Dare to Dance Again
As Easter people, we are called to dance our dances of freedom for all the world to see–even and perhaps especially in times of great difficulty. Dances of hope. Dances of justice. Dances of love. During this season, post-resurrection stories point to the joy of living in the beloved community and extending that fellowship through our witness as we dare to dance again!
I think a lot of us get scared to dance, worried about who might be watching us. We get scared to be happy, to hope, to even love with our whole hearts.
Sometimes it takes a goofball to help them see that there is room enough for everyone to dance, to be happy, to hope, to love. That’s what we’re called to do as Easter people. And that’s what we’re going to practice during April and May at FCC.
Let’s take dancing lessons together over the next few weeks as we dare to dance again!
See you Sunday - in the sanctuary or by church online.
Every good thing,
Pastor Colton
Worship at FCC El Reno
Sunday Mornings at 10:45am
Visiting a new church community can be an overwhelming experience. To help put you at ease, we’ve provided some general information below about what you can expect on any given Sunday.
Church Online
Since 2014, we have streamed our services live through YouTube. While we love gathering in-person, we also affirm that worshipping online is another way to make the body of Christ real, felt, and Known.
If you are worshipping via live-stream, you may wish to gather a few items to make that experience feel more like worship. Those items might be a candle to welcome the light of Christ, a Bible (book-bound or app), and elements to participate in the Lord’s Supper.
What to Expect:
Welcome
We welcome you! We don’t pretend to be perfect, but we try hard to be faithful followers of Jesus. We’re a friendly bunch and we offer you the same welcome that God has extended to every one of us.
Duration
Our worship services tend to last 75 minutes.
Baptism
The beginning of Christian life is baptism, where it “represents the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, it symbolizes the death and burial of the old self of the repentant believer, and the joyous birth of a brand new being in Christ.” (from Word to the Church on Baptism.)
Dress
We do not care what you wear! We have it all every Sunday, and we love it all. Really!
Music
There aren’t many places where you’ll hear a pipe organ and drums in the same service, but we like being eclectic. We sing old Gospel favorites, standard hymns, contemporary Christian music, and even a few mainstream songs with extraordinary meanings. Our music is led by our equally talented Chancel Choir and Praise Band.
The Lord’s Supper
As is the case in most Disciples of Christ churches, we participate in the Lord’s Supper each week. Every individual has a different understanding of what happens at the table, but at the very least we remember Jesus together. One of our distinctives is that we have an “open table”: all are welcome to participate. “As part of the one body of Christ, we welcome all to the Lord’s Table as God has welcomed us.” (from The Identity Statement of the Disciples of Christ.)
Preaching
The preaching is mostly done by Pastor Colton Lott. His sermons can be found on our podcast to hear anytime. In his words, “I try to incorporate storytelling, a deep love for the scriptural text, and an awareness of how the tradition we have received still speaks to our daily lives and to current events so that we can pursue God’s love and justice in the world today.” Colton’s sermons are of varying lengths, but generally last 15-20 minutes.
Liturgy
We typically design our Sunday worship around series that last for several weeks. These series help guide the songs we sing, sermon content, and even the way the sanctuary looks. We observe the “liturgical year” - the cycle that takes us from Advent, to Christmas, to Epiphany, to Lent, to Easter, to Pentecost, to Ordinary Time and repeat - and use traditional colors to mark the changing of these seasons. Our pastors wear “preaching robes” from Advent (four Sundays before Christmas) through Pentecost (seven weeks after Easter). This is to remove the distraction of our pastors’ fashion choices and focus worship on the story of Jesus.