WHY I ATTEND FCC - Terry and Elaine Minton

To Our Friends at First Christian Church,

We are at FCC because my best friend, Ruth Stratton, invited us to attend some 16 years ago. We had been on a journey to find a new church and she had glowing things to say about First. She was accurate in her description. I remember writing to Brian a few months after we joined to tell him what it meant to be here. Terry and I both love to travel, but always are thrilled to get back home and to all the comforts it affords. That is what walking through the doors of FCC made me feel. I was home! It wasn’t any one thing. There was the preaching, the music, the fellowship, the sense of community. Much as Louisville is known as a big “small” town, FCC is a big “little” church (and that’s meant with the best of intentions). It’s small enough to feel connected at every level, but big in the way it does things through outreach in the community and caring for its own. The gravy for us is in the relationships we have built with so many members. Members that we consider to be the family we’ve chosen. I don’t know what more you could ask for in a church!

--Lanie Minton

Dear Friends at FCC,

Lanie and I began attending FCC almost exactly 16 years ago. Our first experience of the FCC community was the Easter vigil service on March 27, 2005. Our close friend, Ruth Stratton, invited us, having found FCC to be a warm and inviting group of believers. From that first evening until now, I have found FCC unique among the many churches that I’ve attended and/or served in ministry.

The Open Table is the manifestation of our commitment to “all means all…without exception!” This profound and profoundly simple statement is the most powerful principal in Christianity, but one that is almost universally violated. It is so difficult to live out this principal, but at FCC we are determined to try. It means that we live with an ever-present dissonance among us that is overcome by the power of the unconditional love of Jesus Christ. We will never perfect this truth in our day-to-day experiences as a congregation, but we attempt to be faithful to it. I have witnessed us at FCC attempt to navigate these waters. There are times we have succeeded and times we have failed. But one thing is more certain at FCC than any other community of faith that I’ve experienced. We will not abandon this principal in order to appease any one group at the expense of another. We know that the moment we do so, the seats at the Open Table become reserved for the few, not open for the many. FCC is where I have found a unity with others around this purpose. It is a unity with some who have different political, social, and theological differences with me. When we come to the Table we know that it is Christ who has brought us together, not some ideology or issue of the day.

FCC is one of the families that I’ve chosen, not one that I was born into. Ministers and members have walked along side me and my family through heartache, struggles, joys, and triumphs. They have been the embodiment of the sustaining grace of Jesus Christ, and all began at the family Open Table.

--Terry Minton