This week we’ll kick off our new, 7-part churchwide fall worship series, Facing Life’s Storms. It will run September 8th through October 20th, and with it we’re adding an intentionality about inviting people to worship with us. This is a series to which everyone will likely relate in some way, and it presents us with a perfect opportunity to reach out to anyone in our life — friends, neighbors, co-workers — with the invitation to come and see what First Church is all about.

The series, Facing Life’s Storms calls upon one of the most prominent images we tend to use for difficult times in our lives. In fact, storms and the emotions related to them are quite common in our expressions of feeling overwhelmed, out of control, tossed about by things in our life that threaten to drown us.

In this series we’ll look at some of these storms we all face, and we’ll consider them in relationship to our faith — and what our faith has to say about weathering those difficult times.

We’ll this week we’ll set the stage for this whole series with the image Jesus uses at the end of the Sermon on the Mount about the kind of foundation upon which we must build our life. He uses the image of storms beating against a house to raise the question, “How do we prepare for life storms?”

Then we’ll examine, week by week, the kinds of life storms that threaten to — and sometimes succeed — in turning our lives upside down.

“When Guilt Has You Paralyzed” — September 15

“When You’re Worn Out!” — September 22

“When Someone You Love Dies” — September 29

“When You’re Faced With Change” — October 6

“When You’re Worried Sick” — October 20

We’ll wrap up this series with the story of Jesus and his disciples during a storm on the Sea of Galilee. We’ll examine this story closely to consider the depth of its metaphor — and its timeless and universal reminder that we don’t face our storms alone.

In addition to recognizing and dealing with all of the normal and valid emotions that go along with life’s storms, this series will leave us with the solid guarantee that the stormy times in our lives all have something else in common. There is a calm center within them, an assurance of ultimate safety, and the certainty that no matter how wildly these storms rage, God is right there with us.