Dear Church Family and Friends,
Happy New Year! What a blessing: a new year and new beginnings. Although I don t like the extreme cold, I appreciate the feeling of a fresh start that the new year brings, and hope for the future, and of course, the ever-so-slight (but noticeable) increase in daylight hours. God is good!
I praise God for how far He brought us in 2025, and I am looking forward with great anticipation to what the Lord will do in 2026. And we re off to a strong start!
We will continue our prayer times on Sundays at 9:50 am and Thursday evenings in the Fellowship Hall at 6 pm. Everyone is encouraged to participate. Our email prayer chain (prayer.fcip@gmail.com) is available for anyone who would like our prayer warriors to pray in between. God answers prayer, and you can be a part of this important ministry.
For the next two Sundays (January 4 & 11), following fellowship time, we will be having our Alpha Holy Spirit sessions for those who participated in Alpha this past fall. To me, this is the highlight of the Alpha program. We will be having pizza for lunch. But we need a headcount for the pizza, so please contact me (see below) to let me know whether you ll be attending.
Wednesday evenings at 7 pm, starting January 7, we will be meeting via Zoom to share what we learned during our devotion times as we engaged with the Psalms. We are following Timothy Keller s The Songs of Jesus devotional, which is available for purchase in the Fellowship Hall. Hopefully, those of you who have the book will have started reading it yesterday (January 1).
Our church family is growing! On Sunday, January 11, we will be receiving three new members (plus me). Hope you will come and welcome them to the family.
Then, starting Sunday, January 18, after fellowship in the Fellowship Hall, we will begin our book study on The Congregational Way of Life by Arthur Rouner, Jr. We will begin by discussing the Introduction and Chapter 1 on the 18th. (It s helpful for discussion purposes if participants have read the material in advance.)
I am super-excited about the upcoming Vicinage Council (2 pm) and installation service (4 pm) on Sunday, February 1, followed by a celebration dinner with our sister churches and friends. Mark your calendars!
If you d like to get in touch with me, please leave a message at (781) 206-2252 or email me at pastorjoy.fcip@gmail.com, and I ll get back to you.
Love you all!
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Joy