“WE ARE FBC!”

There is something quite powerful that happens when people join their voices together. When one voice joins another and another and another and all of a sudden the many voices become one. This sonic event is felt at basketball games when the away team has the ball and the home crowd chants “Defense! Defense!” This is also felt at parties, when the DJ is playing Frankie Beverly and Maze’s “Before I Let Go” and turns down the volume at just the right time so all the partygoers can belt out, “Before I let you go––––oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh oh.” This is also felt in church sanctuaries when the congregation lifts their voices together in acts of worship. I especially notice this on Sundays when Sis. Roland or Deacon Zachary ends the announcements and the congregation joins them saying, “WE ARE FBC!” 

We are FBC speaks to a shared identity and common mission as followers of Jesus Christ and the particularity of ministry to which God has called the First Baptist Church of Englewood. I have been thinking about what it means when we say, “We are FBC!” As my family and I settle in, for me it evokes a sense of family, hospitality, and pride. I also think of an arrow, which has a clear starting point and a future in the direction of endless possibilities. 

What does it mean to you when we say, “We are FBC!” What stories and images come to mind? What qualities and characteristics stand out? What keeps you coming back Sunday after Sunday? I invite you to think on these things and so that together, with pride and joy, we can shout, “WE ARE FBC!”

In Christ’s Love,

Pastor Donna Owusu-Ansah