"Open and Affirming"

Welcome to the Web Site of First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ and UCC), located in the Weston Ranch Community of Stockton, California!   We are a congregation of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and a part of the Northern California - Nevada Region of Disciples. 

As a Partnership congregation we also represent the Northern California Nevada Conference of the United Church of Christ.  As an "Open and Affirming" congregation we welcome all people regardless of ethnic or racial heritage, gender, sexual orientation, and economic or political status.

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Ponderings from the Pastor

Sometimes it does a person good to just step back and look at the blessings and wonders we have in our lives because we are Christians. How amazing it is to realize we have meaning and purpose thanks to the actions and commitments of a loving Creator-God.

The Joy of Being God’s Creation

We often allow ourselves to forget the wonder of being God’s creation as we live in an impersonal and too often cruel, indifferent world. It is at that point, however, as believers, where we must remind ourselves of the love of God which knows no boundaries. You are loved! With that truth be glad and celebrate!

I recently read some material from Frederick William Faber. Faber lived in the 1800’s. He was noted as a popular spiritual leader and his writings were much loved. He wrote some fantastic Christian classics including, Lives of the Saints, All for Jesus, and The Creator and the Creature.

Faber’s aim in all his writings was to “flood our spiritual lives with sunshine.” Sometimes he wrote beautiful stanza’s, such as:

Only to sit and think of God, 
Oh what a joy it is! 
To think the thought to breathe the Name 
Earth has no higher bliss.

Let us drown ourselves in this spirit of being special. As God’s creation we are “wondrously made.” We are loved and we do matter. How sweet it is to wear this badge of inclusion, being the loved creation of an Almighty God.

The Freedom We Share

Reading has always been a major part of my life. I remember one year where I made a commitment to weekly read a different autobiography. This opened my eyes to the personal lives and journeys of so many amazing people.

Recently, I did some readings of Martin Luther. Luther wrote the phrase – faith active in love – and a lot of other interesting stuff in a 40-page booklet called Christian Liberty. Here, as in Faber, we read of the wonder of being a creation of God.

But, Luther goes one step further. He discusses how God came to liberate us from all the “messes” of our lives: sin, death, pain, hate, division. We haven’t just been set free FROM; we have been set free FOR.

Luther writes:

“I will therefore give myself as a Christ to my neighbor, just as Christ offered himself to me; I will do nothing in this life except what I see is necessary, profitable, and salutary to my neighbor, since through faith I have an abundance of all good things in Christ.

Behold, from faith thus flow forth love and joy in the Lord, and from love a joyful, willing, and free mind that serves one’s neighbor willingly…”

Faber and Luther both describe what happens in the lives of Christians: We find a true sense of worth, being God’s creation, and all of a sudden it is not about US, anymore!

Believing in ourselves, as God’s creation, we realize our happiness and contentment can only be found inmaking a difference in our own lives and in the lives of our neighbors.

There is no other way. To live for God demands that we learn to love and respect ourselves and others. God gave us the gift of amazing love through Christ, and a command to share that “good news” with the world. May First Christian Church be ever committed to this end.

Amen.

Pastor Vaughn

Click here for
 the most recent edition of The Tower, 
our church Newsletter.