Blog

The SpringHouse Ministry Center’s open house will be on
Saturday, February 4, from 1pm to 4pm.

Read more about the SpringHouse Ministry Center at the website.

http://SpringHouseMN.org

Get the details about the open house from the press release.

At First Christian, we strive to make known that all are welcome at Christ’s table.  And by all, we mean all.  First Christian is a congregation that supports and welcomes all gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered, questioning persons and their allies (LGBTQA) who seek to follow Christ. You are welcome at First Christian.  You are welcome at First Christian. Join us each Sunday at Christ’s table of welcome.

The parking lot immediately around SpringHouse is shared with Greenleaf, (retail and housing).  There is no retail in yet and all the residents are parking under the building, so for now, park anywhere that’s available.  Try and park in the lines delineated by the bricks.  Eventually there will be signs that will help center your vehicle.  In the coming months we will communicate parking guidelines as they are established.  Other local parking on Sunday mornings, Trustone Financial, Intermedia Arts and the city lot behind the Jungle Theater on Garfield. Please note: we are asking in the Spirit of hospitality, that those who are able, please consider parking on the street or at the various sattelite parking spaces to leave the parking at SpringHouse for visitors, the elderly and persons with disabilities.

By Bob Brite, Transitional Pastor

I’ve got a couple of things to lift up to you this week.  First of all, our Office Manager, Chris Wogaman, will be leaving us at the end of January; downsizing to part time will not get the job done for him, and he will be seeking fuller-time employment.  My thanks goes to Chris for keeping my back and getting a lot of things done that I generally don’t have time for.  Deb Murphy will be taking over office duties on an interim basis for about 3 months, and one of her tasks will be to put together a job description for what a 15 hour-per-week Office Manager position will look like as compared to 30 or 40 hours.  It is all part-and-parcel of our transition towards becoming a “medium-sized” Disciples church as compared to a “big” Disciples church.

A second matter is one that I’ve lifted up before, but with which the discussions need to take place further in this time, and that’s the matter of our distribution of assets following our move to SpringHouse.  Following our sale of the building, we totaled out about $3.7 million (not including our endowments or trustees’ other funds).  About $1.45 million is going towards construction and organ moving.  That leaves about $2.25 million to work with for the future ministry of FCC and new church starts as well.

From almost the beginning of the transition process the church’s conversation process has focused on two pieces: 1) Having a sustenance or “Living Towards the Future” Fund that would give the congregation some extra support beyond that of congregational giving for the next 10 – 15 years, and 2) Starting new congregations in the Twin Cities area.  In last month’s Board meeting, discussion of the former amount was in the area of $1.2 million; used wisely in our down-sized circumstances, that could provide anywhere from 10 – 40 years of support, depending on what the congregation does in future budgets.  Leaving $150,000 for contingencies, that would leave about $900,000 for the other work.

It takes about $400,000 to start a new church if you do it right.  About $100,000 would go to Open Source Christian Church in Rochester (which was severely underfunded to start) to help them in their start-up process; that means there’s $800,000 left, enough to start two new churches.  Conversation in last month’s Board meeting centered on whether we should give all of that money to Church Extension this year, or hold half of it back.  We hope to continue that discussion in this month’s Board meeting and at the Annual Meeting as well.  I’m telling you all of this so that you can be informed for the discussion!

I’d like to see YOU on Moving Sunday, THIS SUNDAY!

Bob

It’s hard to believe we are down a mere days.  In 9 days, First Christian will have its last worship service at 2201 First Avenue South.  Actually, it’s out last half of a service, since we will finish the service at our new home at SpringHouse Ministry Center.

January 15 will be a bittersweet day for us.  First Christian is leaving its large home of 56 years to move to a smaller footprint.  We pastors like to remind people that a church is not a building, but it is a people and that is true, of course.  But those buildings are also places where memories take place.  For me, this place has been instrumental in my formation as a pastor.  This was where I was ordained as a minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in 2002.  In 2006, I performed my first funeral here.  In 2010, rain forced my cousin to cancel his outdoor wedding at the last minute and it was rescheduled…well, you can guess where.

No doubt a lot of people connected with First Christian have memories associated with the building.  For some of you, it’s where you got married, or dedicated your child, or got baptized or buried a loved one.  The church is a people and we shouldn’t confuse a building with a community, but places hold significance in the human heart and mind.  Throughout the Bible, we find stories where place wasn’t just a building  or a rock, but it was a place where people met God and each other.

So, we leave with some sadness, but we also give thanks for what God has done at 2201.  And we move forward to what God will do at SpringHouse Ministry Center.  It will take time for us to get our bearings, but over time, new memories will be made, new stories where we will connect with God and each other.

Bob Hope used to sing the song, “Thanks for the Memories” at the close of his specials and he would thank people who took part in the event.  So, I will say, thanks for the memories, 2201.  Thanks for helping me see how God is active in the world.
-Dennis Sanders, Associate Pastor

By Don Cain

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and

petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

- Philippians 4: 6, 7

When Mary Lou and I were married, we had 4 teenagers at home. We purchased and moved into a 6 bedroom, 4 bathroom, house so each person would have privacy and living space. When the kids moved on, the two of us didn’t need the large space, so we sold the house and moved in with my mother and aunt and shared their home.

That is not unlike our church situation today. When our congregation numbered 1200 or more, we built and moved into our present beautiful building. When our membership stopped growing and started to move on, we couldn’t afford the big home we had built.

Our best option, today, was to move in with two other congregations, sharing operating expenses and, jointly, continuing God’s work in the community.

People have asked me how I feel about the move from this wonderful edifice to a new building and sharing a facility that is not wholly our own. As I think about it, I feel lots of trepidation, I don’t like change. There are times when I am excited, looking forward to new experiences and challenges. And, always, I have great faith; God is leading us in the ways we do His work in the world. God guides us in strange ways, sometimes, but faith lets us know that He is right. Our move is the right thing for our congregation at this time and place.

I haven’t been into the new building for a while, (I hope to do so sometime this week,) but I understand that good progress is being made, even to the point of painting beginning in some of the rooms. The office managers have met to talk about what sort of equipment can be moved; we’ve asked for bids from three organ companies about moving the organ. All in all, it looks as if the building will be ready sometime in mid-December, which means we need to finalize our own plans for moving our worship services (first, and then the rest of our stuff over the following six months.)

Our conversation to this point has focused on having final Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services, and then moving over sometime in early January, maybe as early as New Year’s Day, with the service beginning at our current building and finishing at the new one. There are too many vari-ables right now still to nail down the timeframe, but it’s something people need to be thinking about. Of the many, many groups meeting among the three churches, one of them about to gear up is the “stuff” committee.

Oh, boy! There’s a lot to be accomplished in the next three months!

Of course, after that point of moving, it then behooves us to consider “what happens then?” It’ll be a new set of circumstances in which our ministry will be taking place, hopefully one with more spiritual focus than building focus. The elders are talking it over, and it’s for all of us to talk it over – what will be the ministry of FCC from here on out? What are new ideas that can come forth out of all the changes? Think about it; better yet, pray about it and see what God seems to be saying to you?

I’d like to see YOU on Sunday!

Bob

By Karen Kandik

God spoke all these words: I am God, your God,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt,
out of a life of slavery.
Exodus 20:1-20

I haven’t rearranged my living room furniture in over 25 years.  Actually, even longer than that if you count my previous residence that had the same floor plan as my current house.   Oh, I’ve thought about changing things around but I can’t quite envision what it would look like afterwards; what if I hated it?  Besides, I am quite comfortable with the way it is arranged now; at least something in my life is a constant. Yes, if I decided to shuffle things, I could change them back…but would it ever look quite the same once I had seen the room be different?

We at First Christian don’t have the opportunity to try out rearranging our church home and then moving back to things just the way they were.  There is no going back now, that’s for sure.  That sense of security of having all the pews arranged the same, the long standing traditions being followed, knowing where to park on Sunday mornings, seeing the same people Sunday after Sunday –that sense of security will be challenged daily in the next few years as we adjust to the BIG REARRANGEMENT.

But what we do have is a rock solid assurance that God’s laws/commandments are God’s personal voice to us, God’s chosen people.  The laws are perfect:  reliable, clear, righteous and truthful and form our covenant with God.  They are the something we can rely on that will never change. They are a constant in our lives no matter where we sit on Sunday morning, who preaches, where we park or, most importantly, who we are and what we have done.  They are to be relied upon to provide the shelter and security that we need when going through such a major transition.  We have a LIVING relationship with Christ, no matter what, and can rely on that relationship to bring us comfort, guidance and security as our lives are rearranged.

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart

be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.