Friends and families of Federal Way United Methodist Church,

I pray that you an your loved ones are well and staying warm right now. It’s been such a joy to worship alongside you these past few weeks.

Deepening your discipleship

Spoiler alert: if you are reading this, there’s a chance I’m going to share some of these same thoughts during my sermon. Something that’s been on my heart lately is the different ways we, as the Church teach and preach about atonement. My friend and colleague Jeremy Smith has an excellent blog https://hackingchristianity.net . One of his posts from years ago is fantastic in the ways he explains the varieties of atonement theologies. Here’s the link if you are interested in reading more. There are many theologians and scholars who have written excellent works about the significance of the Jesus death and ressurection. Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan wrote “the Last Week, What the Gospels really teach about Jesus Final Days in Jerusalem”. Rita Nakashima Brock and Rebecca Ann Parker wrote an excellent book “Proverbs of Ashes : Violence, Redemptive Suffering, and the Search for What Saves Us” also.

I share all of these resources with you because my hope and prayer for our church is that we study, learn and reflect on some of the key pieces of theology that make up the Christian faith as we know it. Recently I mentioned that I plan on offering an online study based off of Amy Jill-Levine’s book “The Difficult Words of Jesus: A beginners guide to His most perplexing teachings”. If you are interested in joining this study, will you please use this update sign up?

This Sunday

This Sunday, we will also be hosting our next membership class after the church service. It’s a great time to spend time together as I share more about the history of our church and the United Methodist Church. In that time, we will also talk about ways for you to connect to our community as well as opportunities to deepen your faith.

Coming up

Jars for Jamaa Letu is a way to support the two orphanages in the Congo which our church helps fund.  The money goes to support the operating expenses, including food, shelter, clothing, school fees, medical care and salaries for the staff.

A colorful label for JARS will be available this Sunday.  Tape it to your own jar and collect cash from now until mid-June.  Or, make a donation in the offering plate or on the website.