August 2016 Pastor's Letter

 ". . . I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some."

  - I Cor.  9:22b NRSV

Shortly after I came to FPC, Steve Nycum told me about visiting the police station to ask if we needed a permit for an particular church event. The person on duty responded, "Where is your church?"  We were a well kept secret though only two blocks away!

Getting the word out about our church and our faith is increasingly difficult. In days past, churches were the center of community activity and social life. Now, that is less and less true. We can't assume that everyone knows where we are or what we have to offer. Further, there is less and less opportunity for door-to-door type outreach as people increasingly shut themselves off from the outside world. What has not changed in 2,000 years since Christ came is the need for Christians to be aware of any and all avenues for sharing the gospel.

Paul, missionary extraordinaire, simplified his mission strategy in I Corinthians 9:22b quoted above. He simply attempted to meet people where they were, as they were and introduce them to Christ. No matter what ethnic, economic, religious or social group he encountered, Paul attempted to find "touch points" with their lives that would give him an opportunity to witness. He didn't compromise his faith but he also didn't allow differences to be barriers. He gave himself to studying and getting to know the people God placed in his path. Even with all his efforts and knowledge, he admitted that he could only facilitate the salvation of "some". But what if he hadn't tried? What if he had allowed the differences in language, customs, social interests, etc., to become barriers to his witness? How impoverished our faith would be if Paul had not encountered and engaged people different from himself and formed a relationship with them that led to churches being established and wonderful letters of instruction and encouragement being written! 

Paul's example is a primary reason why we have begun a new push into the area of social media. At the end of July we launched several new ways of electronic outreach:

• We established a new website - www.fpc4me.org - designed by Amy Drittler, who established and maintains our Facebook page. Amy was advised by Karen Potter-Hughes regarding our hosting entity, Weebly.com, which Karen uses in promoting her book, Deserter. 

• In conjunction with our new website, we established a new email account -   fpc4me@yahoo.com - and will close the old account August 31.

• We now have a Twitter account - @fpc4meorg - which we will use to promote church news  and activities to those who "follow" @fpc4meorg on Twitter.

• We also have a new logo (top right of this page) which symbolizes our core commitments (I'll go into that  more next month) and we are taking orders for t-shirts which promote our church that we can wear in the community and at special events.

These actions are new and exciting, but they are only effective if we use them and share them. You can begin to do that by emailing this newsletter to others if you use email or by taking a copy or copies from the church and mailing them to neighbors and friends. Our church will only grow if we want it to grow and take the actions and make the efforts to plant seeds wherever and whenever we can. Join me as we take the message of the gospel and FPC into our world by all means possible so that some will be saved!