Small groups continued to spring up around those chosen 12 wherever they went. Many of the letters in the New Testament were written to encourage those groups or those leading small groups.

Do all small groups effect such great changes? Maybe not for millions of people over thousands of generations, but there is certainly an impact on the members of the small group and the community around them. Let me tell you about some.

I became involved in a small group shortly after joining 1st Pres. I wasn’t looking for a small group when former Pastor Craig asked if I would be interested in a men’s mentoring group. I said, “Sure” and started meeting once a month with nine other men. Soon, we started sharing life together. We grew to trust one another and depend on one another. After just a year, I was not the same person. I was seeing things through the eyes of my new brothers.

Over the years I have become a part of other small groups in our church, developing lifelong friendships as we studied God’s Word together. It has been exciting to see the growth in those around me and myself through these experiences.

Several years ago, I was asked to lead our Adult Discipleship Team (ADT). At that time, our Christ Care, Women’s Circles, and two Men’s groups were the predominant study groups. Members of these groups were and are very active in service to the church. With a desire to offer more opportunities for others in our community to experience the fellowship and closeness of a small group, Pastor Neal Nybo proposed that the Adult Discipleship Team develop the Sermon-based Small Group program. This idea began in other churches around the country with the simple idea of delving deeper into the previous Sunday’s message. With no content to create, the service’s message was there to discuss further with others, exploring how it might pertain to and be applied in our lives today. What a great concept!

After sharing the idea with our congregation we began placing interested parties in groups. This resulted in well over 150 people involved in small groups. Some meet weekly, others monthly, some are women’s groups, others are men’s, and the rest are mixed. It has been a success and the ADT continues to encourage people to consider participating.

We are working on an opportunity for those with children to meet and have childcare available so they can enjoy the company of other adults. Meeting times vary, so there is a good chance everyone can participate on a day and time of the week that fits their schedule.

In August, we’re organizing additional small groups. If interested, please sign up. These groups are open to all who attend 1st Pres. The investment in time is small, but the potential rewards can be huge!
​
In His Name, Dan 
​

While I realize that Resurrection Sunday was back in April of this year, I also know that the Deacons are gathering recipes for a cookbook. I shared this recipe with my Sunday School students, and I hope your family will enjoy making it too!

Peace & Blessings, Tracee

You can download the Recipe Collection Sheet here, details are included. Or go directly to the collection site and input your recipe HERE. Completed sheets can be placed in the basket in Krueger Hall or turned into the office.

Username: Firstpresdeacons
Password: ilovedeacons

 We know that people coming out of jail or prison face enormous challenges like finding housing, employment, and even just a sense of belonging. Too often, they also face judgment and isolation. But we are called to see them not by their past mistakes, but by the possibility of their redemption.

In Matthew 25:36, Jesus says, “I was in prison and you visited me.” That’s not a metaphor. It’s a clear invitation to see Christ in those our society often overlooks. In James 2:13, we are reminded that “mercy triumphs over judgment.” And in 2 Corinthians 5:17, we are given this promise: “If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”

These aren’t just beautiful words — they’re a call to action.

On Tuesday, July 16th at 6:00 p.m., we will be hosting two special guests: Kootenai County Jail Chaplain John McSwain and his loyal therapy dog Rocket, along with a representative from the Idaho Department of Corrections Free to Succeed mentorship program. They’ll help us better understand the realities of reentry — what barriers returning citizens face, what programs and support are available, and how we as a faith community can offer a Second Chance and a real welcome.

This isn’t about excusing wrongdoing. It’s about living out the gospel of grace. It’s about seeing each person as more than their past, more than their sentence, more than their struggle. It’s about creating a church where no one is defined by the worst day of their life, and where everyone is invited into healing, wholeness, and hope.

I believe deeply that our church has a unique role to play in this work. We are a people rooted in compassion, reconciliation, and Second Chances. Together, let’s explore how we can be the hands and feet of Christ to those who are so often left on the margins.
I hope you’ll join us. Let’s open our hearts, listen deeply, and take one more step toward the kind of Love First life Jesus calls us to live.

Please RSVP here by using Sign-Up Genius -- a pizza dinner will be served.

In His Name,
Donna Brundage, Community Outreach Committee

​Once at Whitworth, I thought that I would be leaving my church woes behind and interacting with people who were thoughtful and encouraging in their guidance of my faith. However, I ended up within a group of people who did not see value in what I studied because of my gender and encouraged me to “stay in my place” (meaning at home). It took a lot of wrestling to get back to a place where I felt it was okay for me to study theology, a topic I am so passionate about and feel overjoyed to learn about. 

It feels like I’ve had a taste of many different church hurt experiences. 

So, while I was a bit taken aback by the admission director’s question, it was a fair one after giving my brief history of religious experience.

However, it was also a really easy question to answer.

God! Of course, God. Even through the most difficult of church transitions, I knew that God was drawing me close, healing me, and comforting me with power that is only His. When I would cry out to God, questioning if I was allowed to learn more about the One I knew and loved, it was God who put people directly in my path to walk me closer to Him. 

I have journaled to God (almost) every night since I was in eighth grade, regardless of how fulfilling or hurtful the religious people around me were. Our relationship wasn’t dependent on the people around me; it was deeply personal, and included me coming to Him with everything from what to do during the end of a friendship to what I ate for lunch that day or the socks I wanted to wear tomorrow. 

And alongside God, whom I clung to as an individual amidst difficult relationships with a church, there were also people. People who loved God and loved me well, and showed me that what others may say or do in God’s name may not be God’s work in my life. 

There were churches in my hometown that showed me love through providing mentors, friendships, and support through my childhood and teenage years. There were people at Whitworth who sat with me as I questioned my place and asked me questions to help me hear what God was asking of me. 

And I feel so lucky to be here at this church, because after only a month here, I know that this is one of those places where someone can bring their history of hurt and despair and be welcomed. They can witness a church that cares deeply about God, about community, and about loving first. 

We all carry hurt from a mishandled situation. That is simply the nature of being a part of a group of imperfect people. But one beauty of the Christian life is that you get to have a deeply personal relationship with God, and God is perfect. And through God, reconciliation is possible, even where brokenness makes it feel impossible. 

So I applaud you all for the work of this beautiful church family that you partake in, and I encourage you to grow closer to God as you recognize the hurt in your life, as well as how God has invited truth and closeness to Him through that. 

In His Name, Jasmine
​

the vibrant colorful flashes from the fireworks could be seen reflecting off the tears in my eyes. I was as proud of my country as any 10-year-old boy could be, and this fireworks show was reinforcing my young belief that it is worthwhile and good to love and celebrate our nation and its story. My love for our nation has only grown since then.

It might also just be in my blood — down the family line, I can list General Artemas Ward (second in command behind George Washington himself during the Revolutionary War), as well as the second and sixth presidents, John Adams and his son John Quincy Adams, as members of my direct family lineage. My paternal grandmother’s maiden name was Ward, and my maternal grandmother’s maiden name was Adams — no idea where Shotwell comes from though …

I used to study U.S. revolutionary history quite a bit. My first declared major in college was in U.S. History (but I changed it once I realized just how much reading and writing were required … I did want to have some kind of social life … and I did meet Jenny in choir, after all!). So I’ve always held with great admiration the accomplishments, the risks taken, the challenges engaged, and the steadfast determination of the people who created the nation we live in today. In my opinion, it is nothing short of a miracle that the colonists of the late 1700s were somehow able to fend off the greatest military power on earth and create a new nation unlike any other that had ever existed, with new founding laws that put unprecedented control into the hands of its citizenry. We take it for granted today, virtually 250 years removed from those events, but it is truly one of the greatest stories in human history. It really should not have worked out. At all. But it did.

(Fun big-word-of-the-day -- next year’s celebration will be the “Semiquincentennial” Fourth of July … go impress your friends with that one at this year’s BBQ! If you can even say it …). 

Somehow, our Constitution made it out of the battlefield and into our halls of government and has remained ever since. And certainly not without problems and challenges! That’s obvious enough, and there’s no reason here to go into the various and very serious internal problems this nation has had to overcome (and is currently overcoming, and will continue to overcome). But that’s one of the most beautiful and genius things about our Constitution -- it was designed to be flexible for the inevitable and ceaseless changes of the future, so brilliant was the historical foresight from the likes of Jefferson, Madison, and Adams, just to name a few. 

Now, this is a church blog. I haven’t mentioned God at all so far. And I’ll be honest, I’ve been delaying so far and avoiding it as I write this. Adding God to the equation of the American Revolution can be a sticky subject for many people, I understand that. I wanted to write about our nation’s founding, particularly because I’ve always loved the topic. But this is a church blog, not a history blog. So --

As a Christian and as a student of our national history, I have my own beliefs about these things. And with the utmost respect toward all other views, I personally believe it was in God’s will to assist this nation in its founding. I feel like evidence of His influence is everywhere when one looks back at the story of the Revolution and all that has happened since. Just as no human is perfect and has plenty of sin to go around, we are still God’s perfect creations in His eyes, each one of us. And I see our nation in the same way. Despite whatever problems we’ve encountered internally or created at times as a nation, the United States has still done, and continues to do, more good for more people all over the world than any other collection of people in the history of the world. 

There is something in our national DNA that puts goodwill, freedom, justice, and opportunity at the top of the list of the description of our national identity. And we have to work hard to make sure those priorities hold strong against evolving challenges. But so far, though a roller coaster at times, we have only improved over time as a nation. This DNA comes from the remarkably intelligent conversations and cooperation between our nation’s founders, and nearly all of those founders were deeply influenced by human history and, most importantly, their faith in God. 

The governing principles of our nation are political and regard only our earthly human realm — on purpose and for good reason. But there is no question that the faith of the founders played a leading role in the elegance and Christ-like intent that can be seen all over our founding charters and documents, to say nothing of their copious personal correspondence. The founders wanted to take humanity one step closer to that seemingly unachievable “city on a hill”, and in my opinion, they did. And it’s a national achievement in which we can take some pride and celebrate as benefactors. Not with the pridefulness that Jesus warns us to avoid, but with a grateful reverence for what those generations sacrificed and created as an improved model for all humankind. A new society guided by the divine wisdom and teachings of Jesus, without codifying it into literal law – preserving God’s promise of free will along with His charge to us to willingly follow Him, regardless, though a moral and just society, if we can make one. That was and continues to be our main task as a nation. And I believe we’ll get there. 

But that's just what I think. Whatever our gloriously varying modern opinions might be on our founding, this nation truly is special in the story of humanity, and the least it deserves is to celebrate its birthday. Fire up the grill. 

I’ll end with a quote from my cherished … great-great-great grand-something-or-other, John Quincy Adams. Shortly after his time as the nation’s sixth president, he was a vice president in 1830 of what was called the American Bible Society. In a letter that he wrote in response to an invitation to attend an anniversary of the group, he wrote the following, which I think sums up the optimistic view of the nation’s future that many leaders had during those early decades of our nation:
​

(Bonus reading and another fun fact for those who are still tolerant of my propensity to pontificate prolifically … I just love this little bit of trivia, and I have to include it. 

John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, most of the time, were very close friends. Though often opposed to each other’s political philosophies, they influenced each other as individuals as much as they influenced the founding of the nation. The two are inseparably intertwined with each other and our nation’s story. They were our second and third presidents, respectively. 

And they both died on the same day, unbeknownst to each, within about five hours of each other, on the 4th of July, 1826 — exactly 50 years after the Declaration occurred. On his father’s passing, John Quincy Adams wrote of the timing as, “visible and palpable remarks of divine favor.” Senator Daniel Webster agreed while giving a eulogy on both of their lives, saying that they were “proofs that our country and its benefactors are objects of His care.”

I’d have to agree. Furthermore, the fifth president, James Monroe, also died exactly five years later on the 4th of July in 1831, and the fourth president, James Madison, died on … well, June 28th, 1836. Imagine, though, just six days longer… it was almost a reality that the second, third, fourth, and fifth presidents all would have died on the 4th of July! Imagine the anxiety that John Quincy Adams, our sixth president, might have felt each time the 4th rolled around …).