The year began with the Reeds expecting a baby, Morgan+ finishing his church planting residency program in Arkansas, and finishing his time as a pastor at Incarnation Anglican Church before planting The Franconia-Springfield Mission. TFS Mission began with a small prayer team, and a few thousand dollars in the bank.

As we move into a new liturgical season together, there are going to be some great ways to help build this community. There is a lot to think about when planting a church. If you’d like to join one of the ministry teams and help think about how to get this community ready for public launch, sign up below.

On November 8 we will sing “Awake, my heart, and render” together which was originally penned in German by Paulus Gerhardt (1607-1676). Gerhardt was a Lutheran minister and prolific hymn writer (read more about him here). In this blog post (and there will be more like this one), we wanted to introduce you to the new hymn by giving you a recording and a coloring sheet (which you can download here) with the lyrics. That way you have the opportunity to worship with this new song up through Sunday Nov 8 and beyond!

While using their gifts in the Sunday liturgy is good and formative, there is an even greater opportunity that we have to disciple children ages 3-9 in an age-appropriate, exploratory way: CGS allows the child to explore the truths of God, their Good Shepherd, through all their senses, through the Scriptures, and through the Church’s worship.