A healthy church is built on….

Dear First Pres SLO Family,

Grace and peace to you in the name of Jesus the Messiah, the one who came to redeem and restore and renew all people, places and things. Now that’s some good news!

I’m in the middle of my annual series on what it means to be the church. By now you may have this sentence memorized:

A healthy church is built on a foundation of Jesus Christ, and expressed through fellowship, worship, discipleship and mission.

I find that to be a helpful way of remembering who we are and whose we are. Christ is at the center of what we do. What does that mean? It means that we see our lives and our work, our recreation and our service, our mission and our meaning, all through the teachings and example of Jesus.

We express that in those four areas of community life: fellowship, where we gather and build relationships; worship, where we offer ourselves to God in praise; discipleship, where we grow into the people we were made to be; and mission, where our individual and communal lives are turned outward in love and in the sharing of the gospel.

Churches are meant to be a source of hope—an oasis for people who are thirsty for faith and community. We do that best when we remember Christ as our foundation, and when we build well-rounded lives committed to following the Jesus way of life.

As we begin this new year together, with our Annual Meeting coming up and a calendar filled with opportunities to grow and serve, let me invite you to reflect on what this description of the church means for you and those you love. May 2023 be a year where you draw near to Jesus, and closer to each other.

With Blessings,

Pastor John