This Sunday, September 11, at First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), members and visitors will be given an age-appropriate copy of The Story. The book uses selections from The New International Version of the Bible to tell the Biblical story of God’s people from “Genesis” through “Revelation” in chronological order as one unbroken narrative. Pastor Victoria Ubben says, “Our congregational family has committed itself to spending the next 31 weeks studying the Biblical story as it unfolds from the poetic language of Genesis; through Abraham, Moses, the prophets, Jesus, and Paul; all the way up to the enigmatic end-time visions of John in Revelation.”
Her co-pastor, Rev. Dave Kovalow-St. John, adds “Our church council, elders, and teachers have all gotten behind the idea. Every small group, class and worship service is going to be dealing with the same Biblical story each week. It’s a risky, fairly expensive experiment since we’re going to be giving away over 350 brand new books! But the payoff could be that our entire church family – plus however many visitors and friends join us for the ride – will look back nine months from now and realize we better understand the whole sweep of God’s interactions with our Hebrew and Christian ancestors.”
The church is located at 1507 Glendale Boulevard in Valparaiso (across from Valplayso Park). Sunday morning worship services are at 8:30 and 10:00.
Photos: From top left: First Christian Church Elder Sharon Pflughaupt gives an adult version of The Story to member George Armstrong; Olivia Murray receives a teen version from Deacon David Gow. Front: 4-year old Lana Wiesjhan gets a child’s version from Elder Mickey Koehler.