The seven weeks of the church year preceding Easter recall Jesus’ 40-day temptation in the wilderness. This season of Lent invites us to consider the costliness of Christ’s sacrifice for our sin. Lenten worship is therefore subdued, as signified by the purple liturgical color as well as by the absence of flowers and alleluias. Remember to pick up your copy of our Lenten Devotional outside the Fellowship Hall or sanctuary. If you prefer, contact the church office, and we will mail a copy to you.

Please join Pastor Sam on Friday nights at 7:00 for community prayer and a brief offering of the Home Group curriculum. Our emphasis will be Scripture reading and prayer, but there will be time for conversations as we grow in faith together.

Topic: FPC Community Prayer

Time: February 26, 7:00 p.m.

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Meeting ID: 826 4875 1043

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FPC Home Groups are back! These groups are an innovative way to continue weekly fellowship and Bible study while staying safe during the pandemic. A Home Group is an in-home or online gathering of friends, neighbors, or one or more families. FPC provides an intergenerational Bible study each week to each group, and the Sunday sermon reflects on its theme.

If you’re not already in a Home Group, go to the webpage, register yourself or start a group, and let us know. If you have questions, please reach out to Dave Welch, Katie Arnold, or Lilly Osborne for answers. Meanwhile, watch for Home Groups updates in Windows and on the FPC Bristol webpage.

The last Saturday in March will be our first opportunity in 2021 to serve our neighbors at Sharing Christ Mission. Beth Flannagan and Becca Tate have taken on the direction of this ministry, which is made possible by the FPC volunteers who manage the many moving parts. In normal times, we serve dinner to 120 people and send them out with sack lunches for Sunday. These are not normal times, so if you have never participated in this rewarding service, please consider doing so. Donate what you can, or serve at the mission, where your church friends will welcome you and show you exactly what to do.

For the lunches, we need volunteers to make 100 sandwiches and pack the sacks ahead of time. This is a good team project that can be done at home—it’s a great way to involve children in service to their community. We need:

·        12 loaves of thin-sliced, white sandwich bread

·        100 bananas

·        12 boxes of Little Debbie oatmeal crème rounds

·        100 sandwich baggies

·        100 paper lunch sacks

For dinner on March 27 we need:

·        Volunteers to prep, serve, and clean up at the mission (4:30–7:30ish)

·        13 chicken-pasta casseroles

·        100 ready-to-serve dinner rolls

·        10 boxes (12-count) of Little Debbie fudge rounds

·        100 bottles of water

·        100 Food City plastic bags

It won’t be fancy dress, but we will be masked and carrying out our dance a mannerly six feet apart. If you have questions, want to help, or need that casserole recipe, contact Beth or Becca. Sharing Christ Mission is located at the corner of Sixth and State streets in downtown Bristol.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel to watch the livestream of our early worship service and other activities. Just click here and hit “Subscribe.” You will receive notifications of new videos. We also suggest that you connect to us on Facebook. On Facebook, type in “FPC Bristol,” and several accounts will show up. Some are open to the public, while others are restricted. In either case, “Like” the page, or ask to join a group if it is closed.

We are collecting Goldfish, the little cheese crackers, for the students of our neighborhood school. Please leave your contributions in the corner of the Fellowship Hallway where the little house usually stands.

Listen to Frode Fjellheim's song “Eatnemen Vuelie,” as arranged for the opening musical number of Disney's Frozen.

All three organ pieces this Sunday are based on a hymn tune known by several names. The tune, originally a Silesian folk song, and the German text were printed for the first time in 1842 by August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben and Ernst Richter under the name “Schönster Herr Jesu” (Most beautiful Lord Jesus). No factual data exists for the legend that this text and tune date back to the 12th-century crusades, although those apocryphal stories explain one of the names by which this tune is known, CRUSADERS’ HYMN. After Franz Liszt used the tune for a crusaders’ march in his oratorio The Legend of St. Elizabeth (1862), the tune also became known as ST. ELIZABETH. It has been quite popular through the years. It was even incorporated into the song “Eatnemen Vuelie,” composed by Frode Fjellheim, which was altered for the opening musical number of the 2013 Disney animated film Frozen.

David N. Johnson (1922–1987) was an American organist, composer, educator, choral clinician, and lecturer. From 1960 to 1967, he was college organist and organ instructor at St Olaf College, Northfield, MN. He was named music department chair at St Olaf in 1965. In 1967, he succeeded Arthur Poister as professor of music and university organist at Syracuse University. He moved to Arizona in 1969, where he taught at Arizona State University, Tempe. His setting of “Schönster Herr Jesu” (our prelude), a theme with several short variations, combines the style of 18th-century counterpoint with 20th-century harmonies, resulting in an uncommonly creative mixture of sound.

Hermann Schroeder’s quiet setting (our offertory) comes from a collection of pieces called Sechs Orgelchoräle über altdeutsche geistliche Volkslieder (Six Organ Chorales on Old German Spiritual Folk Songs). It has an austere, plaintive quality. Schroeder (1904–1984) was a Catholic church musician who lived most of his life in the Rheinland.

Albert Schmutz (1887–1975) was Dean of the Music Department at Bethel College in Newton, KS. Among his many published works was his “Chorale Prelude on Crusaders’ Hymn” (our postlude). It is composed in a neoromantic style, replete with many charming chromatic twists and turns.

Keith Foster: to the Minister’s Discretionary Fund from Bill & Ann Woods

Martha Graham (mother of John Graham): to the Memorial Fund from Jack & Anne Southerland

Ron Grubbs: to the Bristol Emergency Food Pantry from Carl & Reveley McGrady; to the Minister’s Discretionary Education Fund from Sarah Barker, from Nancy De Friece, from Kelley Mayden, from Linda Davidson McDaniel, from Kelli Nelson, from Rush & Lea Powers, from Frances Rowell, from Camilla & William Seabolt, from Sandra Watkins; to the Minister’s Discretionary Fund from Diane Harrison, from Eddie & Peggy Hill, from Bill & Ann Woods

Gene Haskins: to the Minister’s Discretionary Fund from Eddie & Peggy Hill, from Tom & Leigh King, from Bill & Ann Woods

Harry Hillery (brother of Porter Hillery): to the Minister’s Discretionary Fund from Eddie & Peggy Hill

Kitty Vann (sister-in-law of John & Karen Vann): to the Memorial Fund from Dot Mattison; to the Minister’s Discretionary Fund from Eddie & Peggy Hill, from Tom & Leigh King, from Bill & Ann Woods

Herb Van Nostrand: to Boy Scout Troop 3 from Rebecca St. Jean

701 Florida Avenue | Bristol, TN 37620 | 423-764-7176 | fpcbristol.org