Thoughts from
Jim Teague
FPCE director of communications.

Dear Friends –

“Well,” said Pooh, “what I like best,” and then he had to stop and think. Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn’t know what it was called.”

― A. A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh[i]

We’re right in those days when the fall (autumn) is simultaneously upon us—because school is beginning—and not yet here. My friends get tired of hearing it from me, but I adore the fall. It means a new soccer season, cooling temperatures, an explosion of colors, and the kickoff of a new church year (practically if not liturgically). And while each of those are annual occurrences, one year is never like the year before.

Speaking of celebrating and its connection to change:

  • On Sunday, September 8, our worship service times will be returning to 9:30 a.m., which is our tradition AND makes time for adult education and children’s Sunday School classes.
  • On September 8, we will hold “Come and See Sunday” and will be inviting neighbors, family, and friends to come visit us and then stick around for all kinds of fun.
    • Bouncy houses
    • Face painting
    • Free food
    • Snow cones
    • Building tours
    • And more!
  • September 8 will also be the day we start our new teaching series “Encounters with Jesus.” As believers, we don’t just hope to share stories about Jesus; we want to introduce them TO Jesus in a personal and life-changing way. This four-week series is a great way do that. Be sure and invite as many as possible to these special messages.
  • Our First Friends ministry to Syrian refugees will hold its annual picnic on September 8 as well! It’s an amazing time of making new friends, eating wonderful food, and building connections between cultures. Learn more here.

This fall we have several unique events to mark:

  • Abigail Cunningham, our new children’s director, is with us and hitting the ground running.
  • Ben Graham, our youth director who joined us in the spring, has survived his first mission trip with the FPCE youth (thrived is more like it) and is ready to dive headfirst into the new school year.
  • Confirmation classes will begin for students. Let’s celebrate and support them as they make their faith their own.
  • Our expectation is the Chicago Presbytery will soon give us the go-ahead to begin the search for a new senior pastor.
  • School of Little Children will soon be celebrating their 90th anniversary this year and First Pres is thrilled to join the joyfulness!

I had a conversation with a co-worker today about change. We both agreed that First Pres seems to have had more than its fair share of change to adjust to over the past decade or so. The comings and goings of members, pastors, and other staff alone can make it feel tumultuous. Then there are things like cultural shifts, social unrest, and the occasional global pandemic to add to the mix. And, of course, there have been revisions, large and small, in how things are done to adjust to. I commented to her that—with the wide variety of changes we’ve gone through—one might think we would have grown accustomed to it by now.

But that isn’t how change works, is it?

According to Dictionary.com, “Recorded use of the word fall as the name of the third season of the year comes from as early as the 1500s. The name is thought to originate in the phrase the fall of the leaf, in reference to the time of year when deciduous trees shed their leaves.” Makes sense. I’ve often connected it in my mind to The Fall, however.

Can you imagine what a change it must have been for Adam and Eve to have been thrust out of the Garden of Eden and into a world that not only didn’t give them a close personal relationship to their creator, but also forced them to live in the hardships brought upon them by their own choices? What were their first few days like? Did they blame each other for their new situation? Did they give each other “the silent treatment?”

They must have worked out some way to make their relationship work; at least well enough to result in the births of their children. I know how hard parenting can be for those of us these days in a modern civilization. The thought of making it work way back then? Makes me shudder to think of it.

One of the wonderful things about being a part of the family of believers is that we know we never go through anything by ourselves. For all the change we experience, God promises the constant of never leaving us or forsaking us. Hallelujah! That’s worth celebrating!

As we move forward throughout the fall towards Advent and Christmas, we will continue to offer new, fun ways to make Jesus more than someone to know about, but someone to really know! And that’s the kind of change that worth all the disruption it might bring.

May God bless First Pres and all that is being done here.

Peace,

Jim Teague
Director of Communications

[i] https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/1225592-winnie-the-pooh