I’ve officially been the Senior Pastor at First Christian Church for five months now and it has been a wonderful privilege!
So far, we have experienced Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, and Easter as a community of faith. Alongside these celebrations, we’ve journeyed together through a season of searching; asking God to reveal His plans for the future of FCC. That journey has followed the themes of the calendar: anticipation (Advent), joy (Christmas), seeking(Epiphany), preparation (Lent), and death and resurrection (Easter).
There’s only one more celebration left this year: Pentecost, the birth of the church. I believe the re-birth of FCC is where we are headed next.
What’s Next?
This month, on April 10th at 6 PM, we’ll be forming a Mission Team at FCC. You are invited to join this team. This group will work together each week through the end of May to explore possibilities for shaping FCC’s next season of life. We will wrestle with the cultural shifts in America, the needs of our City, and scout out what God is doing in other churches. Through this, we will learn to have a bigger imagination for how God works in His church.
An important part of the Mission Team’s work will be to host a Pentecost celebration on May 15, at 6 PM. We will come together to discern, from among several possibilities, what vision and mission God may be leading us to pursue.
Here’s how you can get involved:
Consider Joining the Mission Team: You are invited to join this team. If you can participate, please call or email me directly. Our first meeting will be on April 10th at 6 PM at the church, where we will discuss everything that will be involved in this stage of our process. In meantime, feel free to contact me with any questions.
Come to Pentecost on May 15th at 6 PM: Even if you aren’t able to join the Mission Team, you can still contribute to this process by joining us for Pentecost. This will be part celebration, part prayer service, and part brainstorming session. Everyone’s input will be important for helping to shape the future of FCC.
Then What?
After Pentecost, the Mission Team will gather everything we’ve collected – the input we’ve received in our prayer gatherings, what we’ve learned in our “Joining God’s Mission” Sunday School class, and the results of their own explorations together – and produce a recommendation for the FCC Board of Directors to consider in June.
If all goes well, we will spend the summer clearly articulating the new vision and mission. In the fall, we will be ready to roll up our sleeves and do the hard work of crafting a clear strategy for pursuing it. By next December, when we’re celebrating Advent again, we will enter the new year with a clear sense of where we’re going and how we’re going to get there.
Are We There Yet?
As you can see, we still have a long way to go. Road trips can try our patience. But it’s important to learn to wait for God’s plans to unfold in their proper time, because transformation happens along the way, not at the destination. It is during this time of waiting that we come face-to-face with our challenges and learn to not just live with each other, but how to truly love each other and work together. If we don’t learn those lessons, we’ll never get anywhere.
Personally, I am looking forward to continuing this journey with each and every one of you.
God bless,
Jason A. Coker
Senior Pastor