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Local Missions

It has been heartwarming to experience our congregation resting securely in the Lord as we have faced the coronavirus pandemic together. We have all taken comfort in scripture; Psalm 23 and Psalm 91 come vividly to mind, reminding us how the Lord cares for his people in challenging times. As Dr. Thomas has aptly exalted us: “The Lord has got this!”

Even under threat of this severe disease, the Lord has blessed our ministers and staff with creativity and innovation to enhance our witness and growth as God’s family. The improvement in online broadcasting and development of midweek online prayer groups will have a lasting positive impact well beyond the current crisis. The children’s summer program is reaching children in multiple states in its web-based format. What a blessing! 

The Local and World Missions Committees of the Session and the Temporal Needs Committee of the Diaconate have seen new opportunities open up in their ministry, too. We expect higher demands on the resources of several of the ministries we support, and there are travel restrictions and communication challenges for our missionaries. The local community in our city is facing furloughs or job losses, and the strain schools and universities are having to adopt distance learning. Some families have suffered sickness and loss of loved ones from COVID-19. 

You have noticed these hardships too, and asked how you can help financially. The Diaconate has already mobilized to seek areas where they can minister to those in need. Any financial contribution earmarked to our Disaster Relief Fund will help in these efforts and will provide means to send out further a witness to the hope we have in Christ. 

Warmest thanks,

David Taylor

                   Chairman, Local Missions Committee

2020 Thornwell Lectures

Named in honor of James Henley Thornwell, one of the most distinguished theologians of the nineteenth century as well as minister of First Presbyterian Church, the Thornwell Memorial Lectures are given each Sunday during the months of June, July, and early August. Because of the restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we will not hold the lectures in person. Instead, they will be pre-recorded and made available to view on our website at 9:00 a.m. on the Sunday the lecture was to be delivered.

Our speaker this Sunday, June 7, is Dr. C. N. “Nick” Willborn, Ph.D., has served as Senior Pastor of Covenant Presbyterian Church in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, since 2008. Dr. Willborn also teaches regularly in the Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary where he served full-time on the faculty from 2000-2009. He is a regular contributor to Tabletalk magazine and serves as an editor and contributor to The Confessional Presbyterian, a theological journal published in Dallas, Texas. Dr. Willborn has contributed to a number of books and is presently engaged in three book projects, including a biography of John Lafayette Girardeau. He and his wife of 36 years, Carol, live in Knox County, Tennessee, and have three grown children.  

First Fridays Organ Concert Live Stream 

June 5, 12:30 p.m.

In this month’s First Fridays Organ Concert, tune in to a live stream of hymn requests gathered from our congregation over the past weeks. These favorite hymns will be played in a variety of settings, from traditional hymnal style to composed arrangements, new and old.

The Flowers in the Sanctuary 

Are given to the glory of God and in loving memory of Claudia (Toddie) McNair by her family.