FBCP Families | 34

Hi, Friends!

We had a blast visiting you on Halloween and seeing your wonderful costumes! Thank you for giving us some joy. We can't wait to see you next, and we hope you'll join us on November 14th for another fun time worshipping in the park (see below!).

I pray you are able to find rhythms of rest and time for play with your families this weekend. After a long and tiring election week and months of living in a pandemic, we are mindful of the toll that anxiety can have. Here's a post with information about how to help your child cope with anxiety in case you could use some reminders or extra resources. And, in the spirit of John Jay's sermon this week on tabernacle, we encourage you to let your children help create spaces of sanctuary and worship right at home (stuffed animals allowed!). 

More Liturgies for Families with Kids!

Get excited for the next Liturgy for Families with Kids! Mark your calendars for two Saturdays coming up: November 14th and December 5th. We'll gather in the park for an outdoor and safely-distanced worship event full of song, stories, activities, and the joy of being together. (And with the holidays coming up, we'll have some special ways to celebrate gratitude and advent!)

Serving Our Pasadena Neighbors on Thanksgiving

If you are looking for a way to serve in the community on Thanksgiving this year, then you might want to look into volunteering with Union Station Homeless Services. In addition to helping prepare and package food, they also need volunteers to serve dinner in a safe way to those who otherwise will not have a meal that night. You can find all the information and volunteer applications here.

Sunday 

Kids

We’ll be at Outdoor Church and hope to see all who can make it! We also have a special video and photo gallery to share, along with some sneak previews of what to expect at our family worship service on November 14th. We can't wait!

Youth

This week the youth will be gathering in the park starting at 10:15AM! We have a fun special guest and some exciting ways to connect with each other and our Creator. Hope to see you there! (Word on the street is that something yummy will be provided.)

Sending you so much love and virtual hugs!

With gratitude for you,

Pastor Lindsay & Pastor Mary

Encouragement on Election Day

On this Election Day, we are praying for our nation and for our own posture of faith and hope. This page offers a space to counter the noise and the anxiousness around us. We pray that each offering helps you center yourself in the peace of Christ.

 

A PASTORAL WORD FROM
JOHN JAY

 

A SONG TO BLESS YOU FROM LESLIE

 

A SCRIPTURE AND A MESSAGE OF HOPE FROM GRETCHEN

 

A READING ON DEMOCRACY FROM CYNTHIA

 

SCRIPTURE AND A CHALLENGE FROM MARY

 

A WORD ON LIGHT FROM JOHN KELLY

 

A PRAYER FOR CATCHING YOUR BREATH

 

INHALE, EXHALE PRAYERS

One way to help regulate our emotions and quiet our anxious thoughts it to use the power of breath. These are simple breath prayers that you can pray aloud or to yourself. Taken from Liturgies for Parents.

 

FBCP Families | 33

Hi, Friends!

We are so excited to make our Halloween visits tomorrow, and we have only treats and love to share! We look forward to seeing our kiddos dressed up as we make the most of this day in such challenging circumstances. And don't forget that we turn the clocks back an hour this weekend! (For help talking about the history of daylight savings with kids, see this post.)

More Liturgies for Families with Kids!

We are also so excited to share the dates for two upcoming Liturgies for Families with Kids! Mark your calendars for these two Saturdays: November 14th and December 5th. We'll gather in the park for an outdoor and safely-distanced worship event full of song, stories, activities, and the joy of being together. (And with the holidays coming up, we'll have some special ways to celebrate gratitude and advent!)

Giving as a Practice

As we continue to invite folks to give to the World Mission Offering and as we approach Thanksgiving, this is a great time to talk about giving and sharing with our kids. If your child receives an allowance or saves up loose change, it might be helpful to ask them about the practice of giving and invite them to pray about being generous, too. Often the conversation around sharing and the opportunity to let them choose how to give can be a really powerful learning experience (as opposed to the adults setting a requirement). We are so grateful for the generosity of our church and the ways that we experience God's flow of abundance through one another, and we know our kids have generous hearts and spirits, too!

Sunday 

Kids

This week we are taking a break from our video and hope that you and your families can have a restful sabbath and time together (and perhaps recover from eating lots of candy Saturday night!). We hope to share some photos of our Halloween visits instead. We'll be at Outdoor Church for anyone who is able to join us!

Youth

This week we will have a Youth Zoom gathering at 2PM. Here is the meeting link that you can use to hop on the hangout. We can't wait to spend time with our youth! Our next gatherings in the park will be November 8th and 22nd.

Sending you so much love and virtual hugs!

With gratitude for you,

Pastor Lindsay & Pastor Mary

Sunday Special | EP 33

Happy Sunday, Friends!

This morning we are excited to share a little slide show of our recent Liturgy for Families with Kids and a special bonus feature made by some of our FBCP friends. We hope you have a wonderful Sunday and a great start to a new week. We love you!

Watch This Week's Episode


Choosing Joy

Because our first Liturgy for Families was such a source of joy, our challenge to you this week is to ask God for more joy and to be on the lookout for things that bring you laughter, smiles, or a warm feeling in your heart. We worship a God of joy even in the midst of challenging circumstances, so let's pray that we can help experience and share joy with those around us.

More Family Liturgies!

Oh, and stay tuned for more family liturgies in the park! We will be sharing dates and details this week so you can make sure to join us in November and December for more worship, fun, and joy as we gather together.

Much love, 

Pastors Lindsay and Mary

FBCP Families | 32

Hi, Friends!

It finally feels a little more like fall, and I am grateful for the possibility of rain that we need so much. I pray that you are able to find moments of refreshment and rest for your family during what I know continues to be a challenging season in so many regards. 

Halloween Updated Plan

We had hoped to use our park space for a gathering on Halloween, but due to the Pasadena Public Health Department's restrictions, we have to shift our original plan. We know that may be a disappointment, but we are determined to make the most of the day and the opportunity to connect with our kids! So, here's the plan: Pastor Mary and I, along with some special friends, will be making our way to your homes in costume with treats to share. We would love to see your kids as we do some reverse trick-or-treating (definitely heavy on the treat!) and bring a little Halloween cheer to your door. If your kid would like to be in costume, too, we would love to take their picture to share with our families and to record a message to pass on to the next house we visit. If it's okay for us to make a Halloween visit, please click the button below so we can coordinate a time to come. 

Yes, Please bring us some Halloween joy and treats!

Zoom Out Cards

Sometimes when we feel worried or stressed, it can be helpful to take a break and get outside ourselves, so to speak. These Zoom Out Cards include a series of fun facts that can help us bring things back in perspective and appreciate how vast and amazing God's creation is (and how creative, playful, and detail-oriented God is). Have fun zooming out!

Sunday 

KIDS

This week we have a special little video featuring photos and fun from our Liturgy for Families with Kids. If you weren't able to make it, you can get a glimpse of the fun we had! And if you did come, then you'll get to see all the fun all over again. We love our families and worshipping together!

YOUTH

This week we are back in the park with our youth for a safe gathering! We have some fun new activities planned to help us connect to God and others. We can't wait to spend time with our awesome youth! Stay tuned for future plans in 

Sending you so much love and virtual hugs!

With gratitude for you,

Pastor Lindsay & Pastor Mary

Phenomenal Friday #42

NEWSLETTER ABOUT CHURCH BUSINESS

Hey church friends, 

Pastor John Jay here with another monthly newsletter, digital only because the November paper mailer is close behind. I want to share how we are planning for our big yearly congregational meeting affectionately known as Gratitude Night. This is the meeting where we vote on our proposed Ministry Budget for the following year, as well as leadership nominations to the Board of Deacons. We also receive an update from the FBCP Foundation Board at this time. In the “Before Times” this would have been a potluck in the gym on the Sunday evening preceding Thanksgiving. But since these are the “After Times,” we will be adjusting. Fortunately, we have gotten pretty good at adjusting! Let me share the process with you so we are all on the same page. 

On November 8th our Deacon Officers will join me to host a Town Hall after Sunday morning worship to share all of the recommendations with the church. You will hear about our Ministry Budget proposal for next fiscal year (January-December 2021). You will also receive the candidates being recommended for Deacon service. We will share the Budget documents with you all ahead of the Town Hall by paper mail and electronically. Two weeks later on November 22nd, we will join together for a Gratitude Day worship service. We have moved this from an evening gathering to Sunday morning, essentially folding the meeting content into a worship context. This will allow us to take our time and to frame our central church business procedures within prayer, Scripture, singing and teaching. Voting will follow the normal process, with an additional option of voting by text for those who will be listening over the live stream audio. This will allow all active members to participate while still respecting the sliding scale of risk and comfort with the health guidelines we are practicing. We will explain all of this in more detail the day of, but for now you just need to know that you can participate on November 22nd either in person or remotely by text if you are listening from home. 

We are finalizing the budgeting process as I write this, and I am so grateful for the faithfulness and generosity we have all continued to practice in these weird and scary months of 2020. We are in a healthy budget position going into 2021, which feels miraculous and also consistent with who we are as a church. Fear and anxiety normally constrain generosity, which means that we have chosen and practiced trust and hope in God throughout this wilderness season. Praise God, and thank you! 

We anticipate next fiscal year (January-December 2021) to be another unpredictable year. Anticipating unpredictability means budgeting with flexibility and shifted logistical priorities, particularly around how we sustain ministries while still affected by the virus and attending disruptions. When you receive the proposed Ministry Budget, you will also receive a short narrative companion that describes the how and why of this process. In order to mail you these documents, we need to have a current physical address on file. If you want to make sure to receive this packet, you can confirm your contact details below and we will check it against our records. I look forward to sharing more in the coming weeks. Until then we are…

Less without you,

Pastor John Jay

 
 
 

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