'Community' Tagged Posts (Page 3)
Spring Is Coming
First Church Family, I pray that you are enjoying seeing March flowers bloom. Spring will be here soon! Our Lenten worship theme is “The Bible: Full of Failures”, with a special focus on those who failed Jesus leading up to His Crucifixion. All of our worship will be directing us to a powerful experience of Holy Week, beginning on Palm/Passion Sunday, and extending through Easter Sunday, April 17. Please put the date of Palm/Passion Sunday, April 10, on your calendars…
Being a Blessing
Dear First Church Family, As I write this on Groundhog’s Day morning, the sun is out… oh goodness, another six weeks of winter! This past Sunday was our Tara Hatton’s last official Sunday as our Director of Youth and Family Ministry. Tara has done a wonderful job with us and hasbecome an integral part of our church family and our leadership team. Tara has shared that she will continue to worship and serve with us on a volunteer basis. What a…
Christmas Is Not Your Birthday
First Church Family, I pray you are remembering whose birthday Christmas is, and making decisions accordingly. Our present worship series: “Christmas Is Not Your Birthday,” has called me to a new understanding of what things honor Christ during the Christmas season. I believe that one of the things Jesus would desire is clean drinking water for His children. Over the past two weeks, we made the decision to provide crystal clean drinking water to a village in Chimaltenango, Guatemala. The project has…
“Normal” Sundays
First Church Family, During the week, as we prepare bulletins for worship, I’m often asked: “Dave, is this going to be a normal Sunday?” To those of us involved in weekly worship planning, the question really is: “Will we be celebrating holy communion or baptism or have a special emphasis in worship that would change the order of service?” If my answer is: “No this will be a “normal” Sunday, it means that we will follow our standard form of worship with prayers, music,…
Happy Thanksgiving
First Church Family, Happy Thanksgiving! If you participated with us on our “Bless This Meal” Thanksgiving project, either by contributing financially or working on Thursday or Saturday, you blessed others and were blessed yourself! This past weekend, our volunteers: unpacked trailers of food; packed boxes with meals and carried them out to people’s cars; delivered boxes to persons who didn’t have transportation; visited with, prayed for and provided breakfast for our guests;gave a stuffed animal or toy for every child who came; and shared…
Faithful Financially
First Church Family, I’ve been enjoying the crisp fall weather this week. It makes me feel like it is really Thanksgiving. And that holiday is only a week away. This coming weekend is really big for us. We will partner with Christ as we serve 120 local families who are in need on Saturday. I learned yesterday that we have completely underwritten that effort with extra contributions from you totaling more than $3500. That is amazing! Thank you for…
Bless This Meal
First Church Family, I haven’t lived here forever as some of you have, but I am amazed every day at the beauty of our surroundings. I truly believe our area is one of God’s beautiful paradises on earth. And this time of year, it is at its prettiest. Please stop every single day, admire God’s handiwork, and offer prayers of praise and gratitude. On Saturday, November 20, we will take a big step in getting back to who we were before…
November News
First Church Family, I pray this newsletter finds you in good health and spirits. The year 2021 has been another challenging year, but God has used those challenges to bring us back to Him. Our faith has been strengthened, and our ministries have continued to enhance the lives of those both in our fold and also those outside of our family. As we move into November, commonly recognized as the month of thanksgiving, let us offer our hearts…
Fall Ministries
First Church Family, Fall ministries are underway and early winter plans are being made. Please read the following updates. Robbins Pre-SchoolWe have sixteen students in the program, and our Kendra Steube and Erika Murphy are doing a wonderful job with their care and instruction. Next Thursday at 11:00AM, we are doing a “Trunk or Treat” program with them, in which our staff will have Trick or Treat items for the children in the trunks of our cars. We would love to have 5 or 6 additional…
God’s Earthly Paradise
First Church Family, I’ve shared several times that I love this time of year. September and October are glorious here in God’s earthly paradise. Let’s be sure not to forget to offer God our gratitude. Thank you for your partnership in ministry. We delivered 482 pounds of food to Yokefellow yesterday! And we have a load of snacks for our college food ministry at CCC&TI ready to deliver, as well. Soon, we will restock our West Caldwell High School. And, we served…
Slowing Down
First Church Family, It’s good to have settled back in after some days away. I’m using this brief message to share several important updates with you: Ivey is away with family this week, so many phone calls will be going to our staff voicemails. We will respond to your messages while she is away. The office will be back up and running this coming Monday. The wave of the Delta variant of COVID has forced us to slow down returning…
Trust in God
First Church Family, Monday is my sabbath. It is then that I take care of my gardens, catch up on devotional reading, and spend time with my family and friends. This past Monday I worked outside, canned vegetables for the winter, and caught up on some family things. But also, I monitored the plight of Haitians trying to recover from its latest challenge, watched in disbelief as Afghanistan was quickly turned back over to an oppressive regime, received information that our…