A Church Is Its People: Introducing FCC's Sabbath Year
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Dear Friends,
What’s next for us as a community of faith??
We’ve sold our building. We’ve moved into a new space inside another church building.
There is no better time to think of the sweet song— “I am the church. You are the church. We are the church together.” In that song we are reminded that “A church is not a building, a church is not a steeple, a church is not a meeting place—A CHURCH IS ITS PEOPLE!”
Throughout this coming program year, we will be taking a kind of sabbatical as a church. We will still worship together and spend time together, but we will use our time to intentionally discern God’s call for us as a community. A church IS its people. Although we are a very small community, we are still the church listening to God’s call. Each season—fall, winter, and spring—we will have a different theme that will guide our discernment.
FALL 2022—As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, the living God. Psalm 42:1
In the fall our focus will be on our individual spiritual paths.
Our worship style and preaching will be focused on how each one of us earns for and seeks a closer relationship with the Creator, the Christ, and the Comforter. Following each sermon, we will have an opportunity to briefly share what captured us as we listened to the scriptures and sermon. What was sparked as you heard the word? What thought or image will you carry with you from our worship?
Rev. Amy Bertschausen will be teaching a class on spirituality and prayer on Wednesday evenings at 6:30 for four weeks—Sept. 21, 28 and October 5, 12 via Zoom. These classes will be instead of our bible study.
We will resume our monthly lunch gatherings after church on the second Sunday of the month. We’ll be gathering at a restaurant together. Those dates for the fall are September 11, October 9, November 13, and December 11. For September 11, we will eat at Keys Café in Roseville, 1682 Lexington Ave. N
Winter 2023—Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. 1 Corinthians 12:27
In the winter our focus will be on us as a people of God
We will be working on us a church together. How do we want to be church? What does it mean to love one another? Details are still be firmed up—but our focus and activities will be centered on building our own little community in strength and love.
Spring 2023—I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act, says the Lord. Ezekiel 37:14
In the spring we will focus on our future as a church—as we have looked inward personally as well as a community, how will we move forward? Our focus will be on our identity as a church and strategic planning for what is next—taking time to be reflective, intentional, and take our next steps—whatever they may be.
If the church is its people—THAT’S US! We look forward to a year of loving and honest discernment, growing closer to God, to each other, and to our future.
In Christ,
Amy Bertschausen
Rob Hamilton
Dennis Sanders