Sunday, March 19: Mike Giauque

I’m Mike Giauque and I am a new member of The Stewardship Committee. As you know we are kicking of the 2023 Pledge Drive. I would like to share my thoughts on why I feel that supporting First Church is so important.

I know many of you but there are many more I would like to get to know. Admittedly I don’t attend church services regularly. I’m working on that. However, I have found that there are other ways to participate in the life of the church. I joined the church in 2014 and have participated in several volunteer efforts including working with The Garden Committee, hosting our Family Promise guests and serving meals at Lifebridge. The work in the garden has been particularly rewarding. Under the leadership of Lynn, Jan. Brenda and others we completely transformed the garden landscape. We talk of ways the church community nourishes us and I feel that volunteer efforts do so for me.

Of course, some of these efforts require money and that is why I pledge my support each year.

I hope we will have a very successful pledge campaign this year allowing us to continue the good works of the church and even expand our community outreach.

Our goal is $110,000 in pledges from 70 families or individuals. You will be receiving a letter outlining the details of the drive including the mechanics of pledging.

Other means of support include a gift of your time and you can pledge to volunteer to help in the garden, serve meals at Lifebridge or serve at fellowship hour.

Thank you for your support.

Sunday, March 12: Neil Alsip 

Hello, good people. My name is Neil Alsip and I’ve been a member here for a bunch of years, I don’t know, I haven’t been paying attention. Which you will see is a running theme in my life. Here at First Church, I stumbled onto the Welcoming Committee, wandered onto the Standing Committee and then was sort of feed-lot-maneuvered onto the Stewardship Committee which is why I’m up here now frankly.

But I mean, why am I up here really? The answer is the same as for all the other things in my life — children.

Now when I started out in this world, I was raised First Christian at the start and then Methodist because my parents came to a compromise. First Christian meant you didn’t get baptized till you were 13 and Methodists started at birth. So because of the order of things, I wasn’t baptized when all my Methodist friends were and then when I was 13 I got the full dunk. Now you might be saying, who cares?

Exactly. And that’s what I started to feel about religion in general. It all seemed arbitrary. And in confirmation class, I started asking questions. Why we would have a Father, Son, and a Holy Ghost. I mean weren’t we monotheistic. So being a 12 year old boy, I press the point. And press. And press. And our Youth Minister finally just sighed and said, “Neil, just go with it.”

Ah ha, says I. Intellectually I already have this religion thing beat. This 12 year old genius could stump the greatest Rabbis and all the Popes combined. What’s next, puberty? Bring it on!

And yet…

I couldn’t help feeling that going to church felt right. Not good, mind you. Jimmy Noren got to stay home and watch wrestling. I mean, that was good. But church felt right. This was a place where for an hour a week you had to make the effort to sit still and think about things that weren’t you. Things that weren’t grades or clothes or if you didn’t make the jv basketball team. At 6’ 6”.

I mean church only took one hour and it was totally doable. And when you went home, you felt like you’d done something right and good and pure. It was like eating a fresh homecooked meal instead of hot dogs. Afterwards you kind of bounced, right? Re-energized.

But then I went to college. And I didn’t have to eat vegetables. I drank beer and I streaked and I ate strange things for money, but I certainly didn’t go to church.  I kept thinking, yeah I oughta, but I didn’t. Wrestling was on.

So then a buncha years later — who knows, I don’t exactly keep a diary — my wife and I had a couple of babies. And right about that time we both started looking at each other and saying, “Maybe we oughta go to… church?” And let’s get something straight here. You don’t have to go to church anymore even if you have kids. It’s not Salem in the 1600s where you would be shunned or put in the stocks or whatever. But once again, it just felt… right.

Like how my parents brought me to church, gave me the scaffolding to sit still and think about others and our greater place in the Universe. This is what I want to give my kids. That revitalizing energy. Because when you watch wrestling you slump. When you eat pizza you slump. When you get out of church you’re just a little more buoyant. A little more clear-eyed. More proactive and forgiving toward your fellow human beings. And feeling like maybe just a little bit of the world loves you.

And we should want this for our kids. Because as we’ve had beaten into our heads, the children are our future. The ones who will go out and make this world a better place, right? And this is where it gets interesting. Because the more I do at First Church, the more I start to realize something scandalous. Something a little Jerry Springer. I start to wonder if I secretly have more than two children. If maybe one of my secret kids is… Brenda Marean. She is tall after all. And another might just be… Max Burbank. We’re getting into some serious Benjamin Button stuff now. But hey, if the children are our future, aren’t these people making that future better right now? I look around at the folks that come here and I think you are the kind of people I want out there doing the kind of caring, world forward stuff you do. And I want you buoyant and energized and nourished with the kind of community and reflection that gets doled out here at First Church.

The kind of community with Pastoral Care that helped our family when my wife was sick. That checked in repeatedly with me when my dad was ill. The kind of community that has been there time after time for Thomas and Kate through the Christmas pageant and OWL and Theo Burbank’s fantastic RE.

So yeah, I’m standing up here for my kids. But maybe you’re all my kids, or whatever. And when I give to the church, I feel like I’m giving to all of you. So that you too can walk out of here with a bounce in your step and a proactive energy and a feeling like maybe just a little bit of the world loves you.