Starting May 5th, 2009 we begin a Sunday worship teaching series that will take us through the book of Philippians. This is my favorite book of the Bible, one that I endeavored to memorize while in college. I didn’t make it past chapter one, but if you take a look you’ll see why I tried! As we rejoice with Paul who teaches the church at Philippi some of the most important aspects of life and faith in Christ, we’ll find our lives enriched, challenged, and motivated to do the same. Feel free to get a head start and read the book yourself! And rejoice! Now do it again! Rejoice!

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The Season of Lent has begun! It always starts on Ash Wednesday (this year February 25th) and is a 40 day period (not including Sundays) of fasting and penitence leading up to the greatest celebration in the Christian Year, Resurrection Sunday on Easter! This year at Faith Church we have two emphases during Lent. First, our Lenten Compact, God & the Stranger, which we’re doing together with Kimball Ave. EC Church in Chicago, and secondly our teaching series, Passion Miracles.

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My wife, Michelle, and I feel that in the last year or so God has been working in our lives in a new way, especially in the area of the overwhelming biblical teaching to help the poor, the oppressed, the slaves, the alien, the fatherless and the widow. So this February, we want to take you on a journey! And we hope you’ll join us. It is a journey of restoration called Hope Lives. What am I talking about? Consider this quote: “If there is such a thing as a worldwide plague, poverty is it.” Poverty. Isn’t that for the Rescue Mission? Or Nepal, India or Cambodia? As the back of the Hope Lives book states, “The sheer enormity of the problem pins Christians to their couches. What can we do? Where should we start? And didn’t Jesus himself say the poor would always be with us?” With these questions, we invite you on a journey that, as Hope Lives author Amber Van Schooneveld says, “replaces guilt with grace. A journey that nudges those of us with enough to eat to look beyond the horizons of our 401Ks and expanding waistlines. Not just to save the world…but also restore our souls.” Our Hope Lives Journey will coincide with Super Mission Month here at Faith Church. It will be a five week journey of Sunday morning messages with 25 daily weekday readings and journal opportunities using the Hope Lives workbook. The goal is to help you discover what keeps you from engaging in global issues, explore what Scripture really says about the poor, understand the true nature of poverty, draw close to the poor through prayer, and respond to God’s voice as he speaks to you about poverty. In the lobby we have the Hope Lives workbooks for you to pick up for about $10 each. Please join us on the journey! - Joel Kime, pastor

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Our search is not for America’s next great singing talent, who many will idolize. Instead in this sermon series we’re on a search for a different kind of idol. We are asking the question: Is it possible that we Americans worship at the feet of idols, idols that don’t look like idols, but ones that receive our worship, order our lives, all the while taking what rightly belongs to Jesus? And yes, that means American Christians too. Here’s a bit about each sermon as well as the link to each podcast. Also each sermon podcast features an audio presentation of a skit series that began each sermon, featuring the artistic talent of a variety of folks from Faith Church. Additionally, each skit was written by our Directors of Music, Josh Glacken and Elizabeth Rickard.

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