Dear Friends,

We begin the season of Advent this Sunday with words from the prophet Jeremiah. In our text (Jeremiah 33: 1-3, 10-18), the prophet receives a vision unlike anything he can dream up himself. What are your hopes and dreams in this season? What might God be dreaming for us and for God’s world right now?

Grace and peace,

Ellen

Usher sign up link:  https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0948acab2dabf49-fpcusher

Lay Reader sign up link:  https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0948acab2dabf49-scripture

link for online worship:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfpzVUz-ZgaCJuogIMor8Iw/live

link to Ellen's sermon podcasts:  https://bit.ly/Sermons_FPCConcord

Christmas Pageant - December 10

Please make plans to join us for this year’s Christmas pageant on December 10^th.

Our four year-olds are invited to participate as angels. They should gather in the Fellowship House between 4:30 and 4:45 PM to dress and prepare for their role.

All five year olds through 5^th graders are encouraged to participate as barn animals. They can arrive in the sanctuary at 4:45 PM and select a costume. They will sit with their family and come forward when indicated in the bulletin.

Our 6^th-12^th grade Youth will lead us in worship through the retelling of the story of the birth of Jesus.

FPC 22: Christmas Pageant Participants & Volunteers (signupgenius.com)

All are invited to bring an unwrapped canned food donation to bring forward during the offertory. Food items will be delivered to Cooperative Christian Ministries.

Together…a service of Connections

This Sunday at 4 PM in the Commons, Casey will lead a brief service celebrating the power of being connected. Many of us read Vivek Murthy, M.D., our Surgeon General's book, Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World, during our fall Thursday book study. Sunday’s time will share the three kinds of connection Murthy discusses (intimate, relational and collective) through scripture and short reflections. All are welcome, even if you’re unfamiliar with the book. Bring a friend and gather with us at 4:00 p.m. and enjoy a time of being quietly Together as we begin a busy Advent season. 

Annual Christmas Joy Offering Dinner

The Women of First Presbyterian Church invite you to join them on Wednesday, December 6, 2023 in Davis Hall.

Dinner is at 6:00 PM, Punch and Cheese Straws at 5:30 PM if your schedule permits.

Dinner is $15. RSVP by Tuesday, November 28 online here, or call the reservations line at 704-788-2100 #7. *Be sure to indicate if you need childcare, a vegetarian or a vegan dinner*

Repurpose Your Christmas Trees

As you begin to deck the halls – or as you take down your decorations weeks from now, please be aware that we are accepting artificial Christmas trees of all sizes.

The lights do not need to work, but we would like trees to be green (some artificial trees come in a range of colors). We will store these at the church for props for future Vacation Bible schools and other programs.

Please contact René Prager at r.prager@firstpresconcord.org or 704-788-2100 ext 4 to schedule a drop off. We do not need the trees this holiday season, so there is no rush. We would prefer to repurpose gently used trees that you are planning to discard versus purchasing new ones.

2023 Poinsettia Orders

To order a poinsettia in memory or in honor of a loved one,

 click here to fill out a form online.

Paper order forms are available in the narthex and lobby of the Fellowship House.

All orders must be received in the church office by this Sunday, December 3.

Books and Brews

Books and Brews is reading Charles Dickens classic, A Christmas Carol (unabridged version), for November.

We will meeting this Thursday, November 30th at 7:00 PM. The location this month is at Twenty-Six Acres Brewing Company. The address is 7285 West Winds Blvd NW Concord NC 28027

January and February book choices have been decided as well.

For January we will be reading The Wind Knows my Name by Isabel Allende.

February we will be reading The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander Newfoundland by Jim Defede.

Date and locations for January and February will be announced soon.

The Racial Equity Reads Group will meet in The Commons at 7:00 PM this Monday, December 4. We plan to finish our discussion of “How Far to the Promised Land: One Black Family’s Story of Hope and Survival in the American South,” by Esau McCaulley. To prepare, please read chapters 10-12 and the short piece titled “Conclusion: A Funeral.”

Our group is informal, and you are invited to join any time.

The selections we read and discuss are intended to broaden and deepen our understanding of the origins and history of systemic anti-Black racism in America, and its effects on both Black and white people.

The next book we’ll study will be “The Cross and the Lynching Tree,” by James H. Cone. The starting date for that series will be announced soon, but it’s not too early to buy the book. You are encouraged to order the book from a Black-owned bookseller such as Shelves, a mail-order-only bookseller in Charlotte (orders@shelvesbookstore.com), or Mahogany Books in Washington, D.C. (mahoganybooks.com). The book is also available on Amazon.com.

For more information email sverner@yahoo.com.

This week, Pastor Casey continued his series around Life Beyond Death. We discussed how John Calvin's articulation of the highly controversial idea of 'predestination' attended to certain anxieties with a word of hope and comfort in Calvin's sixteenth-century Geneva, while unleashing other anxieties in other times and contexts. You can hear that lesson, and Casey's previous lessons on Life Beyond Death across scripture and church history, at the link below. This week, we will turn to talk about what other ideas in culture, art, film, and literature shape our imaginations and expectations around the life to come... and see whether they detract from or add to our anxieties. We'll touch on The Good Place, Disney-Pixar's Soul, and more.

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/your-union-rev

Sunday evening we spent time in fellowship decorating our tree outside of the Fellowship House. It was a wonderful evening making ornaments for the birds, lighting the tree, and singing carols together. 

CCM Monthly Needs

Over the past few weeks we have been blessed with some wonderful food drives! Thanks SO much to all of our community partners who have gathered and delivered the food. Much of what has come in has gone right back out the door. We did set a new monthly record in October at the Crisis Center Food Pantry, serving 980 households. Across the whole food program we had the second biggest month in history. This month at the Crisis Center we will break that monthly record by Monday, and will serve well over 1,000 households by the end of the month.

The great news for those delivering food to the Crisis Center—Country Club Drive is back open!

Currently, the pantry items we are in biggest need of are:

·    Canned Chicken

·    Other Canned Meats (Hash, Chili, Vienna Sausages, etc.)

·    Peanut Butter

·    Canned carrots, potatoes and mixed vegetables

·    Diced Tomatoes

·    Pasta Sauce

·    Any kind of canned beans (baked, Chili, Kidney, etc.)

·    Macaroni & Cheese

·    Pasta (other than spaghetti)

·    Rice

·    Any Canned Fruit (Mixed, Peaches, Pears, Pineapple, etc.)

·    Soup

·    Shelf-stable Milk

·    Cereal

·    Diapers

As always, we especially seek low sodium items, no-added-sugar items, and whole grain items. 

Currently we have plenty of:

·    Tuna

·    Spaghetti

Thank you for the continued support from our church and community partners. Our Crisis Center at 246 Country Club Drive NE in Concord serves as the warehouse for most of the food. We will gladly accept all donations at that site from 9:30 am to 1 pm Monday through Friday. Bethel Baptist Helping Hands Food Pantry, located at 1209 1/4 Opal Street in Kannapolis, will gladly accept donations from 9 am to 1 pm on Monday and Thursday. The food pantry located at Westford UMC on Highway 49 and the Kannapolis Food Pantry at West Point Baptist Church can accept donations on Saturday morning from 8:30 am to 11:30 am. The Feeding Our Souls Food Pantry at Bethel Church in Midland, and North Kannapolis Baptist Church Food Pantry will accept donations by calling the church in advance.