At First Free, our mission as a church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ locally and globally by proclaiming the Gospel in Word and deed. This involves our heads, hearts, and hands. As we look forward to pandemic restrictions lifting and Chicago opening up this summer and fall, we are excited to have more opportunities to minister to our community and to engage in more in-person discipleship.
- Summer sermon series: To encourage the church to engage our heads, hearts, and hands in incarnational ministry, we are launching a June sermon series on urban discipleship and mission. We will get to sit under the teaching of four awesome guest speakers who will speak to this theme. (1) Dr. Won Kim (pastor of discipleship at New Community Covenant Church in Bronzeville) will speak June 6th. (2) Dr. Dennis Edwards (professor of New Testament at North Park Seminary) preaches on June 13th. (3) Our global ministry partner Kevin Bult will preach on June 20th (there will be a chance to share a meal with the Bults after the service and to hear updates on their ministry in Puebla, Mexico). (4) Arloa Sutter will preach on June 27th! We look forward to being challenged and encouraged by these speakers this June. In July and August, we will study the book of 1 Peter together with guest speakers and Pastor Del Shimandle preaching through this book that is so very relevant to our experiences today.
- Racial reconciliation learning cohort: we were reminded by Pastor Jason during the February sermon series, “The Color of God,” that sanctification is an ongoing, life-long process and this includes learning and growing in our understanding of race and the people of God. The elders are recruiting a cohort of First Free members to learn together and meet regularly with Dr. Won Kim, who will be guiding the cohort through Dr. Brenda Salter McNeil’s training. This will take place over the next 6-12 months. The goals will be to study this topic more deeply, to reflect on First Free’s historical and present reality, and eventually to make recommendations and lead our congregation in taking steps to be active reconcilers when it comes to bridging divides over color, class, and culture.
- Elder book study: over the last three years, the elders have studied several books to continue to learn and grow together (list below). This summer, we will be reading Gender Roles and the People of God: Rethinking What We Were Taught about Men and Women in the Church by Alice Matthews. If you would like to read along with us, we invite you to do so! Let us know so we can get together for conversation. We invite you to read any of the other books we have studied in the past as well!
Past Elder Book Studies
- Building a Discipling Culture, by Mike Breen
- Seven Practices for the Church on Mission, by David E. Fitch
- Underground Church, by Brian Sanders
- Roadmap to Reconciliation 2.0: Moving Communities into Unity, Wholeness and Justice, by Brenda Salter McNeil
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