Today is Somebody’s First Day

Dear First Family, 
 
In case you have not heard, our primary goal for 2025 is empowering one another to develop and deepen in the daily habit of prayer. That’s our banner headline. It is our chief aim this year. We are pursuing a vision of becoming more clearly known as a praying church and a praying people. 
 
Alongside this overarching aspiration is an initiative we’re articulating as embracing the mindset that, 
 
       “Today is Somebody’s First Day.”
 
If you were in worship last weekend, I hope you noticed one clear expression of that with the section of our parking lot we have now set aside specifically for our first-time and returning guests. Beyond our hope that we would be a “friendly” church (which you already are!), this is about offering an intentional welcome. 
 
It’s communicating, “We have prepared for you.”
 
It’s the same thing you would do in anticipation of welcoming guests into your own home and our hope is to foster a culture where our staff and all those who call First Methodist home come to worship with the mindset that “today I want to be a great host for a guest visiting my home.” 
 
Every single one of us has experienced what it is like to step into the unknown, to enter a room we’ve never visited before, to meet others that we’ve never met before. Somewhere along the way, we all had a day that was our first day. 
 
My hunch is that if you have found a home, an essential part of that was that someone else made the space and took the time to intentionally welcome you there. In the words of Jesus, we always want to be about doing for others what others have done for us.
 
And alongside that, I hope we never lose sight of our shared conviction that what people experience on their first day has the power to change all the rest of their days. 
 
I am looking forward to being back in worship this weekend. 
 
I love you and I am so proud of you, 
 
Pastor David