A few updates from the church business meeting on Sunday, Dec 8:

- Council members: Special thanks were given to those ending their term. New Council members were appointed for Vice Moderator and Asian Grace. Nominations are still needed for Treasurer and Amor y Fe rep. 

- The proposed budget was approved. Details are available in the meeting packet as well as some great ministry reports! (Click here for a copy.)

- Pastor Scott shared an update from the Vision Team. An earlier proposal for a Sunday services 'experiment' is being modified. This will not be taking place in January, but the team is continuing to work to identify ways Butler could shift to have a multiethnic worship service and focus more on discipleship.

Reminder to please pray for our missionaries in Thailand who have many opportunities to share the good news of Jesus during the Christmas season! 

Carmen Owen writes: "Pray for the Christmas outreaches which are scheduled through December intending to reach 1000 children and youth with the Gospel (and for a team of 5 young adults sent from our home church in Kansas assisting in the Christmas outreaches).

We enjoyed lunch together with a variety soups as well as pumpkin pie! THANK YOU to all who prepared the meal and served in the kitchen! 

Short term mission opportunities which were shared about during the service were explored further over lunch. Visit our Missions page for current missionary prayer requests and short term mission opportunities!

The November/December issue of the Christian Leader magazine is here! This issue is focused on the challenges and opportunities of ministry to the youngest generations. The CL is a publication of our Mennonite Brethren family of churches. If you want to b e added to the CL mailing list, let the church office know. You can also read it online, where translation is available in multiple languages! 

We had a great turnout again this year for Meet and Treat with over 500 people attending! Many commented how glad they are that Butler Church hosts this family friendly event, and look forward to it. Thank you to all who served at this event, and a BIG thank you to the 40-50 FPU students who put on another amazing trunk or treat, as well as serving in the kitchen, and with set up and clean up! New this year was a free raffle drawing and it was fun to present the prize to our winner. We have several names to follow up with; join us in praying for continued opportunities to build relationships with these families from our  community.   October 2024

Thank you for your prayers for Pastor Scott and the Peru Vision Team which returned last week! While in Peru, Galen with Multiply wrote: “One church has 7 teams planting churches or supporting weaker churches that need help. There is a lot of poverty here, but in the midst of it people are being faithful to God. Thursday, we met with national leaders and talked about how we serve them in partnership. It was a very fruitful conversation. Saturday night we stayed in the homes of different Peruvian families. Last night we said goodbye to everyone. We had a great time of worship and sharing.” 

  > Find more photos on our

Butler Facebook group page.

  > Find more photos on our

Butler Facebook group page.

Several updates were shared at the church Informational Meeting on June 2, and there was some good discussion time about some developing initiatives. Topics included: Recent event highlights; Attendance and Giving Updates; Pastoral Searches (Faith Community and Asian Grace); the Vision Team process; Potential partnership with Head Start (on site preschool); and a mural project in development. (Click here to view the slides from the meeting.) The meeting concluded with a time of prayer for these points and for the Butler staff.  

Update: Responses to the Butler Church Survey are being received during the month of June by the vision/consult team.   

May is Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage month. Here at Butler Church, we’re blessed to worship together with brothers and sisters from several Asian cultures! In our Asian Grace congregation alone, we have members who are Khmu, Lao, Mien, and T’in! And beyond that we have Filipino, American Samoa, Korea, and Cambodian represented within our broader church family and congregations!  This article, written a few years ago from the perspective of a Korean-American pastor, provides insight on why celebrating AAPI histories, culture, gifts, and experiences is actually a form of worship.

We had a great time at our Community Meal on April 28. After a delicious taco dinner served by our amazing kitchen team, our children and youth were excused for a fun programs, while the adults spent time listening to and sharing personal stories. Special thanks to Nixon Khoutsavahn for sharing some of his story. Join us in praying for deepening connections among the new and old friends who gathered! Our next Community Meal is being planned for June 30!

We hope you had a wonderful Easter! On Friday we had a great time with neighbors at Summer Park, visiting and bringing joy to the kids. We're praying those connections continue to grow.  And, it was truly a blessing to spend Easter Sunday praising God and celebrating the Risen Savior together. Each of our congregations were blessed to see friends, family, and neighbors join us and our children’s ministry was busting at the seams with kids. Let’s continue to pray that our faith and church family will continue to grow!  

This month we are welcoming Terry & Debra Brensinger into the interim pastoral role for our Faith Community congregation. While they have been part of Butler for several years now, Pastor Terry officially began his work at the beginning of February. As a church we will pray over them this Sunday during the combined service for this 6 month season of ministry. 

Pastor Jim officially retired at the end of January 2024 and a special celebration took place on January 28 to honor this milestone with Jim and Shirley Holm. The event was hosted by Faith Community, the Butler congregation which Jim pastored, and attended by family and friends from the area. We bless Jim and Shirley as they spend time in travel and with projects at the MCC thrift store and Mennonite Disaster Service.

Pastor Jim writes: "January 6th is a day of celebration for Christians all across the world, but also a day of special importance to the Mennonite Brethren Church, of which Butler is a part.
To understand this takes a bit of background. About one thousand years ago, the Christian church divided into two sections, The East and The West. The divisions were over doctrine and the way in which worship was conducted. The “Western Church” came to be called the Roman Catholic Church and from it the Protestant Reformation sprang and from that the Mennonite Church in all its branches. The Western Church observes January 6th as Epiphany... 

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve with worship services in the morning, and our Asian Grace congregation had a fellowship lunch. In the evening was our annual Christmas Eve Candlelight Service, with scripture readings and songs in multiple languages, from each our congregations. Our children sang and heard the Christmas story, and there was special music with dance. We ended in the evening with carols outdoor by candlelight, and then had a fellowship time with "tutes" (treat bags), hot chocolate, and champurrado. 

The service was also livestreamed and is available on YouTube here.

What a GREAT service, offering, and lunch we had on Missions Sunday as one church family! Thank you to all who had a part in the special morning. Our missions offering goal was set at $21,800 for 2024, which will support our missionaries and short term opportunities in the coming year. We’re excited that the offering goal has been met and surpassed! It was a joy to participate in giving and prayer together, and has already been a great encouragement to our missionaries. Please continue to pray for our current and future missionaries. You can find current prayer requests and STM opportunities on our Missions page here.

We had a full room for our Community Meal on August 27; even more people attended than we expected! Special thanks to our kitchen crew who served up chili burgers and bacon wrapped hotdogs. After dinner, the kids and youth (there were over 30 of them!) had a great time in their own activities. The adults had fun conversations around the table over M&Ms, and Loteria led by Jim & Yami Rodriguez complete with prizes. Afterward we all had dessert together, celebrating upcoming birthdays with a cake donated by Rosita Colin. Our prayer is that many of the connections that were made during this event will continue to grow...and that future opportunities like this will do the same. Our Butler Church Cultural Celebration night is coming up on September 24!  - August 2023

All of our Butler congregations join together for a combined service on specific Sundays during the year. It's a wonderful opportunity to worship together across languages and cultures! For back-to-school our combined service included prayer over children, teachers, and administrators returning to the classroom. We sang in multiple languages, heard an update on the tutoring ministry, and enjoyed a cultural dance by the Asian Grace dancers. Pastor Scott shared "The Answer to the Tests!"   

In Common Ground, every 5th Sunday of the month we plan something a little different! On Sunday, Jan 29, we gathered around tables in the sanctuary with breakfast treats. Terry & Debra Brensinger are leading us in digging into a story from scripture. (Click here for the text from Daniel 3.)

Terry explains: “The stories in the Old Testament served not only to instruct the people of God throughout history, but also to capture their imagination. By following just a few simple guidelines - that we will talk about and illustrate during our time together - all of us can read, learn from, and thoroughly enjoy the often humorous, engaging, and suspenseful stories preserved for us in scripture.”

Vision Night lived up to its name as our 4 Butler congregations gathered for an evening filled with great food, talents, and fellowship as a church family! Pastor Scott shared a message from Hebrews 10:23-25 and challenged us to move forward as a church with Confident Hope, Consistent Connection and Creative Engagement. We highlighted three exciting new initiatives taking place this fall: Shared youth ministry with People’s Church Southeast, Community Clean Up monthly opportunities, and the sending of a team to the Mosaix Multiethnic Church conference in November! We are excited for these three initiatives and for more to come! We encourage every Butler member to consider how they too will move forward with Confident Hope!

We had a great time at our Meal and More event for May! So many good things…amazing volunteers, awesome tacos, laughter and fellowship for all ages, and great encouragement in Christ. 

We got some great feedback about continuing this event with activities for each specific age group. So, stay tuned for info on a future Meal & More date. Hope to see you next time!   - May 2022

What a fun morning we had for our Easter Picnic BBQ and egg hunt! Though it was a little windy we had a great time playing kids' games and enjoying a hot dog lunch. Teacher Maria and kids did a great job telling the Easter story and just then it poured rain outside! The egg hunt had to be moved indoors, but it was still fun and there were LOTS of eggs to find. Thanks to all who helped and to neighbors who came for the first time!   - April 2022

Earlier in January, Alma had shared an urgent prayer request for baby Maxymus - when he was just one month old, their family was fighting covid and he had a high fever. Praise God he recovered quickly and is healthy today!

The Saturday men's day hike this month was a great time together! Pastor Scott writes: “We had fun exploring a new place (to most of us) and connecting together. Shout out to Mike Acosta for instigating this adventure to Stevenson Falls!” Stay tuned for info on future men’s events.  

Butler hosted one of the nightly gatherings for the city-wide 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting on January 17. It was a powerful time of worship and prayer together with believers from across the city! There were times of prayer for repentance and revival of the Church, and prayer for each other, and for the generations of our community. If you missed the service online, you can find it here as well as info on the nightly gatherings this month at 7:00pm.  - January 2022

We give you all the teachers and staff who work there,

We give you all the students who study there.

We pray our schools would be places of great discovery, adventure and creativity. May they be places where students love to learn and where they learn to love, A place where every one is respected and all are deeply valued. (More....)

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Our first ever Farmer’s Market at Butler Church was this past July! We had a great turnout and had tons of fun with kids games, balloons, & bubbles. In addition to a great selection of fruits and vegetables, we had hamburgers, hot dogs, popcorn and other goodies to offer. There were dance performances, gift basket giveaways, backpacks for kids, and a special message from pastor Marcus from People’s Church. Join us in praising God for a great event and the many incredible volunteers that helped make this a great night together with our community! See our post here to see some great photos and to share feedback.  - August 2021

We had a great evening our Movie Night outdoor community event at the end of May! We watched the animated movie Soul, and enjoyed Kona Ice and popcorn on the courtyard grass on what may have been one of the last cool evenings of the summer. Thank you to all who came and those who volunteered; it was great to welcome both new and return visitors. Hope to see many of you again soon!  - June 2021

On Sunday evening, May 23, we had our first all church gathering in over a year! During our Church Fellowship Night we enjoyed an amazing taco dinner, some talented and creative Butler musicians, celebrated with Asian Grace over new life in Christ, and honored a staff member who retired earlier this year. Another highlight was a children’s moment lead by Maria Galvan; we are like M&M’s….very diverse on the outside but all the same on the inside, and God loves us each the same!  - June 2021

Our church family is grieving the passing of Souk Sivongsay, pastor of our Asian Grace congregation. He went to be with Jesus on June 11 following a decline in health due to cancer. The memorial service was on Monday, June 14 at Butler Church and a recording of the service is available here. The funeral and burial will take place in his family's home state of Minnesota. Please join us in continued prayers for his wife, family, and our Asian Grace congregation. 

Our long time custodian, Bounthone Vongviset, retired in April. We’re so appreciative of his work and faithfulness! With nearly 20 years of service he is likely the longest tenured staff member with Butler Church! Boun says “though I am retired, my heart won’t retire” and plans to continue volunteering as needed. Join us in celebrating this milestone, perhaps even sending Boun a special note of encouragement or gift in appreciation of his work!

Boun and his years of service were recognized during our Church Fellowship Night at the end of May, with a presentation of gifts and a time of prayer. Since that time, our part time custodial job opening has been filled and we welcome Rudy Marquez on staff!      posted May 2021

We're glad to be able to have indoor worship services again, starting Sunday, April 11!  We will be continuing our regular worship schedule, with congregations meeting in both the Family Center and Worship Center during the morning. 

9:00 AM Asian Grace and Faith Community 

10:45 AM Common Ground and  Amor y Fe 

Services will continue to be livestreamed on Facebook and on our YouTube channel (see the links below!) See please follow covid guidelines when coming to campus & stay tuned for information about childcare and children's programs, which will be phased in.     posted April 2021