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

In This Issue
About Windows
Worship
Stewardship Dedication Sunday
Five-Cents-a-Meal Hunger Offering Sunday
Serve Somebody
It's the Little Things
Get Your FPC Shirts and Stickers!
What's Next?
Learn about 2018 Mission Trip to Ethiopia Oct. 1
Family Promise Volunteers Rise to the Occasion
Real Men Study the Word
Join the Crew and Help a Neighbor
The Good Stewards
More Cookies!
5th Quarter This Friday
Laughter and Love at Fall Retreat
Music Notes
In the Pulpit Sunday
FPC's Elders and Deacons
Pray for One Another
Church Calendar
About  
Windows
Deadline for contributions to Windows is the Monday of the week of publication. The newsletter is emailed a minute after midnight on Thursday morning.

Windows is a publication of First Presbyterian Church, Bristol, TN. Please direct questions and suggestions to the editor, Kathy Acuff, kacuff@fpcbristol.org
Worship
September 24
16th Sunday after Pentecost
Stewardship Dedication
Lessons
Exodus 16:2-15
Matthew 20:1-16
Sermon
Is Love a Transaction?
Dr. Don Hudson
Hymns
Morning Has Broken
All Who Love and Serve Your City
God, Whose Giving Knows No Ending
Anthem
My Heart I Offer to You, Lord
Sanctuary Choir
Last Sunday's Attendance
ONE Worship: 177

Windows

on First Presbyterian Church

September 21, 2017
Stewardship Dedication Sunday

Please be sure to join us in worship this Sunday, September 24, as we dedicate our financial pledges to the ministries of First Presbyterian Church in 2018. If you have not yet returned your pledge card, please complete and sign it and bring it with you to worship. If you prefer, you may mail your pledge to the church or bring it in person to the church office during the week.
Your timely response to this request will help our Finance Committee craft a budget for our 2018 ministry that is both ambitious and responsible. Our leaders are committed to a balanced budget; we cannot depend on estimates for unpledged giving. We hope for bold, generous commitments to the ministry of Jesus Christ through First Presbyterian Church.
Five-Cents-a-Meal Hunger Offering Sunday

Along with our Stewardship Dedication offerings, at both worship services this Sunday we will collect our quarterly Five-Cents-a-Meal offering. These monies provide hunger relief through local ministries like the Bristol Emergency Food Pantry, Haven of Rest, Abuse Alternatives, and global ministries such as our partner church and school in Natal, Brazil. The suggested offering is $13.65 per person, which represents about a nickel for each meal in a quarter. Please be generous. Thank you!
Serve Somebody
Do you remember the old-time revivals? They took place in tents, churches, schools, warehouses, and anywhere a large crowd could gather. Congregational revivals would last for hours and be filled with preaching, testimonies, songs, and prayers in abundance. Covered dishes of homemade delights would cover rows of tables.
Recently, revivals seem to take place on a more individual basis. We are pressured by society to be more focused on serving ourselves than on serving others. Still, we can be revived and experience a spiritual awakening. When these spiritual awakenings take place, our perspectives, values, and priorities change. We are transformed.
Such a spiritual awakening took place in the life of singer Bob Dylan in 1978, when he became a Christian. Out of that transformation came a series of popular gospel songs, including "Are you Ready?," "Saving Grace," "Solid Rock," and "Saved." One of his songs, "Gotta Serve Somebody," resonates now as Dedication Sunday approaches on September 24. Dylan's lyrics remind us that our life will be lived in service to either the devil or the Lord. We are serving one or the other. Either we deliberately serve the Lord, or by default, we are serving the devil.
As Con Sauls shared in his sermon on September 10 about the nocturnal deer who robbed the bird feeders, even though he didn't see the deer, he could tell all about their activity by their tracks. We, too, leave tracks that reflect our stewardship, and by these tracks others will know how we lived. Our stewardship life is telling. By their fruit you will recognize them (Matthew 6:17).
Please join us for the next two weeks in a Season of Prayer that our stewardship commitment will leave tracks that reveal a congregation of servants, yielding fruit of compassionate ministry. Engage in a revival of stewardship.
From Dave Welch
It's the Little Things
I've been wrestling with a new thought lately. Just as I've preached, my understanding of the world is being turned upside down by the Gospel. Things that I've valued, focused upon, and thought were important are becoming less so, while other things are becoming more important. For instance, about two years ago, my attitude to where I parked in the mall, and my 6 a.m. ritual of walking the dogs, rain or shine, changed. While the change took place overnight, my attitude and acceptance have taken several years for me to recognize. The change came by wearing a pedometer. I used to wear it on my belt, but now I've graduated to one of the "fit-bit" types on my wrist. Every 30 minutes, except when I sleep, it vibrates and tells me to move! My current goal is to achieve 14,000 steps in a day, some 98,000 steps in a week, which is almost a marathon, if I was a runner. Now instead of looking for the closest parking spot, I don't mind taking the one farthest from the store: more steps. If I don't walk my dogs two or three times in a day, I have to figure out how to make up the lost steps. You get the idea.
This leads me into my original thought, especially during our stewardship season, of a world turned upside down. Why do we give money to the church? The easy answer is because there are programs, staff, mission, and ministries worthy of my support that could not be accomplished without the gifts. But in an upside-down theological and world view, a better reason may be that I give because, in so doing, God is recreating or reorienting me. The theological reason is that by this simple act, God is transforming who I am, molding me more and more into the image of Christ. What if we have been created to give, but sin has broken that understanding, replacing it with a distorted identity reality that craves instead getting? Through the act of giving, whether of time, talent or tithe, God reorients who I am, especially who I am in Christ.
While I continue to mull my own changing world view, I invite you to engage (our stewardship theme) me in conversation and questions about how God may be changing you.
Get Your FPC Shirts and Stickers!
T-shirts and polos with our new FPC logo will be for sale through the end of September. You can order the logo wear on Sunday mornings, through the church office, or on our new website. T-shirts are available for $10 each in toddler through adult 4XL sizes. Polos with an embroidered logo are available for $20 each in women's small through XXL and men's small through 4XL.
Win a free T-shirt by checking out our new website at http://fpcbristol.org/ and clicking on the free T-shirt link. Two names will be drawn on October 1. And if you don't have an FPC decal for your car, pick one up on Sunday mornings or stop by the church office.
What's Next?
Next Wednesday, September 27, Martin Dotterweich will lead the final program in his series examining the background and significance of Martin Luther's posting of the 95 Theses, which led to the Reformation. The question under consideration next week will be "After the 95 Theses, What Next?"
Before the evening programs, we will share a fellowship dinner of BBQ sandwiches, baked beans, slaw, and dessert at 5:30 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall. The Adult Learning segment will follow at 6:20, and the Middle School Gathering and Wednesday Night Kids will meet separately at 6:00. High School Small Groups will meet at 7:00.
Learn about 2018 Mission Trip to Ethiopia Oct. 1
Want to go to Dembi Dollo? Our mission partners in Ethiopia have invited us to visit them again in 2018. Anyone interested in being part of this trip is encouraged to spend about 20 minutes in a discussion and informational session at 9:40 a.m. on Sunday, October 1, in room 117. Your attendance at this meeting will not commit you to travel, but it will guarantee that you leave well-informed about our work in Dembi Dollo. We hope to see many of you there!
Family Promise Volunteers Rise to the Occasion
That headline is both grateful praise and unpunctuated cry for help! During our last Family Promise visit in the first week of September, 34 volunteers gave a total of 222.5 hours to make two small families welcome in our church. Fantastic! Glorious! Wait! Our final visit in 2017 is coming close on the heels of the last. The same two families are still in the program, making good progress toward their goals, and will return to our church in mid-October. They will be with us from 5:30 p.m. Sunday, October 15, until 7:00 a.m. Sunday, October 22. Will you help?
We need breakfast items, lunch food, and evening meals, all brought to the little kitchen. If you want to cook dinner, that is wonderful, but we smile on both takeout and homemade! We also need FPC folks to eat with our guests, volunteers to stay overnight, and helping hands with the laundry at the end of the week.
Dinner hosts: Come to the church parlor by 5:30 p.m. to share the dinner you will find waiting for you (unless you also volunteer to bring it with you!). You'll eat with our guests, help them clean the little kitchen, and stay until the overnight hosts arrive at 8:30.
Overnight hosts: Arrive at the church at 8:30 p.m., spend the night, and see our guests off at 7:00 the following morning. Our visitors retire to their rooms after they've tidied up from dinner, so bring a book, work some crosswords, or watch a DVD. We have comfy rollaway beds and snacks for you, but you will need to bring your own linens or sleeping bag.
Please feel free to invite a friend to volunteer with you, especially if you choose to stay overnight. Both Family Promise's on-call phone number and Dottie Havlik's phone number will be posted at the church, so someone will always be available to help or give advice.
If you can help our friends continue their new journey toward healing and independence, please email Dottieat dhavlik@charter.net or call or text her at 423-956-6747. Thank you!
Real Men Study the Word
Bible study is a vital part of any Christian's life. As brothers in Christ, we rely on each other for fellowship. What better way is there for this togetherness than to begin the day in prayer and discussion? The Men's Bible Study meets in the parlor for about an hour at 7:00 a.m. each Thursday for a deep dive into the upcoming sermon scripture. We talk about ways to live as servant-leaders through the Word in our families, our work, and our play. Come join in fellowship and spirit to explore the Word.
Join the Crew and Help a Neighbor
Come take part in a neighborhood service project with our Christian Hands Ministry outreach! The vision of this ministry is to share the love of Christ by bringing together church and community resources to improve substandard social and living conditions and encourage spiritual wellbeing for our neighbors.
A knowledgeable crew boss leads each job. Our upcoming project is a bathroom replacement, and we need your help! Here's the deal:
  • What: Two hours or two days (or more) for tearing out and replacing a bathroom (walls, ceiling, floor, and fixtures).
  • Who: Any person of any age (youth under 18 require a parent's signature).
  • Where: The house of one of our church's neighbors in great need.
  • When: Work will begin the first week in October.
  • How to volunteer: Call Peggy Hill at 423-956-0209, or email her at peggyhill145@gmail.com; call the church office at 423-764-7176; or email Diana Mattison at dmattison@fpcbristol.org.
FPC's neighborhood is defined by these boundaries, identified by the Evangelism & Outreach Committee in 2006:
  • North: The Tennessee/Virginia state line
  • South: Lakeview Street
  • West: The railroad tracks
  • East: Booher Road, King College Road (along the border of King University but excluding the campus), Golf Street
Through FPC's Christian Hands Ministry, we have the chance to serve our church's neighbors in need in tangible ways that allow both neighbor and congregant to witness the love of Christ as we work together for justice, redemption, reconciliation, and restoration.
The Good Stewards
Dan Gross is the Good Steward who will mow the lawn for Stewardship Sunday, coming up September 24. Jim White is another, and he will take care of the lawn for the first Sunday in October. We are, in fact, blessed throughout our church with stewards faithful to small things and great.
If you'd like to be a good steward of the church grounds, join our mowing team! You can sign up at any time of year. We welcome men and women, adults and teens. You can make a family outing of it: younger children can move debris to the curb, and a parent or an elder sibling can mow. If you're unfamiliar with Scag mowers, Team Captain Randy Cook will be happy to give you a lesson on our Tiger Cat. If you can mow even once during the growing season, please email Randy at npolecook@aol.com or call his cell at 423-956-1541. Thank you! 
More Cookies!
vanilla wafers
We are collecting snacks for the students at Fairmount Elementary. About 80% of the children get help with lunch, but their families can't afford to buy snacks to get them through the afternoon slump. That's where we come in. We collect the snacks from our generous church family, and the Christian Hands Ministry folks make sure they get to the school. We are now collecting boxes of vanilla wafers . Please bring them to the Little Red House in the Fellowship Hallway to help our friends at Fairmount get through the long fall afternoons. Thank you!
5th Quarter This Friday
We will hold our Tennessee High 5th Quarter this Friday, September 22, after the football game. All high school students are invited to Putt-Putt Bristol for free putt-putt, pizza, and drinks. The fun ends at midnight.
Laughter and Love at Fall Retreat
Over Labor Day weekend, the Student Ministries went to Look Up Lodge in Traveler's Rest, SC, for Fall Retreat, which has become a beautiful reunion with brothers and sisters from Grayson (GA) UMC. For the fourth year in a row, FPC Bristol planned and led the retreat with Grayson UMC, with whose youth ours have built wonderful relationships. The weekend was full of high-energy games, relaxation, worship, sweet conversations, time with old friends, making new friends, and tons of laughter. Students came home from the retreat with full hearts, feeling renewed and excited about what God is doing in them and through them. God is good! Check out this video made by Grayson UMC that highlights our retreat fun: https://vimeo.com/232504429.



Music Notes
Sunday's music participants: Sanctuary Choir.
Sunday's music: The anthem is an adaptation of Psalm 116 and I John 3. Our composer, Gerald Custer, writes of this: "Philip Yancey writes, "'There is nothing we can do to make God love us less.' That's what this anthem is about: responding to the startling proposition that each of us was made by God to receive love and return love. The
Gerald Custer
paradox that we have only ourselves to offer in return for all God's goodness ... is precisely what God longs for." Dr. Custer is a multifaceted choral musician, active as conductor, composer, author, clinician, and teacher. He earned the Bachelor of Music degree in choral music education at Westminster Choir College, a master's degree in orchestral conducting with additional work in historical musicology at George Washington University, and the Doctor of Musical Arts in choral conducting at Michigan State University. Dr. Custer founded and conducted the George Washington University Chamber Singers and served as the associate conductor of the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra. For ten years, Dr. Custer conducted The Arbor Consort, a chamberchoir that was a featured ensemble at the Michigan Renaissance Festival. He also served as interim conductor of the Saginaw Choral Society and directed choral activities at Schoolcraft College and Oakland Community College. He presently teaches music theory, composition, and graduate choral literature in the Department of Music at Wayne State University, leads a multiple-choir program at the First Presbyterian Church in Farmington Hills, Michigan, and is the artistic director and conductor of the Seaway Chorale and Orchestra. A Grammy-nominated, award-winning composer and arranger, Dr. Custer was a student of Malcolm Williamson. His work is featured on Inscape: Choral Music of Gerald Custer, performed by the Voices of Anam Cara conducted by James Jordan, and as the title track on of the CD Innisfree by the same forces. He has written extensively for the choirs of Westminster Choir College and other college and university choirs across the country. Commissions include works for the choir of the Interlochen Arts Academy, a choral symphony premiered at Carnegie Hall by the Metropolitan Youth Orchestra of New York.
Organist's footnotes: There are two congregational hymns in today's liturgy, and both of them are based on hymn tunes that begin with B. Occasionally, I will match the organ music to the day's hymns, especially if I find good arrangements. For this purpose, I have developed a dual filing system for my organ music: a composer's last name file, and a hymn tune name file. Going to the B folder in the hymn tune file, I found all the arrangements I need for this week.
BUNESSAN (Prelude) is the name of the village on the Ross of Mull, Scotland, near which hymnist Mary Macdonald was born. This is the tune that was associated with her Christmas hymn, "Child of the Manger, Infant of Mary," which she wrote in her native Scottish Gaelic. In 1931, Eleanor Farjeon wrote the familiar words to which we commonly sing this tune today. As if to imitate a sunrise, Diane Bish's arrangement begins quietly, but crescendos continuously throughout to its fortissimo final cadence.
BEACH SPRING (Offertory) was first found in The Sacred Harp (1844). The 1971 revision states, "This tune is one of the old melodies, but none of the books we have seen give the date or the name of the author of the music." This quiet arrangement by Wayne L. Wold is completely the opposite of the full-throated style of shape-note singing from where this tune arose.
BRYN CALFARIA (Postlude) is a Welsh hymn tune meaning "Hill of Calvary." It is said that its composer, William Owen (1813-1893), wrote the tune on a piece of slate while on his way to work at the Dorothea Quarry in Gwynedd, North Wales. I can believe that story, as I have found myself searching for the odd scrap of paper on which to notate a tune that has come into my head. William Haller's energetic arrangement inexplicably keeps changing meters back and forth from 4/4 time to 3/2 time, so that quarter-notes are suddenly played like eighth-notes, and eighth-notes are suddenly played like sixteenth-notes, then back again. This seemingly unnecessary complication keeps the organist on his toes!
In the Pulpit Sunday

Dr. Don Michael Hudson teaches Biblical and Religious Studies as an Associate Professor and Chair of the Philosophy and Religion Department at King University. He lectures and writes in the areas of Hebrew Language and Literature, Religion and Politics in a Global Context, Levantine Archaeology in the Late Bronze/Iron 1, and Religious Radicalism. He serves on the governing board of the King Institute of Faith and Culture and manages King's participation in the Tel Azekah archaeological dig with Tel Aviv University and Heidelberg University. He is the author of books and articles in the academic and trade arenas and is the cofounder of The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology.
FPC's Elders and Deacons
Here, by popular demand, is our roster of current Elders and Deacons. PCUSA seal small
 
Elders
Class of 2017
Class of 2018
Class of 2019
Ann Abel
Aaron Brooks
Anna Booher
Beth Flannagan
Randy Cook
Lee Galliher
Tom King
Debbie McMillin
Pete Holler
Ernie Pennington
Stuart Parker
Han Ong
John Vann
Chuck Thompson
Pete Stigers
 
Deacons
Class of 2017
Class of 2018
Class of 2019
Jim Mayden
Adam Abel
George Linke
Mark Mervis
Nancy Butterworth
Greg Roberts
Robin North
David Ginn
Nate Sproles
Jordan Pennington
Rett Stocstill
Bill Whisnant
Byron Schiesz
Ann Woods
 
Pray for One Another
An extensive list of prayer concerns, "Pray for One Another," is available for pickup at the church each week.
 
In Our Prayers
Wayne Creel (father of Sherry Ratliff)
DeeDee Galliher
Vivian Hill
Don Moneyhun
Tony Raccioppo
Sam Samuel
Cassie & Michael Thornton
 
Birthday Prayer Fellowship
Sept. 24        Andrew Beck
Sept. 25        Matt Richardson
Sept. 26        Henry Linderman
Sept. 27        Jessica Rogers
Sept. 28        Kelley Mayden
Sept. 29        Larry Connolly, Bill Goforth, Riley Miller, Ann Woods
Church Calendar
Sunday, September 24
8:30 a.m.       Worship, Fellowship Hall
9:30 a.m.       Reception for Shannan Miller, Fellowship Hall
9:45 a.m.       Sunday School
11:00 a.m.     Worship, Sanctuary
5:00 p.m.       Middle School Student Fellowship, Youth Wing
6:30 p.m.       High School Student Fellowship, Youth Wing
Monday, September 25
5:30 p.m.       Adult Handbells
7:00 p.m.       Session of Elders, Room 123
Tuesday, September 26
9:00 a.m.       Staff Meeting, Room 117
10:00 a.m.     Morning Prayer Group, Conference Room
6:00 p.m.       Venture Crew 3, Room 165
7:00 p.m.       Boy Scout Troop 3, Scout Wing
Wednesday, September 27
9:30 a.m.       Women's DVD Bible Study, Coffee Klatch Room
4:45 p.m.       Youth Handbells
4:45 p.m.       Savior's Singers Children's Choir
5:15 p.m.       Baby & Toddler Care, Rooms 34-36
5:30 p.m.       Fellowship Dinner, Fellowship Hall
6:00 p.m.       Pastor Nominating Committee, Room 117
6:00 p.m.       Wednesday Night Kids
6:00 p.m.       Middle School Gathering
6:20 p.m.       Adult Learning Program, Fellowship Hall
7:00 p.m.       High School Small Groups
7:15 p.m.       Sanctuary Choir
7:30 p.m.       8:30 Worship Team, Fellowship Hall
Thursday, September 28
7:00 a.m.       Men's Bible Study, Parlor
12:00 p.m.     Noon Bible Study, Room 117
Friday, September 29
6:00 p.m.       Parents' Night Out, Fellowship Hall