The First Baptist Church of Redlands
T A PE S T R Y
Sept 2021
Wo v e n To g e t h e r I n L o v e : C o l o s s i a n s 2 : 2
Issue No. 9
Kick Off A New Season A Message from Pastor Shawn
Kick Off! Anyone who knows me reasonably well, knows that I am not a big fan of football. But when you spend all your time on a college campus, as I did for many years, you can’t get around the whole culture and excitement that comes with football season. At Purdue (and at other some other Universities) at kick off, all the Purdue fans hold up their keys and shake them as the team lines up alongside the kicker. As the kicker and the team move toward the ball the noise made by the fans crescendos and then stops suddenly as the kicker kicks the ball. It is hard not to get excited when all of that is going on around you. On Sunday, September 12, we will be celebrating the beginning of a new season at FBCR with what we call Kick Off Sunday. Though it may not be as loud as a football game at Purdue (or anywhere else) I hope that we will be enthusiastic about what will be going on at church in this new season. After not being able to meet in-person for so long, and even now still doing our best to deal with the on-going waves of this pandemic, we can be excited about the ways that we can connect with one another, help each other to grow in our faith, and join together to serve God in, through and beyond our church. Since the last time we had an in-person, Kick Off Sunday, we have done so many new things! We have people who are connecting with our church from all over the world. We have new people who have come to be a part of our church family.
As we start this new season, we will be exploring what we have learned in the focus groups in which we have participated in the month of August. We will discover what dreams we have for our church’s ministry and mission as we move into the future. We will begin to try some new things: experiment, succeed, fail, learn, adapt, and grow. All of this so that we may be effective, relevant and faithful to the call that God has for us as we journey together in God’s Kingdom. In worship we will focus on what it means to follow Jesus in the places God takes each of us in our journey with Christ, but also in our journey together as a church. We are thankful that as we Kick Off a new season of church life, we are confident that God is walking with us. Let us do all we can to listen to God’s voice as we strive to be about the work of God’s Kingdom. Grace and peace in Christ, Pastor Shawn
