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Worship | |
December 2
1st Sunday of Advent
Lessons
Jeremiah 33:14-16
Luke 21:25-36
Sermon
The Posture of Preparedness
Gordon A. Turnbull
Hymns
O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence
Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus
Bell Prelude
Savior of the Nations, Come
Sanctuary Bells
Anthem
Thou Shalt Know Him When He Comes
Sanctuary Choir
By the Numbers
November 18: 8:30: 153; 11:00: 156
November 25: 8:30: 138; 11:00: 123 |
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Windows
on First Presbyterian Church
November 29, 2012 |
Journeying as a Family from Nazareth to Bethlehem |
We continue our intergenerational DVD series, The Journey: Walking the Road to Bethlehem, this Wednesday, December 5, at 6:00 p.m. Sixth-graders through adults are invited to take a fascinating look at the birth of Christ, as we walk the road from Nazareth to Bethlehem by means of scripture, historical information, and archaeological data. Please join us in the Fellowship Hall for dinner before the program.
Wednesday Night Kids
We have completed our study of creation and, after learning about the day of rest, we will celebrate. On Wednesday, December 5, the Creation Tower will be on display in the Fellowship Hall, and from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. both classes will come together to enjoy the Creation Feast. Our food will represent the richness of the world God created for his children. Come join us in this celebration of all we have learned. Parents, if you have not yet signed up to bring a part of the feast, please contact Ann Abel. |
Time to Order Poinsettias for the Christmas Season |
 Among the heralds of Christmas are red and green poinsettias. For $15 per plant, you can order pots of flourishing Euphorbia pulcherrima in Christmas colors to decorate the sanctuary from Sunday, December 16, through Christmas Eve. If you would like us to place a poinsettia in memory or in honor of someone, you may do so by turning in your money and order form to the church office during the week or by placing it in the offering plate on Sunday. The deadline for orders is Tuesday, December 11. Order forms are available in the church office and in your Sunday bulletin. You may pick up your plants anytime after the Christmas Eve service.
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October Financial Summary |
Our year-to-date financial summary, as of October 31, is as follows:
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2012 |
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October Actual YTD |
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October Budget YTD |
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Over/(Under) Budget | |
Revenue |
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| | |
Pledges |
$ |
464,021 |
$ |
485,913 |
$ |
(21,892) | |
Offerings |
$ |
116,692 |
$ |
101,483 |
$ |
15,209 | |
Other Gifts & Income |
$ |
103,198 |
$ |
79,142 |
$ |
24,056 | |
Required Budget Transfer from Prior Years' Surplus |
$ |
8,500 |
$ |
46,400 |
$ |
(37,900) | |
$ |
692,411 |
$ |
712,938 |
$ |
(20,527) | |
Expenses |
| |
| |
| | |
Evangelism & Outreach |
$ |
31,228 |
$ |
34,837 |
$ |
(3,609) | |
Worship |
$ |
111,962 |
$ |
109,092 |
$ |
2,870 | |
Christian Education |
$ |
145,046 |
$ |
185,221 |
$ |
(40,175) | |
Administration |
$ |
235,215 |
$ |
246,763 |
$ |
(11,548) | |
Building & Grounds |
$ |
152,551 |
$ |
131,396 |
$ |
21,155 | |
Fellowship & Miscellaneous |
$ |
22,592 |
$ |
27,161 |
$ |
(4,569) | |
$ |
698,594 |
$ |
734,470 |
$ |
(35,876) | |
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| |
| | |
Net Position: |
$ |
(6,183) |
$ |
(21,532) |
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Highlights
- Pledges: For the month of October, actual pledges outpaced the monthly budget, but remain below the year-to-date budget by roughly $18,750 (unrestricted). Nonpledged and visitor contributions remain ahead of budget by $14,000 for the year. (This was up from $9,000 in September, a positive indicator.)
- Prior Years' Transfer: For the month of October, no prior-year surplus transfers were required. For the year, transfers remained at $8,500.
- Evangelism & Outreach: Although below budget, allocations will be made up in November to coincide with the timing of designated income.
- Worship, Christian Education, Administration: Christian Education and Administration remain well below budget for the year. Worship expenditures are $800 below associated income for the year.
- Building & Grounds: Expenditures for the year are exceeding budget by $21,000, with the corresponding income items exceeding budget by $34,000. Much of the variance is associated with insurance claims.-Aaron Brooks, Finance Chair
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 Congregational response to our stewardship campaign has been supportive but remains $200,000 short of the amount needed before we can adopt our 2013 operating budget of $651,614. If you have not yet mailed in your pledge, please do so by December 7 to enable the church to adopt a 2013 operating budget by the end of 2012. Thank you!
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Heart to Heart Celebrates Advent
The Perfect Gift |
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1:5
This Tuesday, December 4, at 7:00 p.m., join with other women for worship, dessert, and fellowship as we set the tone for Advent and Christmas. We will gather in the chapel for Advent worship that will include music, prayer, and a special message from Peggy Hill, "The Perfect Gift," her reflections on John 1:1-5. Afterward, we will enjoy conversation and dessert together in the Fellowship Hall.
Please call the church office (423-764-7176) or email Jane Prater (jprater@fpcbristol.org) to let us know you can come. Child care is available at the church. Please let us know how many to expect!
Save the Date: Women's Retreat
The 2013 Women's Retreat will be March 1−3 at Blowing Rock Conference Center in North Carolina. Details to follow! |
Student Fellowship Series
Blessed: What It Is |
 Come to our Student Ministries Fellowship this Sunday, December 2, and let's talk what it means to be blessed! Maybe we get that our stuff isn't what demonstrates God's blessing in our life. And maybe we even understand that what God is doing in us and through us is more important than any thing. But what about the idea that God's most extravagant blessings can be found in the ordinary, everyday, and maybe even annoying people we find ourselves surrounded by? What if we counted our blessings not by what we have but by whom we have, by those ordinary and extraordinary relationships that God weaves into our lives? We just might find that we are more blessed than we ever imagined!-Katie Arnold, Director of Student Ministries
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Student Groups Planning Progressive Dinners |
Two progressive dinners for Student Ministries Fellowship groups are coming up in mid-December. Middle school students will dine in stages on Friday, December 14, and high school students will follow suit on Saturday, December 15.
Students will bring appetizers, main courses, and desserts to FPC at 6:00 p.m. on the appropriate date. They will then travel from home to home to enjoy them. After dessert, they will take part in a wild gift exchange. The plan is to return to the church by 10:00 p.m.
What students should bring:
- 6th & 9th graders: an appetizer
- 7th & 10th graders: a main course dish
- 8th, 11th & 12th graders: a dessert
- 1 gift for the gift exchange ($10 limit)
- 5 small gifts for volunteer stockings
- Friends!
Please sign up with Katie Arnold, Director of Student Ministries, and let her know what you are going to bring. For more information, contact Katie at karnold@fpcbristol.orgor (770) 296-1671. Get ready for a fun night! |
Children's Ministries News
Sunday School Report |
Last week during Sunday School the younger classes made Christmas cards to include in treat bags to be taken to Wellmont Cancer Center. Many students also helped prepare cards to send to our soldiers serving overseas during the holidays. This week, the first Sunday of Advent, begins the new Sunday School quarter, when all classes will learn more about the story of Jesus coming to earth. The lessons in any quarter fit together, and consistent attendance helps children gain understanding of God's overall plan in sending His son. During the opening this week, we will talk about the Advent season, and children will take home bags designed for family devotions. I hope you will find the time to open the bags together, either one a day or every few days, between now and Christmas. May you and your families be blessed as we pray and worship during this season of waiting.-Ann Abel, Director of Children's Ministries |
For Grades 3−5!
Snack and Serve This Sunday, December 2 |
Third- through fifth-graders are invited to come to FPC to prepare treat bags to cheer those who are dealing with serious illness during the holidays. This Sunday, December 2, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m., we will fill gift bags with ornaments we made ourselves and enjoy holiday snacks and games. We will meet in room 11 in the Children's Wing (use the door in the breezeway nearest the front parking lot, across from the entrance to the church offices). If you were in Sunday School last week, remember to bring your gifts for the treat bags this Sunday morning. For more information, please contact Allison Brooks (423-764-7176), Shannan Miller (423-646-1179), or Ann Abel (276-494-6644). |
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Please Donate Pretzels for Fairmount Schoolchildren |
 During November and December, the Neighborhood Initiatives Steering Committee will be collecting boxes of pretzels for the children of Fairmount Elementary School who cannot bring their own snacks to class. Either small pretzels or little pretzel sticks will do; just put them in the Little Red House in the Fellowship Hallway. The committee will take them to the school, and the teachers will divide them into snack portions as needed.
Kay Ward, the community outreach liaison at Fairmount, has discovered that there are at least two children in each of 23 classrooms whose parents cannot give them snacks. That adds up to a need for 46 snack portions every day, a total of 230 snacks per week, or 920 snacks each month.
Your loving contribution will give dignity to children from low-income families by allowing them to enjoy snacks with their classmates, and tide them over until the end of the school day. Say a prayer of blessing as you send them on their way! |
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Let's Help Bristol Keep the Flu in Check |
 Bristol Faith in Action urgently needs flu season care kits to distribute to families in need. Many items that promote health and cleanliness cannot be purchased with food stamps. Among these are disinfectant wipes, hand sanitizer, germ-killing sprays, and tissues. The Evangelism and Outreach Committee asks the FPC family to collect such care kits, or items for them, over the next several weeks. Please bring your donations to the church and place them in the gray bin under the steps in the Music Wing. Thank you!
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Library News from Bill Wade
Is Your Christian Life Truly Fulfilling? |
 Good news! The trustees of Princeton Theological Seminary have just announced that the new president of their institution will be M. Craig Barnes, pastor of Shadyside Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh. Barnes received his ministerial training at Princeton and holds a doctorate in American church history from the University of Chicago. Following his ordination in 1981, he pastored churches in Colorado and Wisconsin, and later served as senior minister of the National Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C. In addition to serving Shadyside he is also Meneilly Professor of Leadership and Ministry at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, a position held by our own Dick Ray after he left Bristol. The appointment of Barnes to this prestigious position has been lauded by Presbyterians and church leaders throughout the nation as great news, for he is an ideal choice for the denomination and for Christendom generally.
Barnes is quick to say that his career has been that of a pastor to his churches with emphasis upon spiritual leadership in his congregations rather than scholarly or theological productivity in academia. Nevertheless, he has written a number of books, largely pastoral meditations, and we have three of them in our church library. We will review them in coming weeks so that you can take some measure of his spiritual values.
The first, which we review here¸ is Yearning: Living Between How It Is & How It Ought to Be. His point is this: many of us find that there is a gap in our lives between what we feel should be the outcome of living Christianly and what is the actual fact. For some it is not a serious discord; we simply feel that our Christian lives ought to be better. And we don't quite know how to pull it off. And for some of us the discordance is serious, even debilitating. Our Christian state of well being may be wracked by disease, fear of death, threat of financial ruin, broken family relationships, psychological despair, or matters of morality and personal integrity. Barnes tells us that his experience in his many churches informs him that these issues are far more common than is often realized. We try to cover them over, but the pastor knows more than he can tell. "These are my people," Barnes writes. "I know the burdens they carry as they make their way to that Communion table. I am overwhelmed at the courage it takes for many of them to find their places in that procession." This is what he terms the "myth of wholeness" in our churches; Christians "believe that they should have found the secret to living whole and fulfilling lives," but it is not there. And they yearn.
Does Barnes have a quick and simple answer? Unlike some televangelists, he does not. We live in a broken world, and he is a realist. There is no place in the Bible where God promises prosperity and a happy material life as a reward for Christian living. True biblical hope comes when "in communing with Christ we discover all the grace we need to live joyful but limited lives." Therein "we encounter the mystery of his presence with us. Joy is something we receive, and we receive it only through the strange activity of God." Read his book if you would like a fuller road map to that future; he speaks with vision and power. It's in our library! |
From Steve & Vicki Fey Music Notes | |
Music participants for December 2: Sanctuary Choir, Sanctuary Bells.
 | | Cathy Moklebust |
Sunday's music: The Sanctuary Choir anthem is a setting of an anonymous fifteenth-century poem, "Thou Shalt Know Him When He Comes." It reminds us that Christ's coming is not heralded by drums or trumpets, or by his manner or dress, but by "the holy harmony which His coming makes in thee." The musical setting was composed by Hal Hopson, who is well known to our congregation for the two weeks he spent in residence in fall 2007, and for the many compositions, both anthems and service music, that find their way into our services. The handbell prelude is an arrangement of the sixteenth-century German chorale, as translated in our hymnal at number 14, "Savior of the Nations, Come." The arranger is noted handbell composer Cathy Moklebust.
Gift of music: The Sanctuary Choir, accompanied by organ, flute, and cello, will present a gift of music to the whole congregation on Sunday, December 16: an 11:00 service of lessons and carols. Alternating scripture readings and related anthems, we will begin with the ancient text "Adam Lay Ybounden" in a recent musical setting and progress to the verse from John 1, "In the beginning was the Word," set as a spiritual. We invite you to join us in worship.
Christmas pageant: It's not too late! All children from age 4 through fifth grade are invited to take part in our annual Christmas pageant, to be held Wednesday, December 19, at 5:30 p.m. in the sanctuary. Rehearsals are scheduled for this Wednesday, December 5, and next Wednesday, December 12, at 4:30 p.m. in the sanctuary.
Programs of note: 'Tis the season! There are way too many seasonal programs to list here, many involving members of our congregation! Here are two to note. This Saturday, December 1, at 3:00 p.m., the Symphony of the Mountains, along with Voices of the Mountains, the Mountain Empire Children's Choral Academy Choirs, and others, will present a program of Christmas music in the Reid Auditorium of the Eastman Employee Center in Kingsport. While there are many ballerinas among the children and youth of our congregation, we recognize in particular Bristol Ballet's production of "Drosselmeyer's Nutcracker" and "Cool Christmas," which are bringing in three guest dancers from New York, one being our own Erin Ginn, who will dance the part of the Sugarplum Fairy. Performances are scheduled for Friday and Saturday, December 7 and 8, at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, December 9, at 2:30 p.m. at the Paramount Center. |
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In Our Prayers
Cathy Andersen
Mack Blevins
Jim Bowdoin
Sue Cannon
Dorothy Dollar
Mary Nell Harris
Sharon Hatcher
Carolyn King
Mary Landrum
Ruth Musser
Jay Regan
Mary Rice
Bob Vann
Deborah Whitaker
An extensive list of prayer concerns, "Pray for One Another," is available for pickup at the church each week.
To the Church Triumphant
Eugene Hunter Johnson Sr.
November 23, 2012
Birthday Prayer Fellowship
December 2 Ryan Hite
December 5 Hannah Bailey, Laura Francis, Linda Poteat
December 6 Brittany Rutherford, Thomas Turnbull
December 7 Billie Peterson
December 8 Larry Kirksey, J.B. Madison |
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Sunday, December 2
8:30 a.m. Worship, Fellowship Hall
9:00 a.m. Cherub Choir
9:45 a.m. Sunday School
11:00 a.m. Worship, Sanctuary
2:00 p.m. Snack & Serve, Grades 3−5
5:00 p.m. Youth Choir
6:00 p.m. Student Ministries Fellowship, Youth Wing
Monday, December 3
7:00 p.m. Board of Deacons
Tuesday, December 4
9:00 a.m. Staff Meeting
10:00 a.m. Morning Prayer Group
6:00 p.m. Cub Scout Pack 3, Scout Wing
7:00 p.m. Boy Scout Troop 3, Scout Wing
7:00 p.m. Heart to Heart Advent Worship & Dessert, Chapel
Wednesday, December 5
9:30 a.m. Heart to Heart Bible Study, New Mothers' Room
4:15 p.m. Youth Handbells
4:30 p.m. Christmas Pageant Rehearsal, Sanctuary
5:15 p.m. Baby & Toddler Nursery
5:30 p.m. Fellowship Dinner
6:00 p.m. Wednesday Night Kids
6:00 p.m. Student Ministries Small Groups
6:15 p.m. Intergenerational Learning: Journey to Bethlehem
7:15 p.m. Sanctuary Choir
Thursday, December 6
7:00 a.m. Men's Bible Study
12:00 p.m. Thursday Noon Bible Study, Bristol Grind House
8:15 p.m. Praise Team, Fellowship Hall
Saturday, December 8
8:00 a.m. Men's Breakfast, Fellowship Hall |
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