Monday over Coffee: "Astonishing"
Posted May 16, 2022 by Greg Funderburk in Monday Over Coffee
Every so often, a sequence of events occurs leaving me face to face with a failure of which I'm sadly, serially guilty. I'm not sure what to call it, but it's marked by an inadequate appreciation of the myriad of wonders passing me by each day. It's a mindset—a posture of the spirit perhaps—that tends to miscategorize the miraculous as prosaic, the extraordinary as commonplace. This is to say…
Monday over Coffee: "Don't Look a Gift Universe in the Mouth"
Posted May 9, 2022 by Greg Funderburk in Monday Over Coffee
When I took Spanish in high school, our teacher required us to translate a series of short Spanish sayings into English. The one that rolled off my tongue most readily went like this: "Los lunes, ni las gallinas ponen." It means, "Nothing much gets done on Monday" but the literal translation is more colorful—"Not even chickens lay on Mondays." It came in handy later when our Spanish teacher…
Midtown Midweek Summer Break Begins May 11, 2022
Posted May 4, 2022 by SMBC in Music, Bible Study, Family Ministry, Discipleship
Our Midtown Midweek summer break will begin May 11. Wednesday night Family Ministry programming, Fellowship supper, and Bible study will resume in the fall. Music rehearsals will continue into the summer.
Give Now to the South Main Missions Offering
Posted May 4, 2022 by SMBC in Discipleship, Missions
Each year until Pentecost Sunday, South Main collects a missions offering which supplements our budgetary missions giving. The Missions Committee distributes these funds to address emergent needs or simply assist our partners with their ongoing budget needs. Following Pentecost, your Missions Committee will report to the church how these resources have been used for God's Kingdom.
Monday over Coffee: "Botherations"
Posted May 2, 2022 by Greg Funderburk in Monday Over Coffee
"I can't begin to tell you the things I discovered while I was looking for something else," Shelby Foote once told a magazine writer. While researching and writing about one Civil War battle, one general, or one politician, he would vaguely recall some fact, quote, or obscure anecdote he had read in the past. Frustrated that he couldn't remember it or where to find it, he'd further focus his…
New Coffee Corner for South Main Guests
Posted April 27, 2022 by SMBC in Discipleship, Family Ministry
An exciting addition to the Welcome Center is our new Coffee Corner. This area is intended to be a dedicated space for our guests to visit with our greeter team, learn about South Main, and take that next step in engaging in the life of South Main.
Monday over Coffee: "Trying Enough Cases"
Posted April 25, 2022 by Greg Funderburk in Monday Over Coffee
I began practicing law just as my dad, Weldon Funderburk, began the process of retiring from his work as a litigator, but as I slowly gained my footing as a young lawyer, he was a great source for good advice. He'd offer me little nuggets like this one: "It's easy to be bullish about somebody else's case." That is, if you're not the one whose name is on the pleadings and has to ultimately…
New Edition of The Fount Available
Posted April 21, 2022 by SMBC in All Articles
The Spring 2022 edition of The Fount is now available for you to pick up at church. There are wonderful articles about journeys of faith from our congregation and staff that you don't want to miss!
Monday over Coffee: "Translating Easter"
Posted April 18, 2022 by Greg Funderburk in Monday Over Coffee
Our church's remarkable organist, Yuri McCoy, at a recent service played a piece by the Russian composer, Sergei Rachmaninoff, called Etude-tableau in G minor, Op. 33, no. 8. With just a little research, I gathered that "etude" means a study, "tableau" means a picture or a scene, and that Rachmaninoff's creative process with respect to this composition was quite interesting. What Rachmaninoff…
Lenten Devotion, Saturday, April 16 2022
Posted April 16, 2022 by Angela Spoede in Lent
Early on in my journey as a disciple of Christ, God used a stranger—a man I had never met and have never seen again—to profoundly impact my view of my calling as a Christian. I was visiting at the hospital and feeling a little depressed and overwhelmed by the suffering there. A gentleman approached me and said, "Sister, I see that your heart is heavy. You're looking for God in all of these…
Lenten Devotion, Thursday, April 14, 2022
Posted April 14, 2022 by Martha Doolittle in Lent
At last, my final trip home. The culmination of six months of dread and anticipation: two and a half months of planning and preparation as deeply veined and craggy as the terrain outside the window of my cross-country journey and a daily choice to anticipate miracles and blessings in the unknown of every step. After all this preparation, it suddenly occurs to me that I am going home (my family…
Lenten Devotion, Tuesday, April 12, 2022
Posted April 12, 2022 by Finley Walton in Lent
With the season of Lent upon us, and our waiting for Jesus' resurrection begun, we must step back and take the time to ponder why we celebrate Easter. The obvious answer is Jesus, though when considering his death on the cross, how can we fully understand the sacrifice he made for us and why it means so much?
Monday over Coffee: "How Will I Be Different?"
Posted April 11, 2022 by Greg Funderburk in Monday Over Coffee
In March 2014, Rachel Held Evans visited Houston to talk to our church. Rachel grew up in Tennessee, and upon graduating from college, took a job with her hometown newspaper. At the same time, she was also writing a book about the tension she was feeling between the faith of her past—one characterized by religious certainty—and the one she was growing into—one in which doubt and questions were…
Lenten Devotion, Saturday, April 9, 2022
Posted April 9, 2022 by John Wade in Lent
The pandemic stinks. When it began, we were all stuck in our houses and couldn't really go anywhere. We couldn't see our friends, couldn't go to fun places, and couldn't do any activities. The church figured out ways to be near each other and have fun, while being safe at the same time.
Lenten Devotion, Thursday, April 7, 2022
Posted April 7, 2022 by Angela Bell in Lent
When I was growing up, my small rural church of fewer than a hundred congregants held spring and fall revivals often. But the year when I was in fifth grade was different. I was ten and I had not yet made a public profession of faith—something that concerned my mother greatly. Shockingly (as in, not at all), I tend not to do things if I feel pressured by someone else, so I had no intention of…
Lenten Devotion, Tuesday, April 5, 2022
Posted April 5, 2022 by Chairein Jackson in Lent
Storms can be scary: high winds, heavy rain, poor traveling conditions. If a storm is bad, it can conjure different elements at the same time. When faced with a bad storm, you may have to seek shelter, "turn around don't drown," or "hunker down." But when we go through a life storm, do you seek shelter in God?
Monday over Coffee: "Grit, Pluck, & Agency"
Posted April 4, 2022 by Greg Funderburk in Monday Over Coffee
David McCullough is a national treasure. His presidential biographies about John Adams and Harry Truman both won Pulitzer Prizes. They were well-deserved. His more recent book about the Wright Brothers is winsome and marvelous, and his compelling story-driven accounts of the construction of the Panama Canal (The Path Between the Seas, 1978) and the Brooklyn Bridge (The Great Bridge, 1983) are…
Lenten Devotion, Saturday, April 2, 2022
Posted April 2, 2022 by Earl Brewer in Lent
As a child, I was taught to treat others as I wanted to be treated. I grew up in a secular, non-Christian household and received moral teaching mainly through my Mom ("honesty is the best policy"), musicals such as South Pacific and West Side Story, books such as The Hardy Boys and Doc Savage, and reading about "Goofus and Gallant" in Highlights. Occasionally we would attend a Methodist church…
Lenten Devotion, Thursday, March 31, 2022
Posted March 31, 2022 by Andrea Hoxie in Lent
I was born into a family of church people. My paternal grandmother was the widow of the pastor of Greater Mount Lebanon Baptist Church, four blocks down the street from my childhood home. My father was a deacon there and my mother played piano. In my early life, I knew the Sunday routine of Sunday school, worship, lunch, an occasional afternoon program, training union, and night service. One…
Lenten Devotion, Tuesday, March 29, 2022
Posted March 29, 2022 by Eileen Barsch in Lent
A time I had when the light came on for me was when I was in an anxiety stage in my life. At this time, I was dealing with fear controlling my life. I was afraid to be alone or go to sleep. I eventually wanted to see a counselor. I saw her for about a year for that issue. It took a while but I figured out how to trust God. I developed a system. In my Bible I found a verse about not being…
