Category Archives: News

News, updates, and notices

FNB Study!

TMCC,

Friday Night Bible Study this Friday Jan. 24th at Jeff and Kathy Robillard’s.

5028 Longview Ct.  Weddington, NC 28104

Please “Reply All” so Jeff can plan for cooking the meat! He needs a headcount by Wednesday! Bring some friends and a dessert! And a Bible! Keith has a great lesson for us.

In Christ, Mark

Fri & Sunday

Hey Bereans,

1) Friday Night Bible Study at Steve and Vickies house again this Friday Nov. 1st!7-9pm… bring a Bible, friend, $5, and a food item!  Pizza and Prep will be provided.  Please “Reply All” if you are able to bring something and come.8006 Weddington Downs DriveWeddington, NC
2) Please Pray for someone right now you believe needs to be connected to Christ.  People Need Him.
3) Fall Back Sleep Extra Hour, this Sunday Nov. 3rd, you will probably actually be at worship 15 min early.
4) Sunday Morning, Live Worship, Communion, Great Teaching, and Fellowship.  We want visitors.  We want to Grow.
5) Pop Quiz:Could God have seeded our planet through UFOs?Who buried Moses?Who do Calvinists and Arminians believe is responsible for evangelism?When God created the Nile crocodile, why did he need serrated teeth?Can anyone ever truly be objective, or is that an impossibility?Are Christian’s after redemption natural hypocrites?
Be like a Berean.

In Christ,Mark

Friday Night Fall Bible Study Begins Oct. 6th

Friday Night Fall Bible Study is Beginning!
1)  Jeff and Kathy Robillard will host our first one, Friday Night Oct. 4th, 7-9pm.
Keith Lowder will be teaching!
Everyone bring something with your Bible.
Guests should be invited.
Jeff will be cooking something fabulous… and providing some secret aged drink.
Everyone bring one thing, Salad, Desserts, Drink, etc.
Please “Reply All” if you are coming and what you will bring.
The Robillards
5028 Longview Ct.
Weddington, NC 28104
2)  Steve and Vickie will be hosting the remaining Friday Night Bible Studies.  Man, we love their hospitality!  Building community!
Every other Friday Night, 7-9pm, bring $4 for Pizza and bring an item.
So… also… Oct. 18th, Nov. 1st, Nov. 15th, Nov. 29th.
Dec. 13th, TMCC Christmas Party!
3)  Keith begins at TMCC Oct. 1st, and will begin Preaching Oct. 6th.  Please welcome him with a gift!  Something extraordinary!
We will plan Breakfast Sunday Oct. 6th, what could you bring?
Bacon, fruit, casserole, juice, eggs, milk?
Mark will bring Coffee, Hot chocolate, cups, and the usual?
Please “Reply All” what you can bring to the Breakfast.
Please invite Guests to Worship.
4)  TMCC:  It is time to increase the overall health of the Church.  Part of that is growth and new ministries.  Let’s add some wonderful people who need an amazing Savior just like we do.  Let’s reinvite past attenders.  Let’s be proactive.
Love God and Love People,
In Christ,
Mark

TMCC Welcomes The Rev Keith Lowder Oct. 6th

Sunday Oct. 6th Keith is Preaching.
We are having full Breakfast!
Join us!

TMCC is excited to announce.
The Reverend Keith Lowder is joining our staff.
He will serve as Interim Teaching Pastor, allowing Mark time for Sabbatical.
What a great addition to TMCC.
What a great friend.
What a great preacher/teacher.
Send Keith a note… get him an extraordinary gift!
We are excited.
It is time for TMCC to move forward.
Growth is Healthy.
Love God and Love People!

TMCC invites You!

Hey… TMCC invites you to join our small band of believers for:

Worship Sunday Mornings 9:30am-11am
SS 11:15am-noon
Every Other Friday Night Bible Study 7-9pm

Please pray about joining our organic growth, expositional teaching, openness to questions, while living faithful to Jesus in an Orthodox Evangelical Contemporary Casual community.

In Christ,
Pastor Mark Patterson

Jehovah Witnesses

I was fortunate to have another great chat with two Jehovah Witnesses on Monday.
I’m better at getting to our unfortunate disagreements about Jesus (in love) than I use to be.
No sense arguing about the “Name” of God… nor who created us… nor the world gone awry… we can agree on all that…
Let’s be kind yet get right to the MAJOR differences about Jesus.
I came home and began creating an easy look Scripture reference and study on this.
Come and study the Bible with us.
We want to know the truth… so it can set us all free to be as faithful at Witnessing as Jehovah’s people.

The Movie “Silence” – Apostasy is Ok 3 min

https://youtu.be/6d-o6mwkmhc    3m video

The depiction of the Fallen Priest in Japan 17th C… has a strong message by director Martin Scorsese.

It’s not only Ok to Apostatize… it makes sense… it stops suffering… and is encouraged by the finally speaking Jesus himself.

If the officials are persecuting Christians… why is it posited that it is the Priest who are “causing” the torture and death?
Why is the premise of justified persecution Ok because the “bad simple minded Westerners” come and threaten a civilization with a counter cultural idea about Religion, God, and life?

Flip the premise… have Easterners come with a “Foreign” religion to the West… with the Westerners justified in persecution… torture… and murder… of “others” with different ideas that threaten the West.  Oh… believe me… the values presented would be completely different.  How could bad “Westerners (i.e. Christians)” be so horrible and wrong to persecute people with various ideas?

The hypocrisy is glaring.  Why is everyone so ready to chastise a hypocritical Christian and be accepting and supporting of hypocritical “others”?
Let’s try to be fair.  Please.

Even though I did appreciate the real life tensions in the struggle of faith, doubt, trials, and apostasy… the theology was horrendous.

Jesus finally breaks his “silence” and speaks to the Priest and tells him to apostatize in order to stop others from suffering because he already suffered for them… that simply is horrible… terrible… Theology.  (I’m not asking you if you agree with that… I’m saying that that is a false presentation of what the Bible and Christianity thinks.)
“Hey… all religions are the same… there is no reason to stand for Jesus… go ahead… curse me… it’s no big deal.”
Is that congruent with what Jesus said… or is that counter to what Jesus said?
(I know what Scorsese depicts Jesus as saying in the movie… but is that true or false?)

“If anyone comes preaching another Gospel… or another Jesus other than the one we presented… you accept that easily enough.”  2 Cor. 11:4.  Gal. 1:6-9.

Hmmm… here I am again… faced with… do I believe what the world says… or will I believe what the Scriptures say.

Hey… how about this… no one should support the killing of other people from other religions?
How about this… not forcing Apostasy with torture?
How about this… not always presenting Westerners as hypocritical, simple minded, fools… I mean… we can all share those traits as we consider history… right?
How about those morals for the story?

Don’t waste your time on this movie (2hours 41min)… not cause I am closed minded… remember… I paid $10 bucks to see it… it’s just not a good movie.
Mark

TMCC Worship Cancelled January 8th, 2017

This Message is going out via email, website, and text.

TMCC,

1)  I know it is Sunny now.

But it hasn’t gotten above freezing all day and it’s going down to 12 degrees.

I just checked the Weather and they have a Winter Weather Advisory from 6pm tonight until Noon tomorrow.

2)  Black ice will be forming in the wet run off from today though some roads are clear.

I project maybe 8-15 people would actually attend tomorrow if we held Worship Service…

YET those would be possibly PUT AT RISK on the roads.

3)  I have been struggling with this…  I would like to have service… but I think we should be prudent…

And after conferring with the Elders… we will err on the side of caution.

4)  TMCC Worship Service is cancelled for tomorrow Sunday January 8th, 2017.

Please keep warm, be careful, and eat…. EAT!

See you the next Sunday and since we are missing tomorrow…. let’s all be there with 100% Attendance and have amazing Worship, Study, and Fellowship!

In Christ,

Mark

12milecreekchurch.com

Biblical Church Leadership?

Is Your Church Biblical:

Scriptures to get you going:
1) Anointed:  Exodus 29:29, 2 Samuel 2:4.
2) Key Leaders:  Luke 6:13.  1 Timothy 5:17.
3) Equal Elders:  Acts 15:2, 1 Timothy 4:14, 1 Peter 5:1.
4) Bishops:  Acts 14:23, Titus 1:5.
5) Congregational:  Acts 15:22, 1 Peter 2:5,9.

Unfortunately for all the “black and white” believers out there… you will not like this answer.

There seems to be multiple models of Biblical leadership, especially throughout the ages, without any one mandated nor prohibited.
In the complete Revelation considering time, and Jesus’ arrival, some will claim there is a final appropriate New Testament Model.  Ok.  Enjoy that then.
However, different churches still set the Leadership up or have it play out in real life… in a multitude of models.

1)  Moses, Abraham, David, Paul, “anointed” model.  All different Church Governments utilize Paul as an example… however… was he in charge or not?  Did he send other “apostles”?  Did he appoint “elders”?  Did he “yield” to anyone?
We can all cherry pick NT Texts when the community appointed… or Paul appointed… or Paul’s sent leaders appointed.  So who really was in charge?
2)  Key Staff lead the church.  Call them elders, call them pastors, call them leaders.  The 12 Disciples.  Peter, James, and John.  Find your texts for proof… they are there.
3)  Equal Elders, or Pastor Lead Elders.  This seems to make good sense, and melds the above and below in a way, however, throughout the birth of the Church and the early years… where did this exist?  Hmmmm….
4)  Bishops, Overseers, the institution, denomination lead.  Consider the NT and the expansion of the church.  Before the canonized bible in the 300s.  Consider the geography, communications and lack there of, travel, and how to have Orthodoxy and fight heresy.  Consider Paul’s strong Leadership, Apostleship, directives, and interactions with the Council of “supposed pillars” in Jerusalem.  How ever you answer this, there was and seemed to be a need for strong leadership over regions, geography, and new churches as the kingdom quickly expanded into the Gentile world.  With brand new converts in regions with only an OT witness (if that) and no Seminaries and no internet (how could they even function)… how the heck could the local church leadership hold to an orthodoxy?  You needed visits from Leaders to teach and guide them.
5)  The congregation should not be powerless… (but should it really be an American democracy?)  We are all the priesthood of believers… we all have different and varying gifts.  Why lift the Pastor up so “high”?  The body of believers should decide who is the Lead Pastor, and/or Elders, or make most major decisions, or live in complete equality of authority.

The Character of the Leadership seems to be the consistent concern.  Not the model.  Yet even then, with the high character standards of 1 Timothy, 1 Peter 5 etc., we recall even the Biblical Leaders’ Character was sometimes far from ideal.
Ex. Moses’ anger (murder, drink the idol, break His tablets, kick the rock), Uriah’s death, Solomon’s wives, Jonah’s concern, John the Baptist’s prison doubts of Jesus, Thomas’ doubt, Peter’s denial, Peter’s vacillation on Kosher, Paul’s doing and not doing what he wants and doesn’t want, Paul and Barnabas arguing over missions, early church excommunicating one another.

In the intro of one of my favorite series of Books…
Counterpoint Series:  Four Views on Church Government
… my above stated non-committal view is denounced.  Ha.  Go read for yourself.

Well … at least I made you think.

Who is Leading Your Church?

Leadership and Authority:                                                                   (audio version)

1)  Pastor is Anointed and Positioned, viewed as a Moses, Abraham, David, Paul.  Runs the “show” and everyone knows it.  Ex. Contemporary, charismatic, megachurches.
2)  Staff Lead, Key Staff make decisions, board has some generalized say/authority over hires and duties, congregation has little to no power.  Ex. Many contemporary churches with an american/capitalized influence.
3)  Pastor is Positioned, w authority, but with elders, deacons, committees that are a strong system of checks and balances.  Ex.  Equal elders leading the body, Pastor lead Elders group, Presbyterians, contemporary churches, congregation has little power.
4)  Bishops, Elders, Committees are Powerful and Positioned, Pastor is more readily replaceable, the institution, the denomination, the church leaders, not the Pastor nor the people, have the power.  Ex. Catholics, Methodists, small churches, denominations.
5)  All people almost equal, Congregation has the Power, appropriated in church votes or in that the pastor serves almost like everyone else and is not lifted up.  Ex. Baptists, Congregationalist, Amish, Quakers.

Most Churches are a mix or lean in multiple directions.
In the practical… a Church maybe #4 above… but by sheer personality there may still be a LEADER or person/family of POWER depending on community dynamics.

Who is leading your Church?
(what is biblical…?)

TMCC Fall Friday Night Bible Study

The TMCC Fall Friday Night Bible Study
…every other week has gotten a lot of positive responses.

Friday Nights.
7-8:30pm.
At the Greenbergs.
Themed Nights With Food.

So we will meet Oct. 7th, 21st, Nov. 4th, 18th, and Dec. 2nd.
That allows us to miss Thanksgiving week and get one early week out of December.

I (Mark) will be Leading the Bible Study.
Now we need suggestions for what to Study.

Attending and Interested so far is about 16 people:
Philip and Natascha
Mark and Corina and Kareena
Amanda
Ralph and Vivian
Steve and Vickie
Couple of friends
Keith
Debbie (and/or Chris, ballet conflict)
Judy and Don
Visitors, non TMCC folks, anyone is welcome!

This is going to be a fun study!

Back in the Day (& Now) a Truckin Pastor

Picture120150622_152355Ha… looking over some history… every once in a while back in the Original Plant Days TMCC put up with me preaching from my 18 Wheeler!  That was the blue one to the far left with the cool snake on the pavement.  (Also with my Pantera wannabe goat.)

So after 4 years I’m Bi-Vocational again.  Driving Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, mostly to Atlanta and back, and sleeping in my own bed every night Praise God!  (My truck now is the middle white one in the pic.)  Then I’m working for TMCC Thursday-Sunday.  It’s great.  I really like it.  With a small body… and any fluctuations in attendance numbers… receipts can move dramatically up or down.  So… we knew I would need something by Jan. 2016, so as to keep our healthy cash reserve, we decided I’d find a good fit part time.  So… I’m a Truckin Pastor again.  Ey… I’m livin the dream, what about you?
Love God and Love People!