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Windows
February 16, 2023
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Word from the Pastor:
Clothed in Compassion
As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion.
—Colossians 3:12a
Are you coming down off the sugar highs of Valentine’s Day? I’m among those who are making plans to work off those chocolate-covered strawberries in the coming weeks. In a strange way, the celebration of somewhat frivolous observances like Valentine’s Day is an expression of both joy and abundance.
I think it is vital that we remain aware that not everyone shares in the joy of the day. As you have no doubt heard, some of the largest earthquakes in modern history have hit Turkey and Syria. UNICEF estimates that at least 41,200 people have died, and it is likely that we will never have a complete count of all the lives that have been lost. According to the United Nations children’s agency, 4.6 million children living in the affected Turkish provinces and 2.5 million children living in Syria have been directly impacted by this disaster. Truly, this is a humanitarian crisis.
It is here that we must remember that despite the distance, whether geographical, linguistic, or cultural, the victims are our brothers and sisters. The church in that area of the world is vibrant, largely Orthodox but not exclusively so. We share a history with them: some of Paul’s greatest letters came from evangelistic efforts in areas like Galatia, Ephesus, and Colossae, all ancient cities (that go by different names today) found in modern-day Turkey. Those who are suffering are the descendants of the great fathers and mothers of the church.
Beyond the humanitarian crisis at hand, we are also called to remember them in our prayers, as well as in our giving. We are, as Paul reminds us in his letter to Colossae, to clothe ourselves in compassion, a quality, among others, that distinguishes us as new creation in Christ Jesus. Please, pray for our brothers and sisters. Pray that more lives will be saved. Pray for the restoration of a devastated corner of the world.
Very soon our church will investigate and put together a package of relief for our brothers and sisters there. We are currently fundraising for another mission need here at home, but let us not make that an excuse not to dig deep and give even more to those who have need. In addition to our prayers and the support given within funding already available to the church, you can also give on your own. Some of us have connections with a Christian ministry in the region called ReBridge, which is trying to raise about $300,000 to assist devastated congregations and those they serve. You can check them out here. You can also go to World Vision and donate directly to relief efforts in Syria and Turkey.
Love comes in many forms these days, some commercial and sweet, others difficult and sacrificial. The way of Jesus, the way of God’s love, is always the more difficult and sacrificial path.
In Christ,
Pastor Sam
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Meet Egypt McKee
We are excited to announce our guest preacher for February 26, Rev. Egypt McKee, a dynamic speaker, mentor, and author. He founded EgyptSPEAKS (a 501c3 nonprofit corporation) and Out of Egypt Ministries, whose mission is to provide education, training, and mentoring programs that develop positive character in the lives of young people in middle schools, high schools, and universities.
Egypt is most passionate about communicating Christ’s love through public speaking, mentoring, and media, inspiring personal life change through Scripture. He connects with audiences through his engaging delivery, use of relevant examples, props, and dramatic reenactments, which everyone remembers regardless of age.
He is currently a partner in and chief executive of a technology-energy company based in Irvine, California. Over the past 25 years, he has served in leadership roles as an associate and youth pastor, and he also has extensive experience in business leadership, both as an entrepreneur and in key positions with Deloitte & Touche and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Egypt keeps his skills sharpened through numerous educational venues, and also holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Management from Western International University. When he isn’t working, he enjoys time with his family, skydiving, writing, filmmaking, and exercising. He has been married to Caryn for 34 years, and they have three adult children.
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Worship
February 19
Transfiguration of the Lord
Scripture
Psalm 6
John 12:27–36
Sermon
“My Soul Is Troubled”
Sam Weddington
Last Sunday’s Attendance
9:00: In person: 146
Livestream: 28; Playback 77
11:00: In person: 97;
Livestream: 20; Playback 45
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Calendar
Sunday, February 19
9:00 a.m.
Contemporary Worship
Fellowship Hall
10:20 a.m.
Sunday School
11:00 a.m.
Traditional Worship
Sanctuary
4:00 p.m.
Mission & Outreach Committee
Room 123
BAMA Service
Lee St. Baptist Church
5:00 p.m.
Chili Cook-Off & Talent Show
Fellowship Hall
Monday, February 20
10:00 a.m.
Staff
Room 123
6:30 p.m.
King Faith & Culture Event
Fellowship Hall
7:00 p.m.
Building & Grounds Committee
Room 117
Christian Education Committee
Room 123
Tuesday, February 21
7:00 p.m.
Finance Committee
Zoom
Boy Scout Troop 3
Scout Hall
Wednesday, February 22
5:30 p.m.
Fellowship Supper
Fellowship Hall
6:15 p.m.
Ash Wednesday Worship
Sanctuary
7:15 p.m.
Sanctuary Choir
Room 202
Youth Choir
Room 209
Praise Band
Fellowship Hall
Thursday, February 23
7:00 a.m.
Men’s Bible Study
Parlor
1:00 p.m.
Women’s Bible Study
Room 123
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Come to Our
Chili Cook-Off &
Talent Show Sunday
We will hold our annual-once-again Chili (Make Sam Sweat!) Cook-Off & Talent Show this Sunday, February 19. Come to the fellowship hall at 5:00 p.m. to be entertained and sample a flight of spicy chilis. The ever-entertaining Matt Richardson will be our MC. Don’t miss it!
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February Mission Goal: Church Vans
Our mission focus this month is on raising at least $40,000 to purchase two used vans with fewer than 100,000 miles on them for use in our growing ministries. We need affordable, reliable transportation to get students to retreats and church events, take college students on mission trips, and deliver our volunteers to mission partnerships as distant as Montana. Boy Scout Troop 3, and other ministry partners in Bristol, could use our vans when they have special trips. We want to buy vans that can reasonably meet or exceed the 200,000 mile mark. Please prayerfully consider this request.
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Ash Wednesday Worship Feb. 22
After our 5:30 fellowship supper next week, we will observe Ash Wednesday in the sanctuary with worship and the imposition of ashes. A nursery will be available, and the usual enrichment activities will be suspended. Regular Wednesday programming will resume March 1.
Lenten Devotionals Available for Pickup
The 2023 Lenten devotionals have arrived! Pick yours up at the church. One booklet per family, please.
Home Groups Are Back!
Home Groups began the new semester Monday. A Home Group is a gathering of friends, neighbors, a family, or several families who get together once a week for Bible study and fellowship. Each week we provide an intergenerational Bible study to each group and also post it on the church website under Ministries: Home Groups.
If you would like to participate in a Home Group, facilitate a group, or start your own, please sign up here, and we will get you plugged in. You can join the conversation and stay up-to-date by joining the FPC Bristol Home Group Facebook group and signing up for Home Group texts from Remind. This Facebook group connects Home Groups, sends out information, gives feedback, and celebrates all that is happening within our Home Groups. Join the Home Groups Facebook group here. For more information, email Dave Welch.
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BAMA Holds Black Heritage Service Sunday Afternoon
Bristol Area Ministerial Alliance (BAMA) will hold the annual Black Heritage service this Sunday, February 19, at 4:00 p.m. in Lee Street Baptist Church, 1 West Mary Street, Bristol, VA. The honorable Elder Barry Braan Jr. of Greater Life Church, Kingsport, will be the guest speaker.
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Come Join Our Youth Choir
FPC Bristol Youth Choir has begun our spring season, and we want all enthusiastic singers in 3rd–8th grade to participate. No experience is required! All you need is a desire to learn how to read music and lead worship through song. Practices are held on Wednesdays from 7:15 to 7:45 p.m. in room 209. We will rehearse through March 1 and perform for both services Sunday, March 5. Performance wear will be black pants and our FPC Youth Choir T-shirts. If you have any questions, please text Melissa Galliher at (276) 219-7770.
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Troop 3 Scouts Are Four-Time First-Place Winners
The Boy Scouts of FPC’s Troop 3 worked hard over the past two months to prepare for the Klondike Derby, a test of scouting skills. We are happy to report that Troop 3 won first and second place at the Overmountain District's 54th Klondike Derby on Saturday. The event marked the fourth time in the past five years that Troop 3 has won first place in the derby. We are bursting with pride for these hard-working youth!
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Women’s Retreat Was Balm and Encouragement
More than 40 women of all ages, from FPC and beyond, attended the women’s retreat at Jubilee House Retreat Center in Abingdon last weekend. Our theme was Life Together, and our guest speaker, Rev. Sarah Varnell, a gifted storyteller, challenged us to have the wisdom and courage of Shiphrah and Puah, the midwives who refused to obey Pharaoh’s order to kill all newborn sons of the Hebrew people. She encouraged us to be vulnerable like the woman at the well, whom Jesus loved and honored with his presence and conversation. And she reminded us that life together as followers of Christ can be broken but still beautiful.
As always, one of the highlights of the retreat was our small-group time, where together we explored the passages Sarah presented to us and the ways they touch us and can shape our lives of faith. We lifted our voices in song and joined hands in prayer as we came to know one another better. There was laughter and a renewed sense of our responsibility to be faithful servants in our everyday lives.
After a couple of years of not being able to hold a women’s retreat, we were thrilled to be back together for this time of learning, worship, and sweet fellowship. It was the 30th anniversary of the first-ever FPC Women’s Retreat, and God willing, there will be another next year!
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Memorials and honoraria are published in the newsletter only after the family has been personally notified by our business office. Today we gratefully acknowledge a gift from Michael and Lynn Laethem in honor of the baptism of Bruce Rutherford. Bruce is the son of Tyler and Brittany Rutherford. | |
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On the liturgical calendar, this Sunday marks the Transfiguration of the Lord. Our opening hymn, “O Wondrous Sight, O Vision Fair,” gives an account of the awe and wonder of that moment of revelation of Christ’s glory. Our closing voluntary, “The Agincourt Hymn,” is an arrangement of this hymn by Frederick L. Swann (1931-2022; pictured). This arrangement was published in 1955, when Swann was the organist at the famed Riverside Church in New York City. The score indicates how the music should be divided between chancel and gallery organs, when available. Swann had these resources at his disposal at Riverside Church and later at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California. I will attempt to imitate this antiphonal effect using the Ruck Positiv division (on the balcony rail) and the Great/Swell organ.
Ann K. Holler has been a member of FPC since 1971, after graduating from King College and accompanying her husband, Pete, during his army years. She is also a graduate of Virginia Intermont College and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Ann has served as a community arts volunteer, as a music educator and composer, and in a variety of roles at FPC. The hymn “Softly and Tenderly” provided much comfort to Ann during the pandemic years. She hopes that Sunday’s arrangement (our choral anthem) will illustrate how Jesus lovingly calls us home, sometimes softly, sometimes emphatically, always for His purposes.
The opening voluntary, “Forgive Our Sins as We Forgive,” is my handbell arrangement of my organ arrangement of the hymn by Rosamond E. Herklots, set to the tune DETROIT (see Hymn 444 in Glory to God). This piece begins with the ringers creating a sustained tone cluster by using the “singing bell” technique, over which the melody of the first verse is heard in the high bells. The second verse sounds austere with the melody in the bass bells. The third verse features undulating tone clusters played with suspended bells and mallets. The fourth and final verse pulls out all the stops with big chords and a walking bass line played with mallets.
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Ricky Adams
Keller Alexander
Wayne Ausmus
Olivia Bowen
Bud & Marg Branscomb
Bristol Tennessee City Schools
Becky Busler
Tom & Nancy Carter
Rachel & Ben Cherry & Dean Millard
Bill Coleman
Barbara Daniel
Jacob Daston
Russell Fogelman, Kelli Krajeck & Kendall
Lou Hebb
Amanda Henderson
Charles Hoilman
David & Andrea Hyde
Gwen King
Jones family
Nancy Lilly
Toni Mari
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Dot & Diana Mattison
Carl McGrady
Anthony Mitchell
Montana Indian Ministries
National & international leadership
Pastor Bruce Plummer
Delaney Porter
Cora Lee Raccioppo
Lynn Richards
Tom & Delma Slagle
Tenna Smith
Wendy Smith
Teachers & school administrators
Loretta Thomas
Scott VanNostrand
Jane Chambers Walz
Bill & Patsy Ward
Abigail Welch
Marsha Wilson
Virginia Wilson
Stevie Wintz
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The session continues to encourage masks for those at higher risk of complications from COVID-19 or not fully vaccinated. The session encourages everyone to consult their medical professional about vaccinations and boosters. | |
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We encourage you to use text, mail, or our website to safely continue your faithful support of our ministries. Give online on our website by clicking on GIVE NOW. Or send your pledge, offering, or special gift by texting fpcbristol to 73256 or mailing your check to the church.
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701 Florida Avenue | Bristol, TN 37620 | 423-764-7176 | fpcbristol.org | | | | |
