FPC News & Events Blog
All Church Bingo & Chili Night
ALL CHURCH BINGO & CHILI NIGHT
Friday, March 31st at 5:30pm in Fellowship Hall
Come one and all!! Free admission and chili provided. Hope to see you there
Nominating Elders and Deacons
NOMINATING ELDERS AND DEACONS
This Sunday is the deadline to nominate Elders & Deacons.
Please take some time this week to think and pray about who you think are some individuals who are persons of Godly character and who exhibit potential to lead this congregation. Don’t worry if you are not 100% sure whether a particular individual is ready to be an Elder or Deacon. Our Nominating Committee will do a thorough job of assessing their qualifications and helping to discern whether they are being called into leadership at this time.
Forms are available in the Narthex and the FPC Library and in the front of the Sanctuary. The deadline to nominate is Sunday, March 26th!
A Prayer Story From Morf Morford
CS Lewis used to describe the Gospel as “a good contagion.” I would describe the continuing emergence or out-working of the Gospel as the equivalent of good weeds.
No matter how much solid legalism, suffocating dogma, or toxic confusion and distortion we pour or build on the living spirit of God, it will pop up—pure and alive—somewhere else, and like some particularly hardy weeds, the true Gospel will never be fully eradicated. Even the deadest church holds some smoldering spark or latent, hibernating seed waiting maybe decades or possibly even centuries, for the right mix of nutrients, receptivity, and opportunity.
“Can these bones live?,” was the question in Ezekiel. “Only God knows” is the eternal answer. We like to imagine that we know with our bi-polar yes or no, but our hope is too shallow, and we give up too easily. Some trees takes centuries to reach maturity; some movements takes generations just to take root.
Many of these “good weeds” are constant irritations that annoy us and take our time. Our private projects are disturbed, and then when we didn’t even notice, our precious projects are over-shadowed by an immense monument of beauty and strength we had done our best to ignore or even stamp out.
God’s grace is like that. It emerges without our permission, beyond our will, and most of the time, in defiance of our expectations. Jesus described the Holy Spirit as being like the wind. We never know where it came from, what it will do, where it will go, or where it went. This is how I see the Holy Spirit in my life; it catches me by surprise when I do see it, but mostly I only see its effects or its absence. There’s the lingering sense that something holy was here, and perhaps the spores still remain, but they’ve scattered, and we step on them and capture, isolate, and fossilize the few we do find. Like children, we expect them to be our pets, do our bidding, wear our cute little costumes, and take part in our eager charades. How little we realize that we have taken in a whirlwind—a loving storm that will turn us upside down and inside out.
We will be, if we allow it, far more, far deeper, and more real than we were in the past We will be more uniquely ourselves than we could have ever imagined. No matter how old we are, our story is just beginning.
3RD ANNUAL CAMP MCCULLOUGH WOMEN’S GOLF TOURNAMENT
3RD ANNUAL CAMP MCCULLOUGH WOMEN’S GOLF TOURNAMENT
June 3rd, 2017 1:30pm Meadowpark Golf Course – Williams Nine
Beginners to seasoned golfers will love this fun afternoon on the greens.
We’re raising funds to give every child the opportunity to meet Jesus at Camp!
To sponsor, donate or sign up to golf: www.fpctacoma.org/golf
Contact Amy Forslund: amerforslund@yahoo.com
Easter Food Baskets
EASTER FOOD BASKETS
Do you know a family who would be blessed by receiving an Easter Food Basket?
If so, please stop by the Deacons’ Table after worship today.
This ministry of the Deacons enables those in need to celebrate Easter with a special meal.
Your faithful support of this ministry is a blessing!
You can help in one, or all, of three ways:
- Drop non-perishable food donations off in the church entryways or Fellowship Hall before or after services through April 2nd. For a specific list of food needed, see the Info Board in Fellowship Hall.
- Cash donations will be used to purchase hams, potatoes, sweet potatoes, fresh fruit, eggs, rolls butter and dessert.
- Sign up to deliver a basket at the Deacon’s table in Fellowship Hall. (Delivery will be on Saturday, April 8th.)
New Members Class
NEW MEMBERS CLASS
Saturday, April 1st 9:00am-1:00pm Gold Room
Light Lunch Served/Childcare available with RSVP
Are you interested in becoming a member of our congregation? Come with your questions for Pastor Eric and learn about what it means to be a member of our church community.
RSVP through the church office at 253-272-3286 or email Karen Ackerson at kackerson@fpctacoma.org
Easter Memorial Tulips
EASTER MEMORIAL TULIPS
Remember your loved ones this Easter with the purchase of an Easter tulip. The tulips will beautify our Sanctuary. Our Deacons and volunteers will deliver the tulips to our shut-in members. The cost is $13.00 each.
To order, use an envelope in the pew pockets, clearly print the name of your loved one on the envelope along with your name; enclose cash or check and place it in the offering plate or take to the church office.
Sunday, April 9th is the last day to purchase your tulip and have your loved ones name appear in the bulletin in time for Easter.
Nominating Elders & Deacons
NOMINATING ELDERS AND DEACONS
If you love First Pres and want to see it continue to become the church God is calling us to be, one of the most helpful things you can do is to help us identify the next group of Elders and Deacons to lead the church. Please take some time this week to think and pray about who you think are some individuals who are persons of Godly character and who exhibit potential to lead this congregation. Don’t worry if you are not 100% sure whether a particular individual is ready to be an Elder or Deacon. Our Nominating Committee will do a thorough job of assessing their qualifications and helping to discern whether they are being called into leadership at this time.
Forms are available in the FPC Library, the Narthex and in the front of the Sanctuary.
The deadline to nominate is Sunday, March 26th!
The Jesus Tomb Unmasked, HS/MS Sunday School, March 19
The New Testament records the first-century event. The disciples of Jesus reported that he was risen from the dead, while Roman soldiers were paid to claim his followers secretly removed him from the tomb. After 2,000 years, the latest challenge to the historical resurrection of Jesus comes in the form of a bone box discovered in Jerusalem. The documentary, The Lost Tomb of Jesus, has popularized the hypothesis that Jesus’ followers stole his body from the tomb by suggesting that the bone box inscribed with “Jesus, son of Joseph” may contain the remains of Jesus of Nazareth. Join the High School/Middle School Sunday School class on March 19 as we take a hard look at the evidence and answer the questions concerning the reliability of the resurrection. Have the bones of Jesus of Nazareth really been found? Is the resurrection history of myth? The HS/MS class meets in the Gold Room (South Building) on Sundays at 9:15 am. All High School and Middle School students are invited to come on March 12. As long as there is room, interested parents and other adults are also welcome.
The Soul Shepherd, HS/MS Sunday School, March 12
The Bible teaches us that our relationship with God is like the relationship between sheep and their shepherd. Sometimes, however, this deep truth is lost on us because we have never lived the life of a shepherd or become familiar with the ways of sheep. For the past five years, filmmaker, Joel Kramer, has captured the lives of Bedouin shepherds tending their sheep in the same places Abraham and David watched over their own flocks thousands of years ago. Here wolves still prowl and old men and young boys still shepherd in the ancient ways. Join the High School/Middle School class as we follow filmmaker Joel Kramer’s journey into the mountains of Israel as he captures the pastoral scenes that the Bible paints and helps us more fully understand our own relationship with our true Shepherd. The HS/MS class meets in the Gold Room (South Building) on Sundays at 9:15 am. All High School and Middle School students are invited to come on March 12. As long as there is room, interested parents and other adults are also welcome.