October 3, 2025, 4:00 PM
Greetings in Christ!
I pray the week has gone well for you.
It has been a pretty chaotic week so far for me. We had two deaths related to the church family on Monday and one funeral on Tuesday.
I am reminded of death and all the pain and disappointment it brings. Death is not always a bad thing, though. Through Jesus, God brings hope through death. Jesus' death on the cross gives us the hope of new life!
When we die to ourselves and our sinful old life, we take on a new life in Jesus. This is beautifully illustrated in Christian baptism.
One of this weeks' deaths was that of Charlie Greene. BTW: Charlie would have been 97 years old today (October 3rd)!
It was a great joy getting to know Charlie and having the opportunity of baptizing him into Christ.
Charlie could not remember if he had been baptized as a young person at a local Christian Church. He wanted to make his election and calling sure. I baptized Charlie (age 94 at the time) here at First Christian Church on Tuesday, July 11, 2023. What a great example he has been! He will be missed.
We extend our love to Debra Corn and family on the death of her husband Donald on Monday, September 29th, the same day Charlie passed away.
This coming Sunday, October 5th, we will kick off a new sermon series called, “IDENTITY CRISIS.”
There is so much confusion in today's society, especially when it comes to IDENTITY.
In our culture, we also see a growing number of people - especially young people - confused about their gender and sexual identity. As bizarre as it sounds, we are now finding many who “identify” as another gender or even as an animal.
Satan is a master deceiver and is seen as such from Genesis to Revelation. In today’s American culture, it appears as Satan is doing a masterful job confusing people with the basic questions, “Who am I?” As believers and followers of Jesus Christ, therefore, we must know who we are and to whom we belong.
My friend Mike Bartlett from Westport, IN, will be preaching the first message in the series for us.
For over 26 years (October 1998-March 2025), Mike served as the preaching minister at the Westport Christian Church in Indiana. Mike and Westport’s story is a very inspiring one.
His first Sunday at the church, there were only 6 adults and 2 children in attendance. After much thought and prayer, Mike accepted the offer to come and be the preacher at Westport. The people told Mike later that they had already decided they would close the doors of the church if he had not accepted the call to come and preach there.
In the years since, God has moved greatly and blessed as now the church is very healthy with nearly 200 people attending weekly and much ministry taking place there. I first met Mike in 2018 as I was leading a group from Westport on their first organized mission trip ever as a church.
It's going to be a great service. I can hardly wait! I hope and pray we will see you at FCC this Sunday!
God Bless,
Greg H.
