Shelbyville Community Church

You are meant for compassion. Studies indicate that compassionate people are far more satisfied with their lives than people who call themselves less compassionate. Not only do they indicate fuller and more meaningful lives, but also a greater sense of connection to others. This begs a question: If compassion is a key to happiness, why aren’t more people practicing it? There are probably a couple...

Baptism is a picture of a new life! This weekend 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 us or the other people who made their declaration of faith alongside of us, but nothing could be further from the truth. Baptism is a celebration and picture of Christ’s loving work of s...

Back in the late 1800s, doctors and scientists believed in something called spontaneous generation. The idea was that living organisms could suddenly pop up anywhere from non-living organisms, and this theory was used to explain the spread of things like sickness and disease. The assumption was that it was random, and there was nothing you could do about it. Then a man named Louis Pasteur came alo...

There was an old chorus that we used to sing based on Numbers 21:17: "I've got a river of life flowing out of me It makes the lame to walk and the blind to see, Opens prison doors, sets the captives free I've got a river of life flowing out of me. Spring up, O well, within my soul, Spring up, O well, and make me whole, Spring up, O well, and give to me His life abundantly." As...

For thousands of years, people have gathered on Easter Sunday to proclaim a central and powerful truth. They’ve not gathered to say, “The Stock Market has risen” or “The dollar has risen”. They haven’t come together to say “the Housing Market has risen”, or “the value of my 401K has risen.” The one hope that has held people and cultures and countries together all over the world in the face of pove...

In John 6, as Jesus’ followers are forsaking Him, Jesus turns and asks His inner circle a question. ““You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve. Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”” (John 6:67–69, NIV84) I love Peter’s attitude. “Where else are we gonna go? There’s no on...

In John 6, right after the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus makes a startling claim: “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.” (John 6:35, NIV84) Isn’t it true that hunger can drive you to all kinds of bad decisions or attitudes? We even have a word for that. We call it “hangry”. In the same way that my hunger can lead me to bad...

Most of us have probably seen the drawings where two people may see the same image, but each of them will see something different. This weekend Jesus is going to say very plainly, “When you read the Old Testament, you should see me. It is fulfilled by me, centered on me, and carried out by me.” So the question is, “When you read the Old Testament, what do you see? Do you see laws or rules? Do you...

The feeding of the 5,000 is one of the most famous miracles performed by Jesus. Outside of the resurrection of Jesus, it's the only miracle recorded in all four gospel accounts. This miracle takes place after Jesus has been breaking social norms, healing the sick, casting out demons, and revealing Himself to those He encountered. In John chapter 6, we see thousands following after Jesus. As e...

You’ll hear many pastors encourage people to start in the book of John, if they are asking, where should I start in the Bible. The reason behind this is the focus of the Gospel of John, to help people SEE and KNOW Jesus as He truly is and come to LOVE Him and have a RELATIONSHIP with. Through that RELATIONSHIP, want to become like Him and SERVE Him. It’s a beautiful thing when we decided to take t...

At the Pool of Bethesda Jesus heals someone who has been disabled for 38 years. Before healing him, Jesus asks this man a very interesting question: “Do you want to be made well?” Isn’t that an odd question to ask? Why would Jesus even ask this question in the first place? Well, the Pool of Bethesda is like a church. People come to church for all kinds of different reasons, don’t they? Sometimes p...

Our study together through the Gospel of John is about Jesus’ history of revealing who He was to the people He encountered during His brief three-year public ministry. John, Jesus’ disciple and author of this Gospel, openly declared his purpose for writing his account of Jesus’ ministry and encounters. John 20:30-31 says, “Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disc...

Before his downfall for taking performance enhancing drugs, Lance Armstrong was one of the most well-known cyclists in the world. His name was synonymous with being a champion and a winner. But for a season, every time Lance Armstrong got on his bicycle to train, another cyclist trained with him. He helped Lance go farther and faster than Lance could have ever gone on his own. His name was George...

”I will sing of the LORD’s great love forever; with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known through all generations.” (Psalm 89:1, NIV84) “For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.” (Psalm 100:5, NIV84) For generations, we’ve seen our Heavenly Father pour out his faithfulness here at SCC. Join us this weekend as we celebrate the goo...

We often think of church as needing to be a place where people are accepted, welcomed, and loved. But this was NOT true of the temple in Jesus’ day. Archeologists have found two inscriptions from the Temple walls that read: “No foreigner is to enter within the enclosure around the temple area. Whoever is caught will have himself to blame for his death which will follow.” Not too seeker-friendly, i...

When is “Enough” Enough? I have the opportunity to speak from one of the most popular chapters in the Gospel of John, and probably the whole Bible. John chapter three contains one of the most popular Bible verses too. One of the first verses many of us memorized was, “ For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believed in Him would not perish but have eternal life.” Is tha...

Every wedding has a crisis. It’s got to, or it wouldn’t be a wedding. Most of the time, it is family drama of some kind, but it could be anything. Even with the best planners and venues, something always goes wrong. Here in America, weddings are all about the bride. We don’t think a lot about the guests who will be coming to the wedding. Even the groom is kind of optional. The groom is mostly ther...

Baptism is a picture of a new life! This weekend 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 us or the other people who made their declaration of faith alongside of us, but nothing could be further from the truth. Baptism is a celebration and picture of Christ’s loving work of s...

For many years Ned Colletti was the general manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He spent his whole adult life looking for talent that extended to the baseball field. Each year Colletti went to the Dominican Republic to scout young players. Most of them, he said, had only one parent. They had no education past the 5th grade, and no prospects for their future. One year he saw a young man who had gre...

On Sunday morning, we're going to join millions of people around the world in the corporate worship of Jesus. This gathering, we often call church, started with one simple invitation - "come and see." This is the invitation of Jesus. As Jesus started gaining followers this was His invitation. Yet too often most of us think of Jesus and immediately think of things we should be doing...

Have you ever thought about the comparison between the size of the front windshield of your vehicle compared to the rearview mirror in that same vehicle? You might say, “Sure Stahl, I was just calculating that in my head.” Well, an AI help estimated that the front windshield is 96 times larger than the rearview mirror in most vehicles. To quote the rising star and not quite theologian, Jelly Roll,...

Christmas is a time to remember the beautiful story of Jesus and how God invites us into something better than we could have imagined.

Let’s face it. There is no holiday in the western world that suffers more propaganda than the Christmas season. Every commercial, song, television special, and Hallmark movie promises us that this is the year that Christmas will bring everything and everyone together. This will finally be the Christmas where my family experiences great joy, peace, togetherness, and gratitude. I mean, this is the y...

In December of 1903, the Wright brothers finally got their flying machine off the ground for the first time. They were thrilled! It had been a lot of trial and error for them to make it to this point. They were so thrilled they sent a telegraph to their sister back home sharing that they had flown 120 feet and they would be home for Christmas. Katharine, their sister, took this telegraph to the ed...

When I was in seminary, a board game called “Trivial Pursuit” was all the rage. The game was designed to test a persons’ knowledge of trivia around 6 categories. Topics like Geography, Sports, Leisure, History, and Science. In 1984 alone, the game sold more than 20 million copies. As of 2014, more than 100 million games had been sold in 26 countries around the world. It has been published in almos...