Pastor's Perspective - INFUSION2

Next Saturday morning (Saturday, May 25th) we at First Christian have been given a golden opportunity – to selflessly serve our community - with no strings attached!

After a very successful INFUSION event back in September to commemorate our 30th year in the community, our FCC faithful have been asking for another high-impact follow-up event to help others – and thus INFUSION2 was born.

In recent weeks I have been thoroughly enjoying meeting and forging relationships with local city leaders. During our connections together I have expressed our strong desire as a community of faith to meet the needs of ‘real people’ just like ourselves. Their response has been overwhelmingly positive and receptive!

Our plan is to meet at 8:00A.M. for a big delicious breakfast. After getting ‘carbed-up’ we’ll dispatch by teams into the community to do a variety of things – including serving the elderly and disabled, trash pick-up and weed abatement at parks and bike trails, yard work at foreclosed and abandoned homes (to bless neighbors), and a variety of other opportunities. We’ll reconvene at noon back at the church building for a great lunch and to share praise reports!

To ensure that INFUSION2 is a big success, all of our FCC loyal are needed. We still need more team leaders, team workers, childcare workers and food preparation workers to sign-up at the church Welcome Center this Sunday. This will guarantee that we’re properly covered out in the field and back at the church building. Likewise, we are looking for the help of those who have own pick-up trucks and trailers.

We are focusing exclusively on the city of Suisun. Therefore, if you are aware of needs in that community, please contact the church office. Our ‘To Do’ list is still an exciting work in progress!

As a side note, this is a great way to invite and introduce your family and neighbors to our ministry at First Christian, and to show them that the passion and mission of our people lies outside our brick walls.

I’m looking so forward to sharing Christ’s love with you at INFUSION2 – not with megaphones and guilt, but instead with shovels, garbage bags and smiles.

In the Fight,

Steve Kiefer
www.1stchristianchurch.org

Pastor's Perspective - Git'n Figgy Wit It!

As you might already know, we at FCC take pride in identifying ourselves as ‘real people’. So, living up to that title, I’m going to attempt to remove any semblance of clergy piety and share with you a pet peeve that I have, and apparently need to jettison. Ready?

I deplore finding empty containers in the refrigerator, pantry, shower or bathroom vanity….(crickets)…. Drives me crazy!....(crickets)…Crazy!… There… I said it… Boy, I thought I’d feel better.

Michelle and I continue teaching our youngest ones to throw containers in the trash when they are empty. Why? Because it’s stratospherically frustrating to get your hopes up about something, reach for it, only to find the shell and packaging - no content within! All containers in that state just take up space. In essence, with empty toothpaste tubes, empty milk jugs, empty cereal boxes, empty shampoo containers, come empty promises and dreams (yes that last line was ridiculously melodramatic and an immediate ‘emotional leave of absence’ should follow).

In Mark 11, while Jesus and his posse were moseying out of Bethany, He saw breakfast in the distance - a fig tree. Maybe, it was the same way I occasionally see a statuesque ‘Cap’n Crunch’ box across the room some mornings when I wake up. Back to Jesus! In anticipation of getting His holy grub-on (Message), He approached the leafy tree only to find…leaves…no fruit! Could that be anything like the grotesque feel of that big wonderful pirate box of pure sugar not making a sound while I shake it? Jesus cursed it! Not, the ‘Cap’n Crunch’, the fig tree – and it withered and never bore fruit again.

So, what made Jesus so angry? I mean, its only figs, right? Well to Jesus it was more than breakfast. To Him the fig tree was a very moving metaphor into the fruitlessness of the nation of Israel and its devastating future. Over hundreds of years, He had gone to great and patient lengths to fill them up and replenish them, so that they might enjoy and represent His abiding covenant love for all the surrounding nations to see and embrace - only to find them – empty.

On a more personal and reflective note, I wonder if we ever feel empty in His hand - promising product and production, but offering little. In all of His care and patience, do we offer much more to Him than the space we utilize? Does He ever feel frustrated by all the pouring into us He does, that in return yields little fruitfulness? Suppose we ever look more available and useful on the outside, than we really are on the inside? Could our focus on ultra-religious appearances, over character, be His pet peeve?

Anybody else out there need to get more figgy wit me?