Three Timbers Vision Sunday - 3TC Podcast - 1/26/2025

Three Timbers' Vision Sunday celebrated the church's 10-year anniversary and highlighted its achievements and future plans. Key points included the success of the Good News Club, which grew from two to over 40 children, and the impact of the Trunk or Treat event, which served over 300 hot dogs. The worship team emphasized the importance of intentional worship and technology integration. Financial updates revealed a significant increase in donations and a commitment to a capital campaign. The church also announced plans to purchase a new building, which will enhance its outreach and community engagement. The theme for 2025 is "Recapturing Reverence," focusing on spiritual formation, prayer, and deeper doctrine.

Welcome to Three Timbers Church! We are so glad you found us online and encourage you to explore all there is to learn about our church located in beautiful Bennington, Nebraska. When you come to Three Timbers, you can come as you are to experience the love of Jesus through the people of God. ​

Whether young or old, single or married, new to church, or a lifelong attendee, there's a place for you here. We invite you to join us toward a meaningful relationship with Jesus Christ. Our goal is to share the passion, power, and presence of Jesus with others. We believe in supporting families through service, education, and loving one another as Jesus loves us, unconditionally.

Transcript

Stephanie Olson: 0:00

Welcome to the three timbers podcast. We hope this will encourage and uplift you today,

Unknown: 0:07

each week, we come together, not because we're perfect people, because we know we're not perfect people, because we know that we are all flawed and broken and we don't measure up. That's the bad news. The good news is, because of Jesus, we are forgiven. But part of that process of being forgiven is confessing that we are sinners, that we have not lived perfectly according to God's will, and so we take time, we're intentional, to come before God to tell them what he already knows that we are sinners, we confess our sins, and then we read joyfully the words of Scripture that tell us we are forgiven. So let us bow our heads and close our eyes and come and tell our father what he already knows you Father, as we come before you, we confess Lord that we have fallen short of your glory and Lord, we're so thankful for grace. We're so in desperate need of mercy. And so Father, we come not because we're good enough, but because of Your grace and Your mercy. It was embodied in Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for our sins. So Father, we don't come and think we're better than anyone. We come knowing Lord that we are only who we are because of you. And so Father, we are grateful. We confess our sins of omission and our sins of commission and Father, we pray that we would not carry around that guilt and shame, because, Lord, then we negate what you did on the cross. I pray, Lord, that we can leave it at the cross. And so now, Lord, we read the words that give us the hope to be able to do that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. Well, welcome to vision. Sunday. If you have never been to a vision Sunday, it is really a special time, because it's when we have the opportunity to share with everybody the vision that God has given His church for the upcoming year, and every year for 10 years, and we are celebrating 10 years, and we'll get into that momentarily. But every year, for 10 years, God has given us a different theme, something that God says, I want this to be the focus. The mission is always the same, connecting people to the transforming and redeeming love of Jesus that is who God has formed us to be 10 years ago. But each year there's a theme that God really wants us to focus on, and what we wanted to share, to begin this year is taking a look back at the faithfulness of God in 2024 God has been so faithful, so amazing in 2024 and we think it's important to stop and to reflect on what God did, not what we did, but what God did through us. And so I've got our terrific staff up here, and they're going to share with you what God has done through the ministry in 2024 and what God is calling this ministry to in 2025 so we're going to start with mister Garrett, who is going to share, and then we'll go on to Miss Stephanie and then mister John, Alright, awesome as Yeah, wow. Talk about some blessings in 2024 one of the biggest ones that we had this year, guys, was after six, almost seven years of praying to be able to get into the elementary, elementary school, we are now there every Tuesday afternoon after school for an hour and a half in a public school preaching the gospel to elementary schools. And I look around and I see these kids praying, and I see them up dancing and worshiping Jesus, and I'm like, we are in an elementary school right now, and it's just amazing. We started out with two kids our very first day. Now we have registered over 40 children for the good news club. God's working in such miraculous ways that I was talking, I was at a CEF conference this weekend. They had and I was talking to Brandon, who is chippy, who's one of our main contacts at CEF, and they are now going to start a another good news club at anchor point, and we're talking to the principal, and we'll be starting another good news club at Heritage elementary so continue please to pray that God keeps opening the school doors so we can be in all five elementary schools by next year. I need no pressure, though, right? So let's see, what else do we got on here? Oh, guys, our trunk or treat. I don't know how you guys, if you guys haven't heard the numbers on this at all, but what an amazing turnout we had. We served over 300 hot dogs just, so you know, just to put, like, a little number on it. But the most important thing is the intentionality that we use. Miss Lauren and I with the tickets, I had the opportunity to hand out over 200 full size candy bars which each one of those was a personal invitation for that child to come to our Wednesday night program. So we're being very intentional about it. I know that sometimes trunk or treat can be divisive, but in this case, we are making it all about God, so it's amazing. So we have that. And what else do we got on there? Oh, hey, how about this? Melissa Boyer, who I don't think is here today, Casey and Gina Lindsay, who else here do we have on the list? Oh, Drew Cooper, Kristen foster we all have. These guys have been stepping up more and more in children's ministry more. And it's just amazing to see people with their hearts do this for for Sunday afternoons with Casey and Gina. I mean, because of them, we have, we have a Boys and Girls Bible study now in the afternoons, and Interstate is sticking around for youth group, and it's amazing having them there with us. So I just if you guys got off, God is giving you the easy inkling to sit with a child to teach? You guys want to teach. It's amazing. I need preschool teachers, so I'm going to use this as a call too, because guys and I'll ask you face to face too. But we do need something to sit with our preschooler, so we continue to do that. So that's some of the things that God has provided for us. 2025 looking forward, you guys, I told you about the expansions. We are also looking to be at more kids activities, parents, if you have elementary, middle school, high schoolers, please. I miss Lauren and I know we would love to come support your children, but we don't know where they are. We can't show up, so we want to be there to support them. So just please let us know we love to come support your children and students. So that's on our hearts, big time. Also, strictly for elementary school, I am planning a day out for parents and kids so that will be coming up here in the next six months or so. I'll get you more information soon on that, too. Youth Ministries. Where should we start? Oh, how about this? We got started. US going to Colorado last year, where and guys, this is the importance of camp. I know I said it before, but we had two students give their lives to Jesus. That's amazing. That's all that's us being faithful and going, but that's God just working on them. It's amazing to see that with that as well, we have three youth also asked to be baptized while we were out there. So we will be in this coming year, 2025 we will be having a baptism class coming up. We will be having a confirmation class shouting in the fall. So we have those things coming up as well, too. Another big thing that we did this year is we started Bennington uniting. If you guys haven't heard of that, we went came together with campus life, Saint John's Church and Bennington city lights. We are all working together, joining our youth groups during the summer and doing extra planned activities outside of our smaller youth groups. And that's just being that's Kingdom work. That is the big city church coming together and doing Kingdom work for God. And I just love that we're able to do that. Another big thing that hey, middle school or high schoolers, getting your teams together. We had a huge second annual dodgeball tournament coming up at the middle school. We had almost 100 kids last year. We're expecting double that this year. We're putting a lot of a lot together for this. So get together, guys, it's going to be amazing. Yeah. So yeah. We talked about the Middle School, the Bible studies and guys. Big thing here too, with Bennington united, we're actually all getting together. We're talking with Tony Rainmaker, who is the resource officer here, and we are going to start with the bachelor, or the baccalaureate again this year. Baccalaureate has not been held at Bennington Elementary in years. And for those of you who don't know, that, is a service for the high school graduates before they go and graduate. So we're going to hold that here this year as well, too. So I think we got everything else. Yeah, and the biggest other thing after that, you got any middle school or high schoolers interested in going out to Colorado this summer? Let me know. In SAP, we have 15 spots. See, that doesn't have been that they have to be a member of three tempers church. Ask a friend. If you know somebody who has a child that is looking for something like that, they're more than welcome to come along with us. So we would love to double, triple our numbers every single year for camp tunes. That's so important. That's what i

Stephanie Olson: 9:56

Great. Fabulous. Well, how many of you grew up on sesame? Street, one of these things is not like the other. Okay, anyway, that's one of those things. So the worship team, I just want to say thank you to our amazing worship team, including the tech team and everything that they are doing. You know, one of our goals is really drawing people into worship, and that starts with the worship team being drawn into worship. And so we have been working on just what is worship? How do we worship God? Because it's not singing on Sunday mornings. Worship is a part of our life every single day, and that's what we're called to do. And so I think that's one of the things that we have really been doing, and really wanting you to come along on that journey with us. And as we worship intentionally, that you worship intentionally, and that that's what it's all about, that's our we're not performing. We're not up here just singing songs. We are really here just asking the Holy Spirit to reign on us, and that we are all participating in his in his glory. And so that's one of the things we've really been working on in 2024 technology has been something we've been working on in 2024 Oh, we love technology. And so as we grow in that area, that's an ever changing thing. But I think one of some of the things we've been doing is bringing new things into our worship, trying to figure out what works, what doesn't, and how can we really utilize technology to make a bigger impact in worship. And so that's one of the things we've been really working on. We've got a great tech and worship team. We kind of call them one. So when I say worship team, I'm including the tech team. But it has not been without challenges. And so I just thank everyone who has just done such an amazing job in 2024 and will continue in 2025 I think one of the things, and I kind of touched on this, but really building a cohesive team, one of the things I the way I look at our worship team is that we're a life group. We love each other, we we worship together, but we also do life together, and that is our goal in the worship team, and we really want that to extend. I think when it happens in our worship team, it really extends to our our family, our extended family here at three timbers. And so that's one of the things we've really worked on, doing devotions, having regular rehearsals, and it's amazing just what some of those little things can do to really build a strong team. And then finally, we had our first Christmas cantata, which was awesome. I Yeah, it was fun. It was hard work. Thank everybody who was a part of it and who participated on any way, shape or form. But I think it's just a great way to just honor God in song and things like that. We will not be having an Easter cantata. I will tell you that right now, but I think it's something that we can do other aspects of in our worship and how we honor God, and that was a lot of fun. So yes, and then so next, this year Olson, next year 2025, so we want to continue to deepen the worship experience, I think, really understanding what worship is. And a lot of I personally grew up in a pretty charismatic church, and my idea of worship was, if everybody was raising their hands, that is worship. And although that's an amazing thing, and I would challenge you to get out of your comfort zone. That's not what worship is. Worship can be done taking a walk. Worship can be done while we're cooking. Worship can be done while we're raising parent. We're raising parents. Well, that too, but also raising children. And I think that anybody who is a parent knows that having children has all increased our career life at any given time, right? So that is one of the things we want to do in 2025 just to go deeper with God in that worship experience and continue training. Um, we've got amazing volunteers, but within that. Um, we're going to continue training, and so people who are part of our worship team really experiencing the opportunity to learn more. Maybe some somebody might not know how to sing harmony, but we're going to help you learn how to sing harmony and little things like that, but just consistent training and then strengthening our volunteer engagement. And this is where I plug briefly. We cannot have too many amazing people helping and volunteering and being a part of the worship team, whether that's instrumentals, vocalists, technology, whatever it is, we would love to have you be a part of it. And I think just growing that will be an amazing thing.

Unknown: 15:48

And you know, this is Stephanie's first year in this role, and she's come in and done a terrific job and really trying to build up our our music and our technology. You know, Aaron has been with us for some time and has been faithful about wanting to get into the schools and taking kids on trips and always being available. So we're really very blessed. And the third member of our team is John Goolsby, who is our business manager. And John will kind of share what God has done and what God has called us to, all right. Well, thank you. So first thing I thought of I was thinking back over the past year, and it wasn't necessarily, I mean, it was nothing that I did, but just kind of where the church was. I mean, you guys remember, it seems like it's forever ago now, but when those tornados hit the end of April, just how much I mean, that everything kind of stopped. You know, around here in other law area, well, three temperatures. Like we were able to collect. I mean, I think most people probably were down there to see that whole front room was full of donations. There was trash bags, there was gloves, goggles. I mean, all sorts of things that were going to be needed. I think one, I think one of the first Sunday or first Saturday, they had a whole bunch of people were making sandwiches to get the volunteers around with the lakes and cleaning up stuff. We were we were placed, like, in the perfect spot, like right in the middle. We were able to coordinate so much so they're just being where we were and just how the church mobilized, I think it made a big, big upgrade on on the city and but also just that, that part of serving those that lost their home was was pretty powerful, and it was us being that light. Jeff Jesus to our neighbors. So what another thing this year, you know, interest rates have been higher the last, you know, year and a half or two years or so, so the church has actually been able to put, but that money, it's a little bit of use and still be very conservative, you know, you know, with with CDs and our i three bank we have really good relationship with with i three, and then also with our garbage account, we're able to earn some good, good interest money market account there. And then our investment committee, we meet, been meeting more this year, like quarterly. And so this year we we've kind of refined the investment policy, and I need to get that passed by by through session now and then. We've also got put together a benevolence policy this past year as well. So we need to work to get that into place. And so then for going into for next year. So we are blessed at three tempers to have. I mean, there's so many faithful givers, so much that is all these ministries that you're hearing, that the truck or treat the CEF, you know, putting on katah, all that stuff. I mean, there's so many faithful years, and we're so blessed by that. We know one of the goals this year is to increase all Congregational Giving. You know, everyone's giving like I'll leave it at that. So this year, that 2024 we did in the down year. And just to know that, just like everybody's, everybody's budgets, you know, things, everything's gone up, last, you know, every year, and more so in the last three, four years. So, I mean, the church, it doesn't stop. I mean, our budget doesn't stay stagnant, the cost don't stay stagnant. So I've tried to to know is, is it felt more comfortable, like, hey, we need to bump up our like, our personal giving my wife and I and so maybe there's, maybe there's somebody out there that maybe maybe take a step up, like. Uh, we can, we can work toward finishing in the red and black this next year. And then, so as far as the the spiritual importance of giving, I think a series we're going to cover that this year. It'll, it'll come up, but, and then education probably wants to say, but really, you know, like giving is, it is a spiritual discipline, just like, just like reading our Bible, regularly coming to church, fellowshipping, the type, you know, tithing and giving is, is another muscle that we need to keep strong. And ultimately, God wants our he doesn't need our money, but he wants our hearts. And that's part of forming our hearts, you know, is faithfully giving so and the other thing is, you know, we're so grateful for the generosity and the giving and the tithing and and even though we didn't finish in the black, God has blessed us with such healthy reserves that we were able to absorb that. And so we're very grateful that over our 10 years, it's very rare that we don't finish in the black, and we know that costs have gone up for everything and for everyone and and we believe there's opportunities for us to all grow. And as John said, giving is nothing to do with money. It really doesn't. It's Do you trust God? And we think there's so much more opportunities for us to trust God here in 2025 and I'm going to ask Dr Joseph doomba to come up and talk for a minute about the healing COVID, but can I just tell you what a gift it is to have such a wonderful team up here, a staff that loves Jesus and loves you and just wants to See everybody grow. Can we thank them for their faithfulness? Those of you that know Dr doomba, you know what an incredible heart he has, but there may be some of you that aren't familiar with the healing Codd ministry and healing Conti has been a part of three timbers for 10 years. We have supported this ministry for 10 years. We will continue to support this ministry, but we want to make sure that you understand the impact that you are having by supporting the church as we all support this ministry. So maybe just kind of for those folks who aren't as familiar, share with the mission of the healing cardi is maybe what God has done and where you see God leading. Thank you very much, Pastor Jeff, for having me, and thank you all for listening to me and glad to be here. I will be very brief because the story is long, but most of you already know about the healing cardi, except maybe a few. Healing cardi is the faith based organization that started out in 2007 and we serve in South Sudan. We have a facility down there that we run, bringing both physical, mental and spiritual healing to the people in a very rural part of South Sudan. The mission of the Indian county foundation is really to empower people down there and teach them the good news. We have a pastor, we have pastoral care, we have spiritual care, and then our counseling and we have medical care, all of them combined together to take care of the people, and we've been serving in that capacity for the last 13 years now, and we see an average about 30 to 50 people patients a day in the facility that we have. And we're in the process of building a hospital. God has been good. In 2024 we had put that project on home, but through some donors who are very generous, we have we started that process, and we're hoping that by the end of this year we will have a pediatric hospital that's functional, and we'll be able to serve that particular part of the region. We have a we serve an area of about 350,000 and there's no hospital. And talk about for just a minute, we obviously are doing the medicine drive. Talk about how, what a simple donation of aspirin and some of the other things, how big of a difference that can make in the life of people that you are treating each day. Tremendous. Stuff, and we're getting ready to go for a mission trip on the 20th of February. And we usually go into even more deeper role areas. And in those areas to medicine at all, even a simple aspirin or a simple COVID, they don't have it. That's why we ask all of you to help us. You know, when you go to the grocery store, even a bottle of aspirin, I mean, a bottle of Tylenol, bottle of leave, those can save a life, actually, because they have malaria there, and the fever can go to about 105 60, and that can kill somebody very quick. In a simple Tylenol can save a life very. Important, and that's why, you know, we've been running this campaign for the last month or so, and we're going to continue to run it for a few more weeks that if you've got some extra medicine, make sure it's not expired, or the next time you're in the grocery store, say, Hey, let me pick up a 567, dollar model. It's going to it's going to save a life. What we take for granted when we have in our medicine cabinets that we think, Oh, no big deal. It will save a life. So we want to encourage you to be a part of that. Lastly, what do you need? Moving forward in 2025 from from the churches and the people who support you, obviously financially, but what are some of the other needs? Well, we actually need the prayers, because with our prayers, we won't be doing what we're doing. We also need volunteers, because when we go for these mission trips, we we need people to go with us, either that or help us do some fundraising or medicine drives around here. You know, mission does not mean that you have to come with us and be in South Sudan. Personally, we have fundraising events that requires volunteers that we need, and definitely the challenge is going to be operating the hospital when we opened and took it at the end of the year. So we'll see how that does. And we know all this comes through, and we're very thankful for that. What else can I say? Other opportunities coming up for people to support the healing COVID. I know that there have been different things throughout the year that have been done, fundraisers and lunches and brunches and things like that. Yes, yes, we have, we have, actually, God, that's coming up on April 5. So put that on your COVID. April 5 will be, will be turning that message out to the churches and to our donors and those from the community, and that is a big fundraising event for us, because that's when we actually raise the money for operations. That's to support our staff in South Sudan. We have a team of 20 staff members that we pay for, including doctors, nurses in other support stuff. And believe me, it's only $15,000 a month to support all those people. $15,000 a month. And if you think about that, that's actually not a lot. And I think the goal is to be one of two things, either a radical sender or a radical goer. If you are a radical goer, then you are going to be joining Dr Duma and the team to go to the missions. If you're not called to that, you can be a radical sender by saying, hey, I want to support those who are going. And that ties back into supporting the fundraisers. That ties back into all of our giving we have always supported, and we wanted to continue to support financially this ministry, but as as Joseph said, prayer is the most important thing that we can do, and so you join me in just praying for the healing cod right now, father. We, thank you for the healing Codd. We, thank you for the calling that you have put on so many to go and share your love and the gifts of medicine and the gift of medical intelligence. Lord, we pray for the healing COVID. Lord that you would overwhelm them with resources, whether that would be people, medication, finances, and most importantly, prayer. We pray for the team that is going down in February. Lord that you would give them safe passage, Lord that they would be able to treat those who are ailing, Lord and to share your love with them through medicine, through service and through stories. We thank you for this ministry, Lord, and pray that you would continue to use it for your kingdom. And we ask this in the name of Jesus amen. And can we thank Doctor doomba and the ministry Tip three timbers has a reach that's outside of Bennington, outside of Omaha, all the way to the South Sudan. And so we want to thank you. We talked about our theme this year, if you've been with us the last couple of weeks, that theme is recapturing reverence, and it's important that you know where that came from, and that comes from Scripture. So I want to read this to you from Hebrews 1228, through 29 it says this, Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful. And so worship God, acceptably, with reverence and awe for our God is a consuming fire. And so we have a kingdom that cannot be shaken, that no matter what may happen in the world, nothing can shake the kingdom of God. And this year, we believe that God has called us to recapture our reverence for God. So often we look at the world and say, well, the world has no reverence for God, the world has no reverence for scripture. But we gotta look at ourselves first and say, We need to recapture that. So how are we going to recapture reverence? There are three ways in which God has called us to do that this year. The first is spiritual. Formation. The second is being together in prayer and fellowship, and the third is having a deeper doctrine. So what does that look like? Well, we're very excited to let you know that we as a church are going to be going through a book called practicing the way. And this is a wonderful book, and I will show you a copy of it right here. It's not a huge book, but it's a terrific, terrific book that really teaches us how to be an apprentice of Jesus, how to be a disciple of Jesus. And it's going to be a church wide immersive campaign through worship services, small group engagement and individual study that you can do to become an apprentice of Jesus. And when you think about it, all of us have been an apprentice, you know? We've learned from coaches, we've learned from bosses, employers, lots of different things. And so we're going to go through this book together. The way that we're going to do that is the first Sunday of every month, starting in March all the way through October, we are going to sit around tables, and we're going to go through this we will have worship music, and then there's a video based study that we're going to watch together as a church, and then we're going to have conversations through some of the questions, so that we can all grow together. Now, part of that is having a study guide. This is the study guide. We've ordered some of these, but here's the good news, it is free to download, so you could download this on your tablet, on your computer and your phone, and I'm just going to tell you the bar has been set because I even downloaded it. So if I have done this, there's a good chance that probably all of you can do this, but it is a free resource for every single person who wants to be a part of this. The other thing that this is a full fledged campaign, and there's something that you'll see on the website practicing the way.com which you can go to and you can set up your own account. It's for free, something called a spiritual health reflection. And you can gage your inner life with God, the name of Jesus, the invitation he gives us to follow him. And you can track this so you can kind of go and see, well, where are you? Where are you spiritually? Where are the areas that you're strong in? Where are the areas that you feel God has called you to grow in? I went on and did this and said, Okay, there's some areas here that I need to grow in and I want to grow in, but it's a free thing, and only you can see it. But then, as we go through this course, you'll be able to track your growth to see where you are. Some of the topics that we'll be going through in these eight sessions are following Jesus. What does that mean? Formation, spiritual formation, part one and part two, the practices which I'll get to in a minute, meeting God in pain and suffering, healing from sin, crafting a rule of life and life together. What does all of that look like now? We want to engage our life groups and individuals. And so I want to talk to you about the practices. These are disciplines. And John had referenced disciplines before that. There are spiritual disciplines that areas that we are called to grow deeper in. And a lot of these areas we don't know a ton about, but they were really important to Jesus. What does it mean to have a Sabbath rest? What does that mean? What does it really mean to pray? What is fasting? What is solitude and the value of it, and what is generosity? And under each of these topics, there are many videos that you can watch to learn. There are free study guides that you can download, that you can be a part of. And again, all of this is free, and all of this can be done in life groups. All of this can be done individually. You may get together with your life group, and you may say, hey, we really want to learn about Sabbath. We really want to learn about fasting. Or you may say, hey, we really want to do all of these. And you can do that. So we wanted to build in flexibility depending upon where your life group is, and if you're not a part of a life group, man, we want to encourage you to be a part of a life group that's where you grow in your faith and you grow in your relationships with other people. And so the ultimate goal is you come out to it's called a Rule of Life builder, and that's a way to organize your life intentionally to live as an apprentice of Jesus. It is so critical that we live as an apprentice, as a follower of Jesus Christ in spiritual formation. There are so many free resources that are on there multiple videos on the topics of the practices that you can watch there. There's even a podcast, if you like, to listen to things that you can say, I want to listen to one of these practices as I'm working out, as I'm walking you can do that as well. So we are really excited. We're going to kick this off. The first Sunday of every month that we're going to go through it as a group, we're going to watch the videos, we're going to sit at tables, we're going to grow together. So that's the first way that we're going to recapture reverence. The second way we're going to recapture reverence is through prayer and fellowship. When you read the book of Acts, what you see about the early church is that they were always together. Let me read you acts 114 they all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers, the early church were always together. They were always meeting together, praying together, studying together, eating together, because they had a reverence for God. And so what we are going to do is we're going to bring back something that we did a little bit online during COVID, but we're going to be doing it now in person, and it's called Tuesday nights together. And what we're going to do on all of the dates that are listed there, in February, April, June, August and November is we're going to come together as a church to pray. These are Tuesday nights. We'll meet at the Ministry Center, and we're going to pray about different things, and we're going to walk through Scripture together, because that's what a church does. They gather together for prayer. And so we're really excited for you guys to be a part of that. We've got all of the dates, so you can put them on your calendars, so that you can be a part of it. The other thing that we're going to be doing is we're going to be more intentional about having fellowship together with some pot luck lunches. So on the Sundays that we are doing our practicing the way series, the first Sunday, four of those Sundays. We're going to have fellowship. We're going to have a potluck lunch on April 6, June, 1, August, 3 and October 5. That will ask you, Hey, this Sunday is a dessert. One. Everybody bring a dessert for breakfast, or a breakfast meal or something for lunch, and we will just share together. The other thing that we're going to be doing to recapture our reverence, other than practicing the way coming together for more intentional fellowship through prayer and sharing meals together is a deeper understanding of doctrine, and what that means is we want to really make sure that everybody understands the sacraments. What Is Baptism? Why is it important? Why do we do communion? What does communion mean? We want to talk about what it means to be the church. Church is not a place that you go. Church is who we are, and then understanding what happens after we die. How can you be sure of what is next? So here's what we're going to do. We're going to have a baptism Sunday. We're going to put the date on the calendar, and for those people that God has called to publicly give their lives to Christ to reaffirm their faith in Christ, we're going to have a baptism Sunday. We're going to have some teaching on understanding what tithing is that our goal is that when we're done with this series, that you say tithing has nothing to do with money, it absolutely doesn't. It has everything to do with trusting God. And we're going to celebrate communion on the first Sunday of every month in March, May, July and September. So the first Sunday of every month starting in March is either going to be a potluck lunch or a communion. So we're going to go deeper in our doctrine together. We're going to have some opportunities to come together to study through our right now media gift, which, again, is our gift to the church that we want everybody to go deeper. I describe it as the Netflix for church Bible studies. And so we're going to talk about what is the church. We're going to talk about what happens next. We're excited for you to be a part of that. We are really excited that on Monday, Thursday, we are going to have a Seder supper. And so we are going to have from a chosen people's ministry, someone come in. We're going to have a Seder supper. Go through all of the elements of a Seder supper to understand what it is, to understand what it means and and I spoke to the woman who's coming. She's from Nebraska. She grew up here. She's excited to come and to be a part and to share with us, to share with you, what it is to be the church and what a Seder supper is all about. The other thing that we wanted to really make sure is our goal is to recapture reverence all for God, to have those moments that we know that this is just God, that only God can do this. And so we really are excited for you to be a part of practicing the way. We're excited for you to join us for prayer and for fellowship, and for pot luck, we're excited to go on this journey that you have a deeper doctrine, that, when we sit here next year, that you can say, I understand what baptism is. I understand what communion is. I really understand what tithing is. All about. We want to make sure that we have a reverence for these things that God has called his church to one. Of the ways that we have reverence is we look at what God has done, and as we have been mentioning, but we want to officially kick off and unveil today that this year we are celebrating 10 years of God's faithfulness as a church. Amen, once you look at that logo, and I want to tell you the story. So probably about eight years ago, we decided we needed a logo, the one that we initially started with, we had some folks do internally, and it was good. We really wanted to have something nice. And so our leadership team at that time, we said, how do we have a company do a logo? That time, Casey Lindsey was on our leadership team, and he works in North Carolina brass, and he says, Well, we worked with a great design company, one of the leading design companies in Omaha, and they do pro bono work, like once a year for one non profit. I can see if they would, you know, do ours. So about eight years ago, we went to them, and they said, Yeah, we would love to do your logo. So the logo that you know, the circular logo and the scripted logo that was done for free by one of the leading design companies here in Omaha. Well, as we came up on our 10 years I reached out to Casey and said, they did such a good job. Do you think they would maybe design our 10 year anniversary logo and maybe it's at a good price, because they know us? And he said, I can set something up. And so we had a zoom call with this company, Dickey, and he starts to talk to Casey, well, I would do this and I would do that, and he he's kind of designing right in front of us, like, wow, that's really great. And I said, Look, I love what you're doing. I think it'd be great. But, you know, we don't have the resources for this whole thing. Like, how much would it be? And he says, I'll do it for free. We said, what? He says, I will do your logo for free. And so this logo, we've got it in different color permutations. It was done for free. Like, God's just moving and doing some things. So we're going to crank up the merchandise machine. Okay, so you'll have opportunities to get shirts and whatnot. But we're really excited because our theme for our 10 year anniversary is a glorious unfolding that we are celebrating the faithfulness of God. And some of the ways that we're going to do that is that on March 29 let's say Saturday, we're going to have a church wide picnic. Then we're going to have everybody come together as the church, those who are here now, those who have been a part of the church, who have been a part of God's story at three timbers, we're going to have a huge picnic, and we're just going to celebrate God's faithfulness. And then on March 30, that Sunday, we're going to have a celebration service right here, and we're getting the band back together, and so we have reached out to all of our former worship leaders, and they're coming back. We've reached out to our former youth leaders, and they're coming back. We are so excited to have them and all of the people that have been a part of the story that God has unfolded for 10 years at three timbers. And so we are really, really excited. We are going to be launching a congregational survey well, we want to get your input as we move forward in this next chapter. That's going to be something that's going to be up on the website that we want to we want to hear, hey, here's where I feel God is, is speaking and moving and talking, and then we're going to have a capital campaign, and I'll talk about that in a second. So we are really excited to celebrate 10 years of a glorious unfolding. And when you think about where this all started, 10 years ago, the average lifespan of a church plant is two years, and look how faithful God has been for 10 years. Can we just say thank you to the Lord, praise God. God has been incredibly faithful we started this church, or God started this church 10 years ago. And so as we come up on our 10 year anniversary, the question is, what has God called us to as a church in 2025 and the only thing that we can come up with was to be in awe of his faithfulness. And I want to share with you a story. So for the last eight months, God kept putting something before the leadership of our church. I had a man walk into the ministry center one day and said, Does your church have a permanent building? And I said, No, we currently rent. He says, Would you like a permanent building? Yes, please. We would like that. And he says, I'm about to buy some land, and I would like to talk to you about the church being built on that land that was awesome. So we went down that road, and we kind of felt that maybe God was was leading us there. And then the deal fell through for this man, and so that wasn't, you know, for us. And then someone else called us and said, Hey, there's a property up on the highway that is for sale. You guys should go. Come check it out. So as a leadership team, we went up there and and we looked at it, and they wanted so much money before it were like, That's just, it's not for us, though, the space could have worked. It just wasn't for us. And we had numerous other people reach out to us as, hey, I've got some land. Would you be interested to to buy this? Would you be interested to look at this, and it just, it just wasn't going to work out for us. And so we're kind of praying, Lord, what do you want? And you know, kind of felt like it's just not the season. And and all of this kind of made me think of a story, and maybe you've heard this story. There was a town that started to flood, and the waters were rising, and they started to evacuate the town. And everybody left the town, but one man and people said, you you need to get out of the town. The The waters are rising. And he said, No, no, no. He says, I'm a man of faith. I know that God will save me. Well, the waters kept rising. And this man gets up on his roof, and a boat comes by, and people say, you need to get in the boat. The waters are rising, you're not going to make it. And this man said, no, no, no, I'm a man of faith. God will save me. Well, the waters kept rising so high and so high that finally a helicopter came by and they put down the ladder, and they yelled, down, hey, you need to get this ladder and get on the water's going to overtake you. And the man said, no, no, no, no, I'm a man of faith. God will save me. Well, the waters rose and the man died, and when he gets to heaven, and he's so frustrated and disappointed, he says, God, I've I'm a man of faith. I I praised you, I pointed people to you, I did all of these things. Why didn't you save me? And God said, What do you think the boat and helicopter were for? We had a boat and helicopter moment recently. I was in my office a couple of weeks ago, and the phone rings, and it's a realtor, and he says, Hey, I've got a piece of property and it isn't on the market yet. Would you be interested in taking a look at it. Said, Sure, we'll always take a look at things, you know, not knowing. And so I went and kind of looked at this property. And I thought, okay, there's, maybe there's something here, I don't know. And then a few days later, Christie and I went, because we know the the current tenant in this space, and and said, Look, you know, we heard that the person is selling this, this property, this, this building, and we know you but we want to make sure that you know you aren't being asked to leave, or the next owner would make you leave. And this person says, No, absolutely not. I'm leaving on my own accord. And you know, are you guys interested? And I said, Well, we're going to talk about it. We're going to pray about it. And she said, we would love for you guys to have this building. Oh, we love it. We love it. Said, Okay, later that day, I get a text from a community member who said, Hey, I heard through the grapevine small towns that that you guys are considering looking at this space. And I said, Well, yeah, we're gonna pray about it, look about it, look about it. And she said, we would love to have you guys there. Oh, man, we would love to have you guys there. Okay, so we got together as a leadership team, and we had previously scheduled a meeting with a church planning director to talk about a capital campaign, because we felt, if God keeps bringing all these opportunities for land in front of us, we probably need to figure out, like, How much money do we need and to buy land and to build the building. So we had a previous meeting scheduled. We came, we kind of spent some time in prayer and talking and said, Hey, here's our situation. And kind of gave us some advice. And then we kind of met as a team and and said, What could we afford? What could we afford to take a step of faith and put an offer on this building? And so we came up with a number, and it was substantially lower than what the person selling this space was going to to to accept. So we submitted the offer and and we prayed, and we just said, Lord, what is your will? What is your will? And because we didn't know, we really didn't know what what God's plan was. And can I tell you, friends, that after 10 long years, we have a home and space is the space that currently is early Gray, and it is going to be our home. And can I tell you that? When the realtor called me and told me that we have the space, he said, the owner of the space knew exactly who you were. He said, I know this church. I know the good things they do in the community. I want them to have the building that's God for 10 years, every relationship we've built, everything we've ever done, people know that we love Jesus and we love other people. And so now. We have a permanent home, we will be going through the due diligence process to have it inspected, and then we have the financial process, and then we will close, and then we will be in the building. And what's so amazing about this facility is that it's not just about us or for us, because we believe that we can provide additional outreach opportunities for the community, that we can do weddings in this space, that we can do graduation parties in this space, that we can do celebrations of life, as you can see the teachers that are up there, that we can do meetings. There are so many things that we will be able to do in this space. No more packing up the U haul, no more unloading and limiting. And we're also really excited, because we have been communicating us. There's some exciting new things coming to downtown Beddington. They're going to make this space appreciate over time, that it's going to become an asset for us. This is our starter home. It's not perfect, it's not the final home, but it's a starter home. When Christie and I had one of our first homes, we didn't have an oven, we had a stove top, and that was it. Can I tell you, we had some of the best memories there, because it was our first it was ours, and this is going to be our space, and it's going to take some work, and we're going to have to get all hands on deck, you know, to get it set the way that it needs to be set. But once it's set, it's ours. That's why we're going to be running a capital campaign so that we can retire the debt that we have, which won't be a ton, because we're because of our health and reserves, we're able to put a substantial down payment on this space. Statistics show that when you have your own space, your church attendance increases 30% that we're going to be able to say to the community, not only have we been here, but we are staying here. We are not going anywhere, and God has a greater Kingdom plan for this community, and three timbers church is a huge part of that plan. And so we praise God for His faithfulness that we will have our own space to worship in, to pray in. We're going to continue to keep the Ministry Center, continue to do the things that we do at the Ministry Center, and we're hopeful to be able to keep them both long term, so we're still working out a lot of details. All of this came together. We got the final acceptance on Friday, so we have been scrambling a little bit for this presentation. But can I just, can I just tell you this, that this was not on our radar two weeks ago. It wasn't. In fact, there are a few of us that had a meeting, and we said, well, I guess we've exhausted all of the options in Beddington. There's no more space. We'll have to just wait and see if God provides for the land. And then we had the helicopter in the boat come by, and the fact that God would do this before our 10th anniversary vision Sunday, you cannot make that up. And just as a funny aside, so a couple of us went to celebrate Friday afternoon for lunch. And you may think this is nothing, but I don't. And the waitress comes over and she says, Hi, I'm Grace. And I said, Yes, you are. I love your name. And all of these affirmations that we have gotten, they accepted the low price that we offered them, the current renter says, I want you to have it. And the current renter started sending us messages, you could do this with the space, and this with the space that cup and Cohn said, we're so excited for you to be there. And I texted back Sunday coffee, and she said, we're open to anything. So you know, there's so many amazing opportunities. We're still figuring out how to communicate this news to the community, so we're working on that. We're working on a lot of things. We're going to need to continue to pray for the inspection to go well, for the closing to go well, and then we're going to need all everybody's help to get it set up and cleaned up and all the different things, and we're going to have open houses and celebrations and and there's even talk of marching from the high school down to the space one day as a procession, because that's what the people of God do, because we want the community to know the faithfulness of God not three timbers. This isn't a three timber story. This is a God's story, and so I think it's appropriate that as I share this just, can we just pray? And if you want to just shout out a prayer or shout out a praise, I want you to feel free to do that, because this is a God thing, and we are his people, and he has provided a space for us. So shackle everyone out when, when there's that awkward silence where no one else is talking, then I'll step in, but let's just go to the Lord in prayer and

Stephanie Olson: 55:27

father, God, we just praise you that you are so faithful, even when we are not. You are a miracle worker, and we are so excited to be serving you in this way. And Lord, we just ask that you continue to open doors, that you move mightily in Huntington, and that your will be done in 310 minutes. Lord, we just give this to

Unknown: 55:58

you, Father, God, thank you for the leadership of the church, thank you for them seeking you and wanting to honor you, and not their desire, but your desire for three timbers and each of us, Lord, I know that's Our desire in our personal lives, help that to be our desire in our personal lives, that we want to honor you and have reverence for you. God, I just pray that you continue to guide us as a church over the coming weeks and months and help us to continue to honor you as as we continue to take steps, Father, thank you for your creativity. Here we thought we need land. We need to move everything yet just here you come when this this building goes down the street, we can keep the Ministry Center. We can add this. We can do activities of locations and just get to know better and just absolutely do you for your confirmation, Lord. And just the way to speak that you provide just so many ways to confirm this process and to make it a story that we can share that points to you and so Lord, we are so thankful and And Lord, we kept looking, we knew you were speaking and moving. Kept wondering. But Lord this closed doors and open doors, and we are so thankful, Lord and I just thank you for the unity of our leadership and for the work that they have put in, and the prayers that they have put in, and we just pray, Lord for these next steps that you would continue to confirm this process. Help us be a lighting. Lord. Thank you for loving us and trusting us. We pray that you continue to fill us with the humility and the love of Jesus that we may be able to spread that love throughout our community. You praise the Lord. All you servants of the Lord who minister by night in the house of the Lord, lift up your hands in the sanctuary and praise the Lord. May the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth, bless you from Zion. You outside, Father, we are just overwhelmed by your grace. You've had a great plan for 10 years. And Lord, this is the next step, the next chapter, Lord. And Lord, we are grateful that this is just a resource to give you glory. It's not about us, it's for us, from you, but it's about you. It's about making disciples. It's about having baptisms, about. Lives changed. People restored, Father, thank you for your faithfulness in this glorious unfolding as we celebrate 10 years, Lord, as we recapture reverence for you, Father, every time we felt that you were leading us, or every time we wanted to go outside of downtown, you keep calling us back, called us back to the Ministry Center now, called us back to this new space, Father, we know that you have a divine plan. And Lord, we pray that this year, in 2025 we would recapture reverence for you, that Lord, the practicing the way course would change how we see what it is to be your apprentice. We pray for our times of prayer and fellowship, they would be deep and enriching. We pray, Lord for the deeper doctrine and understanding of the sacraments. Or we pray for baptism. Sunday, the Lord, it wouldn't be singular, but it would be plural. We pray Lord that we could be the light in the city that you have placed us in, and Lord that we know that when the city prospers, is because the people of God prosper. And so Father, I pray that we would prosper in our our love and our understanding of who you are and who you've called us to be. Thank you, Lord for this, this amazing gift. Thank you, Lord for being the church and not going to church. And Father, we pray that all that we do would be to your glory. And we ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Stephanie Olson: 1:01:23

Thank you for joining us. For more information about three timbers, church ministries and services. Visit three timbers.org. We would love for you to join

Unknown: 1:01:34

us in person. You.