Tell Me Something Good
A Minister's Message from Rev. Dr. Chris Shorow, Senior Minister cshorow@fccedmond.org 405.341.3544
A friend recently shared a story about his parents. In the last years of their lives, every phone call eventually circled back to the same question: What is this world coming to? They kept relating stories they had heard on the news that left them feeling anxious and unsettled. The news they shared always felt heavy and hopeless.
When my friend went to visit, it started to make more sense. The television was always on, morning to night, a steady stream of breaking news and commentary filling the room. It hummed in the background of every conversation, shaping the mood of the house. He realized that all that bad news was shaping how they saw the world around them.
At one point, sitting together in that constant stream of noise, my friend gently said, “It feels like you have been living on a steady diet of bad news. Let me tell you something good.” Then, after sharing a good news story he had heard recently, he wondered aloud what it might be like for them to look for some good news, a different source from the bleak diet they had been consuming.
That question has stayed with me, because if we are honest, many of us are living on a steady diet of bad news. It is loud, constant, and subconsciously shaping what we believe is possible. How can we be good news people in a world too often burdened by bad news?
We know too, that some people are carrying real questions about whether Christianity still has anything good to say to them. Some have experienced faith as narrow, judgmental, or disconnected from real life. Some are simply tired of a loud, harmful version of Christianity that looks nothing like Jesus.
We understand that, and we believe the real story is better: bigger than the headlines, more expansive than what many of us have been handed, and rooted in justice, mercy, and a love that excludes no one. It is a story where restoration is possible and where love has the final word.
In the weeks ahead, we are going to try something simple, but not always easy. We are going to practice paying attention to what is good. We are going to listen for it, look for it, and make space for it in our lives.
We are calling that practice, and sermon series, Tell Me Something Good. Over four weeks we will return to the heart of Jesus’ message and explore a kind of good news that is meant to be lived. In the scriptures we’ll explore we see love that is bold, mercy that meets people where they are, and a radical welcome that keeps widening. Jesus honors extravagant love, lifts up those the world overlooks, and offers grace where others rush to judge.
Tell Me Something Good is an invitation to see differently and take part in the good news unfolding all around us. We won’t just talk about good news in this series. We will practice noticing and embodying it. Together, we will ask: Where do you see it? Where do you need it? And how might you be part of it? Our Love in Action week will offer ways to live the good news so our neighbors can thrive.
Friends, the good news is not behind us, it is alive and unfolding, and there is room for you in it!