BRANCHES July 2015

BRANCHES
PICTURE PERFECT
a collection of photos from
Peru, VBS, and more
southwood and race:
a pastor's note
why we camp:
one small group's story
JULY 2015 | southwood.org

SOUTHWOOD
contents
ABOUT THIS ISSUE
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. So let me reference an extra five
thousand in this introduction. At the very least, you can flip back and forth to
identify the photos I’m mentioning.
On the cover the sunflowers shown are growing in Peru at the site of the
Girasoles home, where our High-Life students just participated in a mission
trip, and they are a great image of the work being accomplished there. Looking
back at this year’s VBS, Thailand Trek, you’ll find Cathy Mayer, who dressed up
as something a cross between a Thai statue and the gold-bearing wiseman, all
to excite and lead the kids in attendance.
Meanwhile, Ray Sheppard looks like he did all the work that the CLIMB
students are pointing at, or maybe it was just the heat. You’ll love the faces on
the Lucases as they manage twins at their small group campout. And you won’t
want to miss the feeling of a misty spray at this year’s .5K churchwide event,
depicted on the back cover. I hope you’ve got pictures that say even more from
your summer activities!
2 about this issue
3 pastor's note
RELATE
4 general assembly report
A historic night for the PCA
5 peru mission trip
To be a girasole
6 VBS 2015
Thailand Trek photo montage
8 CLIMB 2015
A look at this year's CLIMB
9 jobs for life
A personal angle
10 why we camp
One small group's story
11 all that is fair
The wages of art
Jonathan Barnette, Editor
BRANCHES
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Jonathan Barnette
DESIGNER Phillip Lackey
CONTRIBUTORS
Will Spink
Chad Townsley
Sarah Niemitz
Niña Banta
Karl Pittard
James Parker
PHOTOS
Kim Delchamps
Winnie Winford
Tyanna Holbrook
Kelly May
Wendy Pittard
FEEDBACK!
We want to hear from you! Please send
your suggestions and comments to
branches@southwood.org
1000 CARL T. JONES DRIVE | HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA 35802
(256) 882-3085 | WWW.SOUTHWOOD.ORG
MELISSA PATTERSON Interim Administrative Director
ADULT MINISTRIES
SARAH NIEMITZ Director of Community Development/Assimilation
JAMES PARKER Chief Musician
WILL SPINK Associate Pastor/Shepherding
STUDENT MINISTRIES
KIM DELCHAMPS Administrative Assistant
NIÑA BANTA Director of Children
NANCY McCREIGHT Assistant Director /Children/Nursery
CHAD TOWNSLEY Associate Pastor/High-Life
WINNIE WINFORD Assistant Director/High-Life
MINISTRY SUPPORT
TERRI GOOD Accountant/Bookkeeper
JONATHAN BARNETTE Director of Communication
PHILLIP LACKEY Graphic Designer
JANICE CROWSON Director of Facilities/Finance
ELIZABETH BUTZ Receptionist
UPCOMING
EVENTS
Office Closed for Holiday
July 3
No Sunday School
July 5
Water Wars
July 9
InTown
July 9 & 16
.5K Spray Churchwide Event
July 19
2 JULY 2015 | SOUTHWOOD.ORG

PASTOR’S NOTE
Southwood and Race
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about Southwood
and race – not the .5K kind that is coming up
later this month and for which I am feverishly
training – but the more serious kind that has
been in the news across the nation in recent days
and months. Events in Charleston, Ferguson,
Baltimore, and many other cities have given
people in every city pause to consider the state
of race relations in their own backyards. In the
General Assembly update further in this issue of
BRANCHES, you’ll read that the PCA (our own
denomination) is currently discussing our need
for repentance and reconciliation over racial
issues at individual and corporate levels.
And right here at Southwood God has had us
in the midst of a sermon series on the book
of Ephesians, where we have marveled at the
beauty of the incredible diversity God has
designed his family to have – a diversity that is
marked particularly by different ethnicities and
backgrounds being a part of the same body in
Christ. It’s a glorious picture and one I know we
look forward to seeing be more of a reality at
Southwood in the coming years.
But we also have to admit that of all the diversity
here on Sunday mornings (and there is a lot!),
racial diversity is not what it could or should be.
We have to admit that racial differences cause
tension in Huntsville. We have to admit that,
in particular, our African-American neighbors
have experienced years of discrimination and
continue to suffer from systems that do them
harm. We have to admit that even in our own
hearts subtle prejudices have been allowed to
dwell unchecked and unconfessed.
And these issues are a big deal not only to
politicians but also to God himself – so they
should matter to us, too. Even the subtle
prejudices of our hearts denigrate the image of
God in our neighbors, whom He has created black
and white and many colors in between. Further,
the hurt that years of personal discrimination and
systemic injustice have caused to our brothers
and sisters is immense. If you listen, they’ll tell
you that the Charleston shooting is painful in
itself as well as painful as one more instance in
a pattern of wrong that has accumulated against
them. Finally (for now), these issues should
matter to us because of the damage done to
Christ’s Church when we allow barriers to divide
us that Jesus has destroyed and thus practically
deny the power of the gospel.
So, where do we start? If our vision for racial
relationships at Southwood and in Huntsville is
to look different in 10 years from where we stand
today, what things must we be doing right now?
We must start by admitting we don’t have all the
answers, so we need to listen and learn from our
non-Caucasian brothers and sisters. We need to
understand some of their unique perspectives,
not simply try to help them understand ours.
Taking advice from some of my African-American
pastor friends, I have personally committed to
sitting down with some of our minority members
and attenders to listen to their experiences and
to understand better what it feels like to be a
person of color in our church.
Many of you have friends in Huntsville who
already trust you enough to share with you their
experiences when they sense your sincere desire
to hear them. Listen first, but don’t hesitate to
cry with them and confess to them as they share.
If you don’t have such friends, that’s the place to
start. Pray that God would show you people who
look different from you whom you can learn from
and love. Who are the people at work, at your
kids’ school, in your neighborhood whom you
could intentionally get to know?
This note is intended to start a conversation
about diversity that needs to be ongoing among
us. I hope you long with me to see a more diverse
sanctuary at Southwood on Sunday mornings.
For that to occur, our circles of friends must be
more diverse, our hearts must be more humble,
and our lips must confess our sin more quickly
and deeply. May God so bless his church!
Will Spink
Associate Pastor
If you would like to contact
Will, use the following:
will.spink@southwood.org
@WillSpink
JULY 2015 | SOUTHWOOD.ORG 3

SOUTHWOOD
relate
GENERAL ASSEMBLY REPORT
A Historic Night for the PCA—and Only the Beginning
There are many things that do not often characterize Presbyterian
church meetings—particularly the annual General Assembly—
including the following: 1) Spontaneous and lengthy seasons
of prayer, 2) Prolonged personal and corporate confessions of
sin, 3) Thoughtful and helpful dialogue across generations and
ethnicities, and 4) Making any good decisions after 10:00pm.
All of these elements came together on the final evening of last
month’s General Assembly in Chattanooga to produce what
many are calling a historic evening for our denomination, the
Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). About a dozen Southwood
elders and members attended parts of the assembly, and some
witnessed this night as well.
The discussion began with an attempt to pass a denominational
statement of repentance regarding our failures to pursue racial
justice particularly during the civil rights era and even up to the
present day. Such corporate statements are always challenging
to craft due to the large number of perspectives present and
the desire to perfect words with even good intentions. Many
of the elders at the assembly, including several of our African
American brothers (like Rev. Alex Shipman, Senior Pastor of The
Village Church), spoke to the need to proceed carefully with
such a statement and to work toward other practical steps of
repentance and reconciliation alongside such a decision.
Thus, the task of finalizing such a denominational statement was
sent on to next year’s assembly. In the meantime, however, the
overwhelming sense among the several hundred commissioners
was that the time for repentance regarding these issues was long
overdue and need not be delayed until a statement had been
perfected. Among many who rose to confess their own sin and
the sin of their churches was Rev. Jim Baird, one
of the PCA’s founding fathers, who delivered a
passionate speech confessing sin and calling
all our churches to self-examination (picture
included on this page).
Baird said among other things, “And I confess,
that in 1973, the only thing I understood was
that we were starting a new denomination, which we did. And
I confess that I did not raise a finger for civil rights. I was taught
(sic) with one thing, and that was to start a new denomination,
for the sake of the scripture, for the sake of the preservation of
historic Presbyterianism, and for the furtherance of the gospel
proclamation. And so I confess my sin. I’m not confessing the sin
of my fathers, I’m confessing my sin, and of those twelve men.
Were we racists? No. But we did not do anything to help our
black brethren.”
Baird’s speech drew broad applause, and following this discussion,
the Moderator allowed an unplanned season of prayer. The
praying lasted over an hour and past 11:00pm local time as one
man after another—from multiple races—rose to confess and to
pray for healing in our denomination and nation. Following the
time of prayer, a briefer statement was also submitted that some
200-300 elders signed to register their commitment to racial
reconciliation (picture of line to sign statement included at the
bottom of this page).
“We the 43rd General Assembly of the PCA (the undersigned)
understand that repentance is not merely a statement, but steps
of faithfulness that follow. Allowing that more time is needed to
adequately work on such a denominational statement, but also
the need for action now, we recognize and confess our church’s
covenantal and generational involvement in and complicity with
racial injustice inside and outside of our churches during the
Civil Rights period. We commit ourselves to the task of truth
and repentance over the next year for the glory of God and the
furtherance of the Gospel. We urge the congregations of the
Presbyterian Church in America to confess their own particular
sins and failures as may be appropriate and to seek truth and
repentance for the Gospel’s sake within their
own local communities.”
All of us acknowledge that one evening is only
the beginning of what is needed. But men of
many ages and races agreed that it was a good
beginning in one of the most vital areas in the
life of the Church of Jesus Christ in our day.
4 JULY 2015 | SOUTHWOOD.ORG

SOUTHWOOD
by Chad Townsley
Girasoles (pronounced he-rah-so-lace) is the Spanish word for
sunflower. It is also the namesake of the program for foster boys
where Southwood recently sent a team of students and adult
leaders to serve. Sunflowers, as you may know, follow the sun’s
path throughout the day, taking in as many of its nutrients as
possible. As sunflowers follow the sun, the desire for the boys of
the Girasoles program is that each boy would follow the Son of
God. Like the flowers, we all need the care and spiritual sustenance
that Jesus offers us as we should constantly follow him and look to
him for life. The recent trip to the Girasoles home of Kusi taught
team members, among many other things, the value of faith and
trust in God.
As we served on the mission field of Peru, each team member was
regularly reminded of God’s faithfulness through the people we
met and the stories that we heard. It was an honor to observe and
participate in the work that God is doing. As Southwood partners
with the Girasoles program of Scripture Union, Peru, it is exciting
not only to support their work financially but also to put a team on
the ground to represent our church community there. Thank you
for your prayers and financial support as we served God’s people
at Kusi. Thank you for your prayers for our team and our safety. Our
hearts and lives were changed, and we are so excited for our next
opportunity to return.
JULY 2015 | SOUTHWOOD.ORG 5

Thank you to all the volunteers who participated in making an amazing VBS.
From those who gave of their time and energy, to those who prayed, to those
who gave resources and food—it took the entire church body along with
months of preparation to produce an event of this caliber. While making many
new friends, children learned of the gospel and sent it to Thailand in the form
of 400 New Testament Bibles. See the fruit of your labor!

Thank you to all the volunteers and staff who lead
CLIMB, our Ascent 6th grade community mission week.
Through sweat, hard work, and love these students
served our community at Deep Roots of AL, Manna
House, Lincoln Village, and the CARE Center. Eyes
were opened and grace expressed and experienced.

elate
SOUTHWOOD
JOBS FOR LIFE:
A PERSONAL ANGLE
by Sarah Niemitz
A lot of people ask me what Jobs for Life is, and the simple answer
can sound a little impersonal. “Jobs for Life is a biblically based
jobs preparedness program that seeks to give hope to the hopeless
through the dignity of work.” Great, but what does that ACTUALLY
look like? Do the “hopeless” want to work? If we are only teaching
“soft skills,” does it really help anyone in a significant way? I am
excited to tell you that the answer to both of these questions is
YES! I could give you statistics or an article on the biblical basis
for a relational approach to job training, and while both would be
valuable, I think the following story is a better illustration.
“Before attending the Jobs for Life class at Twickenham Church in
Huntsville, AL, Monica* was working at a job with minimum wage—
which was not enough to support her and her three children. She
was also a recovering drug addict and a convicted felon. She had
never even applied for a job, and had zero confidence in applying—
assuming that no one would hire her with a criminal record.
‘I prayed for a window, and I got a door called Jobs for Life. I just
needed a chance. And Jobs for Life got me that chance. It taught
me that I was valuable… and gave me the confidence I needed to
overcome obstacles that seemed like mountains to me.
'My JfL team may not know this, but they changed everything about
me. They taught me not only how to deal with the past, but how to
speak properly, how to eat in public, how to walk with integrity and
moral character, and how to give generously. And most of all, how
to love like Christ.
'The Bible says the Lord will give you exceedingly and abundantly
more than you can ask or even imagine. I’m proof of that. He gave
me beauty for ashes. He took me from the pit to the palace, just
like Joseph. Jobs for Life perfected that purpose for me. There are
so many people out there just like me, who just need a chance. I
think Jobs for Life is the most valuable program out there. It’s the
work of God himself.’” This story appears publicly on the Jobs for
Life website.
Will you consider participating with Southwood in our first Jobs
for Life class this fall? Whether you mentor a student, serve on the
business network, bring a meal or pray regularly for the participants,
you have the chance to share the dignifying love of Christ with
someone like Monica.
Find out how you can be a part
of Jobs For Life this fall! There
are so many opportunities:
SERVE AS A STUDENT
CHAMPION
PROVIDE A MEAL FOR
ONE OF THE CLASSES
JOIN THE PRAYER TEAM
JOIN THE BUSINESS
NETWORK
To find out the best way
to connect, please email
sarah.niemitz@southwood.org
*Name changed to protect privacy.
JULY 2015 | SOUTHWOOD.ORG 9

SOUTHWOOD
WHY WE CAMP
One Small Group's Story ---- by Karl Pittard
Someone in our small group once said, “This is like being in a
youth group again, but now we can drive, have resources, and we
make the rules!”
Our small group has really run with that youth group theme. Some
of our events have included a couples date night scavenger hunt
and a Super Bowl party hosted by the Welches to reunite with small
group alums we miss dearly. The Sholes family had a Sunday night
football shepherding event welcoming a new family to the church.
We can’t forget the incredibly retro roller-skating family fun night
with glow sticks. To cap off the year, we had a “Top Gun” style BBQ
graduation (had to be there to graduate!) for finishing our study
of Shepherding A Child’s Heart, complete with yearbook signing.
Most recently, in an effort to keep up over the summer, we camped
at Guntersville State Park (check out the pictures on this page!).
Our group celebrates anniversaries, birthdays, etc. by simply
putting a candle in a cookie and cheering once a month. This small
group celebrates God’s blessings and grace.
So what is the need to get away as a small group and laugh, cut
loose, and just be silly together? To know this, you have to know
our past year.
For our group of 12 adults and 15 kids, it has been quite a year.
God has blessed us with two babies and five new jobs, led us
through the loss of two parents, and calmed our hearts when
we experienced other heartaches and unmentionables. He has
provided us a place where we can regularly voice our struggles
as sinners and lend an empathetic ear—looking to the Word for
understanding and His glory in it all. For this we are grateful and
we celebrate. When those hard times come upon a small group,
it is a beautiful thing to witness His work in the heart’s response
toward each other. In other words, similar to marriage, we observe
ourselves drawn closer together by first drawing closer to Him. This
is why we camp.
Unbeknownst to us, He was paving the way all along. The year prior
to last, God used the Holbrooks to lead our group through Glorious
Ruin, a book on suffering that prepared our hearts for the struggles
we would face this year. Critical to the comfortability of watching
over each other’s kids in those tough times, he used the Sholes to
spur the idea to have a lesson for the kids each week, which naturally
led to an extended parent network. And like water meeting on the
other side of stone in a stream, we continue to find each other
here and there for a natural support or for encouragement and fun
outside of the usual small group structure.
Meet our small group… it is just like all the others. For that we are
blessed! Self-described, it is a Christian embrace that exposes the
similarity of our daily struggles and joys, unites us in prayer through
our unique sufferings, and allows us an opportunity to break from
the week and dive into the Word. Simply put, we are amazed by
God’s first and unending love, and therefore we love the absolute
stuffing out of each other in response. To tell you the truth, there is
nothing “small” about this small group. Not in number. Not in love.
10 JULY 2015 | SOUTHWOOD.ORG

elate
SOUTHWOOD
ALL THAT IS FAIR
THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH,
THE WAGES OF ART IS...
NOT MUCH BETTER!
by James Parker
Art. What is art? It refers to an artifact or a performance that
is made by a person or persons. As Christians, we say we value
people, yet we often neglect to consider the person behind the
art. We tend to focus on the face value of the artistic offering.
Consuming art in this way is near-sighted, and we ought to
reconsider our relationship with art and artists. Let me explain...
Many of the folks in these music circles whom I've had the pleasure
of knowing actually do art as their living. And I mean this broadly
to include anyone who is a working musician, producer, artist,
songwriter, engineer, etc., and who does not have a regular
paycheck coming in from somewhere else. They are amazing
people. Not only are they supremely talented (most of the time),
but they are also very brave to do what they do. They create
things that are often quite personal and then fling them out into
the world without knowing how they might be received. What a
disconcerting feeling! It's a difficult occupation to say the least.
So, how valuable is their work? This is a tricky question. Within
the popular music genres and some sub-genres, an upheaval in
the valuation of their product has taken place. Former sources of
revenue have already gone away or are on the way out. Traditional
radio is losing listeners faster than newspapers are losing readers.
Physical CD sales have plummeted so low that large retail record
stores have gone out of business. Digital music downloads
have also declined significantly. What is left is revenue from live
performances and revenue from digital music streaming. This is
a conundrum because not everyone in the industry is a touring
musician or technician and the royalties collected from streaming
services, like Pandora and Spotify, are such tiny sums of money
that it's insulting. The resulting effect on our society is that we
have developed an expectation that recorded music ought to be
free. We will still pay to see concerts, which is good, but all of the
effort and time that goes into producing a top-notch album is now
worth very little, or nothing. There are so many different factors
that have made the perfect storm for this to happen. They are
technological, societal, economic, etc. They run the gamut. But
what is clear is that this scenario has made it all the more difficult
for artists to make a living.
What can be done about it? There probably isn't anything that
can be done to stop or slow down the changes in technology that
have led us to this point. And we probably wouldn't want to do
that. The internet, digital recording software, mp3 players, etc.,
can all be very helpful. Looking back a few hundred years, the
invention of the printing press was the reason the Reformation
exploded. Without it, Martin Luther probably would have been
burned at the stake as a heretic and no one would remember
him. So clearly, technological advances can be wonderful tools.
Back to the present: we can't change the progress made in music
production and distribution over the last 20 years, nor can we
divert its effect on the market place. But we can make an effort to
change our perspectives.
Here's what I mean. The way that we listen to music is just one of
a thousand different aspects of our consumer culture. We expect
that it's free, we use it to do what we want, then we discard it and
move on to the next thing. This is not an especially helpful way
to handle things, particularly as it concerns art and artists. Good
art is meant to inspire and enlighten us. And when we receive it, a
relationship is built. Art is personal. It is offered by persons out of
a deep love they have for the subject or the medium. So when we
exegete and criticize works of art, we ought to remember that we
are dealing with human beings. And this requires something from
us—humility.
This small change that we can make probably won't affect the low
rates artists are paid. But it might help create an environment
where artists are more directly and fully supported by those who
resonate with their art. Again the internet has become a helpful
tool in this area. There are sites like Patreon and Kickstarter where
fans can pay the artist directly for a project or a performance. There
are also companies like Noisetrade where artists offer their music
at a "name your own price" point. You can download the music or
books that are offered for free or you can choose to pay more in
order to "tip" the artist. These are small things but they help!
I am not saying that all art is worth something. Some of it is very
bad! But, all art does have something to say and its perspective
is intimately tied to its maker. A shift in perspective from simply
consuming art to actually receiving it and responding to it will
help us and it will help artists. It will enable us to become better
listeners and hopefully more well-rounded humans, and it will
encourage the artists we love to continue doing what they
do. After all, if they don't, then who will? So the next time
you stream a song by your favorite band, try to remember that
you're being invited into a conversation. See what it has to say.
Ask yourself if it resonates with you. And, if it does, decide how
you can better support them in their work! Because they are
boldly offering themselves packaged in a medium that we can
receive. At its best, this offering is incarnational. It's like when
the Father had a message that would save the human race, He
wrote Himself into the story, put on skin and bones, and offered
Himself even unto death on a cross. Because He loved us, His
subject and His medium!
JULY 2015 | SOUTHWOOD.ORG 11

.5K SPRAY
Sunday, July 19 • 3:00-5:00PM
Join us for a churchwide event full of fun,
fellowship, and a whole lot of water!
Race heats for all ages and free
shirts to the first 350 racers!