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FAIRMOUNT COUNTRY FESTIVAL
COMING JUNE 14th
Click here for
more information
A New Sermon Series based on the book
This We
Believe:
Eight Truths
Presbyterians Affirm
by Stephen W. Plunkett
Truth 1 God Is In Charge March 30th
Truth 2 God Call Us to Be a Holy People April 6th
Truth 3 Jesus Christ Reveals God’s Love April 13th
Guest Preacher: Rev. Jin Han April 20th
Truth 4 God’s Love Is Not for Sale April 27th
Truth 5 God Gives New Life May 4th
Truth 6 God is Revealed in the Bible May 11th
Truth 7 We Are the Church Together May 18th
Truth 8 We Serve God with Heart and Mind May 25th
Providing a supportive,
caring and friendly
environment through:
Christian
worship
of God,
education
of our church family,
and
service
to the greater community.
We
welcome you to join us on this journey!
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Happy Spring! Did you know that flowers and plants have a important
spiritual significance in many verses of the Bible? God has adorned the
greatest story ever told with lots and lots of beauty! Understand,
though, that the flowers and plants mentioned in the Bible were not
cultivated (like a garden we might keep) -- they grew freely in open
fields and plains, on mountains, and in groves of trees. Here are a few
examples if you want to “dig” further in the soil of Scripture to read
how flowers can be helpful to our spiritual formation – Almond blossoms
(Gen. 43:11; Ex. 25:33-34); Bulrush (Ex. 2:3; Isa. 18:2); Calamus (Ex.
30:23; Jer. 6:20); Crocus (Song of Solomon 2:1); Lily (Hosea 14:5; Matt.
6:28); Mint (Matt. 23:23; Luke 11:42); Rose (Isa. 35:1).
Watching beauty bloom is always inspiring to me. I see it in flowers and
plants all over our lovely neck of the woods, but I also see beauty
blooming in people. This beauty, however, tends to need careful
cultivation and restoration. Some wild beauty in people exists, but it
often turns into choking weed.
This is something that was rooted deep within me by a preaching mentor
of mine, Dr. J. Randall Nichols. He once wrote – “New gardens I have
built aplenty, and I have reaped the special joy of seeing bare lots or
tangled patches of woodland become places of beauty and abundance. But
one day I hope to come upon a garden, once ordered and lovely, now gone
to rack and ruin and crying out for, well, restoration. It will have to
be a careful project. The basic outlines of the garden will have to be
discovered among the weeds and encroaching sod. Those plantings that
have outlasted even the overgrowth that covers them will have to be
protected from an overzealous hoe. I will have to do my horticultural
homework to discover what was growing when and whether it is worth
preserving.”
Did you notice I said he was a preaching professor? This image of
preaching as cultivating and restoring a garden, of tilling the soil of
Scripture and the garden of God’s people has been central to my nearly
10 year vocation as a preacher and pastor.
I share this with you to explain that this is why I’ve been troubled of
late that attendance in Sunday morning worship at FPC has been
considerably down from when I first arrived. I consider preaching (and
all of the worship service!) a means of cultivation and restoration. So
I fret that when members of our FPC “garden of faith” have decreased or
stopped attending worship, their spiritual growth may be going the way
of rack and ruin. There are many ways to grow spiritually, of course,
but what makes us a church and not just a volunteer community
organization is that we gather together to pray, praise, and be engaged
by the “secret watering” of the Holy Spirit through the Scriptures.
Would you help me with this garden this spring and summer? Would you
till some soil by inviting friends you haven’t seen in church for awhile
to come back? Would you till some soil by increasing your own
attendance? By talking with me about concerns you have (such as 10 a.m.
Sunday morning not being a time that is conducive to your attendance due
to other commitments)?
God finds our garden absolutely, stunningly beautiful. Let’s help keep
it healthy and growing!
In Christ,
Pastor Rich
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