Just over seven months ago, I announced that I would soon begin serving as the Interim Senior Minister at First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in downtown Fort Worth, Texas.
While seven months is not a long time in the life of a congregation, a lot can happen when a church is willing to look honestly at where it has been, where it is, and where it might go next.
This is exactly what FCC has been doing. As Fort Worth’s oldest congregation, FCC has a remarkable history. It has also been shaped by unusually long pastoral and staff tenures. Rev. Tom Plumbley served as Senior Minister for nearly 25 years before retiring in 2025. Before him, Rev. Dr. L. D. Anderson served for nearly 50 years. And Charles Duke, Senior Minister of Music, served the congregation for 56 years before his death in 2024.
Longevity can be a tremendous gift to a congregation. It creates institutional memory, deep relationships, and a strong sense of identity. It can also make change difficult.
Knowing this, one of the central questions of this interim season has been: What does FCC need to become now?
A New Purpose
FCC began answering that question during a Day of Discovery retreat. Nearly all of the congregation’s active members and friends participated, sharing favorite memories of the church as well as their hopes and dreams for its future.
It was not a strategic-planning exercise designed to produce detailed plans. It was an opportunity to listen.
Out of that process came a deliberately provocative purpose statement: First Christian Church is a highly visible, growing congregation.
Those seven words represent a significant shift.
FCC already has a strong mission: embracing all by loving, serving, and growing disciples downtown. But the new purpose gives the congregation a sharper picture of what living that mission looks like right now.
A highly visible congregation does not hide behind its history. A growing congregation does not define itself primarily by what it used to be. And a downtown congregation cannot assume that people will simply find it or even assume it still operates as a community of faith.
The purpose statement is not intended to become a permanent slogan. It will guide FCC through the remainder of this interim season and conclude once the settled minister is well underway.
For now, however, it gives us a shared direction.
From Words to Actions
The real test of a purpose statement is what happens after it is adopted.
A week after the Board approved the new purpose, FCC hosted its first-ever Blessing of the Animals on the front steps of our historic downtown building.
Two dozen dogs and their people came. Roughly half were members and friends of FCC. The other half were people from the surrounding community.
Some came for the blessing and left. Others lingered. They talked with FCC members. They asked questions. They learned something about the congregation. And for a little while, the church’s front steps became what we hope FCC can increasingly be: a place where the community and the congregation naturally intersect.
The event also received attention well beyond our front steps through coverage by the Fort Worth Report.
Then something even more interesting happened. The following week, FCC welcomed its first new member since the new purpose statement was embraced.
While one new member does not constitute a growth strategy, it is an important step.
Turning the Corner
It would be easy to dismiss these things as small: a new purpose statement, a pet blessing, a newspaper story, one new member.
Churches do not usually transition from decline to growth through one dramatic event. Instead, the shift typically begins with a series of small decisions that begin to point in a different direction.
That is what I see happening at FCC. We are not abandoning our history. We are refusing to let our history be the end of our story.
We are not trying to become a different church. We are asking what it means to be this church in this place, at this moment, for the people who live, work, worship, and gather in downtown Fort Worth. And perhaps most importantly, we are moving from talking about the future to embracing and co-creating it.
So What?
I have served churches long enough to know that it is easy to write a new purpose statement. It is much harder to live it out.
That work has only just begun at First Christian Church. There is plenty more to discern, plenty more to change, and plenty more that we do not yet know.
Something is shifting. The congregation has looked backward with gratitude, looked honestly at the present, and is now looking forward with greater clarity.
God is doing a new thing at First Christian Church. And, seven months into this interim journey, it feels like we are turning the corner.
If you are in the Fort Worth area, we’d love for you to join us for worship in FCC’s historic sanctuary on Sunday mornings at 10:50 a.m. All Sunday services are also livestreamed on YouTube.