Our Pastor
Florissant Valley Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) has been present and a witness in the lives of folks living in North St. Louis County since 1958. It is a joy to have the Rev. Janice Walters as our minister.
Growing up in Texas she and her family have made metro-St. Louis their home for a number of years. She completed seminary at Eden Theological Seminary and was ordained by the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) of Mid-America.
Prior to accepting our call, Rev. Walters served various pastoral rolls in area D.O.C. and U.C.C. congregations. She is well known in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) for her work with youth, summer camps, and curriculum development. She has led training in how to implement an inter-generational Sunday School curriculum in the Mid-America Region and beyond. She served a sister congregation, Community Christian Church, in Manchester for several years as associate minister, and Acting Senior Pastor. With the calling of a full time senior pastor she looked forward to discerning the direction for the next phase of her ministry. We are delighted she chose congregational ministry and accepted our call.
Minister Moments
"Do not despise the day of small things" said the prophet Zechariah.
Five centuries before Christ a great prophet's effort to rebuild the temple had ground to a halt. The site had been devoid of activity for years. People were discouraged. But then Zechariah inspired the people to turn to God, with his prophecy. Not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord Almighty! And inspired by God, with the power of his Spirit, the people rose up and finished the temple to the glory of God.
The day of small things can discourage us, too. We see few numbers. We experience the drag of inertia and resistance to change. Is there any hope to grow and become a powerful church once more? Yes, indeed! It is found in the power of momentum. Newton discovered that momentum is the product of the mass (weight) and velocity (speed) of an object.
A big, heavy, dead weight object can have huge momentum at very slow speed --if you can ever get it going. But so can a small, light object at higher speed-- and you can get it going much easier. Smaller objects and churches -- are inherently much easier to get up to speed and change direction than large churches. A speedboat can run circles around an ocean liner.
The laws of motion indicate that a small church moving fast can actually have and generate more momentum than a larger church moving slowly. Once we get our speed up, we generate huge momentum-- and momentum attracts people who like to be a part of something that is going, happening, moving. It’s the snowball effect. We smaller churches like Florissant Valley Christian Church may not have much mass at the beginning, but if we can create velocity along the path of God’s will for us, we can generate great momentum-- and through that momentum grow in effectiveness, size and our mission to reach our community for Christ. "Not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit says the Lord-- Do not despise the day of small things." (Zechariah 4:6,10)
We are gathering momentum -- Thanks be to God!
Shalom,
Janice