A church. F

ollowing Jesus.

A church.

Follow

ing Jesus.

•

•

•

•

•

•

David C. Price Lead Pastor

David Thornburg

Worship Pastor

Holly McAfee Assistant to Lead Pastor

Communications

Jamie Wilson Office Manager

Assistant to Elders & Worship Pastor

Stephen Bowers Elder of Discipleship

Matt Kirstein Elder of Administration

dprice@gatheringchattanooga.com

dthornburg@gatheringchattanooga.com

hmcafee@gatheringchattanooga.com

office@gatheringchattanooga.com

sbowers@gatheringchattanooga.com

mkirstein@gatheringchattanooga.com

Church Office HoursMonday - Thursday

9 am - 2 pm423-877-7922

After Hours Hotline

423-877-3160

Pastor’s Office 423-355-5466

Summer of Serviceand Sabbatical

Building Sonshine City

Meet the 2014YouthWorks Staff

Saturday, July 5th – Church Picnic wi th

parents vs. k ids k ickbal l @ 4pm

Thursday, July 17th – Widow’s Luncheon

Sunday, July 27th – Mission: Possible

Mission Offer ing

Thursday, July 31st – 2nd Annual Fam Jam

@ 5:30pm

Sunday, August 10th - Inst i tute Informat ional

Meet ing @ 12:30pm

W e e k l y E v e n t s

Sunday – The Gospel Project Bible Study @ 9:30am

Sunday – Worship wi th l ive streaming @ 10:45am

Sunday – YouthWorks Sunday evening dinner @

6pm (please rsvp with

the church of f ice)

Wednesdays - Pray in the Chapel @ 6:30pm

Wednesdays – Ten: 2 Youth @ 6:30pm

Wednesdays – Worship Out Loud @ 7pm

Thursdays – YouthWorks Community Cookout at

Chester Frost @ 6pm

(everyone invi ted)

J u l y E v e n t s

EVENTSAHEAD

Prayer RequestsDoris Smith

The Burch Family

Carol & Brian Erickson, Dave Erickson’s mom and dad

Derek and Cynthia Howard

Tony Warren

John and Judy Carpenter

Harold Newell

Betty Stacy

David and Diane Stacy

Schree Tramel

Mayzie Schneitman

Savannah Moore

Dede Brodeur

The Quarles Family and kids

Ed Castleberry

Hazel Blanton

Jo Thompson

Tyler Smith’s father

Faye Carpenter, John Carpenter’s sister-in-law

Rachel Conway

The Ogden Family

Hannah Green

Joey and Lauren Veloz

The Gathering foster families

Register now for Institute! Registration is now open for our fall Bible doctrine class. Institute will take disciples of Christ deeper and equip them to live out and communicate what they believe. Mark your calendars now for an informational meeting on Sunday, August 10th immediately following the service. Register online at GatheringChattanooga.com/institute or in the cafe.

Summer of service It’s easy to check out during the summer months when kids are at home and our minds are gearing up for vacations. Let’s take this summer and plug in to an area of service. We currently have openings with our greeter ministry, cleaning team, children’s ministry and the upcoming Fam Jam. Let’s make this a summer of service!

2015 Budget Proposals are due August 1st. All ministry leaders should submit those to the church office at office@gatheringchattanooga.com.

Women on Mission will not be meeting in July. However, Food for Families will be continuing through the summer, so bring your healthy, budget-friendly recipes and/or ingredients to be distributed to our foster families.

June’sTrivia winner is… Dennis Brodeur. Dennis won a $10 Starbucks gift card by correctly guessing the number of “GO’s” on the Mission Possible display. That was 46 “GO’s”! It pays to play Road Sign’s trivia.

ANNOUNCEMENTS•

•

•

•

•

Since being at The Gathering, The Gilliams have jumped right in serving and ministering to families. You may see Ian in a variety of places: the sound booth, rocking babies in the nursery, or teaching the youth. Ian is the brains behind the Ten:2 student ministry that has recently launched. We are so grateful to have The Gilliams here at The

Gathering!

Meet The Gilliam Family Ian and Heather Gilliam moved to Chattanooga two years ago from Cookeville, TN for Heather to start her pediatric residency at TC Thompson Children’s Hospital. They came to The Gathering after an invitation from Ian’s boss at the time, Steve Wilson. (Bonus points for Wilson) The Gilliams have been married for 5 years and nine months ago, welcomed Sullivan Knox (aka Sully).

A church. F

ollowing Jesus.

Nursery ScheduleSunday School each week: Felecia Johnson

July 6th - Brenda Edwards and Ian Gilliam, Felecia Johnson

July 13th - Fran and Joey Quarles, Felecia Johnson

July 20th - Mike and Bonnie Hutsell, Felecia Johnson

July 27th - Joey Veloz and Kristina Manley, Felecia Johnson

Greeter Schedule

July 6th – Derek Howard and Renita Brunker

July 13th – Steve Wilson and Robin Couldry

July 20th – Steve Wilson and Schree Tramel

July 27th – Betty Stacy and Brenda Edwards

Welcome New Members! Jared Most

Ashlee and Jonathan Sharp

Nikki and Justin Blanchard

Skip Lyons

Chelsea and Bob Burch

Chris Dover

Volunteer Schedules

Get ready to beat the heat this summer with the 2nd annual Fam Jam on Thursday, July 31st. YouthWorks will be grilling up the hamburgers and hotdogs with The Gathering bringing side dishes. Pastor David will be back from sabbatical with a presentation of the Gospel. This will be a special event indeed, so invite your family, friends and neighbors. Visit the Fam Jam booth in the cafe to volunteer.

A church. F

ollowing Jesus.

Hopefully, by now you have heard that I am away from the church for the month of July. First of all, I must say a huge “Thank you!” for giving me the freedom to take this time away to refresh and re-energize for the work that lay ahead of us. Secondly, I’d like to ask you to do a few things while I’m away that I believe will be invaluable to all of us: Pray for me. I realize that may sound self-serving to put myself at the top of the list, but I hope you understand that I have you in mind. The truth is, I want to be the best pastor I can be for you. I want to serve effectively and in a way that brings glory to our Savior. For me to do that in the years to come I really need your prayers. Obviously, I need them always, but I especially ask for you to pray for me while I’m away. Here’s how:

1. Pray that God will provide me with the times of refreshing I need. Honestly, I’ve been feeling a bit spiritually weary lately and I want the energy and burning desire to pore over the Word each week, anxious to provide you with the spiritual nourishment that you need. Sometimes, that’s hard to do week in and week out and so having four, consecutive weeks where I get a break is much-needed at this time. Pray that God will lead me and my family to places of refreshment where I can receive from others pouring into my spiritual well and that my private time with him will be rich. I’m be praying the same for you! 2. Pray for my family. To say the last seven years have been a challenging journey for my family would be an understatement. There have been many times where I have dealt with things I couldn’t share with my family (and still haven’t), but unfortunately, they have had to deal with it, because they’ve had to deal with me. There have been many times I have been called away from family time due to crises or late-night meetings or dealt with the stresses of member’s personal pains and problems and my children have re ceived the short end of the deal, sensing my own stress or frustrations along with noticeable absences because of “church”. Please pray that I can have some quality (and quantity!) time to reconnect with my family; where I can focus on being pastor to them without being shared with others. Please don’t get me wrong, my whole family loves this church dearly, but I’ve not always done the best job making them my top priority or making it clear that Dad’s schedule does not define what church is. I want to change that! 3. There are several things I am trying to accomplish during my time away that I haven’t done a good job prioritizing during my regular work-week. Several years ago, God put on my heart a desire to minister to people going through different wilderness experiences in their lives and has used my experiences to encourage others. I have always wanted to put all of that down in written form to provide for those who need encouragement. I hope to be able to focus on that during this month away and move myself further down the road of seeing that dream become reality. Please pray that I can focus on this project, manage my time well, and have the wisdom to write effectively and clearly.

We will teach lessons to accommodate a variety of learning styles. We learn in different ways so it’s no surprise we worship in different ways. This model allows us to teach using art, drama, songs, games, cooking, hands on projects, and countless other activities. Our class rooms will reflect a specific workshop environment. We will kick off with four workshops – Art, Active, Creative, and Performance. Your children will rotate to visit two workshops within a Sunday morning, ultimately, visiting a workshop at least twice during a lesson. During worship service, children will gather for a large group setting. We will have worship time along with an interactive, fun lesson time. Here children will encounter Biblical characters, re-occurring SONshine City characters, interactive lessons, and so much more! There will be two designated times your child’s class will spend quiet time with their shepherds. This time allows for prayer journaling, prayer requests, prayer time, and memory verse/lesson drills. THIRD-FIFTH GRADE PARENTS: In this model, we will be pulling your children out of the worship service. Have no fear, we will still have instructional, church etiquette time with your children. At least once a month, a workshop will be specially designed to allow your child to view an archived service. Why archived? Well, this will allow leaders to view the service and pull out major truths. We will also be able to “pause” the service to look up verses (Bible literacy!) as well as dig in on major truths, answer questions, etc. We will also focus on teaching keys aspects of the worship service (ie: tithing, communion, corporate prayer, baptism, child dedication, church leadership) A few suggestions: do not dress your child in their finest :) Our workshops guarantee Biblical truth, fun, and messiness! This summer, we will study the Parables of Jesus. We will focus on main truths to help us understand Jesus’ teachings. Here’s what your child will be learning in SonShine City.

JULY - Parable of the Mustard Seed - God can do great things through the least of us. - Parable of the House on a Rock - God’s Word is our foundation. - Parable of the Good Samaritan - We are to have a servant’s attitude to others. - Parable of the Unmerciful Servant - We show mercy because everyone makes mistakes.

A church. F

ollowing Jesus.

Pray for you. This is not only a sabbatical for me, but frankly, it’s a sabbatical for you. I’m with you always and, hopefully, you are fed effectively on a regular basis. However, there is great benefit in hearing from others, as well. I have lined up some great men of God who I think you are going to enjoy hearing. I’m excited to see what God is going to do through these men as they so graciously preach to you for the four weeks I’m gone. Also, pray for times of refreshing for our church. God is doing so much and we are seeing so much ministry development. Pray that we can effectively minister to and disciple all who are coming into our family. Also, pray that we will walk in unity together. Know this: GROWTH

ALWAYS BRINGS GROWING PAINS! Those growing pains can often be misinterpreted and we must be careful to be the kind of people who quickly give the benefit of the doubt, applying the grace of God to various circumstances that arise and are quick to forgive when wronged. The Enemy wants nothing more than to see us implode. Through the power and grace of Christ, filled with the Holy Spirit of God, we must never let that happen! Stay involved. Summer is notorious for people slacking off in their participation at church. Add to that the fact that “the cat’s away” and it could lead to everybody taking a sabbatical from the church. Please don’t do that. If you do, it will short-circuit what this time is designed to be. My hope and prayer is that each Sunday our crowds will be bigger than ever! I promise I won’t take offense at it. I am so confident that God is going to anoint the preaching that happens while I’m away that we are going to be a much better church when August arrives and we’re back together. So, please, support your leadership and our guest preachers by stepping up a bit, committing to participation, and helping us grow to the next level that God has for us. I don’t know all that God has in store for us this month while I’m away, but I’m excited. I can’t wait to see how God prepares me to be your pastor during the next stage of our life together and how he works in you to become even more committed to the mission we share. One thing I do know is that it’s time to turn a corner. The last seven years have included overseeing the end of a church that had a long run with all of the ups and downs associated with that and all the pain that comes with anything we have to say goodbye to and the birth of a new one, which, along with joy and excitement, also carries with it a great deal of energy-commitment and pain. Each of those things have occurred. Now it’s time to move full-force from the infancy of church life

into adolescence on our way to full maturity. In many ways, I must let go of who I was during the past two seasons and grow into the man God has called to lead into the next one. I’m excited to do it and to see all that God is going to do through this “church following Jesus” called The Gathering! By God’s grace, I’ll see you at FamJam on the 31st! I can’t wait to see you so please be there!

Our Sunday schedule will run from 9:30AM-12:15PM. We will no longer break between Bible study and worship service. We will begin check in at 9:25 – please no early arrivals (with the exception of worship team children and children’s ministry volunteer children, of course!). While it is our desire for all families to attend Sunday School, we understand that may not be possible. If you arrive for worship service, please check in your children prior to worship service. Upon check in, please sign in your children. Your child will receive their personalized lanyard/badge and you will receive your parent badge. We kindly ask that you allow our floaters/shepherds to assist your children to their designated workshops/nursery. We hope this will alleviate some of the congestion in the hall as well as provide additional security. At checkout (after worship service), please sign out your children. A floater/shepherd will bring your children to meet you at the Welcome Center. All lanyards/badges will be matched and collected at that time. Children ranging from PreK age to 5th grade will be included in our Sunday schedule. PLEASE NOTE: any child turning four in the upcoming school year will be “moved up” from nursery. If you are unsure if this includes your child, just ask! Traditional curriculum covers a lesson a week with great speed. In this model, we will slow down to allow us to dig into the lesson. We will focus on major Bible stories and characters for 4-6 weeks. For example, we may spend a month learning about Esther. We will break down her life over several weeks, focusing on who she was, her role in God’s Plan, how her courage changed the course of the world, how her obedience/courage is relevant to us, etc. While we will not always touch on minor stories, we will learn major events in great depth.

A church. F

ollowing Jesus.

YouthWorks is in the house, moving and shaking this summer! We are so glad to have Sam, Helen, Nathan, and Tonia leading this summer’s YouthWorks at The Gathering. Be sure to mark your calendars for the Thursday evening Community Cookout at 6pm at Chester Frost Park. Free food, fellowship, and outreach to our community will be going on all summer at the Chester Frost beach pavilion. Everyone is invited to attend.

We also are looking for families or individuals to join YouthWorks for their Sunday evening dinner @ 6pm. Different youth groups arrive every Sunday. This is a great time to welcome the new youth group to Chattanooga on behalf of The Gathering. Plus, YouthWorks provides the food. Please call or email the church office to RSVP.

MEET THE 2014 YOUTHWORKS STAFF!

Sam

I graduated from Liberty University in December 2013 with a degree in Biblical Studies. I started seminary at Liberty this spring and plan to finish my Masters in Christian Ministries next spring. I grew up in Michigan and have been blessed with the opportunity to travel to India on two different mission trips. I would like to serve overseas in India long term after I finish seminary. This summer I’m serving as the Site Director for Chattanooga. I’ll be overseeing site operations and staff as well as working closely with adult leaders and contacts in the community to make sure the trips are meaningful for the youth and the people they are serving.

Nathan

I have just completed my freshman year at Northern Michigan University where I am pursuing a degree in Biology. I have aspirations of attending Medical School after my graduation and possibly entering the field of medical missions. This will be my first summer serving as a part of YouthWorks’ staff. As your program coordinator I will be facilitating morning devotions, evening activities and evening club. I am very grateful for the opportunity to work with your youth this summer and make meaningful connections in the name of Christ.

Tonia

I will be a 5th year Senior at The College of Saint Scholastica in Duluth MN. I am studying Educational Studies and want to teach in a Juvenile Center. The is my Third summer as a Youthworks Staff member, I have been a Service Coordinator in Daytona and St. Louis. As your Kids Club coordinator I will facilitate the Kids Club curriculum and help the youth run programming. I am super excited to serve alongside y’all and watch the youth form positive relationships with the kids at the different rec centers.

Helen

My hometown is a small and beautiful city named South Pasadena, in the Los Angeles County of Southern California. It will be my third year as an English Education major at Long Beach State University. I am involved in InterVarsity Christian Fellowship on my campus and am excited to see how God’s kingdom will expand there. This is my first year with YouthWorks and I will be the Chattanooga Service Coordinator. And I am excited be coordinating service opportunities for participants that will come to serve this wonderful community.

Ten: 2 students hanging out with YouthWorks after Worship Out Loud

A church. F

ollowing Jesus.