Friends and family of First Baptist Church of Pasadena,
We are in the final days of the year of our Lord 2023, and I want to take a moment to reflect together on the last 12 months. In many ways this last year felt like the first “normal” one in a long time. All of our high holy holidays like Easter and Christmas were celebrated without serious disruption from a pandemic or wildfires or some other disaster! We welcomed lots of amazing new members, did some important upgrades to our facilities, expanded our work in the community, and continued to deepen our unique sense of identity as a church. Of course there were plenty of challenges and moments of struggle. The film industry and all of you who work in that field endured long strikes and uncertain economic conditions. Our church budget was affected by those same forces as we went a whole year without any filming revenue. We walked our people through death and loss and welcomed new babies into the community. There is something comforting about these rhythms of life and death, celebration and grief. Experiencing normalcy is unique in the current religious climate many churches are experiencing.
Beyond First Baptist Pasadena, there are significant tensions and turmoil that have become the new normal for churches. We are fortunate to have a church community that is healthy, vibrant and hopeful. This situation is one for which we have struggled long and hard, making difficult and clear decisions, planting our roots deep in God’s provision. If you have been around our church for any length of time, you know what I am talking about. You have been part of that vibrancy and health, showing up generously and shaping our community with your presence. Thank you for being a community of genuine love and honest faith. Our blessings are the complex interaction between God’s mysterious goodness and our tenacious living with the grain of that mystery. We avoid quick fixes and simple solutions, preferring plans that lead to sturdiness and sincerity. If God sees fit to increase any part of our collective life, we embrace that growth as a new challenge and opportunity. Growth is a byproduct of fidelity, so we keep our vision clear.
To be a church of high integrity requires a stable foundation of service and generosity. Our staff works hard, but we do not labor alone. From hospitality leaders, to the prayer team, to the folks that count the offering, to the Board, to the people working with our kids, we have a lot of folks pulling in the same direction. In 2024 you will hear about how we plan to expand the impact of our community service. We have also agreed to fund the ministries of our church with our upcoming Ministry Budget for 2024, which we have planned at a slightly higher number from the year that is currently ending. If you intend to make a final gift to the 2023 Ministry Budget, you have a few days to do so. The simplest way to make that contribution is to go to fbcpasadena.com/giving and use the form of that page to give your year end gift. If you have a unique financial gift that you would like to give like stocks or estate giving, please email marcie@fbcpasadena.com and she will help you with that process. Sometime in January we will be sending our year end giving statements for your overall giving for 2023, so be on the lookout for that document for your personal financial planning.
The next year will be full of challenges and opportunities. I feel in my gut that God is calling us to learn how to tell our stories with more integrity and openness. If God is good, and our community is experiencing that goodness, then we get to tell about that goodness in all we say and do. We are called to hold nothing back. So throughout the year you will hear from me, our staff and our community in various ways as we weave the present with the past, nurturing hope in a future that will unfold in God’s time. I cannot wait to see what is next for us. And I am so glad that you are part of our church’s story. We would be…
Less without you,
Pastor John Jay
Bonus song, because we could all use a lullaby