If you burn to learn, check out the opportunities available to adults at FPC on Sunday mornings. Here is a brief description of classes, noting teacher or facilitator and room location. All are open to new members. Please feel free to sample several before making your choice.

1.    Reading Through the New Testament in a Year, led by Chuck Thompson, meets in Room 167, across from the Boy Scout room next to the Fellowship Hall. Using weekly New Testament readings as a springboard, this class offers learning through engaged conversation and fellowship.

2.     A.C. Adams Class, led by Nancy Allerton, meets in Room 125. Dedicated to the study of the Bible as the inspired Word of God, this class searches the scriptures, then members openly discuss the application of these words to their lives. This class is also making use of the material in Reading Through the New Testament in a Year. (This material is available to anyone and can be found on the rack across from the main office, or contact Dave Welch and he will email you a PDF version.)

3.    Graham Landrum Discussion Class meets in the parlor. Using the Present Word Bible Study series, senior adults combine Bible study with discussion of current events, and share facilitator responsibilities.

4.    Inductive Bible Study led by Dave Welch and lay leaders meets in Room 123. This class gathers for varying short-term studies that focus on the Bible with personal application. Typically, we study a selected book of the Bible by reading and discussing one chapter per week during class.

5.    College and Young Adult Class in Room 127 is open to all young adults of college age or older. It is led by Craig McDonald and Betsy Turnbull, who invite discussion of and reflection upon the Bible with an eye to personal relevancy and reflection.

6.    HeartsBurn Class for couples and others meets in Room 117, across from the Director of Children's Ministries office, to discuss a single New Testament book each week, beginning with Ephesians. This class uses rotational leadership under the direction of Tom and Leigh King.

7.    The Friendship Class is for special people who study God's love for all God's people through Old and New Testament stories. This class meets across from the Boy Scout room in Room 163.

Trudy and Peggy prepare to pack gifts for the schoolchildren of Berhane Yesus in Dembi Dollo, Ethiopia.

Trudy McFerrin and Peggy Hill are scheduled to return Sunday, January 22, from FPC's latest mission trip to Ethiopia. After collecting as much in the way of school aids as baggage-weight limits allow, they flew to Addis Ababa January 10, then made their way to Dembi Dollo to deliver them to the children of Berhane Yesus Elementary School.

They praise God for the open-hearted contributions from our congregation that filled their bags to capacity, and for all the support, encouragement, and inspiration they have received. They particularly ask your continuing prayers for this mission. 

After the Fellowship Dinner this Wednesday evening, January 25, Mary Ann Gibson of the YMCA's Elder Care program will talk to us as our Adult Learning Program continues.

Fellowship Dinner

Menu

Tacos

Salad Bar

Dessert

Volunteers

Morning: Julie King

Server/Cleanup: John & Claire Pruner/Lee Galliher

The March Blood Services Bloodmobile will be in the church parking lot from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m., Wednesday, January 25. We need at least 20 people to make appointments to donate blood, so please volunteer.

You're never too old to give blood, and you may be as young as 17 (with parental consent). Call the church office at 423-764-7176 for more information or to make an appointment. 

Marilynne Robinson

Marilynne Robinson, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and author of Housekeeping, Gilead, Home, and several volumes of nonfiction, including The Death of Adam: Essays on Modern Thought, will be at FPC Saturday, January 28, to give the annual Buechner Lecture, sponsored by King College's Buechner Institute. FPC members will be welcome at both the 4:00 p.m. interview in the Fellowship Hall and the 7:00 p.m. talk in the Sanctuary.

Robinson has written articles, essays, and reviews for Harper's, The Paris Review, and The New York Times Book Review. She has been writer-in-residence or visiting professor at the University of Kent, Amherst, and the University of Massachusetts' MFA Program for Poets & Writers. In 2009, she held a Dwight H. Terry Lectureship at Yale University, giving a series of talks entitled Absence of Mind: The Dispelling of Inwardness from the Modern Myth of the Self, since published in book form. She teaches at the Iowa Writers' Workshop.

Would you like to work with our children ages 4 years through second grade? The Children's Ministries is looking for a few volunteers to do just that during Wednesday evening programs in February, March, and April. We are asking for a commitment of at least one month of Wednesdays. The actual time slot is 6:15 to 7:00, and all teaching and craft materials will be provided. If you are interested or have any questions, please contact Cathy Newton at 764-7176 or cnewton@fpcbristol.org.