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January 23, 2010
Inside the Courier
:
•
A Look at the BriteSide, page 2
• Week of Compassion
Update on Haiti,page 3
•
Anniversary Dinnerinformation, page 3
• February Calendar
page 4
•
New board members,new budget for2010, page 5
On the Web:
A Letter from Disciples of Christ Leadership
January 14, 2010Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,I am writing this message on behalf of our General Minister and President,Sharon Watkins. Even though Sharon is on sabbatical, she has been keeping aclose eye on the situation in Haiti.Sharon and I request your prayers for the people of Haiti, for our Global Mis-sion Partners, and our missionaries who need not only our prayers, but also ourresources. I also request your prayers for Dr. Glen Stewart, Regional Minister of the Christian Church in Tennessee, who is in Haiti with a delegation from theTennessee region.At the time of writing, they are safe and have arrived at the U.S. Embassy inHaiti. My understanding is that the U.S. State Department and the TennesseeCongressional Delegation are working to arrange their return. At the same time adelegation from the Oklahoma and the Great River Regions are on the other sideof the island in the Dominican Republic. While they felt the earthquake, they didnot have any damage.In addition to these groups, I would urge you to pray for the Haitian communi-ties within the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). We have about 100 Hai-tian churches. These are anxious days and moments for many of them who havefamily and friends on the island. Charlie Wallace from New Church Ministrieshas traveled to be present with our Haitian churches in Florida.As you can imagine, communication to and from the island is very limited.Week of Compassion, Global Ministries and others have been using all of theiravailable resources and technology to connect with our missionaries and part-ners.If you or your congregation can offer financial resources in support of our re-lief efforts and our partners, I invite you to give online through:www.weekofcompassion.org,or send a check to Week of Compassion, 130 E.Washington St., Indianapolis, IN, 46204 with Haiti or earthquake relief in theMemo. Week of Compassion has already sent an initial grant to Global Minis-tries / Overseas Ministries in support of our missionaries and partners, as well asChurch World Service.Week of Compassion and Global Ministries are trying to keep their websitesas up to date as possible and I encourage you to check them frequently.Your partner in prayer,Rev. Todd Adams, Associate General Minister and Vice President for Chris-tian Church, (Disciples of Christ)
Christian Courier
First Christian Church of Minneapolis (Disciples of Christ)
Page 2
Pastor Bob Brite
January 23, 2010
Assessing progress and offeringspiritual insights and challenges
Around the time of the AnnualMeeting, someone asked if Iwould like to give my pastoralassessment of congregationalprogress since I began my timewith you.
I‟ll do so in the way of
offering what I call spiritual in-sights.First of all, all-in-all you are agroup of beautiful human beingswho, I think, are honestly wres-tling with what your future is tobe in the wake of a decliningpast.You have, in my opinion,worked at cultivating a deepersense of spiri
tuality since I‟ve
been here, again, honestly ques-tioning God andyour personal and congregational
purpose in God‟s Kin
gdom. Icertainly want to encourage thatcontinued questioning, deepeningyour trust in God to provide theanswers. (Though asking thequestions in the first place is theimportant thing.)
I also think that we‟ve brought
our communication pieces up todate and are regaining a sense of investment in mission and hands-on ministry; my thanks to DennisSanders for providing a spirit of leadership on both those fronts.
We‟ve made some progress in
evangelistic awareness and child-
ren‟s nurture and educ
ation, witha ways to go on both of thosefronts.The biggest hurdle you haveyet to face is your own encultura-tion, your resistance to change,that lies at the heart of the con-
gregation‟s soul.
Whether it‟s change in the
format and style of worship, inthe physical settings of the build-ing, in the investment of time inmission and ministry, there is stillthe tendency to fall into habits of the past rather than embracingvisions and imaginings of the fu-
ture. There‟s a natural tendency
to want things the way they havealways been, but I will continueto issue the challenge of resistingthat tendency in favor of workingtowards that which can be.The primary question thatneeds to be answered in 2010 is,
“What is
the best thing FCCMinneapolis can do and be foradvancing the Kingdom of God
in the Twin Cities?” I expect
that, by the end of this year, wemay have an answer to that ques-tion.
I‟d like to see YOU on Su
nday,Bob
A Look at the Brite Side
In our prayers
Gracious God, welift up these personsin our prayers, ask-ing the blessing of your Grace and out- pouring of your Loveupon them.
We pray for the
country of Haiti
suffering amidst the devastation of their 7.3-magnitude earthquake and the many severe aftershocks. Reportsfrom our mission partners speak of toppled buildings, flattened communi-ties, a great loss of life and the sound of wailing filling the air. We prayfor those whose homes and livelihoods have been destroyed and whoseloved ones have died. We ask for wisdom, provision and protection forour mission partners and others seeking to minister to the Haitian peoplein these chaotic circumstances. At home, we pray for continued healingfor
Deb Murphy
,
Mary Lou Cain
and
Barb Dean
; for Bob Brite‟s si
s-ter
Ruth
; for
Dennis Sanders
’s father
; for our all our homeboundmembers, especially
Helen Smith
and
Lois Swenson
, Amen. (
Note: Michele Benyo of Feed My Starving Children wrote parts of this prayer
.)
Page 3Christian Courier
We will
celebrate FCC‟s 133
rd
birthday on Sunday, Feb. 14, withworship in the Fellowship Hall followed by a potluck dinner honoringthe people who have been members of our congregation for 50 years ormore as well as the new members of our congregation. A brief pro-gram will follow the dinner, featuring musical entertainment and a dis-play about 1960 from the Archives.An entree, rolls and beverage will be provided for $5 per person or amaximum of $15 per family. Everyone is asked to bring his or her fa-vorite vegetable, salad, or dessert to share. For those unable to bringfood, a contribution of $8 per person is suggested.
Reservations must be made by Noon on Monday, Feb. 8.
Pleasemake your reservations by indicating the number for dinner in the at-tendance book at worship on Sunday morning Jan. 31 or Feb. 7 or bycalling the Church Office. Child Care is available by reservation only.
Annual FCC Anniversary Dinner to be Feb. 14
FCC goers are invitedto attend Hesser
’
s produc-tion of
The Lion in Winter
A Word of Thanks
Many thanks to all whocontributed to the wonderfulAdvent booklet--we willplan to do that again during2010 Advent. Also specialthanks to the participants inthe Advent lighting services,and to all who helped deco-rate and undecorate thesanctuary & halls.
Continued „thank yous‟ to
the members who willinglyagree to be Worship Leadersand who deliver the Child-ren's Messages.--Worship Committee
Jan. 24 marks Laity Sunday
January 24 is Laity Sunday, andthe service will be led by membersof our Transition Team. The ser-mon time will be given over toSkip Wolverton, Tom Curry, andBobbie Hall to offer their spiritualreflections on congregational lifein the wake of our current transi-tions. (Though we hear that Pas-tor Bob might be sneaking in a
musical offering; he just can‟t
keep his hands out of the worshippie, can he?)
Diaconate Meeting Jan. 24
New and current Diaconate mem-bers will have an important orga-nizational meeting on Jan. 24 fol-lowing worship. Schedules for theyear will be set, so all Diaconatemembers are asked to attend thismeeting with their calendars.
Mission Day at CommunityEmergency Services
Saturday, Jan. 30, is a work dayfor FCC folk at CommunityEmergency Services, 1900 11
th
Ave. S., a block up from FranklinAvenue (E. 19
th
St. & 11
th
Ave S).Our labors of love begin at 9 am.
“Questions of Faith”
Sunday on January 31
During the sermon time on Jan.
31, Bob will be doing “Que
stions
of Faith.” Index cards will be
provided in worship bulletins; if you have any questions about faithlife, church life, theology, or mis-sion, write them down AT THEBEGINNING OF THE SERVICE,and Bob will pick them up and usethe sermon time to respond tothose questions.Brian Hesser, who grew up goingto FCC and is Garry Hesser's son,is Directing-Producing an out-standing cast in
The Lion in Win-ter
at the Gremlin Theater, 2400University Ave in St Paul, justeast of Highway 280 and KSTP-TV on University Avenue.Treat yourself to a winter break and get a "2 for price of 1" dis-count [$12 per ticket before thediscount for seniors and $15 be-fore discount for others] and sup-port one of our own young adults.Just tell them you are from "FirstChristian Church" to get the 2 for1 discount.Performances run through Satur-day, Jan. 30; Thursday, Friday,Saturday, Sunday each week andMonday, the 25th, all at 7:30 p.m.
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