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February 6, 2010
Inside the Courier :
•
A Look at the BriteSide, page 2
• Board notes, page 3
• News briefs, page 3
On the Web:
Questionsof Faith
FCC and Plymouth Creek join for Haiti relief effortJanuary sermon addresses Questions of Faith
Pastor Bob Brite solicited questionsfrom people in worship on Jan. 31, andthen addressed six of the questions as
his “Questions of Faith” sermon.“Every six months or so, it‟s good
toget a sense of where we are in terms of
our questions about faith,” he said in
his introduction.Here are the questions that he addressedthis time around:1. How does one develop faith?2. Some people describe the Bible asthe inerrant word of God. What is youropinion?
3. If there‟s only one God why are
there so many religions?4. Why are some of the names in theBible hard to pronounce?5. Why do good things happen to badpeople?5. How do YOU balance doubt withfaith?If you would like to read short sum-
maries of Rev. Brite‟s responses to
these questions, contact Chris in the
church office, who can email or “snailmail” the questions and r
esponses.
You can also find them on FCC‟s
website, www.fccminneapolis.org,
under the section
“
blog.
”
In the face of natural disasters, vi-olence or grinding poverty, HygieneKits can mean the difference betweensickness and health for strugglingfamilies.In the wake of the earthquake thathit Haiti in January, Church WorldService cleaned out their warehouseof Hygiene Kits. First Christian andPlymouth Creek Christian Churchwill come together on Sat. Feb. 20 toput some kits together.Please consider donating items orcash to purchase items for kits.Bring your donations, material orcash, to church on Feb. 7 or Feb. 14.
Kits consist of one 16” x 28” hand t
o-wel, one washcloth, one wide-toothcomb, one nail clipper, one bath size barof soap in wrapper, one toothbrush inoriginal packaging, six standard Band-Aids, and one gallon plastic bag withzipper.Signup sheets will be in the lounge onFeb. 7 or Feb. 14 for people to indicatewhether they will be providing full kitsor multiple items of kit contents.
Christian Courier
First Christian Church of Minneapolis (Disciples of Christ)
Page 2
Pastor Bob Brite
Book challenges Transition Team to consider how
church can be ‘missional’ in 21st century
Among the many things I read
–
fiction/non-fiction, e-mails,snail mails, histories, and thelike
–
one of the more fascinat-ing pieces of late has been abook by Patrick Kiefert called
We Are Here Now
, which ourTransition Team has been pe-rusing. It talks about the newshape of church in the 21
st
Cen-
tury, a church that is “mi
ssion-
al” in nature, focused in its sp
i-rituality, program, and way of life towards proclaiming Christin a hands-on way in our com-munities.The central question that theTransition Team and otherskeep coming back to time andtime again in the life of FCC is:What is the ministry of FirstChristian Church of Minneapo-lis? Numerous surveys havebeen taken over the years, nu-merous goal-settings andprojects have taken place, nu-merous things have been triedin the life of the body, but thechallenge of answering thatquestion concretely has loomed
over everything that‟s been
done. Transformation in minis-try cannot take place unlessthat question can be answered.Of course, part of the answer,expressed concretely in conver-sations about three years ago, isthat the church exists for thespiritual comfort of its mem-bers; in other words, the church
is for “us.” That‟s true, but
on-ly a small part of the truth; if achurch exists for itself, it isthen only a social club that in-vokes God on occasion, andsuch abody without a defined minis-try will die, and perhapsshould. Two years ago the eld-ers defined goals of transforma-tion
–
in worship, in spirituali-ty, in leadership, in diversity,and in ministry to the neigh-borhood (remember thosegoals
, folks?) We‟ve made
progress in a lot of those areas,but the central question stillremains: What is the ministryof FCC?One of the points that came upin Transition Team discussionslast week was that starting anew worship movement in FCC
wasn‟t going to give the church
a future unless we ALL work on transforming who we arenow. So what is the ministry of the body of FCC to be? I hopeyou all work hard, thinking andpraying, to answer that ques-tion, and share that answer witha Transition Team member?
I‟d like to see YOU on Sunday!
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 in concern for
Skip Wolverton’s family
as they care for Skip‟s
mother in the aftermath of a stroke and also in joy with their family withthe news of
Kristin
‟s pregnancy; for
Pastor Bob Brite
who injured hiseye in a fall; in joy that
Phyllis Dunlap
is recovering from surgery andwas able to attend worship service; for our friend
Janise
who was at-tacked on the streets recently; for all the
people of Haiti
suffering fromthe devastation of the earthquake, and for
aide workers
trying to bringrelief; for traveling mercies for
Alison Creighton
,
Katie Brite, GarryHesser
, and
Steve and Amy Dunlop
; for all our homebound members,especially
Dorothy Wilkins
and
Lois Cobbs
; Amen.
February 6, 2010
Board Notes
Tom Curry stepped in as the new Board chairperson at the Jan. 19meeting of the Board, and Deb Murphy was named vice chairperson.Ten Board members attended the January meeting.
Phil Kinney presented a treasurer‟s report, noting that we ar
e $14,000short income over expenses. So far, pledges are about 2/3 of lastyear, although the 2010 pledge total is not yet final.Elders will be having a retreat in April, and deacons will be invited to join in.A motion was passed to send a letter to Tiempo Nuevo requestingthat they move to another location. The letter was then sent.
Anniversary Dinner set for Feb. 14 in Fellowship Hall
Aliveness Project to betopic of Feb. 28 Forum
FCC‟s 133rd birthday cel
e-bration will be Sunday, Feb.14. As with the Thanksgivingservice, worship will be in Fel-lowship Hall, with the dinner tofollow.Everyone is asked to bring afavorite vegetable, salad ordessert to share. Cost of thedinnerThe Aliveness Project, a localcharity that helps persons withHIV/AIDS, will be the topic of a forum on Feb. 28 followingworship.Tom Marburger, VolunteerCoordinator for the AlivenessProject, will talk about what theProject does, and how we as acommunity can be more in-volve in being Christ to thosewith HIV/AIDS
entrée, rolls and beverage is $5per person ($8 if unable tobring food), or $15 for families.Reservations should be madeby Monday Feb. 8, and can bemade by calling the church of-fice or indicating attendance atworship on Sunday, Feb. 7.
A Thank you from studentsat Christian TheologicalSeminary
Dear Reverend Brite andChurch Friends:Greeting from Christian Theo-logical Seminary! I write toyou today to thank you for yourgenerous love and support of the students here at CTS. TheWinworth Williams Fund is avery special way of showingyour support to the studentshere at CTS.Your gracious love and fi-nancial support makes it a littleeasier for the students here tofocus on their calling, and tocomplete the requirements fortheir classes as they do nothave to worry quite so muchabout finding money for tuitionand books.Please know that I will bethanking God for people likeyou in congregations acrossAmerica! You are a wonderfulexample of Christian love inaction! May 2010 be a blessedyear for you and your congre-gation.In His loving service,Jane Stanley3rd year student, CTS
Prayer Circles moves to Wednesdays
Associate Pastor Dennis Sand-ers will be in the church libraryon Wednesdays, 7 pm, to joinwith others for scripture, shar-ing, and prayer. All are wel-come.
How to get donations toHaiti relief efforts
Checks made out to First Chris-
tian with “Haiti Earthquake R
e-
lief” in the memo line will go to
Week of Compassion work forHaitian relief efforts. You cansend checks to the church officeor place in Sunday offeringplates.Because of recent legislationsigned by the President, you canclaim any cash donation givento Haiti relief between Jan. 1land Mar. 1 on your 2009 Feder-al Income Tax Return.
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