Reflecting Christ in Our Community
Dear First Pres SLO Family,
(Make sure you see the announcements at the end of this message!)
Grace and peace to you in the name of the one who redeems, unites, and restores, Jesus Christ.
We kicked off our new church year last Sunday with a lunch and a look at the wide range of ministry opportunities at First Pres—it was a lot of fun! In Sunday’s message I said this:
“We don’t place limits on who feels welcome here. This place is open to anyone who wants to join this journey of becoming—this lifelong adventure of finding out what it means to be precious to God—to be holy and dearly loved by the God at the center of everything.
On this Kickoff Sunday I want to ask an important question:
What are you looking for in a church?
It’s easy to find a place filled with people just like you—those are all over the place.
My hope here, though, isn’t that you’ll find someone just like you,
it’s that you’ll meet someone who is just a little bit like Jesus.”
I really mean that. Our culture is filled with so many misrepresentations of who Jesus is and what Jesus said—I want for us to be more accurate reflections of what Christ offers the world.
That’s going to be our focus in this coming year. At our session meeting last night I read a few lines from Rob Bell’s How To Be Here:
“Is there any way in which you are not throwing yourself into your life because you’re so convinced that you could never do it as well as so-and-so does it? Is there any way in which the blank page that is your life has got you stuck, terrified, asking that soul-crushing question,
Who am I to do this?
There is a new question, a better question, a question that will help you be here.
The new question is this: Who am I not to do this?”
Who are we not to do this? To do a better job of reflecting who Christ is to us, and to share that love with a hungry and hurting world?
Who are we not to try?
My goal for all of us is that we will be more confident and effective in the ways we engage the culture with our faith. That’ll take some learning and growing and maybe a little risk-taking. But our messages on Sunday and our teaching at all age levels this year are designed to help us do just that.
Come and be a part of what’s offered this season at First Pres. There’s Sunday worship and our after-service class that begins this week. We have Bible in Community groups and my Thursday evening class that starts on September 25th.
Who are we not to try? Exactly.
Blessings to you and yours,
Pastor John
Thursday Night Study Fall 2025
Christian Faith and Living in the World:
The Scopes Trial and Beyond
Introduction: In 1925 John Scopes, a junior high school teacher, was arrested
and tried for teaching evolution to his students. His trial became one of a dozen or so “trials of the century,” with national news coverage and celebrity attendance. Famed attorney Clarence Darrow defended Scopes, and three-time presidential candidate (and Presbyterian elder) William James Bryan was the star witness for the prosecution.
Here's why this event is so important: The Scopes Trial has determined the way the public thinks about Christian faith and scientific knowledge for the last 100 years. It’s been the subject of books and articles, and even inspired the Broadway play and later film, “Inherit the Wind,” which completely distorts the actual story. In too many ways, the same arguments that heated the Scopes Trial are still with us today, with almost entirely negative results.
We’re going to look at the events of the trial, then spend some weeks talking about the relationship between Christian faith and other forms of knowledge. There will be some history, some Bible, and lots of opportunity to talk and listen and grow in our understanding of the ways that Jesus-followers can engage and enjoy the culture around us.