Most emails from our interim pastor include the Bible passage from Jeremiah 29:11: “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.” This is so applicable as Rev. Marlayna leads us in a Visioning process to prepare for calling a new settled pastor.

I am also reminded of Jesus’ caution: “No one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wine will burst the skins and the wine is lost, and so are the skins, but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.” Mark 2:21-22. (See also Matthew 9:16 and Luke 5:37-38.) To put it in modern terms: Trying to shove new ideas into old forms spoils both the new and the old.

The Covid pandemic has done us a favor in that we have been forced to find new ways of being a church while adhering to life-saving social restrictions. We need to build on these hard learned lessons as we envision of a new future for the FFC. We must identify important elements we want to keep and as well as some we regretfully have to leave behind to make room for bold new ideas and actions. Then we have to find ways to maintain the authenticity of our traditions without limiting the scope of new concepts and programs for the 21st Century.

This is a daunting, exciting task. I believe we are up to it.

Lyn Pickhover, Confident