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Dear First Church of the Resurrection,

At the end of November we will conclude our Good and Beautiful journey. I hope you’ve enjoyed the messages and the supporting reading material as we’ve talked about three central components of the Christian life: 1) Understanding who God is (The Good and Beautiful God); 2) Understanding how we relate to God (The Good and Beautiful Life); 3) Understanding how we relate to one another in the Church (The Good and Beautiful Community).

So far, as we’ve talked about characteristics of the church, we’ve talked about the Church as a Peculiar Community, a Hopeful Community, a Serving Community and a Christ-Centered Community. In the weeks to come we’ll consider how the Church is also a Reconciling Community, an Encouraging Community, a Generous Community and a Worshipping Community.

When JR preached on the Serving Community, he challenged us with the question, “Is there any way God may be calling me to step into some expression of servanthood these days?” While this is a question to be wrestled with individually, it is also a question to be considered as a community. How can First Church of the Resurrection express service to our city and community?

Sunday, Nov. 7, immediately following the service will be our next Congregational Conversation. We’ve already alluded to the kinds of things we hope to talk about during that time. You might think about these three things under the headings of: vision, mission, and ministry. As your pastors, there are things that we feel God has been stirring up in us that we want to share with you, have some conversation about, and invite your blessing over. 

Vision: God has been growing in us a vision, not merely for the perpetuation of our church, but for how the Lord may be uniquely calling us to play a role in seeing the whole body of Christ in Canton, perpetually growing in health and unity, creating the conditions for spiritual and cultural renewal throughout the city. We’d love to unpack this with you and try to gather whether this is something that excites you as it does us!

Mission: Related to that, and in light of all the various distinctives of our church’s history, the circumstances of the last couple years, and the cultural trends within which God has placed us, we also believe that there is significant opportunity to be taken advantage of through establishing a new mission-focused venture that we are currently calling “Resurrection Collective.” The purpose of this venture would be to carve out some new space that would bring people together who want to imagine fresh ways of pursuing God alongside one another for the sake of others and the city of Canton. 

Ministry: Beyond those things that have been growing in our hearts, we’d also love to hear what may be growing in yours! We have floated the idea of creating a prayer team that, in addition to carrying the needs of our congregation before the Lord, would help us get reacquainted with the other churches and ministries throughout Canton, and be in prayer for them as well. But that’s just one idea. We would love to hear, perhaps in light of what we have to share about growing our vision and mission, in what ways you all as members of the congregation desire to use your time, energy, and resources to minister to others. 

We are diligently in prayer for each of you and look forward to getting to have these conversations together on Sunday, November 7. 

Grace + Peace, 

Pastors Amy & JR