September 2017 web

BRANCHES
THE STORY OF BEING
KNOWN
Sharing Our Hope
with Our Youth
Core Commitments:
Dependence and Prayer
SEPTEMBER 2017 | southwood.org
Church Life:
Southwood Men

SOUTHWOOD
overview
CONTENTS
3 pastor's note
BRANCHES
DESIGNER Phillip Lackey
CONTRIBUTORS
Peter Render
Will Spink
Ron Clegg
Sarah Niemitz
Niña Cash
James Parker
PHOTOS
Will Spink
Eli Maples
Gayle Clegg
Southwood Members
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
COVER PHOTO
Bibles in front of the Lodge
CHURCH STAFF
CHRISTINE BETTS Assistant Director, Youth/Families
NIÑA CASH Director of Children's Ministry
RITA CLARDY Executive Assistant
SHANNON CLARK Administrative Assistant
RON CLEGG Assistant Pastor, Discipleship
TY COMMONS Youth and Family Intern
JANICE CROWSON Director of Facilities/Finance
KIM DELCHAMPS Administrative Assistant
TERRI GOOD Accountant/Bookkeeper
ELI MAPLES Graphic Designer
SARAH NIEMITZ Director of Community Development
JAMES PARKER Chief Musician
PETER RENDER Assistant Pastor, Youth/Families
ANGELA SIERK Assistant Director/Children's Ministry
WILL SPINK Senior Pastor
4 core commitments
dependence and prayer
5 community development
Jobs for Life and India
6 the story of being known
sharing our hope with our youth
8 church life
southwood men
9 session update
10 church life
women's conference lookback
11 all thats fair
nobody wants to work for it
UPCOMING EVENTS
No Sunday School
September 3
Jr. High Life begins
September 6
Sr. High Life begins
September 10
Jobs for Life Class begins
September 11
Men's Retreat
September 15-16
Hey Day
October 22
Ongoing Ways to Engage in PRAYER:
Prayer Guide
E-mailed on Fridays with copies available on Sundays, these guides are a tool to direct us in
praying together for kingdom advancement at Southwood and around the world as well as
for particular congregational needs.
Prayer Cards
These cards are in the pew pockets every Sunday so that you can easily communicate needs
for prayer to the staff, elders, and/or congregation as appropriate.
Prayer Room
This room across from the Guest Center has been particularly designated for
prayer throughout the week and especially on Sundays. We would love to see
it occupied regularly by groups and individuals!
Prayer Gathering
At 8:30am on Sunday mornings, we meet in the Prayer Room to pray for the
Lord’s blessing upon our worship and community as well as for personal
2 SEPTEMBER 2017 | SOUTHWOOD.ORG
needs. All are welcome to join us for this special time.

PASTOR’S NOTE
The Experience of Expressed Grace
Coming out of seminary, I was warned of the
perils that my family was sure to face in church
life. Many of these things we already have
painful experience in from other places, so we
felt prepared as we moved to Huntsville. Emily
and I both know the reality of our life together.
We understand what it means for a church
family to accept and tolerate our version of
crazy. We know how hard it can be to keep
loving and giving when it seems like the other
side does nothing but take.
When we hit the ground here at Southwood
a little over a year ago, we were both living
alertly, waiting to experience shame and guilt
for our parenting style and results. We love our
children desperately and are simultaneously
appalled by any hitch in their giddy-up. It
almost can seem as though the mirror that the
behavior of our children holds up has to do with
the state of our souls, with our very identity.
A year later, we have been ministered to in
ways that we probably did not understand at
the time. The patience, acceptance, and love
for our children has been above and beyond
that for which we could have possibly hoped.
Certainly we have had to meet poor behavior
head on, issue our fair share of apologies, and
ask for forgiveness. These things, however,
have been the exception to the rule of grace
at Southwood.
Our core commitment of valuing the least,
the lost, the littlest, the lonely, and the
left-out often meets the road when it involves
children’s ministry. People seem attracted to
the machine, to the pomp, to the curriculum, to
the variety of interactions that children get to
have with God’s Word. I would argue that our
true success is with the people, both staff and
volunteers, who pour their transformed hearts
into our children.
This is a microcosm of what it means for
Southwood to be a relational church that
experiences and expresses the grace of Jesus
Christ. Although I hesitate to say that the “bad
and ugly” is expected, it is handled in stride
with the same love and care as the “good.”
In situation after situation with our children,
others remind Emily and me that God loves
us, his covenant is made with us and with our
children, and that our continued effort to raise
them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord
is all that is required. Not only that, but we also
have also been reminded regularly that other
brothers and sisters are there to help us with
their Christian nurture.
What a testimony it is when the people of God
push each other toward the reality of what
our Father is on about in this world. He has
adopted us as his children, so that we might
rely on him as our Father. He desires that we
would ask him to incline our hearts to his ways,
so that we will trust his will and rely upon him.
Certainly our Father disciplines those whom he
loves, but his love is our identity. In spite of
our nature, which keeps on taking, he stands
steadfast with his children, loving and giving. I
hope and pray that each of us knows more of
his love tomorrow than we did even today.
Peter Render
Assistant Pastor
If you would like to contact
Peter, use the following:
peter.render@southwood.org
SEPTEMBER 2017 | SOUTHWOOD.ORG 3

CORE COMMITMENTS
By Will Spink
WE RECOGNIZE OUR DEEP
DEPENDENCE AND NEED
FOR PRAYER.
We are a community constantly dependent upon God both
individually and corporately. In fact, this is a large part of
what it means that we must continually experience grace
ourselves. Our relationship with God is one where we remain
desperately needy and He remains gloriously sufficient – we
repent and He forgives; we depend and He provides. Because
God is committed to seeing his kingdom advance, we don’t
merely pray for the work of the church; rather, prayer is the
work of the church. Prayer is weak people prevailing upon a
strong Father to do mighty things in, through, and in spite
of us. – Matthew 6:9-13, Luke 18:1-8, I Samuel 1, Acts 2:42,
Psalm 71, Ephesians 6:10-20, James 5:16
CHRIST-CENTERED
DEPENDENCE AND
PRAYER
RESTORATION OF ALL
CREATION
RELATIONSHIPS
THE LEAST, LOST,
LITTLEST, LONELY, AND
LEFT-OUT
At an early age my parents taught me that “if you read your Bible
and pray every day, you’ll grow, grow, grow.” Come to think of it,
though, they said the same things about eating my vegetables,
doing my homework, and practicing piano. It was easy for me as
a kid to categorize prayer as one of those things I was supposed
to do, but I always felt I’d also be OK without praying – just as I
would make it through the day without broccoli.
I was fairly self-confident and independent, capable and
resourceful – and thus at least a bit hypocritical when it came to
prayer. I talked about praying way more than I prayed. Mercifully,
what God has done as I’ve grown older – and especially in the
past couple of years – is help me to see more of how desperate
and dependent I truly am. He’s shown me weaknesses and
inadequacies I wasn’t aware of. He’s shown me failures and needs
I didn’t want to acknowledge. And at the same time, He has
allowed me to see more of how faithful and capable He is.
good programs, it is not preaching about prayer; it is
actually praying – humbly bowing and pleading for the King
to hear us and speak to us and act for us.
Perhaps that children’s song about reading the Bible and
praying every day is a little simplistic or can even be taken
to be a little moralistic. But it’s also full of simple truth. One
of the things Church History teaches us, is that when the
Spirit of God brings revival to a church, a community, or
a country, it is almost always accompanied by a renewed
commitment of God’s people to the Bible and to prayer.
Simple perhaps? Yes, but profound when people grasp
their truly desperate dependence on a truly great God.
I still want to do great things for the kingdom. We still want
Southwood to be a church that proclaims the name of Christ to all
people and storms the gates of hell for King Jesus. But becoming
a prayerful church happens when we realize God’s commitment
to that mission and his power to accomplish it are exceedingly
greater than our own. When we actually pray, we bow the
knee to the King to acknowledge that He is the capable,
resourceful, independent one who nonetheless loves us and
delights to engage us in his kingdom work.
Prayer is presented in the Bible as a weapon in the
arsenal of God’s people not because they are a mighty
army in themselves but because in prayer they prevail
upon a mighty King who fights for them. When you
see a weakness in your church, do you tend to despair,
complain, or pray? When you see the brokenness in the
world, do you tend to despair, critique, or pray?
If there’s one thing that must happen for God’s kingdom
to advance through us, it is not church growth, it is not
4 SEPTEMBER 2017 | SOUTHWOOD.ORG

Southwood in India
By Ron Clegg
In the second half of October, Will Spink and Skeets Simonis will participate
in a conference for church planters and pastors in West central India. This
conference is hosted every other year by RIMI (Reaching Indians Ministries International),
one of our global mission partners, and about 2,000 participants
will be coming from all across South Asia. Will will be preaching twice from the
Sermon on the Mount in Matthew with the focus of the conference being "Living
in the Kingdom of God Now to Advance His Mission.” In addition, Skeets
will be leading a seminar, and Will will be teaching a class the following week
at the RIMI Seminary.
We need you to be in prayer for this trip. We’ll give you more details in the
coming weeks on how to specifically pray for India and for Will and Skeets.
But for now, we also want you to be aware of a way you can help with this
conference. Southwood is already helping get Will and Skeets to the conference,
but many of these participants have little in the way of resources. They
are working very hard in an extremely difficult ministry context. To allow these
Gospel messengers to attend and be equipped for the task, RIMI wants to
raise $75,000 to help cover the costs for the conference, housing, and meals
for the participants. We are being asked to provide $2,000 of this cost. The
average cost for the entire week (travel and meals included) for an attendee
is $50, and any gift you make will be matched by another donor to double its
impact.
If you would like to help make this conference a reality for some very needy
and weary church planters, you can make a special gift to the conference. To
give online, click on the “Donate” tab at rimi.org. Then look for the Mission
India Family Conference 2017. You can also mail a check to RIMI at this address:
RIMI, 1949 Old Elm Rd., Lindenhurst, IL, 60046. Please put “2017 Mission
Conference” in the memo line.
PRAYING FOR JOBS FOR LIFE
By Sarah Niemitz
Prayer is the backbone of Jobs For Life. We mean that statement.
We literally are powerless to minister effectively without
the Holy Spirit. Our students face very real barriers to attending
JfL classes, much less getting a job. Some of these barriers
are their own mental hurdles, while others are outside factors
such as a lack of education or a limited network. Then there are
very real systemic issues of racism and classism that keep many
students out of good jobs. Our champions and instructors will
struggle with their own cultural assumptions, feelings of inadequacy,
and the temptation to allow busy schedules to limit their
relationships in JfL. Local businesses face challenges in their
workplace, and often the fear of a costly “bad hire” can cause
reluctance to give anyone a chance. No volunteer or student can
change those realities or level those barriers on his own.
PRAY:
That the Holy Spirit would remove the necessary
barriers (transportation, family obligations, work
schedules, fear of failure, etc.) for each student and
champion to attend JfL.
That the Holy Spirit would reveal and break down
racism, cultural assumptions, and feelings of superiority
that exist in the hearts of each champion, instructor,
and member of the leadership team.
That local business would thrive and that those in
charge of hiring would look favorably upon Jobs for
Life graduates.
We need the Holy Spirit to intervene for every general barrier
listed above, but also for the many specific barriers we will learn
about as we move though this class. So I am asking you to do
two things. First, pray through the five requests on this page.
Cut them out and tape them on your mirror or put them on
your dashboard, whatever helps you remember to pray. Second,
email shannon.clark@southwood.org and join our JfL prayer
team. Prayer is not a token cliche; it is our only hope.
That the Holy Spirit would break through awkwardness
and fear — causing genuine relationships to
flourish in the context of mutual respect.
That the Holy Spirit would draw students to Christ
as they hear about the gospel and see it in relational
context.

THE
STORY
OF
BEING
KNOWN
SHARING OUR HOPE WITH OUR YOUTH
by Peter Render
It is a daunting thing to consider another school year, which to me
means endless opportunities for the High-Life team to bring the
light of the Gospel of the grace of Jesus Christ into what seem to
be increasingly dark places. Students from all over North Alabama
descend on our homes, on school campuses, and The Lodge. Brokenness
abounds, true joy is fleeting, and the age-old issue of being
unique (just like everyone else) remains. A true knowledge of God
leading to a true knowledge of self is as difficult to cultivate as it has
ever been. Many parents are on constant alert, desperately vigilant to
guard against the next piece of spirit-breaking news. As it turns out, life
is pretty hard.
Please do not read doom and gloom from these words. There is hope
in the darkness and difficulty because of Jesus. Southwood is set upon
the mission of experiencing and expressing the grace of Jesus Christ to
each other, to Huntsville, and to the world. At High-Life, we join with the
apostle Paul in our desire to find light through “Christ in you, the
hope of glory.” Our drive as a ministry is to “present everyone mature
in Christ…struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works
within” us (Colossians 1).
KNOWING AND BEING KNOWN
Our primary push is toward the ideas of knowing and of being
known. Many of the defining moments in my life, so far, took place
between the ages of 13 and 18. The guilt and shame of my sins,
the mountain peaks of my successes, the painful interactions with
my peers, the friends that I can still call on a moment's notice, were
developed during this time. I did not need social media to create a
portrait of myself to show off to the world. I have always been pretty
good at trimming the fat and letting people see just enough of me
to know that I am a different person, but enough of what I know that
they wanted to see to have some hope of being accepted.
6 SEPTEMBER 2017 | SOUTHWOOD.ORG

anches
SOUTHWOOD
These are struggles that our students know more now than I
ever did. They are able to live four or five different relationships
with the same person right now, with only one of them being
face-to-face. Their best friend can break their confidence at
school in a terribly painful way, but they will keep their 500-day
streak alive on snapchat. A group of guys can be civil in public
but can destroy one or many others with pictures, comments, and
direct messages on instagram. Broken homes, sexual brokenness,
popularity struggles, depression, suicide, economic and social
hierarchy, and racism are some bullet points on an seemingly
endless list of real struggles. It is in these places that we can only
hope for the power of Christ to “powerfully work” within us.
Being known is an essential part of saving faith. The idea that
God knows everything that we have ever done and everything
that has ever been done to us is not
something that is readily accepted.
We then pile on the reality that, in
spite of those things, he loves us with
the passion of a perfect Father, eager
to see his children know our identity
through the perfection of our Elder
Brother. “For our sake he made him
to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the
righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Being known is an
undeniable aspect of being saved. Knowing someone else can
be a bit more difficult.
The act of knowing someone else requires the strong movement
of the Holy Spirit. Psychologists and psychiatrists have long said
that the breaking down of secrets is a key to disarming destructive
behavior in individuals. While this is certainly true, it is of
little eternal consequence. Knowing someone requires naming
the dignity and the depravity in someone. It also involves taking
those puzzle pieces and acknowledging the many wide and
obvious gaps that keep that broken puzzle from ever being a
complete person. We acknowledge the need of our Savior to
cover the depravity with his righteousness, to seal the gaps with
his goodness, and even to reconcile our dignity to the Father.
As we sit with students and parents, we pray for the strong movement
of the Spirit to enable us truly to know them and point them
to Christ as the only solution to be made whole. We pray for the
ability to be known by them in ways that show the faithfulness of
God to his people. We tell stories from experience, and from the
text of Holy Scripture, to the end of modeling what it means to
have no shame in being known and no fear in knowing.
STORIES
In fact, principally know what we are to believe about God, and
what duty God requires of us, through a Story — It is through
the Bible, the story of God’s love for his creation, his love for his
people, and the lengths to which he is willing to go to bring them
to himself. In this story, we grumble, we complain, we argue that
"TO MATCH THE LOVE OF THE STORY GIVEN
TO US BY OUR HEAVENLY FATHER, HIGH-LIFE
IS FOCUSED ON TELLING THE STORIES OF
WHAT GOD HAS DONE IN AND FOR US."
we know best, and yet God keeps his promises. We constantly
choose against him and for destruction. In the midst of that, he
calls us to himself. The tension between God’s sovereignty and
man’s responsibility is palpable, but the Bible paints the picture of
a loving Father who wishes for none to perish.
So, to match the love of the story given to us by our Heavenly
Father, High-Life is focused on telling the stories of what God
has done in and for us. Our community is focused on the work
of the Holy Spirit to be faithful to the text of Scripture and to
the working out of salvation in the people of God. Our leaders
share stories of what God has done in them in Sunday school, in
small groups, at High-Life, and in other settings. We trust that the
Holy Spirit works in believers individually, and amongst us corporately,
to push us toward the Kingdom goals of our Father. That
Advocate is present with us, actively
bringing our community into alignment
with the eternal purposes of the
Creator God.
The hard work of relational ministry
can only bear fruit when the Gospel
is dripping from the mature believers
in the community. We cannot cultivate this in ourselves. We
cannot use logic to penetrate the darkness of the situations with
which we are faced. We humbly grasp onto the reality that we
have been charged with the pushing of those in our charge toward
maturity in Christ. “Him we proclaim, warning everyone and
teaching everyone.” (Colossions 1) There is little that is tangibly
measurable in this. We are players in a long game, while our students
are pushing forward with a short-game mentality.
And so, we strive, naming grace upon grace, to have the fortitude
and boldness to stand as beacons of light in what can be a
dark time in the lives of many. We name the need to be known
by the One who chose us in Christ before the foundation of the
world. We name the desire to know those who are hurting. We
tell the stories of the faithfulness of our God, our Heavenly Father,
who loves his children, that many would come to repentance and
know His love.

SOUTHWOOD
branches
Why is a Particular Men's Ministry
Necessary for Today's Church?
by Ron Clegg
We live in a culture today that is confused and no longer knows with
certainty what gender means. To a growing number in our culture,
gender is what you want it to be. So, what then does it mean to be
a man? How does a Christian man navigate through our modern
world? Decades ago our idea of manhood was characterized
by the lone cowboy, who was strong and independent, needing
nothing except his own strength and bravado. There were obvious
problems with that characterization. Men like that are not the
best in relationships, and they make for difficult husbands. Today,
too often the pictures we are given are of men who have been
feminized. Maybe in an effort to be softer and more relational,
from their clothing styles to the way they are to express emotion,
men are encouraged to be more like women than the rugged men
of old. In their earliest years boys’ competitive nature is often
stifled in favor of “just play the game and everyone wins.” Well,
everyone does not win, and every boy knows it.
The Bible does not sacrifice one aspect for the other. Strength
and boldness go hand in hand with gentle nurturing. In 1
Thessalonians 2 we see Paul serving the church with the tender
nurturing of a nursing mother and the bold strength of a father.
Men of faith need both. I heard one teacher say that Christian
men are to be, both at the same time, warriors and poets, fighters
and artists.
How does faith shape manhood? How does the Gospel call and
empower a man into being a strong warrior while at the same time
enable him towards sensitivity and gentleness? How does faith
equip men to walk in the face of rampant sexual provocation as
faithful husbands and fathers? How does faith give him what it
takes to thrive in a highly competitive marketplace?
This is why a specialized men’s ministry is important for the life of
a church. Walking by faith for a man has special challenges that
are best addressed in community with other men. How does a
man use his particular gifts to love well in his family and in the
workplace? This is the type of environment we want to provide
through Southwood Men, a place where men can engage as men
with other men over the issues of faith and life.
As a particular ministry to our men at Southwood, we want to
engage our men on several different levels. On a basic level, we
want to provide informal community events where men can build
relationships with other men. These might include golf outings,
pub nights, etc.
To encourage deeper spiritual growth, we hold two annual large
group events, one in the fall and one in the spring. In the fall we
have our men’s retreat at a nearby conference facility. This is a
great time of relationship building, fun, and learning from good
solid leaders of the faith. This next spring we will hold a Grace and
Men Conference at The Lodge. Scotty Smith will come and be our
main speaker.
Finally, on a deeper level, we provide a variety of small groups just
for men where we can engage on a personal level with others.
Some groups are more informal and are open for anyone to join.
Others that we call Table Talk are more intense and require a 6-8
week commitment. Some are designed more for fellowship and
others for deeper study.
Regardless of where you are in your journey of faith, we believe you
will find a place in Southwood Men. For more information, contact
Ron at ron.clegg@southwood.org.

anches
SOUTHWOOD
SESSION UPDATE
The Session is excited to announce the call of Derrick Harris to
be our Pastor of Shepherding and Young Families. Derrick has
been in ministry for 17 years, many which he has spent focusing
on youth and families, and he comes to Southwood from
Christ Presbyterian Church in Nashville. He and his wife, Anna
Catherine, have a son, John Paul, who just started kindergarten,
and they are excited to be making the transition to Huntsville
in September or October, Lord willing. Please pray for their
family as they work out the details of housing and schooling and
prepare to become a part of our community.
We also have two new youth staff who started full speed in
August with the start of the school year. Christine Betts married
her husband, Andrew, in early August and moved to Huntsville
after the wedding. She is a graduate of Bryan College and is
now our Assistant Director of Youth and Families. Ty Commons
recently moved to Huntsville from Crystal River, Florida, for a
two-year internship with our youth ministry. We look forward
to introducing them to you more in the weeks ahead and to
welcoming them into our Southwood family.
Please join us in praying for our staff as these new staff members
become a part of the team and as we continue the search for our
last vacant staff position, Director of Community Development.
You can also be in prayer for God’s continued financial provision
for Southwood, as we get closer to being fully staffed and face
the needs associated with that exciting progress.
Finally, we urge you to jump in and serve with us this fall. Starting
this month there are opportunities to serve in our community
with Jobs for Life, to volunteer with our youth, to serve on
Sunday mornings with our children and nursery, and many other
places to help. The grace of Christ needs to be expressed in all
these areas, and that requires and allows all of us to use our gifts
for the sake of the kingdom.
CURL UP WITH...
BOOKS ON DISCIPLESHIP IN THE FAMILY:
Give them Grace: Dazzling Your Kids
with the Love of Jesus
by Elyse M. Fitzpatrick
All of us want to raise good kids. And we
want to be good parents. But what exactly
do we mean by “good?” We must
tell our kids of the grace-giving God
who freely adopts rebels and transforms
them into loving sons and daughters.
If this is not the message your children
hear, if you are just telling them to “be
good,” then the gospel needs to transform
your parenting, too.
Give Them Grace is a revolutionary
perspective on parenting that shows us
how to receive the gospel afresh and
give grace in abundance, helping our
children know the dazzling love of Jesus
and respond with heartfelt obedience.
Spiritual Parenting: An Awakening for
Today’s Families
by Michelle Anthony
It's hard enough to train kids to behave,
but good behavior isn't what Jesus calls
for in the Bible. He wants hearts and
souls that are shaped in vibrant faith and
love toward God and others. How can
parents cultivate this in their children?
In this book Dr. Michelle Anthony shares
practical examples and biblical insight
on the spiritual role of parenting.
Spiritual Parenting introduces the simple
but revolutionary concept that parents
are, by the power of God's Spirit,
to obey and depend on God in order to
create an environment God can use to
beckon their children to Him.
Grace Based Parenting
by Tim Kimmel
Parents in our post-modern world tend
to be committed to but anxious about
their child-rearing responsibilities.
They've tried the countless parenting
books on the market, but many of these
are strident, fear-based books that loving
parents instinctively reject, while still
searching for direction.
Rejecting rigid rules and checklists that
don't work, Dr. Tim Kimmel recommends
a parenting style that mirrors God's love,
reflects His forgiveness, and displaces
fear as a motivator for behavior. As we
embrace the grace God offers, we begin
to give it — creating a solid foundation
for growing morally strong and spiritually
motivated children.

idolAddiction
Women's Conference
“Julie powerfully and accurately described what
happens in our minds and hearts when we sin.
But – thanks be to God! – She didn’t stop there.
She showed us from the Bible how God has
given us a new heart that desires to trust Him.
What a refreshing word! I can’t wait to learn
more in the women’s Bible study this fall.”
Adele
“I thoroughly enjoyed the recent Southwood
Women’s Conference. Julie was excellent in helping
me to see some of the idols in my life. Above
all, she reminded us that we are daughters of the
Almighty King, and He will guide our way through
this crazy life if only we trust Him. Julie was so
amusing and relatable to real life. I can’t wait to
jump into this study on Thursday mornings!”
Sally
“Julie presented idols in a way I had never considered
before. The part that really stuck with me
came from a song she played the first night with
the words ‘anything I put before my God is an
idol… anything I can’t stop thinking of is an idol.’
Placing idols and our addiction to them in this
light helps me examine my own heart and identify
the situations where my worries or restlessness
can be turned over to God.”
Chantel
“The women’s conference was so encouraging! It
reminded me that Christ’s rich and abundant love
and provision is the only way to bridge the gap
between where I am and where I am called to be.
Sarah
Our study of idolAddiction continues
every Thursday, beginning September 7th.
At 9:30-11:30am (childcare provided) or at 7:00pm
Sign up at southwood.org/growingsmall or email
shannon.clark@southwood.org

ALL THAT IS FAIR
NOBODY WANTS TO WORK FOR IT
by James Parker
Everything happens so fast now, am I right? When I watch TV,
commercials are 15 seconds. When I watch a Youtube video, I'm
irritated if I can't skip the ad at the beginning after 5 seconds.
When I sit down at the computer, if the website I'm visiting takes
more than 15 seconds to load, I become outraged, shouting at
a box that can't respond... Also the short-lived immediacy with
which we consume music is borderline maniacal. We chew up
new music and spit it out with the same frequency as one would
plow through a bag of sunflower seeds. Everything in the arts/
entertainment world is "on-demand" now. Spotify, Pandora,
Netflix, Hulu, iBooks, Audible.com, etc... Our expectation is that
what we want, the way we want it, will be available to us anytime
we want it. On one hand this sounds like a benefit of technology.
But on the other hand, all of this collective impatience has done
something to us.
There has been an enormous shift in our culture within the last
40-50 years. Consumerism crept its way into our lives in the
early part of the 20th century on the coattails of the Industrial
Revolution. We started to look at the way we buy and use things
differently. And we began to expect a certain level of service and
expediency. The problem is that speed of delivery and quality
of workmanship often operate inversely to one another. As
something is delivered faster, quality usually decreases. And this
phenomenon has snowballed into epic proportions.
I am only 37 years old, and I remember going to record stores. I
remember holding albums in my hands and flipping through the
sleeve artwork. I also remember using a TV guide, reading an
actual book, practicing writing in cursive, not using a calculator
to do math, having to make exact change, dialing a number on
a rotary phone, and the list goes on and on and on... My kids are
growing up in a world where videos of trains, dinosaurs, tornados,
and dominos, are available in the blink of an eye, for as long
as their little hearts desire to watch them. They've never seen a
landline. They've never heard the "finger nails on a chalkboard"
sound of dial-up internet. Their desires are validated and can
be instantly gratified by every facet of our culture. Needless to
say, it is very difficult for them when we have to say "yes, but not
right now" or "no, you can't have that." They have no category
for those statements. And if we're honest with ourselves, neither
do we.
In contrast, Jesus delayed his own personal gratification "even
unto death on a cross." His workmanship would not be hindered
by the conflicting demands of his culture. He had a long enough
attention span and big enough heart to lovingly and carefully fix
the things that are broken. I suppose if he wanted to, he could
scrap this universe and just simply start again. But he always
had a well crafted intent for this place and for all of us. We are
incomplete song sketches. But he's not going to just click to the
next song in the celestial version of spotify on his Grand Canyon
sized iPhone. He patiently and gently has written an ending to
our fragments. What borderless love he must have for all that he
has made!
So even though we have been almost irreversibly changed by
our consumerist culture, there is a way back to our true selves.
It's called work. Imagine that. Putting off our temporal impulses
in order to work hard for the sake of something better. Whether
that means cooking a simple meal, writing a song, fixing a car,
building a business, or mending a broken trust between friends,
the way to make things right is to work hard at them! And in the
process, we may actually find that our souls are deep and our
value is intrinsic.
In the spirit of looking to Jesus' example, let me point you to
another small picture of encouragement. When you feel like the
world around you has gone off the rails, listen to this tune by the
great Andy Gullahorn and know that you're not alone!
It took me ten good years to break in this old hat
It has a black sweat ring and the bill is cracked
It’s all frayed in the front and duct taped in the back
There’s so much that this hat has been through
In the window of the Abercrombie store
There’s a product line I’m sure you’ve seen before
Brand new baseball caps made to look already worn
What is this world coming to
Nobody wants to work
Nobody wants to work for it
If it don’t come easy, it ain’t worth the wait
Nobody wants to work
Nobody wants to work for it
Welcome to the new old-fashioned way
I love the music that I grew up on
When the business was all about the song
These days it’s just one throw up against the wall
If you don’t stick, that’s it – you’re through
I see it all the time
In the cardboard sign
That says I won’t work for food
But I’d be happy to take your dime
Or the billboard for
A quick and cheap divorce
We don’t try to fix anything anymore
SEPTEMBER 2017 | SOUTHWOOD.ORG 11

A T A G L A N C E
PERU MISSION TRIP
June 2-12
SOUTHWOOD MEN’S RETREAT
Sept. 15th & 16th
at
Joe Wheeler State Park
Cost is $100
TO REGISTER VISIT SOUTHWOOD.ORG/MENSRETREAT