Pastor’s eNote: Weekly Update

In September last year, I introduced our theme for the year at First Free. “Built on Grace” is a year-long emphasis on how we relate to God and each other. Throughout the year we have addressed same familiar and hard topics about relationships.

Relationships require attention. They do not work well when we allow things to go fallow just because they may not seem urgent to us. We often tend to relationships the most when they are in crisis. When this happens, we might just be treading water and, at times, even drowning!

Good stewardship is the key to robust relationships with God and one another. Attending to our relationship with God through worship and devotion fosters an ever-deepening life of love with the Lord. In the same way, acts of compassion and justice help us to see others the way God does. Relationships thrive when we pour the time and energy into them they need.

We start the final sermon series about relationships this Sunday. The title of this series might sound familiar. “Built on Grace” is the same series we started with last fall. Our focus this time around is on how the Holy Spirit leads us into how we take care of our relationships with God and each other. We will explore how we are made one in the Spirit and some of the ways the Lord leads us into a life of love and peace.

This Sunday is Pentecost Sunday. It is the day when God poured out the Holy Spirit upon the early church so it could be about the mission of the gospel. That same Spirit is with us and in us today. Why? Our mission is to show the world, beginning with ourselves, how to be in relationship with the Lord Jesus and one another. Join in worship this week and wear the color red if you have it.

We are and are becoming a church Built on Grace. May the Holy Spirit make it so!

Grace to You All,

Pastor Craig Brown

(May 19th, 2026)