BRANCHES August 2015

BRANCHESON MISSION TOGETHERHow a Classic Game Demonstratesthe Value of Small Groupswhere can you fit in Jobs for Life?photos from .5K SprayAUGUST 2015 | southwood.org

SOUTHWOODoverviewCONTENTS3 pastor's noteBRANCHESDESIGNER Phillip LackeyCONTRIBUTORSWill SpinkChad TownsleySarah NiemitzNiña BantaRamsay & Elizabeth NuwayhidLane & Emily PolakPHOTOSPhillip LackeyWinnie WinfordKatie CochranFEEDBACK!We want to hear from you! Please sendyour suggestions and comments tobranches@southwood.org1000 CARL T. JONES DRIVE | HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA 35802(256) 882-3085 | WWW.SOUTHWOOD.ORGMELISSA PATTERSON Interim Administrative DirectorADULT MINISTRIESSARAH NIEMITZ Director of Community Development/AssimilationJAMES PARKER Chief MusicianWILL SPINK Associate Pastor/ShepherdingSTUDENT MINISTRIESKIM DELCHAMPS Administrative AssistantNIÑA BANTA Director of ChildrenNANCY McCREIGHT Assistant Director /Children/NurseryCHAD TOWNSLEY Associate Pastor/High-LifeWINNIE WINFORD Assistant Director/High-LifeMINISTRY SUPPORTTERRI GOOD Accountant/BookkeeperJONATHAN BARNETTE Director of CommunicationPHILLIP LACKEY Graphic DesignerJANICE CROWSON Director of Facilities/FinanceELIZABETH BUTZ Receptionist4 reflecting on marriageCouples sharing what they learned5 back to sunday schoolNew faces, new places, & new ideas6 on mission togetherThe value of small groups8 .5K sprayPhoto montage10 session updateKeeping you informed11 where can you fit in jobs for life?Finding out ways to helpUPCOMINGEVENTSFamily Movie NightAugust 7Fall Sunday School KickoffAugust 9Jr. High-Life ReturnsSeptember 2Southwood Men's RetreatSeptember 11 & 12Sr. High-Life ReturnsSeptember 13FAMILY MOVIENIGHTFriday, August 7 • 6pmAt the LodgePopcorn & Grilled Hot Dogs$4 per person$15 per family2 AUGUST 2015 | SOUTHWOOD.ORG

PASTOR’S NOTERelationships MatterIn our edition of Branches this past May, I wrotea brief description of a book I was planning toread during the summer months. I am proudto say that despite numerous youth trips, otherchurch life events and two busy kids around myhouse, I completed that book. I must admit,however, that it was a double-spaced bookof only 226 pages, making the challenge lessthan impressive. Nevertheless, I finished andthoroughly enjoyed Donald Miller’s newestbook, Scary Close. With August (unfortunatelyand begrudgingly) marking the end of thesummer reading season and the beginning ofthe school semester, I thought I would sharea few quick words from Donald Miller’s book.Intimate relationships matter. One of thegreatest forms in which we can experiencelove and learn more about God the Father isin and through relationships. Not, however,the common type of relationships which oftenfill our lives. Not the acquaintance, passer-by,“hey, how ya’ doin?” kind of relationships, butthe ones in which we truly stop to expose whowe are, good and bad, to another person.We must be willing to drop the act, stoppretending that we’re something we’re notand show people brokenness. This is intimacyand it is the soil in which the gospel grows inour lives. Until we are willing to drop the act,we will continue in a cycle of chasing applauseand affirmation that won’t fill us up. As weengage in relationships, inmate relationships,we rest in the truth of the gospel that we areloved and valued by God the Father. It is thenthat we can expose who we are as sinners andsaints in Heaven and grow as we share our livesand experiences with others.Because of Jesus, you are good atrelationships. One of the strongest chaptersin Miller’s book communicates this one truth—despite your past failings and shortcomings,you are still good at relationships, because ofthe difference Jesus makes in your heart. Thisdoesn’t mean that you are meant to be someYoda-like mentor to every person who crossesyour path. What it does mean is that you needto be courageous when it comes to taking therisks of intimacy. You are good at relationshipsbecause when you have been transformedby the gospel, you have something pure andlife-giving to offer other people. You havesomething to offer that is greater than yourself.You have the love, acceptance and calling ofJesus to share with others.Another school year is ahead and this meanslots of opportunities for new and continuedrelationships. Pray that God would move inyour heart in such a way that you would bewilling to expose the broken areas of your life.Pray that God would place particular peoplein your life to share the gospel with. Pray thatGod would teach you your worth and value asit's founded in Jesus. This is how the kingdomof God moves forward—by sharing our livesin intimate ways. The beauty and grace of thegospel is powerful because of Jesus, workingto redeem our lives. Pursue relationships—they matter and you are good at them!Chad TownsleyAssociate PastorIf you would like to contactChad, use the following:chad.townsley@southwood.org@thectownAUGUST 2015 | SOUTHWOOD.ORG 3

REFLECTING ON MARRIAGEOur Under 35 and 45-65 Sunday School groups are wrapping up a class on marriage based on a book by Tim Keller and taught by AlanJudge and Skeets Simonis. Two of the couples in the class—Lane and Emily Polak (married 2 years) and Ramsay and Elizabeth Nuwayhid(married 27 years)—share what they took away from the class.1) What did you learn in the marriage Sunday School class that you would share with someone about to get married?Ramsay: “Not only is it vital and important to have Christ as your common denominator between you and your spouse, butmoreover, we must learn to apply his principles daily in our own personal lives, and the beauty of this is, as we grow in ourpersonal relationship with Christ, we THEN grow deeper, richer and stronger in our relationship with our spouse! Wow, howawesome!”Emily: “We learned many things that both echoed and built upon the things we learned recently in pre-marital counselingat Southwood. What I would love to share with others is the reminder that our spouse isn't our soulmate in worldly terms. Itisn't the reason things go well or a reason to get out if they don't. It's comforting to know that both people are committed toworking through conflict and encouraging one another to grow closer to God and each other instead of giving up.”Lane: “One of the things that stood out the most to me was when and when not to confront your spouse about a potentialconflict. … I usually feel that when my wife does something that annoys me, my sinful heart tries to manipulate the situationto my favor. There is confusion between sinful behavior and behavior that I simply don't like, the lines are blurred and I endup feeling guilty. In the class we were taught this simple question: 'Will confronting or not confronting my spouse affect herin her walk or growth in the spirit?' If stepping forward and calling my spouse out does not reflect the gospel, then I have nobusiness saying anything. By answering that question, the lines are no longer blurred—and MY sin is completely exposed.”2) What will your spouse be most grateful you heard in the class?Emily: “I know we both were convicted when the speaker shared that ‘speaking the truth in love’ doesn't mean telling yourspouse all the ways they can make your life easier, but it means loving their eternal soul so much that you lovingly confrontthose sins that distract their heart away from God.”Ramsay: “Hmmm, that marriage is not only about sex and my good looks!”Elizabeth: “I came the first week without Ramsay as he was still recovering from his heart attack. I purchased the book. A weeklater when I was having a pity party about the changes we’ve experienced due to the event, I started reading. I was focusingon the fact that we had missed our vacation at the beach, not gone on a date night or out to dinner, not been able to do ournightly walks with the dog, added duties for me around the house. … Upon reading I was reminded about considering theinterests of others as more important than your own, about the ability to serve another requires the Holy Spirit to drive thegospel into my heart until it changes me, not him. I found by serving Ramsay instead of seeking to make myself happy, it couldactually give me more joy. I was running on fumes and looking to the wrong filling station to fulfill me.”3) What did you enjoy about having a range of ages learning about marriage together?Emily: “It was really neat to learn alongside newlyweds, singles, and couples married for several years because no one gaveoff the impression that they had this marriage thing already figured out. It was an encouraging reminder that it's okay if myhusband and I still struggle in these different areas for years to come, and that we're not alone.”Lane: “I really enjoyed having a diverse range of ages in this Sunday School. To me it made it seem more relatable with theyounger couples like ourselves, but it was interesting to see the growth and wisdom from the couples that have walked thisout longer than us. At the end of the day, it made me realize how much I will always need Jesus in my marriage.”Elizabeth: “Getting another perspective about marriage from those younger than us was refreshing. We are all in differentstages of our marriage yet we all struggle to fulfill the purpose of marriage, which is friendship. The class was asked to definefriendship. Just this simple exercise forced me to evaluate just how good a friend I am to Ramsay. I admit some of the thingsmentioned—trust, loyalty, fun, similar interests, honesty, confidante, commitment, accepting, non-judgmental, shares sorrowsand joys, mutual understanding, quick to forgive, lifts you up, always there, unconditional—I had not been doing faithfully. Ineeded that reminder!”

visiting each other in the hospital, investing in each other’s kids,learning to become real friends.In other words, we start the race by connecting to each other,learning each other’s stories, sharing a variety of aspects of ourlives with each other, and praying and planning with each otherabout why God has placed us here and put us together. It’s stageone of the mission to which God has called us because He hasn’tcalled us to this mission alone. Instead, in his great kindness, Hehas called us to be a part of a new community that is connectedto each other by Him and moving to include others for the sakeof his kingdom.Locking Arms (or Legs): Relationships with GodIf you have ever run in a three-legged race, you know the key tothe whole race happens before you start moving: getting tiedtightly together. If the knot is too loose, you will struggle to movein unison once the race begins. The more the bandana unites twolegs into one, the better the chance you have to move quickly tothe finish line together.In the Church our bond, of course, is Jesus Christ. He unitesotherwise different and disconnected people into one body andone family because through Jesus we are adopted by our HeavenlyFather. Thus, our relationships with God are vital to our commonmission. It is this relationship with our Father that is the second keyrelationship in small groups, where we consider his truth together.As we get to know each other more and share more of life witheach other, we also have opportunity to discuss where God’s Wordintersects with the joys and challenges of life. We learn more of hisgrace together, we help each other wrestle through seeking hiswill for our lives, and we help each other depend on Him in life’shard places. Tied tightly together because of Jesus, we are readyto run on his mission.Running the Race: Relationships with Our NeighborsI hope this goes without saying, but you’ll never get a ribbon inthe three-legged race if you stand at the starting line getting toknow your partner, planning your strategy, and fretting over thetightness of the knot. Those things are important in themselves,but they also serve a larger purpose: enabling you to run the raceto the best of your ability.The race or mission God has given us as his people is to partnerwith him as He transforms Huntsville and beyond through thegood news of Jesus. We want our neighbors and friends to knowJesus personally, we want our workplaces, neighborhoods, andrelationships to be full of his grace, and we want our city to reflectthe beauty, diversity, and justice of his kingdom.This is no small task, and it’s one none of us is capable of on ourown, which is why God has called us together into his Church.Imagine trying to run a Jobs for Life program on your own. Evenif you worked full-time at it, you could never relationally engagewith the number of students that you could with the church unitedtogether behind it. Can you single-handedly address the issuesof ingrained racism, generational poverty, and systemic injusticeeven in your own local school? No way! Even if you decided to bea foreign missionary, you would need a support system of prayerand financial help.And so God has given us each other. If you want to be a partof exciting things like these happening at Southwood and inHuntsville, start with joining a small group. It sets you up for beinga part of a team rather than an individual hero. It connects you toothers who share your need for God’s grace and your passion tosee others impacted by his grace, too.As we move outward on a mission to develop this third key smallgroup relationship—our relationships with our neighbors—thebeautiful thing is that what we are offering people is the first tworelationships we started with. What we are seeking to do is tointroduce them to the God we have been getting to know moredeeply and to invite them into a community that welcomes andcares for broken and hurting people the way God has welcomedand cared for us. The honest, safe, and life-giving relationshipwe have developed with each other is exactly what our fractured,lonely world needs. And the gracious, compassionate, andforgiving God we know is exactly who our broken, sinful worldneeds. We need our relationships with each other and with God,and so do our neighbors. We introduce them to Him and invitethem into our “family.”Getting Back Up: Imperfect Small GroupsOne last thought about three-legged races: they’re often not athing of beauty. There’s the occasional pair that runs as thoughthey’ve been practicing together for years, but there are usuallymore pairs tripping over each other and falling to the ground.Merely being in a small group doesn’t make relationships andbeing a part of God’s mission easy. Sometimes it’s harder to runwhile your leg is tied to someone else’s, and sometimes it feelsharder to be on mission together with a small group than to go dosomething by yourself. Relationships are just messy. The beautyof our relationships with each other, though, is that when we fall,we’re there to pick each other up and encourage each other tocarry on with the mission God has given us.Do you want to do big things for God? Start small. Grab a partner(or several), lock arms in Christ, and then run together where Hehas called you.NEXT WAVE:Small GroupsSign-ups August 2-16Southwood.org/growingsmall

.5K SprayThank you to everyone forhelping to make this yearwild, wet, and fun!AUGUST 2015 | SOUTHWOOD.ORG 9

SOUTHWOODbranchesSESSION UPDATEAs school starts back up and we head into the fall season, theSession is looking forward to a full couple of months on thechurch calendar. There are many opportunities to develop deeperconnections with each other and with Southwood in the daysahead, including many you can sign up or show up for in August.If you are not already connected to the people and heart ofSouthwood the way you would like to be, consider participating ina small group (sign-ups this month), checking out a Sunday Schoolclass (new classes including Welcome to Southwood begin August16), or signing up for the Men’s Retreat (register in August, retreatSeptember 11-12).The topic of marriage has been on our hearts for our culture as wellas for our church, and we are eager to walk with you and provideshepherding for any issues you may be dealing with personally ormore generally in regards to marriage. There are many avenues forquestions and concerns to be addressed, as in God’s providencewe are just wrapping up a Sunday School class on marriage, weare headed into several sermons on marriage in the book ofEpehesians, and we are planning an informal lunch conversationabout this topic at what we call “Pastors on the Patio” sometimesoon (keep an eye out for more information).Finally, don’t forget the priority of prayer, the heartbeat of a churchdependant on God. Please join with us in praying for our SearchCommittee as they continue to labor on our behalf. Pray for ourchurch that God would make us increasingly into the communityHe has designed us to be for the sake of his glory and the blessingof the nations. And pray for our city, as students go back to schooland as our Jobs for Life program seeks to serve many in ourcommunity while simultaneously teaching us more about God’slove and kindness to us.What Ephesians says about these vitalrelationships—a sermon seriesstarting August 9th10 AUGUST 2015 | SOUTHWOOD.ORG

anchesSOUTHWOODWHERE CAN YOU FITIN JOBS FOR LIFE?Sarah NiemitzYou have heard me say 100 times that, as image bearers of God,human beings are relational, and when sin entered the world it brokeall of those relationships. When we look for the root of poverty, wefind that it lies in those very broken relationships, and true freedomfrom poverty must include relational reconciliation and healing.This is why the Church, as Christ designed her, is such an importantplayer in poverty alleviation, because she welcomes people not onlyinto relationships with Christ but into relationships with one another.Jobs for Life is a biblically based jobs preparedness program thatworks to heal the broken relationships that render its students unableto find or maintain meaningful employment. Yes, there is an intense,8-week curriculum that explores the biblical foundations for workand teaches resume and interview skills. But Jobs for Life also helpscreate a huge network for their students—a network committed toloving these students in a variety of ways.Take a look at the opportunities below and consider where you bestfit in Southwood's Jobs for Life network. Class runs from September8 to November 10. Our students need you and me to be the body ofChrist for them, and we need the chance to learn from our studentsas we move together toward reconciliation and hope.Here Are the VolunteersWe Still Need to MakeThis Class Successful:Champions — 4Bring a Meal — 14Coordinate childcare for class — 1-2Volunteer with childcare during class — 8-12Business Network Members — UnlimitedPrayer Team — UnlimitedTo learn more about each positionor to sign up, please send an emailto sarah.niemitz@southwood.orgAdministratorStudents, Instructors, ChampionsFinancial ContributionBusiness Network: Make connections, help fiind interviews, foster community awareness, offer resume support, employ graduatesAUGUST 2015 | SOUTHWOOD.ORG 11Meals, Transportation, Childcare,Church Family: Pray, welcome graduates & families on a Sunday morning, open doors to small group, celebrate successes, encouragement, share the gospel, express grace, lovePrayer Team

at DeSoto State ParkSeptember 11-12Sign-up today at southwood.org/mensretreat (deadline August 28)