January 25

Windows

Meet Us at Belmont Lanes
Sunday! Sunday! Sunday! 

You are invited to an afternoon of bowling at Belmont Lanes this Sunday, January 25. We'll be there from 3:00 until 5:00, and whatever your age or skill, we promise you fun and fellowship! Each attendee should bring $3 to cover shoes and unlimited bowling.

The bowling alley is located at 100 Belmont Drive on the Tennessee side of town. Be there!

Churchwide Survey Coming Your Way 

Please watch your mail in the next few days for information regarding the congregational survey being conducted by our church! We appreciate and look forward to your participation in this important initiative as we discern God's call for our mission at First Presbyterian Church.

The members of the Strategic Planning Committee are Aaron Brooks, Peggy Hill, Jennifer Kennedy, Shannan Miller, Lensey Richardson, Gordon Turnbull, John Vann, Paul Warhurst, and Charles Webb.

The third installment of our new churchwide study series, EPIC: Through the Bible with Jesus, will be "The Terrible Lie," inspired by Genesis 3. Join us for a consideration of this story Sunday, January 25. Sermon texts throughout the course of this series will be taken from the children's book, The Jesus Storybook Bible. If you have not already picked up your preordered copy from the front office, please do so soon.

For the Third Time, Who Is Jesus? 

Mark Hutton

Mark Hutton returns next Wednesday evening for the final segment of his program on who we think Jesus is. Mark is a Presbyterian minister and the first Pastoral Research Fellow at Tactical Faith, about which you can learn more here. Mark's blog is here.

Please join us January 28 at 5:30 for dinner in the Fellowship Hall and stay for the conversation at 6:15. Student small groups and Wednesday Night Kids will meet as usual at 6:00.

Registration begins this Sunday, January 25, for our annual women's retreat, scheduled for February 27 through March 1. We are excited to have Lindsay Fooshee, Christian thinker, blogger, and mom, as our speaker this year. She will lead us through a consideration of Paul's encouraging letter to his friends in Philippi and remind us of the joy of the good news of Jesus.

Lindsay Fooshee

Lindsay and her husband, John, serve Jesus in Johnson City by planting churches and raising a family, seeking to live out discipleship in both their church and their home. Lindsay holds an M.A. in Christian Thought from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, blogs about discipleship here, and writes an online devotional for girls and their mentors here.

Be sure to mark your calendars for this wonderful Heart to Heart weekend at Blowing Rock Conference Center! Forms and flyers are available throughout the church.

All women of the church are invited to Heart to Heart's annual Read and Feed, scheduled for 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., Saturday, January 31, in Jennifer Kennedy's home. Amber Warhurst, Billie Whisnant, and Betsy Turnbull will present books. The snow date for this event is February 7.

Amber will discuss a book by her friend Rachel Marie Stone, Eat with Joy: Redeeming God's Gift of Food. Billie Whisnant will talk about Laura Hillenbrand's Unbroken, and Betsy will review Rare Bird: A Memoir of Loss and Love by Anna Whitson-Donaldson. Please join us for this stimulating get-together, and feel free to bring a friend!

New Opportunity for Meal Ministry with Lotsa Helping Hands 

In recent years our church has been blessed with a vital ministry of support for new mothers through Heart to Heart, our women's ministry. Volunteers receive email notice of days for which meals are needed for families with new children. The volunteer can choose a day to offer a meal, and the calendar registers the commitment. This ministry, coordinated by Lensey Richardson for Heart to Heart, occurs through an online service called MealBaby. Anyone interested in joining this list of potential servers may email Lensey (lasinjc@yahoo.com) to sign up.

Encouraged by the good response to this vehicle, our Board of Deacons would like to expand the scope of such caring meals. If you are interested in providing the occasional meal for those who are recovering at home from illness or recent hospitalization, please email Dave Welch (dwelch@fpcbristol.org). Your name will be placed on a list of those to be notified of serving opportunities through a separate online service, Lotsa Helping Hands.

Signing up as a potential server does not obligate you for any particular day or meal; you choose whether to respond to a particular notification. You may also "tag-team" with others to prepare and serve a meal. We hope that these mechanisms help more people offer and more people receive the caring love of our church. 

No Student Fellowship Meeting This Sunday: We're Going Bowling! 

Student Ministries will join the congregational bowling outing this Sunday afternoon from 3:00 to 5:00, in lieu of the regular meeting of the Sunday Night Student Fellowship. Each person attending needs to bring $3 for shoes and unlimited bowling. That's a lot of fun for three bucks! See you at Belmont Lanes!

Middle School Mania Gonna Get You! 

Middle School Mania strikes again! This time it will break out on Sunday, February 1, from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. Seventh and eighth grade students are invited to the church for Super Bowl games and fun. We always have a wild time!

High School Super Bowl Party 

The High School Super Bowl Party will be held Sunday, February 1, at the home of the Pruners. We'll gather at 6:00 p.m. and party until the end of the game. Come enjoy games, prizes, food, and fun with a great group of people!

Please Donate Vanilla Wafers for Fairmount Students 

We are collecting cookies for our young friends at Fairmount Elementary School. The Neighborhood Initiatives Steering Committee is asking us to fill the Little Red House in the Fellowship Hallway with boxes of vanilla wafers. The committee will take them to Fairmount, where teachers will divide them into portions for the youngsters whose parents cannot afford to send snacks to school with them. Let's make sure all students get a midafternoon energy boost!

When the weather is raw or the roads rough, we will follow the lead of the Bristol, Tennessee, city schools. Please tune in to a local radio or television station to learn what that may be. We will make every effort to gather for worship on Sundays, even in severe weather.

Sunday's music participants: Sanctuary Choir.

Peter Warlock

Sunday's music: The Sanctuary Choir anthem this week, "Adam Lay Ybounden," has as its text an anonymous 15th century song for which the music has been lost. Relating to our Bible story for the week, it comes from a tradition first put forward by St. Augustine that "God judged it better to bring good out of evil than not to permit any evil to exist." The text gives thanks that through Adam's fall a greater good, our savior Jesus Christ, came about. Numerous composers have made modern settings of this ancient text, and in the past the choir has sung versions by Richard Webster and Benjamin Britten. The setting this week was composed by Peter Warlock (1894-1930). Warlock had a notable career as a music journalist and critic, as an author of texts on early music, and as a composer, primarily of songs. The anthem was composed originally as a solo song, and has been arranged for choirs. Without excessive elaboration, it sets forth the dilemma of the text with music that is equally ambiguous, ending with an exuberant "Deo Gratias": "Thanks be to God!"

Musical project: Both the Savior's Singers Children's Choir (grades 2-5) and the Jubilate Youth Choir (grades 6-12) will begin working on a musical this spring, to be presented to the congregation on Sunday, August 30! One of the parables in The Jesus Storybook Bible is the miracle of the loaves and fishes, and the musical is called Table for Five ... Thousand! with music by Allen Pote and script and lyrics by his longtime collaborator, Tom S. Long, director of the liturgical drama troupe Friends of the Groom. All children and youth in these age groups are welcome to come to rehearsals. This year's first graders will be given a CD so that they can begin learning the music at home before they join the older choir in August. The youth choir rehearses on Sundays at 5:15 p.m., right before youth ministry fellowship, and the children's choir rehearses Wednesdays at 4:45, just before dinner. Come join us!

In Our Prayers

Becky Busler

Jane Crewey

Barbara Daniel

Dorothy Dollar

Fred Frazier

Ann Galliher

DeeDee Galliher

Dorothy Giesler

Juanita Goforth

Ron Grubbs

Will Hankins

Mary Nell Harris

Sharon Hatcher

Hawley Heglar

Carolyn King

Nancy King

Ruth Musser

Sue Olsen

Nancy Preston

Mary Rice

Brenda Rogers

Virginia Rutherford

Katy Sikorski

Faye VanNostrand

An extensive list of prayer concerns, "Pray for One Another," is available for pickup at the church each week.

Condolences

Our love and sympathy are with Nancy Butterworth in the death of her mother, Gwen Necessary, January 15 in Bristol; and with Graham Barr in the death of his sister, Evelyn Barr Goad, January 17 in Greenville, South Carolina.

Birthday Prayer Fellowship

January 25     Kameron Harkleroad, Karen Pennington

January 27     Ann Galliher, Samuel Parker

January 28     Kaemon Nelson, Byron Schiesz

January 29     Betty Millard

January 30     Herb Van Nostrand

January 31     Andrea Hyde

Memorials and Honoraria

Mack Calcote: by Jack & Nancy Butterworth, to the Minister's Discretionary Fund

Frances Caldwell: by Jack & Nancy Butterworth, to the Music Projects Fund

Bill Darnell: by Jack & Nancy Butterworth, to the Minister's Discretionary Fund

Dr. Ed Hatcher: by Jack & Nancy Butterworth, to the Minister's Discretionary Fund

George King: by Jack & Nancy Butterworth, to the Minister's Discretionary Fund

Richard King: by Vivian Calcote, to the Capital Campaign Fund/MEP

Blake Looney: by Grace Anderson, to the Blake Looney Memorial Montreat W&M Scholarship Fund

Sara Rhea: by Jack & Nancy Butterworth, to the Minister's Discretionary Fund

Peggy Rogers: by Vivian Calcote, to the Arts Series Fund

Dr. Robert L. Vann: by Jack & Nancy Butterworth, to the Minister's Discretionary Fund

Jim White: by Bill Linderman & Elizabeth Patrick, to the Capital Campaign Fund/MEP

Bob & Janet Wright: by Jack & Nancy Butterworth, to the Minister's Discretionary Fund

Sunday, January 25

8:30 a.m.     Worship, Fellowship Hall

9:00 a.m.     Cherub Choir, Room 209

9:45 a.m.     Sunday School, Education Wing

11:00 a.m.   Worship, Sanctuary

3:00 p.m.     Congregational Bowling Event, Belmont Lanes

5:30 p.m.     Jubilate Youth Choir, Music Wing

Monday, January 26

5:30 p.m.     Sanctuary Handbells, Handbell Room

7:00 p.m.     Session, Room 123

Tuesday, January 27

9:00 a.m.     Staff Meeting, Room 123

10:00 a.m.   Morning Prayer Group, Conference Room

1:00 p.m.     Jackie Burt's Bible Study, Burt Home

6:00 p.m.     Venture Crew 3, Room 123

7:00 p.m.     Boy Scout Troop 3, Scout Wing

Wednesday, January 28

9:30 a.m.     Lorri Looney's DVD Bible Study, Parlor

10:00 a.m.   Elizabeth Patrick's Women's Bible Study, New Mothers' Room

4:15 p.m.     Children's Handbells, Room 212

4:45 p.m.     Youth Handbells, Room 212

4:45 p.m.     Savior's Singers Children's Choir, Room 209

5:15 p.m.     Baby & Toddler Care, Rooms 34-37

5:30 p.m.     Fellowship Dinner, Fellowship Hall

6:00 p.m.     Student Ministries Small Groups, Youth Wing & College Classroom

6:00 p.m.     Wednesday Night Kids, Rooms 11 & 31

6:15 p.m.     Adult Learning, Fellowship Hall

7:15 p.m.     Sanctuary Choir, Room 202

7:30 p.m.     Praise Team, Fellowship Hall

Thursday, January 29

7:00 a.m.      Men's Bible Study, Parlor

12:00 p.m.   Noon Bible Study, Room 117

Saturday, January 31

9:00 a.m.      Officer Training, Room 123