Windows January 24, 2019

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Windows

on First Presbyterian Church

January 24, 2019

Service of Ordination and Installation of Officers Sunday

As the children sing in both services this Sunday, January 27, we will ordain and install our church officers of the Class of 2021. Please plan to join us for either service.

To be ordained to the office of Elder and installed on the Session of Elders:

Katie McInnis

To be installed on the Session of Elders:

Ann Abel

Randy Cook

John Graham

John Vann

To be ordained to the office of Deacon and installed on the Board of Deacons:

Ron Fox (2020)

Matt Kingsley

Lisa McClain

Drew Rice

Joyce Samuel

To be installed on the Board of Deacons:

Fred Harkleroad

To be installed in the office of Trustee:

Jack Butterworth

Birth in the Congregation

We have been blessed by a brand-new addition to our congregation. Her name is Emma Noelle Booher, and she was born January 11 to Danielle and Todd Booher. Welcome, little one!

Pastor Sam Is in Class

Pittsburgh Theological Seminary

Pastor Sam is at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary for two weeks of intensive coursework for his doctoral degree. He will return to Bristol late on the night of Friday, February 1. While he is in class, he will not be able to take calls. If you need him, please leave a message in the church office, and someone on staff will contact him.

New Measures for Church Security

As we all know, safety and security is a pressing issue in our society. Not to be alarmist, but in light of various acts of violence in houses of worship over the past few years, the Session has decided to take some measures to reduce risk to our congregation. Here is an outline of our plan:

New security doors with keycard passes are being installed in the rear breezeway entrances to both the church and the education wing. The keycards will be effective only at specific times during the services.
Keycards will be issued to parents who drop their children off in the nursery. Parents will need to sign their infants in to receive the keycards, and they will return the keycards when they sign them out.
At each breezeway entrance there will be a basket with a few keycards for parents who need immediate access to elementary age students. If you take a keycard, you will need to return it immediately after using it.
The doors will be open in the mornings on our usual schedule, with the exception of the large, wooden doors at the front of the church. Those will not be opened until 10:00. Anyone wishing to enter the church before 10:00 will need to use a different door.
All doors to the church will be locked 10 minutes after the start of the early morning service. If you come late (say, at 8:50), we will have someone on hand to let you in through the Fellowship Hall door. Parents who need access to their children in the education wing can reach them as outlined in points 2 and 3.
During late worship, all the doors to the church will be locked with the exception of the wooden front doors. Parents can reach children in the education wing through the rear breezeway by using keycards issued to them or available in the baskets.
Ushers will be issued air horns with which to warn the congregation in case an assailant enters the church through the front doors. The ushers will also have access to their cellphones and 911.
We ask that others in the congregation contribute by having cellphones ready to make an emergency call.
We are having panic buttons installed in the pulpit of the main sanctuary as well as in the sound booth in the Fellowship Hall.
Between services (from 9:45 to 11:10), the main doors of the church will be open. The risk here is lessened in that congregants will be dispersed throughout our campus and not collected together as easy targets for an assailant.

I know that this is a lot to take in, and the subject matter is not one we like to contemplate; you will need time to understand this new policy and ask questions. We expect to roll this plan out on Sunday, February 3.

We want to lift up to you that these measures come at significant cost to the church. In total, the doors and keycard readers alone will cost more than $11,000. If, in response to the measures we have taken, God leads you to contribute to our efforts, we ask that you make a special gift to the church and write "Security - Door Installation" on the memo line of your check. We ask especially that you pray for our church to be spared such violence./ Pastor Sam

Final Notes for Saturday's Sharing Christ Volunteers

This Saturday, January 26, FPC will be at Sharing Christ Ministries and Worship Center to serve the dinner we have prepared. Thirty FPC members responded to the call for help by volunteering to shop for and donate food, make lunches, cook casseroles, and be on hand to serve dinner and clean up afterward. The end of the month, when people have run out of food, is a crucial time for this ministry, and we expect to serve about 100 meals on Saturday.

Because the church office is closed on Fridays, volunteers who plan to leave food at the church should do so by Thursday. Lunch items must be at the church by Thursday to allow time to turn them into sandwiches and sack lunches. FPC folks will be at the mission at the corner of State and Sixth at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday to receive volunteers delivering food. Servers should also be there at 4:30.

May God bless our volunteers, their service, and the folks at the downtown mission. For more information about how you can serve in this ministry with fellow FPC members, contact Dottie Havlik at [email protected] or 423-956-6747.

Registration for Women's Retreat Begins Sunday

Our annual Women's Retreat at Blowing Rock Conference Center is scheduled for February 22 -24 and will feature the Reverend Grace Kim as guest speaker. Grace has titled her talk, "Just As I Am." Registration will begin this Sunday, January 27. Plan to be there!

Wednesday Fellowship: All of Life as Worship

John Piper

During the Adult Learning program next Wednesday, January 30, Dave Welch will show John Piper's video All of Life as Worship and lead a table discussion. Piper is an American Reformed Baptist continuationist pastor and author who is the founder and leader of https://www.desiringgod.org/ and chancellor of Bethlehem College and Seminary in Minneapolis.

The evening's fellowship will begin with a dinner of lasagna, salad, and dessert at 5:30. The Adult Learning program will begin at 6:20 p.m. High School Small Groups, Middle School Gathering, and Wednesday Night Kids will meet at 6:00. Handbell ringers, and any adult who wants to learn, will practice in room 212 at 6:15.

February Fellowship: Connecting the Fragments

[For Jesus Christ himself] has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
--Ephesians 2:14 -18

We live in a rapidly changing world where technology "connects" us more than ever. However, despite this "connection," there are racial, cultural, and linguistic barriers that fragment the unity of the church. In our Wednesday Adult Learning series for the month of February, we will share stories of overcoming the boundaries that threaten our Christian fellowship. We will discuss strategies we might adopt to understand and connect with others who are different from ourselves, so that we might reflect the unity to which we are called in Ephesians.

This three-week series, "Race, Culture, and Reconciliation," will begin February 6. (The Bristol Tennessee City Schools will be on winter break February 13, and we will therefore suspend our programming for that date.) Our presenters for the series will be:

Feb. 6:	Pastor Sam
Feb. 20:	Chase & Audrey Arndt
Feb. 27:	Rev. Dr. Bryan Loritts (via video)

Jobs for Life as a Discipleship Program

What if those unemployed in Bristol found work because the local church took action? Learn how churches and other organizations are using the Jobs for Life program as a discipleship platform to help men and women discover their value in God's eyes and find the path to the work God created them to do. Learn more at a Jobs for Life community information meeting Thursday, February 7, 6:00 -8:00 p.m. at The Summit, 1227 Volunteer Parkway. There is no fee, and dinner will be provided at no charge. Please register by February 1 by contacting the United Way of Bristol at 423-968-4912 or https://www.eventbrite.com/e/jobs-for-life-bristol-community-information-meeting-tickets-54723694042. For more information, contact John Vann (423-360-1153).

Pretzels for Fairmount School

We are collecting pretzels as winter snacks for the children of Fairmount Elementary School. We need small pretzels or pretzel sticks, which teachers can easily arrange into individual servings. Please bring your donated pretzels to the Little Red House in the Fellowship Hallway to perk up Fairmount students when their energy begins to wane. Thank you!

Gifts to the Church

Memorials and honoraria are published in the newsletter only after the family has been personally notified by our business office. Today we gratefully acknowledge Frances Emerson and George Huber's gift to the Music Fund, made in memory of Tom Daniel.

Music Notes

Sunday's music participants: Pat Flannagan, Bob Greene, Sanctuary Choir.


	John Ness Beck

Sunday's music: All our music for Sunday has been chosen to highlight the ordination and installation of officers. The hymns are focused upon the special gifts of those whom we have chosen to lead us. Our anthem, "Upon This Rock," is by John Ness Beck (1930 -1987), an American composer and arranger of sacred choral music. A graduate of Ohio State University, Beck capitalized on his success as a composer to co-found a publishing house, Beckenhorst Press. The anthem is based upon the scripture from Matthew 16:18, but it ends with the entire congregation joining in to sing "The Church's One Foundation."

Organist's footnotes: All Sunday's music is from a volume called The Syracuse Collection ("accessible contemporary organ music") published in 1991. Bruce Lazarus (b. 1956) is Music Director at the Joffrey Ballet School, Company Pianist at the Dance Theater of Harlem, and Adjunct Assistant Professor in Music at Metropolitan College of New York. Carl D. N. Klein (b. 1963) is Organist/Choirmaster at The Parish of the Good Shepherd (Episcopal) in Waban, MA, and a member of the C. B. Fisk organ-building team. Thomas Donahue (b. 1953), a native of western New York, received the DDS degree from SUNY Buffalo and continues to concertize extensively throughout the region.

Pray for One Another

In Our Prayers

Please also include in your prayers several members of our community who wish to remain anonymous.

Todd, Danielle & Emma Noel Booher

Becky Busler

Don & JoLynn Evans

FPC Search Committees

Ben & Patsy Frizzell

DeeDee & Sarah Galliher

Dianne Glymph (Mary Ellis Rice's mother)

John Graham

Will Hankins

Eva Dot Hawk

Hunigan Family

Jonya Kennedy

Nancy King

Dot Mattison

Beth Neal

Nick Niosi

Osborne Family

Eric Page (Laura Linke's uncle)

Pastor Sam's mother

Pendley Family

Don Preston

Tony Raccioppo

Anne Raven

Sikorski Family

Jeremy Spencer

Stigers Family

Chuck Thompson

Pokey Warren (Virginia Rutherford's brother)

Jeremy Weaver

John Wizorek (Annette Tudor's father)

Birthday Prayer Fellowship

Jan. 27 Bambi Akard, David Akard, Piper Arnold, Ann Galliher, Phillip Hoffer,

Samuel Parker, Ethan Webb, Grayson Webb, Jeremiah Webb

Jan. 28 Kaemon Nelson, Byron Schiesz

Jan. 30 Herbert Van Nostrand

Jan. 31 Andrea Hyde

Feb. 2 Geneva King, Isabelle Ladd, Kate Zeiler

Church Calendar

Sunday, January 27

8:30 a.m. Worship, with Officer Ordination & Installation,

Fellowship Hall

9:45 a.m. Sunday School

11:00 a.m. Worship, with Officer Ordination & Installation,

Sanctuary

6:00 p.m. Student Fellowship

Monday, January 28

7:00 p.m. Session of Elders, Room 123

Tuesday, January 29

10:00 a.m. Staff Meeting, Room 117

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

7:00 p.m. Boy Scout Troop 3 Court of Honor, Scout Hall & Chapel

Wednesday, January 30

9:30 a.m. Women's Bible Study, Room 117

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

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

6:00 p.m. Wednesday Night Kids

6:00 p.m. Middle School Gathering

6:00 p.m. High School Small Groups

6:15 p.m. Handbell Practice, Room 212

6:20 p.m. Adult Learning

7:15 p.m. Sanctuary Choir

7:15 p.m. Worship Team, Fellowship Hall

Thursday, January 31

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

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

Friday, February 1

6:00 p.m. Scout Lock-in & Continuous Campfire Ceremony, Scout Hall

Our Church Officers

Church Officers
Class of 2019	Class of 2020	Class of 2021
ELDERS
Anna Booher	Nancy Allerton	Ann Abel
Lee Galliher	Rebecca Beck	Randy Cook
Pete Holler	David Hyde	John Graham
Han Ong	Jordan Pennington	Katie McInnis
Pete Stigers	Jerry Poteat	John Vann
DEACONS
Sujean Bradley	Blake Bassett	Fred Harkleroad
George Linke	Rhonda Comer	Matt Kingsley
Greg Roberts	Ron Fox	Lisa McClain
Nate Sproles	Brenda Lawson	Drew Rice
Bill Whisnant	Barbara Thompson	Joyce Samuel
TRUSTEES
Nancy Cook	Peggy Hill	Jack Butterworth