Change

Hey everyone, because of some changes I have a new blog. You can check it out at http://tscottsmith.blogspot.com/ . I will no longer be updating this blog and you can keep up with me at that new spot!

Thanks

Amazed…

Lately, I’ve been think about the idea of how amazing God is, yet how unamazed we usually when we think of God.  It’s like our lives becomes so routine, we begin to see God and all His work as routine.  I’ve been asking God lately to do amazing things in my life and let me constantly be amazed at what He does.

Sunday at church, I found myself Amazed at God.  During worship Sunday morning, our worship team sang Healer, great song by the way, and our worship pastor (Eric) had set up 3 people to come out on stage.  At a certain time in the song, the band played and allowed all 3 to speak about how God had healed them.  It was AMAZING!  I found myself getting teared up and once again Amazed at how awesome and Amazing God is!
Thank you God for continuing to Amaze me!

Too Busy…

Do you ever find yourself in a situation where you realize that you have allowed yourself to become too busy and you may have neglected some more important things in life?  I think this happens to all of us from time to time, whether it is a spiritual experience where we realize we’ve allow “work” or “good things” (like ministry) to consume us instead of allowing God to consume us or in my case what happened to me yesterday!

I found myself in one of those situations.  Me and Eric (our worship pastor) drove up to Maryville, TN to attend the funeral of one of our college roomates mother (that is another story).  Apart from the obvious grief felt by all those in attendance, as you can imagine, I found myself surrounded by many friends that I have vaguely keep in contact with over the past few years.  It was so awesome to see some people that I love, respect, appreciate and value their friendship.  The problem was I have allowed myself to be so busy I had not keep in as close of contact as I wished I would have.  I found myself thinking on the drive home of the “busyness” I allow myself to get involved in while I neglect simply picking up the phone or sending an email to stay in better contact with friends.

The sad thing is, when we too have breathed our last, will people remember us for all the “busy” work we accomplished, or for the friendship we shared with them?

Call someone today you haven’t talked to in a while and let them know you value their friendship!

Awesome

Today I played the bass (filled in) with our worship band for both of our a.m. services (9 and 11).  As I was playing during the worship set my mind was going through and thinking a ton of different things (partially because I’m add).  But one thing I realized is It is so easy to get caught up in the routine, that you don’t realize what you have.  One thing for me today that I realized was how AWESOME our worship leader is (Pastor Eric Freeman).

Of course I’m sure that I may be a little biased, but he is one of the greatest worship leaders I have ever seen.  His voice is phenomenal, his creativity is amazing, and he is anointed to do what he does like no other.  I have been to many concerts, worship events and churches and there is no one better at leading people into the presence of God.

He is an amazing co-worker, friend, and definitely an anointed worship leader.  If you attend The Torch, I challenge you not to take for granted the awesome ministry that God has gifted us with through Pastor Eric.

Well I will be without internet for the next 2 days, so maybe I can post later.

HELP!!!

So, according to Brandi (our media director), we have a lot of people from church reading our blogs.  So I thought, we could test this and see.  I need your help.  Tomorrow at church (The Torch) we will start selling chicken dinner tickets for a dinner on Sunday July 27th.  Now I know, many of you are thinking, another dinner??   But this is where I need your help.  This is for an excellent cause (aren’t they all

As many of you know many of our students have competed in something called Teen Talent.  This is a competition, sponsored by the church of God, designed to allow students to show their giftings and talents.  Of course, as you know with any competition, everyone wants to win!!  Well this year our students won a ton of things.  Here is what I can recall off hand.  Individual and Team BIble Quiz, Monologue, Group Skit, Group Synchronized Movement, Group Pantomime, Video, as well as a couple of Art categories.  We have about 20 students that will be competiting in National Teen Talent on August 2-9 in San Antonio, Texas.  This is going to be an awesome opportunity but it is also going to be EXPENSIVE!
So back to the help, every ticket you buy (for $5) goes directly to a students account.  Each student has to raise about $650.00 to pay for flights and hotels.  If you are a parent, you know that is a lot of money to come up with…and we have some parents with 2 KIDS!!  But that’s not all…

I believe we have some people out there that really believe in our students and what God is and can do through them.  So I believe, with all my heart, there are people out there who would be willing to give a donation towards this cause.  $5, $50, $500, $5,000 whatever you can give, it will go to a great cause!!  If nothing buy a chicken dinner ticket.  You will have to eat somewhere so here you can eat and help someone out.

By the way, we are planning on doing the big drama on July 27th, so make sure to be there!!  It’s going to be awesome!

One of the Best…

Today I was able to do one of my favorite things as a student pastor…connect with another youth pastor.  I know it sounds simple but something about it is challenging, exciting, refreshing…  I travel about an 1 hour and 45 minutes to Sharpsburg, GA to South Metro Ministries to spend some time with a good friend J.C. Worley.  He is Student Pastor of Liquid (High School) and S.O.A.K. (Middle School).  They are about to transition to two seperate services on Wednesday.  We have been doing a middle school service followed by a high school service on Wednesday’s for about 3 years at ONEWAY so he asked me to come up and check out their ideas and share any insights I may have.

I love doing this kind of thing because it gives an opportunity to be a part of Kingdom ministry.  I know that sounds “super spiritual” but any bumps or road blocks that we have encountered that i can share with him and help him to avoid will be more students reached, saved, and changed!  This is what I believe Jesus is all about…building HIS Kingdom.

Of course, when you hook up with some one that is doing awesome stuff (like J.C.) you always learn a lot and of  course get a chance to trade some resources.
They have a lot of great things going on and I really enjoyed my time there.  Thanks for having me J.C.!

Happy 4th of July

So, it has really been a long time since I have posted on this thing.  The ironic thing is i have been been religiously reading other peoples blog and loving it!  Anyway, Happy 4th of July to everyone.  Today is a great day to spend with family, eat good food, and have a good excuse to make home made ice cream (one of my favorite things!!).  Of course, the most important thing to do is to take time to be thankful and pray for those that have and still are making our freedom a reality.  Thank you so much to all the troops and those that have served to give us the freedom we have today!  Our freedom is literally taken for granted too much and I pray that I continually take time to stop and thank those of you who make this day possible!

Announcement

So, I know I have not been posting, and I promise I will get better, but it still has been crazy around here.  We had service last night and I talked about Identity Theft.  It went good.  We are gearing up for our annual Beach Retreat and I have a few important announcements to make, but I will make them soon, not now.
We have set the date for our parent/student meeting for Beach Retreat though.  It is going to be next Wednesday, June 4th at 6:30pm in the Youth Sanctuary.  This will be to go over all the details, fill out forms etc…all the logistical stuff.

Anyway, stay tuned for the Beach Retreat announcement

New

So, it’s been a while since I posted, once again it is crazy.  Me, Holly and Kaden went and visited family Thursday and Friday, came back Friday night about 11.  The entire time we were gone Kaden has had a temp and is not sleeping so…you guessed it, neither are we!  But it’s cool, he’s a great kid.

While I was gone are awesome Worship and Arts/College Pastor has redesigned the stage and it looks great!!  He had a company come in and help but he spent a ton of time on it.  I am going to post pictures soon so you can check it out.

The cool thing is, it is new, which brings excitement.  That is important.   We must make sure to always keep things fresh and new.  If we don’t, things may become stale.

Is it already Tuesday?

So i was informed by our awesome Production Director, Video Guru (Blake) that I am officially a blogging slacker! I haven’t written anything in 4 days. It’s seems like it’s only been a few hours. Things here at The Torch are flying by. Let me give you an idea why…

Sunday we had our graduation recognition service for High School and College Grads. I was in charge of this so we had to get together pictures, forms, decor, get everyone there, prepare the sanctuary, get gifts just to name a few things. We successfully pulled that off in the 9:00am service and then I run upstairs to make sure everything is set up for our Senior/Parent Brunch for High Schoolers. This is where we provide a nice meal (brunch), recognize the seniors, give them our gift from ONEWAY, show the tear jerker video (from when they are a baby til now) and provide a charge/challenge to them. This went great as well and we finished with 5 minute to spare BEFORE THE NEXT SERVICE STARTED! So we get ready to do this all over again. By the way, did I mention I also had to play the bass for the worship services?

So that was enough for the day, but it was not done. Me and my wife went to eat with some friends and by the time we finished our meal I had to be back at service for our baccalaureate service (we were the host church for the High School- Habersham Central). That was from 3-4:30. After that I set up for a Beach Retreat meeting that we had from 5-7. When I finally left the church at 7:45, I stopped and got some Taco Bell, went home, spent some time with Holly and Kaden (Kaden helped me wash dishes!, and then went to bed.

Yesterday, it was catch up day. I don’t even remember it. That is why I am sitting here going…Is it already Tuesday?