Hello friend,
I am Pastor Nettie, and I am writing on behalf of our Fredonia Church Family. If you’ve happened across this letter then my guess is that you are searching, searching for peace in the midst of this chaotic world, searching for a place to belong and grow into the person that God created you to be, searching for wholeness, searching for answers, searching for a community of believers that truly reflect the love and teachings Jesus.
Our Goal as a people is just that, to strive daily to “Pray, love, Live and Share God’s love…Like Jesus”. In fact those are the foundational principals that guide our hearts ,drive our church vision and every church goal set in place. Gandhi said it pretty simply “Live like Jesus and the world will listen”
We as a community believe that the person of Jesus and His teachings are real and true, and that person of Jesus and His Kingdom Teachings have the power to transform the heart of every individual that invites Him into their life. Those individuals with their changed hearts then go out into our world, “pray, love, live and share like Jesus and effect change…one heart at a time.
We believe that our world can and will change, if we will once again turn our hearts back toward the ways of the loving God who created us .
We gather and learn God’s ways through His Word, See God’s ways lived out through Jesus and manifest God’s ways when we invite His Holy Spirit into our lives. All Three, Father, Son and Holy Spirit working together make us whole.
“Once you were not a people, but now you are a people” (1 Peter 2:10)
Over the last few years, we as a people have experienced a tremendous amount of change. We have seen an increase in violence and racial disparity, we have seen job loss while at the same time an increase in the cost of everyday goods making it difficult for households and families to survive. During the pandemic many of us lost friends and family. We found ourselves living in isolation and oftentimes found ourselves navigating these challenges alone.
But it needn’t be that way friend, because God created us to live in community. That is why God gave us the 10 Commandments (God’s rules for healthy community life). God meant for us to have one another, to love one another And to care for one another. We as a church community faced all of these same challenges, but we didn’t face them alone, we had God’s love within us and the love of one another surrounding us.
Jeremiah 31:33 Tells us that “On that day God will establish his Kingdom. “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God and they will be my people.
God also gave us the guiding principles that we as a people would need to live in peaceful community. We believe that if we As a people sincerely internalize and commit to living by God’s guiding principles , that it is possible to live in a peaceful and loving community ,where each individual can attain Spiritual wholeness and live out the life plan that God has planned for each one of them. We as a people then collectively share our gifts and talents, thrive within a peaceful community and share the Good News of the Gospel with the world around us.
We believe this and we believe in God’s Word. We believe that the Bible is God breathed, divinely inspired, useful for teaching, correcting and for training character, so that every person who belongs to God can be equipped to do everything that is good.” (2 Timothy 3:16 CEB)
We believe that Jesus is the Son of the Living God and that He is the way to the Father who created us. We believe that Jesus death and then His literal bodily resurrection took away the power that sin and death have over a live, not just now, but eternally. And we believe that if we with sincere hearts believe that Jesus is the way the truth and the life and ask for forgiveness, that we indeed are forgiven. At that very moment, God’s Spirit then moves into our spirit, “cleans house” transforms our hearts, making our hearts to more be like His. That makes for a peaceful life and good community!
We believe that ALL persons are uniquely created by God ,loved by God, and that God has a wonderful life plan for each person. We help each other to find and live out that life plan in community. ALL persons are welcomed into community.
Jesus calls us as His people to a higher love, the love of Jesus. Jesus calls us to “Love God with all of your heart, your soul and your mind and to love your neighbor as yourself…It is God’s love that “Binds us together”
Friend, can you imagine the difference it would make in our world if each human being, adult and child committed to those two rules for community! WOW, how different our world would be.
I invite you on behalf of our whole church community to come, come give us a try, come be a part of something good, come and experience God’s love in action, come be in community
Grace and Peace to you!
Pastor Nettie and The Fredonia First United Methodist Church Family