First Christian Church of Bargersville

06/14/2026

We served the most people we ever have in our monthly grocery giveaway at yesterday! Thank you to all who helped!

06/12/2026

Our next grocery giveaway is tomorrow at 10am! Invite anyone in the community you feel could use the extra food support.

06/11/2026

06/10/2026

LECTIONARY REFLECTION -- 6.7.2026 (Pastor Dustin)

(Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26) When I read the gospels, the stories I’m drawn to the most are those that recount instances when Jesus transgresses some social expectation or cultural norm. More often than not, when you read of opposition to Jesus in the gospels, it is tied in some way to the ways he thumbs his nose at what is “expected”, and in so doing, he offers a glimpse into how the family of God ought to be different.

This passage from Matthew is one of those instances--Jesus is sitting and eating with people he’s not supposed to invite into his social space. He’s transgressing the social customs and religious laws of the day, and thus earning the ire of those who think of themselves as the “upright” and the “religious”. As he faces their judgment, he tells them to learn what it means to show mercy, a passive way of saying that this is what they lack. Jesus clearly has come to love and care for and be with those who are left on the margins.

After facing their condemnation, Jesus is called away from this dinner due to an individual whose daughter has died. The grieving parent comes to the one person they believe can help. As Jesus responds and goes to this need, another need in the crowd arises. A woman, subject to perpetual menstrual bleeding, finds the one person who she believes can alleviate not just her physical symptoms, but the social marginalization she’s also faced. She’s another person on the outside--alone and isolated, experiencing social judgment and religiously motivated exclusion.

When I read these stories, I’m challenged to ask how my faith takes shape in the social world I inhabit. Am I more comfortable among the well adjusted, socially acceptable, religiously pure? Or am I more often seeking encounters and relationships with those who are on the outside, whose social status puts them on the bottom of any hierarchy?

Jesus chose to spend a ton of his time with these kinds of people. Yet, I think, at times, the body of Christ likes to spend its time with those who would better be described as the Pharisees in this story. Who are you spending your time with? Who are you including that the world has decided to exclude? Who would Jesus welcome?

06/09/2026

There's still time to join us for our second session in our new study on the book of James tonight at 6pm at !

06/08/2026

Throughout the month of June, our Back-to-School Backpack Drive is on!

For $25, you can fill an entire backpack with all the supplies students in our community will need as they head back to school in the Fall. If you'd like to participate, you can drop off monetary donations at the church anytime. We'll also be collecting money on Sundays as well at .

06/05/2026

06/04/2026

Join us immediately after for a catered fellowship lunch too!

06/03/2026

LECTIONARY REFLECTION -- 5.31.2026 (Pastor Ryan)

(Matthew 18:16-20) The Great Commission that Jesus left the church with goes beyond “growing the church.” It is a call to mission and a call to obedience. Jesus is calling us, the church, to act on his behalf. It is a charge that comes with “all authority in heaven and on earth,” through Jesus, to work on Christ’s behalf in the world. This means that our individual designs should give way to co-work with Christ in this call to “make disciples of all nations.”

Throughout the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus leaves a trail of breadcrumbs, if you will. A path to follow and some examples of paths we should NOT follow. Jesus points to the religious leadership and calls out their hypocrisy (Matthew 23), after giving the greatest commandment to love God and your neighbors as yourselves. The religious leaders have tithed while neglecting “the more important matters of the law – justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former” (Matthew 23:23).

Jesus’ Great Commission is the summation of Jesus' teaching. It is a call to believe and a call to embody the teaching of Jesus. The leaders Jesus calls out as hypocrites in Matthew 23 have not quite made that connection.

Believing correctly is not the same as living justly. True formation in the way of Jesus engages how we use money, how we treat those with less power, and how we participate in systems that harm or heal. Right belief produces just and righteous action.

The church gathered in worship must become the church scattered in witness. I see FCC's presence in neighborhoods, workplaces, and civic life around Bargersville. Feeding the hungry, praying for our neighbors, and building community all week. I have no doubts that work will continue in a loving fashion.

Jesus also commissioned doubters on that mountain, as we see in v. 17. There is grace for those who hold faith and uncertainty together. We need not wait for perfect confidence. We must teach that faithful action is available to us now. This is important as Bargersville is one of the fastest growing communities in the State of Indiana. People will hear about FCC Bargersville because of our work in the community!

Justice work is costly and exhausting. But the one who commands is the one who accompanies: "I am with you always." We are not straining after an absent ideal. We are following the present Lord. May we continue our co-work with Christ to baptize and teach disciples to follow after Jesus.

06/02/2026

There's still time to join us for our first session in our new study on the book of James tonight at 6pm at !