FBCCS Brothers and Sisters,
I pray you are doing well, trusting God and “imaging” Him under these different circumstances. I have tried to remember to tell you each Sunday we have gathered TOGETHER for worship how special I find it to be a part of this FBC body with you. Sometimes I also tell you that if I could do nothing else but share the bread and the cup TOGETHER that would be enough to align my living for another week.
Now, I wish I could send you some digital oyster crackers, sometimes even salted, and Welches grape juice (and, rarely accidentally tart pomegranate juice) in a cracked, little plastic Christian “shot glass.” If we have to worship apart for very long maybe we will figure out a way to share the joy and blessing of the Lord’s Table TOGETHER on Zoom or some other digital meeting platform. But, not this Sunday.
However, if you have looked at the http://www.fbccs.org site, “The Tale of Two Churches” is gone—at least for the time being. In its place you’ll find some attractive and active boxes from which to choose representing how we as the body are the “hands” (feet, heart, mouth, etc.) of Jesus to one another and to the world God loves.
This redesigned website is not made to attract folks to “come to church” at FBC’s building. It is not intentionally evangelistic. It is made to help us all (“No one falls through the cracks, please!”) stay connected until we are TOGETHER once again. The site, is just a start. More content is on the way. There are probably still a few mistakes and broken links so we’ll call it the “FBCCS Corona beta” site. Please help us “test” it. We don’t need you to do this so we’ll know what words we misspelled. We want you to do it so we know you are there and we are TOGETHER as one body by the Spirit of God even when we are not TOGETHER in one location. This is the true supernatural nature of biblical “koinonia.”
Folks have worked hard and fast on the site to provide lessons for the kids and middle schoolers. Many FBC classes have set up ways to meet digitally in which you can take part. There are helps for worshipping in small, but wise groups, as a family or just with you alone in the presence of God. For Sunday, there might even be a sermon from me or from someone else in one form or another.
There will be previous lessons and practice exercises for the Tyrannus “Inductive Bible Study” class that we just got started. There are ways to connect with every group, meeting Sunday and otherwise, we could think of in our body and get information. We can add more if you know of some that we should.
There are ways to make prayer requests and join the prayer team. You can tell us of needs you have or needs you know others have and you can let us know ways you feel called to help others as servants of the Lord in these strange days.
There will be occasional posts by “bloggers” in our body called “thoughts” that we hope will break through with faith, hope and love for these next days. There is a link to an up-to-date archive of all FBC sermons since the first one that was preached in the Garden of Eden. There are updates on the parts of our body that God has called to different mission “harvests” around the world.
Eventually, when there is nothing else to do, we will get around to posting something for “Yutes.” They pretty much do their own social media stuff so they are plenty occupied (and we won’t get it right anyway).
There are ways to continue supporting the mission we are on as a body financially. Of course the snail mail address is there for checks. We also have included instructions on giving “semi-digitally” through your bank’s bill paying system.
If you want “updates” on FBC as a body and our response to what is going on in our world today, there is a section just for that. “All-church” emails and messages, like this one, will be posted there. There are email addresses and forms embedded all over the site that will connect you with people and information. Please use them. Use them even if are just lonely or antsy because we can’t be TOGETHER in the same geographical location these days.
Please be praying for wisdom for our nation’s leaders and humility that recognizes they can’t do what needs to be done apart from God’s intervention. Please pray for the leaders of FBC, as we pray for you, that we will all know when is the right time to crawl out of our caves and eat and drink crackers and juice TOGETHER again.
This FBCCS Corona beta site may only be necessary for a few weeks, Lord willing! If not, God knows exactly what he is doing and he is working his redemptive plan one way or another. Pray that we will be wise enough and courageous enough to join his plan rather than making our own. May the NAME be lifted up as we trust and serve him!
Please visit the updated site. Please tell others who need to connect about it. It is of course http://www.fbccs.org. It will take some time to add all the content so, please be patient about that. We will be counting on your clicks—actually counting your clicks and expecting oh, maybe, “10,000 ways” something a little like the popular song says.
Everlasting LIFE…by God’s grace alone, through simple faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone!
We can’t GO to church…We ARE the church!
The church does not exist for its own sake but for the sake of the world God loves!
With love in Christ and TOGETHER in Him,
Raleigh