Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church: We Want Your Questions

January 22, 2010

Friends in Christ,

I think you will agree with me… To be on the journey of faith is to have questions. These questions come in all sorts of shapes and sizes: big questions, “Who is God?”; interpretive questions, “Why did Christ die on the cross?”; personal questions, “Does God care about me?”; theological questions, “What is predestination, and do we believe in it?”; directional questions, “Is there a sacred plan for my life?”; and questions that emerge from crisis, “How can I believe in a good and loving God when I see the devastation in Haiti?”

Heartfelt questions spoken, debated, and rolled around in the midst of Christian community are a sign of life and health and people’s sincere engagement with their faith.

With that in mind, FAPC’s sermon series for the season of Lent (February 17, 2010 – April 3, 2010) will be focused on your questions. For the next two weeks, I am asking you to submit the faith-related questions tacked to the walls of your heart and your head to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . You may ask anything that you wish. Our only rule is that we will not consider anonymous submissions. This is because our goal is to pick seven questions (for the seven Sundays of Lent) from across the diverse spectrum of who we are (in terms of gender, age, ethnicity, and so on…). I bet you have a question about some aspect of faith that you have been mulling over. Please email it to us today!

Live your questions now,
and perhaps even without knowing it,
you will live along some distant day
into your answers.

--Rainer Maria Rilke

Speaking of good questions, our own Rev. Paul Rock has some for you! Paul is approaching the conclusion of a Doctor of Ministry program at Drew University. As part of his final project, he is focused on what it would mean for congregations to be aware of, engaged in, and ministering to the growing non-religious community that exists right outside of our church doors. In making plans to reach out to this community, Paul and his advisory committee are eager to see how open and accessible you think FAPC is to non-religious people. He also wants to know what you think would attract these folks—what would invite them to step across the threshold of FAPC and give church a try. To that end, Paul is going to be emailing a short electronic survey to you early next week. Please take a few minutes to fill it out. It will help Paul in his efforts to guide this church and our wider denomination in bringing the good news to this crucial community.

Finally, this Sunday, the sermon will be wrestling with a theological question that has been bandied about by the media in recent days, “Is Pat Robertson correct? Did the earthquake in Haiti occur because God has cursed that country?” What do you think? Does God smite?

See you in worship,

Scott

Haiti Update:

To date, FAPC has raised over $13,000 for Presbyterian Disaster Assistance in Haiti. Over the past week, PDA has been focused on distributing food and clean water, and the construction of latrines. International agencies now estimate that 200,000 Haitian families, nearly one million people, are without homes and living out in the open air. Because of this, temporary shelter is PDA’s focus for the coming week. PDA and its partners are seeking to bring 20,000 tents to Port-au-Prince over the next five days. They already have three to four thousand tents on site, and more will be coming in every day.

To be a part of these relief efforts, drop a check by the church offices with “Haiti Relief” on the memo line, or to make a one-time donation go to the member page on our church website: https://webview.shelbyinc.com/app/00010/Default.aspx?tabindex=1&tabid=17