Shelbyville Community Church

Like many of you, I’ve had some interesting jobs over the years. When I was a seminary student at Dallas Theological Seminary, I cleaned swimming pools. Many of the pools I cleaned were heated so that they could be used year-round, and it was my job to light those heaters late in the fall. In fact, lighting a heater was how I burned all of the hair on my face, including my eyebrows, eyelashes, and...

In the book of Colossians, Paul teaches husbands and wives how they should conduct and order themselves in a marriage in light of what Christ has done for each of them. In fact, there is very similar teaching about marriage in another book of the New Testament, the book of Ephesians. But in Ephesians there is a summary statement about marriage that is missing in Colossians: “However, each one of y...

One’s responses might be, “I’ve tried!” “I’m still trying.” “I’ll trust that I’ll be forgiven, so just won’t There is an Outer You: your skin, your hair, your face, your body. Then there’s an Inner You: your character, your heart, your soul. The Outer You is what everybody sees. The Inner You is invisible, at least to those who don’t know you well. The Outer You is temporary; the Inner You is eter...

Baptism is a picture of a new life! During All Things New Celebrations, we have the amazing opportunity to celebrate what God is doing here at SCC through the ancient practice of baptism. We’re used to thinking that baptism day is about the other people who made their declaration of faith alongside us, but nothing could be further from the truth. Baptism celebrates and pictures Christ’s loving wor...

One’s responses might be, “I’ve tried!” “I’m still trying.” “I’ll trust that I’ll be forgiven, so just won’t worry about it.” We'd get lots of different answers, angles, and maybe even arguments over how to respond to that question. Yes, God’s Word definitely tells us what to stop and what to do. One of the big keys that we’ll unpack tomorrow is his command to “put off the old self” and “put...

While in college, one of my good friends, Alex, got a job working as a barista at a Starbucks near campus. Not long after he started, he'd come back to our dorm talking about a guy named Tony who came to his Starbucks twice a day. He'd come early in the morning, play a round of golf, and come back in the afternoon. He had a specific morning order and a specific afternoon order. And every...

When I was a kid, one of my favorite restaurants was The Old Country Buffet. Anytime my grandma made the trip from Florida to Wisconsin, I knew we'd be hitting the "OCB!" Was the food quality?…Meh, but you could eat as much as you wanted. And for me, that meant unlimited fried chicken and several bowls of gummy bears! I once heard a pastor named JD Greer refer to the city of Colossa...

When you read through Colossians 2:8-15, two things stand out. The first is how difficult it is to work through this passage. It’s very technical with terminology that is hard to fully understand. But the second observation is that these verses ooze grace. If you were to squeeze this passage, grace would come out. If you bumped into this passage, grace would spill out. In fact, if you look at this...

In Colossians 1 Paul tells us that his goal is to present everyone mature in Christ. Beginning in chapter two, he will lay out what that looks like. He will encourage us to live “rooted” to Christ. Living this way is so important that it is one of our core values as a church: Live a Rooted Life Prayer, Scripture, and worship are the heartbeat of our relationship with God. Through scripture and pra...

What should be the main thing at a church? What should be the focus? Paul makes it crystal clear. “He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.” (Colossians 1:27–29, NIV) That means we do not proclaim clever human insights....

We may live in a medium-sized town in central Indiana, but God says we also live in an invisible kingdom that supersedes and controls our lives here in Indiana. It is an amazing truth that an invisible God took on a visible human body so that we could become a part of His invisible kingdom. Every kingdom has a king that rules from somewhere. Scripture says that King Jesus rules from Heaven and, th...

She was taught to put treasured items in that box -- some china, some linen, some lace, heirlooms that were passed down to her that she hoped to give to her children one day, a kind of inheritance. She put that stuff in that box in the hope that one day she might get married and have a family of her own. In her day and time, this was a pretty common practice. A hope chest was a place where you sto...

Our Summer Series from the book of Proverbs, ”Get Smart,” ended last Sunday. I doubt any of us “arrived” or even raised our IQs, but I do think we received practical ways to apply Biblical principles in our lives and with our families. I hope you were able to be a part of those services, but if you weren’t, they are archived on our website for you to go back and listen to. Tomorrow is a historic d...

Imagine. What if you had just that kind of amazing, out-of–the-box faith, that no matter what happened you just trusted God? Imagine that. Imagine no fear. You’re just like, God knew this was going to happen; I’m just trusting God and we’ll see what God does. No anxiety. Why should I be nervous? Why should I be afraid? I can’t control my next breath. I just have absolute perfect faith in God. No f...

While Proverbs would say that wise people restrain their anger and cover over the offenses of others, the New Testament actually commands those things! In Matthew 18, Jesus tells us a story about the Kingdom of God and forgiveness. The reason Jesus tells this story is simple: Life is filled with opportunity to take offense. Actually, that’s only part of the reason. Jesus also tells this story in r...

I wonder, have you ever gotten in trouble for something you said? How many minutes ago was that? Have ever hurt someone by something that you said or been hurt by something someone else said? Have ever been surprised by something hateful that you said? “Like, where did that come from?” Don’t you wish our mouths came with a remote? Maybe a “pause” button or a “rewind” button? Consider this: The fir...

Sometimes when a couple files for divorce, they do on the grounds of something called “irreconcilable differences.” The idea is that no one is at necessarily at fault in the marriage, but there are fundamental compatibility issues that will prevent the marriage from being successful. However, Christian marriage is an unconditional commitment to an imperfect person. The math of Christian marriage i...

“Parenting is only hard…if you’re doing it right.” I remember hearing that for the first time. I felt seen, and a bit relieved. Sometimes there are phrases that haunt your thoughts in a good way. That’s one of them for me. I’ve often felt inadequate and undereducated when it comes to parenting. How am I—imperfect, sinful, easily distracted—able to raise children who are faithfully following Jesus?...

My neighborhood is located very close to a water tower where a weather siren is mounted. I know I should be grateful and take heed every time that siren goes off, but I don’t. When it first goes off, it does what it is supposed to do. It is intrusive, alarming, distracting, attention getting, and functions as a warning! After just a short while (if the tornado doesn’t materialize immediately), it...

Happy Father’s Day tomorrow as we begin a summer series based on the Proverbs of King Solomon. He definitely had some situations that we can glean from! There were two teenage brothers, out for summer break, and they decided they would start a business, selling eggs they got from their grandmother. They bought the eggs for a dollar a dozen, and started selling the eggs for a dollar a dozen. They c...

How do you define family? How you answer that question will affect the way you live. How you answer will show you your priorities and motivations. How you answer will show you what you believe the Bible says. How you answer will drive your expectations of what Family Ministry looks like in a local church. Waving the white flag? Please don’t. We all have different views and backgrounds because so m...

I've been involved in churches my entire life. I came to faith in Jesus at 16. I've worked in ministry in paid and non-paid positions since I was 18. I've seen Christians get heated about a lot of things: what to believe, political views, social issues, leadership structures, and money, to name a few. But one area I've never seen someone get worked up over is prayer. In fact, w...

We've all lost something: keys, a wallet, a phone. It's a part of the human experience. Some things are easy to replace. Some things can't be replaced because they provide so much value, and others hold so much meaning. This is why Jesus uses this illustration to prove the importance of lost things being found. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus is sharing a meal with sinners and societal...

Almost 10 years ago I was asked to take the Coffee Team and turn it into a Coffee Ministry. The goal was to learn everything I needed to know to help them move in the direction leadership wanted them to go. Many changes were needed to be made, or things added new, to make this happen. And this is where my serving story begins. As I was learning all that the Coffee Team had done and was doing. I pu...

As we continue our Why Church? series, we’re answering the question, “Why should I grow with the Bible?” Did you know that if you were to drop someone off in the middle of nowhere with no bearings for how to get to civilization—and no training on how to plot a course—that person would literally wander in circles? The reason is that the average human has one leg slightly longer than the other. So,...