“Tia-mat cried aloud and fiercely,
All her lower members trembled beneath her.
She was reciting an incantation, kept reciting her spell,
While the (battle-)gods were sharpening their weapons of war.
Tia-mat and Marduk, the sage of the gods, came together,
Joining in strife, drawing near to battle.
Be-l spread out his net and enmeshed her;
He let loose the Evil Wind, the rear guard, in her face.
Tia-mat opened her mouth to swallow it,
She let the Evil Wind in so that she could not close her lips.
The fierce winds weighed down her belly,
Her inwards were distended and she opened her mouth wide.
He let fly an arrow and pierced her belly,
He tore open her entrails and slit her inwards,
He bound her and extinguished her life,
He threw down her corpse and stood on it.”
FBCP Families | 45
Hi, FBCP Family!
What a beautiful Sunday we had last week—two baby dedications, a time of remembrance for our loved ones, and a teaching on the church wrapped around it all. Thank you for being a community that loves well and commits to keep loving one another as our church family grows through seasons of life together. I am so proud to belong to you! As we head into the holiday season, make sure you mark your calendars for the following events. Don't forget to invite some friends to join!
Nursery - Elementary
This Sunday our nursery kids will learn about David and the way God makes each of us special and knows us by name. The elementary kids will be learning about baby Moses and the ways God takes care of us through the people in our lives and our circumstances—even a basket floating in the water! It will be a joyful morning full of reminders that God loves us and takes care of us.
Family Discussion Starters:
What questions do you have about the story of Moses or David?
What was your favorite part of the story and why?
God made you and knows you! What are some ways He made you special?
How might God want to use you to love others in your home, school, or neighborhood?
Prayer: God, help us to love others and take care of them as we trust you to love and take care of us.
Children's Choir — Mark Your Calendars!
The kids are working hard in preparation for their chance to lead the church in song this Christmas! They will perform at our 77th Annual Candlelight Carol Service on the evening of December 15th, and we will have a dress rehearsal on Saturday, December 14th. More details to come, but mark your calendars for this special event! You can encourage your child to practice using this lyric sheet and this video.
Youth
Winter Manna Bags
This Sunday the youth will help facilitate a winter manna bag packing party, and everyone in the church is invited! What is a winter manna bag? They are backpacks filled with items that are needed in the cold weather. Mark Norwood, our faithful building attendant and friend, initially had the idea to pack these bags for those experiencing homelessness as the cold season approaches. We are so glad he did! This Sunday the youth will gather before worship to set up the supplies in the courtyard, and after worship they will help guide the church in assembling the bags. Pizza lunch is included for all who want to join! Next week the youth will distribute the bags to those in need. We hope you will come hang out with the youth, pack some bags, and bless our Pasadena neighbors in this small but practical way.
Youth Christmas Party
Our annual Youth Christmas Party is on Friday, December 6th! We will start at 6PM and dinner is included along with Christmas festivities. More details to come, but make sure you mark your calendars for that evening. Yay!
Youth Winter Retreat
This winter we are joining up with two other church youth groups for a fun and meaningful winter retreat the weekend of January 18-19! All middle and high schoolers are invited to attend. We will leave that Saturday morning and come back Sunday afternoon. The location is Camp Sky Meadows near Big Bear Lake, so pray for enough snow to go sledding! S'mores, games, and a deep dive into what it means to love ourselves and our world well are all part of the plan. (Plus, Pastor Mary offered to bake us cookies!) Stay tuned for more details, and get excited for a super fun time up in the mountains!
News You Can Use
Parent Night Out!
Mark your calendars for November 22nd from 5:30-9:00 PM! Mary and I are planning a night of fun for all kids, including the youth. The added bonus? Parents can have an evening to themselves! We will provide programming, food, and fun for kids so that you can have a few hours to use as you wish (dinner out? a nap? a movie? Christmas shopping?). Kids can come for the full time or any fraction of it. It's a win-win for kids and adults (and for Mary and me)! Please RSVP with this link so we can plan for food and fun. Woot!
Prayer Requests
Mary and I would love to pray for you! We know that adults have the opportunity to submit prayers during service, but we also want to make spaces for parents and kids to bring their requests to us each week. One of those ways is through this online form that you can complete at anytime during the week. We honor your willingness to share and your confidentiality, and we are SO privileged to pray for your families. Have a blessed weekend, and I hope to see you Sunday morning!
So thankful for you,
Lindsay Dorman
Family Pastor
Wonderful Weekly | 45
Hey friends, it's update time.
Did you know Advent is just around the corner?! We are VERY aware of this fact, so a ton of our behind the scenes planning has thrown us fully into holiday mode. We are excited to share more soon. Be thinking about who you might invite to worship over the Advent and Christmas season. Don't worry; we will be giving out some lovely print material for you to share with all of the info on it. And as always, the designs will be hand-made-in-house by Corrie and crew.
This Sunday morning we will be exploring a theology of humanity. Of what are we made? What does it mean to be made in the image of God? How does Babylon relate to Genesis 1? Also, a big part of the teaching will be congregational participation, so get ready! So much to share. So much to learn. I can't wait.
On November 17 we will host our annual church meeting affectionately known as Gratitude Night. The Board collaborates with the staff on the event, and we use the time to celebrate where we have been in the last year and prepare for the next season of life at FBCP. We will vote on the 202 budget and new Board candidates. The dinner is potluck style, so prepare a dish to share. Two weeks before Gratitude Night we hold a Town Hall. We have synthesized the Town Hall for those who could not attend. You can find that info here.
For other events that are coming up, check out the links below. See you Sunday!
Becoming Benedictions: Moral Mondays and City Council Meetings
A note from Pastor Gretchen…
Cynthia and I have been working together in the partnership with GPAHG, and had signed up to lead the Moral Monday prayer vigil, held in support of making more affordable supportive housing available, on November 4th. That was in place when it became clear the City wanted to present and pass the Tenant Protection Act of 2019, which added a lot more excitement to an already important agenda.
There are so many people in Pasadena who want to see people find housing that works for them. It’s hard to know what to do, though. There are great organizations who have been working toward these issues for years, like GPAHG, Everyone In (United Way), and Union Station Homeless Services. It’s been great to get to know these groups and to see the partnerships they have formed in order to strengthen the work each group does.
I ran into a friend of mine, PJ, at this rally and meeting. I had last seen her a few months ago at a similar city council meeting, where she passionately spoke about her and her neighbors getting unfairly evicted from their apartments. She’s become part of the Washington 16, and has stood alongside others also facing unfair evictions. She and others gave witness to their struggles on Monday, and highlighted ways in which the proposed Tenant Protection Act (it was passed into law Tuesday morning) was good but still lacked provisions for evicted tenants. While there is a good law on the books, there are still needs for help for tenants fighting landlords who are trying to get them out of their property. Hearing PJ speak reminded me of just how much more needs to be done, and the importance of including all voices – those writing the laws, those who are most directly affected by the laws and are living in the reality, and those who want to help out – in the mix of figuring out solutions.
PJ and I are friends through our studies at Fuller. She loves creation, loves God and cares for her teenage son as a single mother. She saw me at this meeting and came up to me to express both gratitude that I was there, and anger/frustration/disappointment that there weren’t other Fuller students at the meeting advocating for changes. I’m sure there are reasons for that, but it made me aware of how much my presence – as a friend, as a faith leader, as someone who’s just concerned – and actions at events like this and even in the day-to-day can mean, how it speaks to my commitments and concerns as a follower of Jesus to those who know me. That’s true of any of us; presence can go a long way to helping people know the reality of God coming alongside of them and His care for them in the midst of their circumstances even if we’re unable to do much more than that.
Thank you all for your continued support and prayers for issues like these. In the prayer we led on Monday, we asked that Pasadena reflect God’s love, rule and reign. Let’s continue to pray that everybody in Pasadena will find hope, healing, health and ways to thrive, and that God will use us to help that happen.
Gretchen
Town Hall recap
On November 3, 2019 we gathered for our annual Town Hall meeting. We know many of you would have loved to attend but were unable to make it for various reasons. So we decided to share the relevant info here! Below you will find links to our proposed 2020 Ministry Budget and other goodies. At Town Hall we also presented our candidates for the Deacon Body and a Bylaws amendment. Ready? Let’s do it!
Budget
The Budget was presented by Blake Horridge, our current Deacon Treasurer. It takes a couple of months to create our yearly budget.* A huge thanks to our Finance Team and Deacon Board for their hard work to get us to this point. You will notice that we are budgeting a deficit for next year, so let me offer some background on how we arrived at this point. Our general offerings are slightly lower than last year, which is a trend we have been watching for the last couple of quarters (three month blocks). We projected lower general offering contributions for 2020, which also meant we tightened up our expenses as much as we could without lowering our ministry capacity. Budgeting a deficit is a short term reality for FBC Pasadena, because we will have some big positive shifts to our revenue stream in the next couple of years. We have healthy cash reserves to absorb any imbalance in the short term as well. Plus we have no debt! Even with all of this, we are looking at a deficit of only $53,000 for next year’s budget. Zach Hoover, our Board Moderator, challenged us at Town Hall to step up our giving for 2020 as a way to close this gap. The Deacon Board have together committed to digging deeper in 2020 to help us flourish as a church. It was a beautiful commitment to generosity, and combined the Board members will be raising their giving by $350/month.
We are continuing to build our revenue streams by expanding our building use, and 2020 will see several new building partnerships. These will be closely aligned with our vision of being a blessing to our city and world. All of these efforts will allow us to expand our ministries while our current and newer members step into expansive generous practices. We think a lot about growth at FBCP, but intend that growth to be sustainable and deep. So we are in the stages of putting down good foundational roots. This is the most important growth of all. From there we believe that any other growth can scale without unraveling our core convictions. Speaking of core convictions…
Bylaw Proposal
We also presented a Bylaws amendment for consideration. We will formally vote on this amendment at Gratitude Night on November 17, 2019. The Board refined the language around membership to more accurately reflect our values and practice as a church. Prior to 2013 (the last major revision to the Bylaws), there were several paths into membership, including the recognition of the unique baptismal and conversion experiences of each person. FBCP has always had a normative path to membership, and that will continue into the future. The baptist distinctive of immersive baptism after a profession of faith will still be our internal practice moving forward. This amendment will once again allow us to welcome people to membership who have been baptized in another Christian community.
Here is the language we are proposing:
The membership of the church shall consist of persons who have professed their faith that Jesus is Lord, have been baptized, participated in the class for membership and signed the church covenant. (Article II, Section 1)
Here is the 2013 language being replaced:
The membership of the church shall consist of persons who have professed faith in Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and Lord, have been baptized as believers by immersion, participated in the class for membership and signed the church covenant. (Article II, Section 1)
Board Candidates
One last thing you missed was a discussion about our candidates for Deacon Board leadership. We have a seven person Board of Deacons. There are four officer positions, and three at large members. The Officer positions are Moderator, Vice Moderator, Treasurer and Clerk. Deacons serve two year terms, and can serve three concurrent terms before they have to take a year of sabbatical before being eligible again. This year we have three deacons terming out, so we are recommending three new candidates for service. Here are the short info statements from each candidate…
Angel Cheng
As we are discovering what it means to be a safe place for people to come as they are without pretense and find the open embrace of Jesus welcoming them home, I believe that what I've learned from seminary and the rooms of recovery about becoming sacred safe spaces of authenticity and grace can be of service to FBC in this season of formation.
Brian Young
I have attended the church with my wife Jen since November 2011. I have served by organizing the young professionals small group, running and building worship slides, and performing various consultations around the church. I also serve on the board for the First Baptist Church Foundation. I work as a navigation engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and just welcomed my son, Elliot, into the world on October 17.
Jason Ellis
I am married to Natalee, and we have sons Asher (9) and Bennett (5). We’ve been going to FBC for about a year and a half. We were immediately drawn to the warmth we felt from everyone on Sunday morning, the diversity, and the preaching. I work at Disney in Title Lifecycle Management, which is a fancy way of saying a project planner for their movies. We’re both California natives and have been in Pasadena post-college.
As you can see, a lot is happening around FBC Pasadena. Our annual business meeting will be on Gratitude Night on November 17 at 6:00pm. At that meeting we will vote on the above topics in the context of worship and celebration. We will also be reintroducing the historic practice of Promise Cards, where we will invite individuals and families to prayerfully pledge to a level of financial support for 2020. This will help us in many ways, and will also allow everyone to enter into their practice of stewardship with intentionality. All are welcome at Gratitude Night, but voting is limited to the membership of FBC Pasadena. If you would like further clarification on any of the above items, feel free to email our Deacon Board or Ministerial Staff using the buttons below.
*First, the ministry staff prepare recommendations for their various areas of focus, collaborating on a preliminary rough draft of possible changes. Those recommendations go to the finance team, who begin the process of balancing the budget. This is accomplished by analyzing income and expense trends, thereby creating run rates to estimates how we will finish year end. Our fiscal year is January-December. It usually takes 3-4 sessions to fully integrate all changes and finalize a budget. The Finance Team then passes their recommended budget draft to the Deacon Board for their notes and changes. They prepare a final budget draft to share with the larger membership, which is how we got to Town Hall.