As more specific plans began to formulate for the church we talked about the usual things. Where would we meet? What would the format of worship look like? What will we do about space for Bible classes?

Those were all important logistical questions, but there was a much deeper conversation that took place. There seemed to be a universal interest in building the right kind of culture within the congregation. In the last two years we have searched for words that better describe what we mean, but I keep coming back to the idea of "a culture of caring." We all knew, almost instinctively that to reach the young families in the Spring Hill community it was vital that the congregation be a place of love and acceptance. A place where people could bear their souls and come for healing. That focus led us to embracing the "one another" passages of the New Testament as a foundation for building relationships within the congregation.

All of us who attended those initial meetings had a great respect and love for the word of God. As we began to review (much later) what had taken place at Spring Meadows, we realized that another of our foundational beliefs was a reverence, respect and adherence to God's Holy Word. I emphasize that only because there are some who feel that a compassionate, loving congregation must be making compromises somewhere. We simply don't buy into that philosophy. Quite the contrary! We believe that a deep and abiding respect for God's word demands a spirit of love, forbearance, forgiveness and restoration.

As a result of those important decisions, The Spring Meadows Church of Christ has been blessed to see a steady flow of restorations, recommitments, baptisms and participation. I need to say this in closing. All of these changed lives are not observed by members coming and sitting on the front row during the invitation. Many families have met privately with a staff member, the eldership, or another member of this congregation to let it be known they are ready to serve God and get to work.

A dear friend of mine uses a very simple, but powerful illustration on the importance of a good beginning. He relates it to buttoning your shirt. If you get the first button right, the rest will follow much more easily. Some of those early decisions to focus on being the people of God have created an environment where we can work on the other items in a spirit of unity and shared purpose.

My First Recollections

It was 12 years ago in April that I remember sitting around a table at Legends Grille being interviewed for an associate minister's position in Franklin, TN. David Langhans, Glenn McGehee and Mike Cornwell were all on the search committee and assigned the job of grilling me that day. :-)

As we discussed the available position, the needs of the young people and my background; I remember one of the men sharing their vision of starting a new congregation "down the road" one day. It registered in my head because I have always believed that it is the responsibility of the church to reproduce itself. That forward thinking caught my attention as much as anything else in our conversation that day.

I was blessed to get the position and over the years there were periodic discussions of a need for a congregation in Spring Hill, TN. I guess it was around 2003 - 2004 that those conversations started to take root. A few families began to meet to discuss the possibilities of starting a new work and in the fall of 2004 I started to participate in some of those discussions and help with some of the initial planning. There were a number of different families who participated in those conversations at different times and if I tried to name them all, I certainly would miss someone who made a significant contribution to the discussion.

By the Spring of 2005 a small group of Christians was mobilized to begin working on a plan, locating space and developing a philosophy of work for the new congregation (still nameless). The steps that would follow in the next 6 months were both exciting and taxing as this dream that started a decade earlier (longer than that really), was beginning to take shape.

Spring Meadows History

Welcome to the new blog for the Spring Meadows Church of Christ. The first year I did a pretty good job keeping up with the history of the Spring Meadows congregation, but not quite as well the second (I am counting on Dale to help me fill in the blanks). I thought that creating this blog would be a great way to save our history online and provide a place for people to go back through the archives and see how we have grown and the great things God has done at Spring Meadows.

I also plan to copy and past the postings (and pictures) into a word or publisher file so we can keep the history stored in another location. We might make it available digitally to new members, or if we are still producing books a decade from now, we might even consider putting some of this in print.

I hope you enjoy - I would love to get your input as we start on this journey.