Never-ending Energy
Posted July 17, 2024 by Carleigh Nickel in Family Ministry
I never thought I would be a counselor. I’m more of a hands-on person, very work-focused and independent. So when I was asked to be a leader for the Tribe trip, I was nervous. As an original Triber who experienced my first mission trip as a 5th grader, I understood how impactful this trip could be for them. I would say my main worry was the kids not liking me, not respecting me, and just overall…
Monday Over Coffee: "Elation"
Posted July 15, 2024 by Greg Funderburk in Monday Over Coffee
Last month on a summer trip to Europe, my wife Kelly and I were strolling along the banks of the beautiful blue Danube in Budapest late in the evening. It was a beautiful night, with the city’s famed castle lit up in golden hues across the river, when suddenly we heard an arresting noise arise from off in the distance. Like a rushing wind, it whooshed into our ears—a cyclone of sound carrying…
Monday Over Coffee: "Mixed Emotions"
Posted July 8, 2024 by Greg Funderburk in Monday Over Coffee
Recently, my wife and I took in the new computer-animated Disney/Pixar movie Inside Out 2. It’s terrific. I’ll avoid any actual spoilers here, but just as in the original movie, the film’s story takes place largely inside the mind of a young girl named Riley. She’s 13 now, and her personified emotions—Joy, Sadness, Fear, Disgust, and Anger—are still at the helm of a console, which in effect…
Monday Over Coffee: "Unity"
Posted July 1, 2024 by Greg Funderburk in Monday Over Coffee
Given the proximity of the July 4 holiday, I recently picked up a new book entitled American Covenant by Yuval Levin. In it, he takes up the sticky issue of how—in a big, diverse country where none of us think alike—we might still not only get along but actually get things done. Early on, he places the notion of “unity” before his readers, tweaking its definition in an interesting way: “Unity,”…
If You're Here, You're Awesome
Posted June 27, 2024 by Hannah Rollins in Family Ministry
It is May 2017. I am days away from graduating with my Masters in Social Work. My only plans are to stay home for the summer and spend time with my only child Henry, as having a baby in graduate school is difficult enough without the added bonus of having a husband in his third year of medical school. I was weary and ready for an easy, slow, and comfortable summer with my baby. Turns out, I don’t…
Monday Over Coffee: "Near Death Experience"
Posted June 24, 2024 by Greg Funderburk in Monday Over Coffee
One of Sebastian Junger’s first jobs involved cutting down enormous trees deep in the forest at great heights with a chainsaw. It was only the beginning of his daredevil ways. Junger soon became a journalist with a penchant for putting himself in life-threatening positions. He reported on genocide from war-torn Kosovo. He traveled to Nigeria to write about militants wreaking havoc on oil…
All the Fullness of God
Posted June 19, 2024 by Matt Walton in Discipleship
During last week’s N.T. Wright Summer Intensive, some 518 ministers and fellow believers gathered in our Sanctuary from around the world to think deeply through Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. We were led by one of the world’s foremost Pauline scholars, the Reverend Dr. Tom Wright. As our pastor likes to say, Christian scholarship today either agrees with Tom Wright or reacts against him; in…
Monday Over Coffee: "Devotion"
Posted June 17, 2024 by Greg Funderburk in Monday Over Coffee
Even if the identity of the person who said it didn’t stick with me, the gist of the quote always has. My memory is that it’s from one of the Founding Fathers—advice perhaps John Adams once gave to his son, John Quincy Adams, or maybe something James Madison’s father passed on to him that I read in a biography. I haven’t come across the exact words since I first saw them despite an exhaustive…
How do you get to Carnegie Hall?
Posted June 13, 2024 by Adam Cogliano in Music
It turns out there is another punchline to that legendary question! How did members of the South Main Sanctuary Choir get to Carnegie Hall? We were invited by composer and conductor Heather Sorenson to sing in a 250-person mass choir for the premiere of her new work entitled These Ancient Words.
Monday Over Coffee: "Local"
Posted June 10, 2024 by Greg Funderburk in Monday Over Coffee
It’s a little troubling to me that when I get in my car and check my phone, it often volunteers—without being asked—how long it’s likely to take me to get where it thinks I’m about to go. In the morning, it always thinks my destination is work, giving me an arrival time. Okay, fair enough. Later in the day, though, back in the car, based on its distressingly precise knowledge of my behavioral…
Summer at South Main
Posted June 3, 2024 by SMBC in Worship, Family Ministry, Discipleship
When you think of Summer, what comes to mind? Family vacations? The beach? Cookouts? Baseball? Summer can sometimes feel like both the busiest and most relaxing time of year. This Summer at South Main we have exciting ways for you to Worship, Discover, and Share!
Monday Over Coffee: "Elevate"
Posted June 3, 2024 by Greg Funderburk in Monday Over Coffee
Traveling to California and back last week, I noticed something. Fewer and fewer passengers on commercial flights ever lift the shade on their windows. Their shades remain down throughout the duration of the flight. A little research on the subject reveals that although we’re supposed to have our shades lifted up into the open position during takeoff and landing for safety reasons so that flight…
Thank you from the Class of 2024
Posted May 28, 2024 by SMBC in Family Ministry
The Class of 2024 embarks on their next steps with a solid foundation in their faith and trust in God. We are immensely proud of them! The graduates extend their heartfelt thanks to you.
Monday Over Coffee: "Trio"
Posted May 27, 2024 by Greg Funderburk in Monday Over Coffee
In literature, we have the Three Musketeers and more recently Harry, Ron, and Hermione from the Harry Potter series. On stage, there were three spirits in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and three witches in Shakespeare’s MacBeth. On TV, we had the Three Stooges and Charlie’s Angels. In cartoons, we’ve got Huey, Dewey, and Louie, and more recently the Powerpuff Girls. From the movies, we all remember…
Thank You South Main
Posted May 21, 2024 by Lane Craig in Family Ministry
As I end my time at South Main Baptist Church, having completed my Residency in the Family Ministry, I am compelled to say “Thank you,” but it might not be for the exact reason you think it would be. Yes, I am beyond grateful for the time I have been given at South Main to learn and apply practical skills to the world of vocational ministry. I have learned and benefited so much from being able to…
Monday Over Coffee: "From the Inside"
Posted May 20, 2024 by Greg Funderburk in Monday Over Coffee
Born in 1828 in Russia, Leo Tolstoy’s earliest teachers called him “unable and unwilling to learn.” As a teenager, he gambled, drank, caroused, and generally mis-spent his youth until, becoming a soldier in the Crimean War, he wrote out a series of life-long rules for himself. The first one went like this: “Carry out all you have resolved to do.” Next to it, he then penned, “I haven’t carried…
Engaging with the World Around Us
Posted May 16, 2024 by J Hill in Missions
South Main has a heart for missions work, and we don’t think of Kingdom work as a spectator sport. This means there is a place for you to jump in. As our faith grows in worship and through discipleship programing, so grows our calling to exercise our faith out in the world. Of course, that doesn’t mean we take on every mission project. We simply can’t. We organize and focus our resources so that…
Welcoming the Stranger
Posted May 14, 2024 by Bill Anderson in Missions
These families coming from distant places face daunting, life-altering challenges. Patients are typically most concerned with treating their serious healthcare needs, yet they must also find housing and navigate other life-care services in a large, unfamiliar city. The Sojourn Ministry strives to serve the housing needs of these patients and families and to give them spiritual and emotional…
Monday Over Coffee: "Our Impossible Problems"
Posted May 13, 2024 by Greg Funderburk in Monday Over Coffee
Have you ever faced a problem that seemed like it had no answer? An impossible situation? Something insurmountable? Are you facing something like this right now? Esther Klein was born in Budapest in 1910. She loved physics. She loved geometry. She loved math so much that she started a math club with some of her friends, other Hungarian students, with whom she met every Sunday afternoon in one of…
Easter Shoes
Posted May 10, 2024 by Sally Reed in Missions
Do you remember being excited to shop for new shoes in time for Easter? About 10 years ago, Cathy Edwards encouraged the Compass Community to consider a missions project to sponsor the cost of a pair of new shoes for each child at Gracewood. South Mainers, Gracewood staff, and families met at the nearby Walmart the first year, and it has become a tradition each spring, evolving to include other…
