Since the flood waters came on May 1 and 2 and swallowed up houses from Pennington Bend, Madison, Donelson, East Nashville, Bordeaux, Franklin, to Bellvue and many other places, members of the Greater Nashville Church have volunteered hundreds of hours to help our own members and others in the community. Houses have been cleared out. Furniture and carpet have been piled on the curb. Clothes have been washed. Food has been donated. Toys and children’s books have been given. Rebuilding has begun.

• “When this is over, I want to throw a barbecue for your church.”
• “I want to make a large donation to your congregation.”
• “We are definitely going to be visiting your church.”
• “Your people are willing to do the dirtiest and hardest work like crawling in the mud under the house to get out insulation. We thought we would have to pay for that.”
• “Besides the hard work, we are amazed at the attitudes people have. Even as we look at our mess, you almost make it enjoyable.”
• “If I were an employer, I would definitely hire these guys!”

Our Amazing Pacesetters

The Pacesetters Ministry in the Greater Nashville Church does  not just have a cool name. They have a name that really describes them. They are older members, but they don't use that for excuses. They are active in teaching, discipling, sharing their faith and serving others. Recently, they learned about a similar group in Bucharest, Romania.  To read a letter and see a photo they sent to the Romania disciples click here.  

One of the Pacesetters, Anne Neyland, shared her Journey of Faith with 70 women on one recent Saturday and then with 40 more women the following Saturday. To read more about Anne and to hear her message click here .

2009 has been a great year of spiritual growth and teaching for the Greater Nashville Church. We began this year's journey by sitting at the feet of Jesus and learning about the kingdom of God.  Then, we sat at the feet of Peter and learn about how different it is to live as a citizen of God's kingdom.

This year, we will help each other put these things into practice.  We have chosen Matthew 6:25-34 as our focus scripture for 2010.  From this scripture, we are pulling out three main themes.

1)    Faith.  We live in a society that frets and worries about many things.   Yet, Jesus tells us that we should not worry about our clothing, or food or shelter.  If we do, He says that we have "little faith".  We want this year to be a year that our faith grows more than ever before.  This year, let's learn to be content with what God has given us.  Let's use our faith as motivation to take challenging steps of spiritual growth as we never have before.

2)    Kingdom Priorities. Jesus tells us to seek the kingdom first.  There can only be one "first" in our lives. The center of our lives must be God's Kingdom.  All of our other endeavors must yield to it and revolve around it.  This year, let's decide to order our lives around the kingdom of God, rather than fitting the Kingdom into our already busy lives.

3)    Kingdom Righteousness.  Jesus also says to seek God's righteousness.  This not only refers to the righteousness that is credited to us by God's grace, but also the righteous lives we live in response to that grace.  The letters of Paul and others continually call the disciples to leave their former ways of life and pursue righteous living.  This year, let us throw off the sins that continually entangle us and live righteous lives.  Let us also seek righteous relationships.

These three themes will be woven though all our teaching and preaching during 2010.  If we focus on them and apply them to our lives, there is no limit to how God will bless us as individuals and as a church.

To God be the glory.