COMING THIS SUMMER: FAITHWORKS
Get ready for a summer at FBC unlike any other, a summer without sermons or tired hymns, a sermon entirely given over to what theologians call praxis, what Denison University calls informed advocacy, and what we are calling Faithworks. This summer will be a season when we stop preaching for awhile and start practicing, immersing ourselves in the ministries of our church, getting our hands dirty as we learn from the inside what it means to do God’s work at this time in our congregational life when that work has taken three unique forms: as art, as a lunch mission, and as peacemaking.
Throughout the summer, worship services will be reconfigured into times of doing ministry. For one month, Sundays will be focused on Whatever Works, as we explore the ways spirituality expressed itself through art. For another month, we will try out the lessons of our new Sunday School program, PeaceJam, and learn what we have committed to teaching our children about the causes, and possible solutions, to conflict in our world. And for a third month, hunger in Licking County will be our focus for a time of deepening our understanding of our Lunches on the Square program and how it might grow even further as a major mission project of our church. Each Sunday will include a devotional time and some guided reflection on the scriptural and spiritual significance of the specific ministry. At the end of each focus, a Sunday will be given over to a special process that invites sharing about our ministry experiences in a safe environment. Then in September, we can look forward to an all-church conversation about these ministry initiatives, how they do (or do not) reflect our sense of where God is calling us, and how we can best live into that calling.
For some of you, this will not sound like the sort of church experience you would find meaningful. In that case, you are asked to become researchers of a sort for us: consider attending one of the many UCC churches in our area (or while you are traveling), take notes of how worship and church life unfolds in a UCC setting, come back with bulletins and newsletters, and help us learn more about this new identity we have taken on.
More information about this summertime venture, called Faithworks, will be forthcoming. For now, begin looking forward to summer Sundays spent doing ministry here at our FBC home, or researching ministry at UCC churches elsewhere, as we seek to discern God’s desires for our church journey.
