Being a Missional church refocuses what we as a church do. A Missional church seeks to equip people to fulfill their individual calling in their neighboring world and to be Christ’s light as a community of faith.

In Ephesians 4:12, the purpose of the gifted people of God, the church, is “to equip the saints for the work of ministry.” Some one shared with me three images of what equipping means:

1. The first image is of a fishermen mending broken nets. Fishermen would be out fishing all day and their nets became broken and torn. In the evening, they would repair them so they’d be ready to go the next morning. The purpose of the church is to help people mend their nets so they could return to God’s ministry. The mending may be encouragement or it may be helping them discover spiritual practices that strengthen their faith.

2. The second image of equipping is of a doctor setting a broken bone. A physician sets the bones, and equips them to heal. The doctor brings them back together so they can heal and return to their former strength. When we get out of sorts wondering what is our purpose in life, what is God’s calling for us, it is the equipping ministry of the church to help people discern and discover their calling.

3. The third image is outfitting a ship for a journey. Imagine a ship being prepared to cross the Mediterranean. No shopping malls out there. The crew loads everything on board they will need until they arrive at their destination. The equipping ministry of the Missional church helps people develop their skills and learn what they need to do what God wants them to be and do.

Our focus as a Missional church is inwardly equipping each of you to fulfill the ministry God is calling you to and outwardly empowering you to explore and fulfill your ministry! It is an exciting time to be First Presbyterian Church, Fargo!

Grace & Peace, Steve

See this Messenger for:

• Congregational Meeting - Nominating of Elders and Deacons
• 2007-2008  Ministry Year Wrap-Up
• Volunteer Appreciation Night
• Graduate Recognition

“The most eloquent testimony to the reality of the resurrection is not an empty tomb or a well-orchestrated pageant on Easter Sunday but rather a group of people whose life together is so radically different, so completely changed from the way the world builds a community, that there can be no explanation other than that something decisive has happened in history.”

See this Messenger for:

• Earth Day Celebration
• Mission Emphasis Weekend
• New Adult Study classes

Katrina Mission Group

The camp consisted of 30 pods, small tent-like structures made out of plastic and board. They each had 3 cots, but they did have heat. A meeting room housed a kitchen, dining room and bathrooms. Shower facilities were in a portable trailer.

We were joined by teams from First Presbyterian Church in Georgetown, Texas and Crossroads Presbyterian Church in Waterford, Connecticut. During the week, we had rotating responsibilities around the camp: cooking breakfast and supper, washing dishes, mopping floors, emptying trash cans, cleaning bathrooms, etc. As we ate and worked together we formed a larger community.

The First Presbyterian Church, Fargo team worked during the day on the home of Nolan and Donna, along with their son, Tate. Grandma Joy was living with them as she had had brain surgery in November. After Hurricane Rita, their house was flooded with three feet of water for nine days.

The house has now been enlarged and raised eleven feet off the ground. Our work team painted several rooms, made and installed shelves, installed decking on one and a half sides of the house, put up a stud wall for a screened-in porch and more. We listened to the family’s stories, went on a bayou tour led by Tate, and ate a lunch of smothered crab and jambalaya cooked by Grandma. The work week ended on a high note—everyone feeling good about the work accomplished and the relationships established.

On Saturday morning, as the team was preparing to return to Fargo, someone noticed Dellis Schrock was not at breakfast. Upon checking his pod, it was discovered that he had died in the middle of the night. The First Presbyterian Church, Fargo team and other teams were and still are stunned. Dellis had worked so joyfully and so diligently all week. He was an integral and key part of the team and the work.

During the weeks ahead, a time will be scheduled when the stories of the Katrina Mission Trip can be told in words and images, and Dellis’ life can be further celebrated! Check the bulletin and website for a date and time!

See this Messenger for:

• Katrina Mission Trip recap
• Holy Week Schedule
• Employment Opportunities

The answer is that the journey of Lent is not one that is just witnessed in nature but a mega narrative story that informs our lives no matter what the weather. Lent is a forty-day season of reflection for Christians. The "forty days" correspond symbolically to the forty years Israel travelled through the desert towards the Promised Land, or the forty days Jesus lived in the wilderness to prepare for his life’s work.

The traditions of Lent are derived from the season’s origin in ancient times as a period when the church prepared candidates for their baptism. It eventually became a season of preparation not only for new Christians but also for the whole congregation. Self-examination, study, fasting, prayer and works of love are practices historically associated with Lent. Conversion, literally, the "turning around" or reorientation of our lives towards God, is the theme of Lent. Both as individuals and as a community, we look inward and reflect on our readiness to follow Jesus in his journey towards the cross.

Dr. Marcus Borg says the following about Lent:

This is what the season of Lent is about, about being born again, about following the path of death and resurrection, about participating in Jesus’ final journey. To become somewhat more concrete, some of us may need to die to specific things in our lives--perhaps to a behavior that has become destructive or dysfunctional, perhaps to a relationship that has ended or gone bad, perhaps to an unresolved grief or to a stage in our life that it is time to leave, perhaps to our self-preoccupation, or even to a deadness in our lives (you can die to deadness.) It is possible to leave the land of the dead. So, the journey of Lent is about being born again--about dying and rising, about mortality and transformation.

I invite you to make this journey! What is important in your life? What are the values by which you want to live? What draws you into closer relationship with others? What is God telling you during this holy/special season?

I invite you to join the journey!

Peace,

Steve

See this Messenger for:

• Lenten Worship
• Mardi Gras Event
• All You Need is Love Dinner
• New Members

As you look back on the year just completed:

1. What name would you give to your journey of the past year? How would you describe it to one of your friends? What image or metaphor would you use to talk about it?

2. What were some of your “epiphanies” of the past year (your discoveries of the Holy One in your midst)? How did you grow because of them?

3. Who were your wise persons? What did they reveal to you? How did this influence your life?

4. Did any of your hopes and dreams become a reality?

5. What was most satisfying about the year? What was least satisfying?

As you look to the year before you:

1. What name would you like your new year’s journey to have? What gifts do you bring with you into the year before you?

2. Do you find any resistance within you? Of what are you most afraid as you enter a new year?

3. What is your greatest need for the coming year?

4. Who do you bring with you for your support and strength as you begin to journey through the year?

5. How is your relationship with the Holy One as you pause on the threshold of the new year’s vast landscape? What is at the heart of your new year’s prayer?

6. What do you hope to contribute to society in this coming year?

As 2007 ends and 2008 begins, I pray that you take some time to reflect on the past year as we welcome a new one. May this New Year be one in which you grow spiritually in ways that you can not imagine!

Grace and Peace,

Steve

See this Messenger for:

• Mission Emphasis Weekend
• Expectations of Members
• Winter Youth Retreat Information
• New Adult Study Classes

Christmas Eve Worship

Well his mom's heart sank for a moment and then she thought, “Oh, I wish he wouldn't do that,” because every afternoon she would watch all the other kids coming home from school and they would be laughing and playing together. Everyone, that is except her son, Chad. He always walked behind them, by himself.

But she thought, she would go along with him, so for three weeks Chad painstakingly made homemade Christmas ornaments. When the day came to deliver his gifts, he was so excited. This was his day. He put each carefully wrapped personalized ornament in a box and headed off for school.

Thinking that this would be a tough day for him, she had some cookies ready for him in anticipation of the pain that would accompany the fact that he didn't get any presents.

At 3:30, sure enough here came the big gang of kids all hanging onto each other with presents under their arms. And there was Chad walking behind them. His arms were absolutely empty. He didn't even have one present. As he came into the house he was saying over and over, “Not a one, not a one.” Attempting to console him, his mother said, "Oh, honey, I have some warm cookies for you.” Then she looked into her son's eyes, and they were aglow.

He said, “Not a one, Mom—I didn't forget a one! I didn't miss a single one. Now they all know that I love them."

I don’t know about you, but this story took me by surprise because the little boy had such an unexpected attitude and perspective. So often, don’t we expect that we will experience Christ in the predictable rituals and places of Advent and Christmas? And yet, it has been my experience and is the witness of Scripture that we find Christ being birthed in some of the most unexpected places and among the least anticipated people. This Advent and Christmas season, let us keep our spiritual eyes and ears wide open that we might notice the presence of Christ in those unexpected times and places or at least open to the element of surprise!

Peace, Steve

See this Messenger for:   

• Christmas Eve Service Information
• Blue Christmas
• Festival @ First
• Cookie Walk