Last Sunday, we celebrated a wonderful Festival Day—enjoying a great meal and fellowship following service and blessing the backpacks of our children as they begin a new school year. I hope all our families had a wonderful first week(s) back at school. Our students, teachers, and school administrators have been in my prayers this week. It can be a tiring and overwhelming time, but please know you are such a blessing to our children and community! 

This Sunday, we will conclude our series for the month—Being Human in a Technological Age. So far, we have wrestled with our over-attachment to technology (particularly smart phones), reflected on social media and comparison culture, and our innate human need for connection in an increasingly automated world.  

Our final week will be focused on Artificial Intelligence (AI). I’ll be honest, this is the topic I’ve been simultaneously excited and terrified to cover. On the one hand, AI is so broad, changes so rapidly, and its use is becoming so pervasive that it’s hard to know where to start. On the other hand, many (myself included) are becoming increasingly concerned about the ethical issues surrounding the use of AI. My sermon will be focused on the notion of truth in light of AI and how our locus of truth is not in an algorithm or any technology, but in the very person of Jesus. I hope this reflection, like the series, will help us discern what it means to be human in such a technological age, but also what role (if any) we want these tools to play in our lives. 

Blessings, 

Jim 

Online Giving Update

We have recently been made aware that the QR Code on the e-giving Offering Ritual Card does not work. We are in the process of getting these cards remade. You will notice in this Sunday's bulletin, a QR code has been inserted at the offering time for your online giving convenience. That QR code is below as well.

The church office is just beginning the process of converting our church management software to a new system. The "people" part of this software hopefully will be available soon. (See below) However, the financial part will take some time, and so we are waiting to remake the online giving Offering Ritual cards until that is in place, so that we won't have to do that twice!

Your patience and understanding is appreciated.

First Presbyterian is moving to a new church record keeping system called Realm. It serves the administrative needs of our staff, but it also offers some exciting opportunities to support the way you are involved in our church. Not only will this improve work life for our ministry staff, it will make it easier for our church family to connect with each other, keep up with what's going on, and grow as a connected community of believers.

This conversion to Realm will begin soon, but will take some time before we will roll it out to the congregation. We are excited about the possibilities for you and for our staff. Stay tuned for more announcements!

Dear FPC Friends,

Children’s Choir (for rising kindergarteners through 5th graders) begins again on Sunday, September 13, 2026 at 4:00 pm, and we are really excited about beginning a new season of great music and fun activities for your child. In order to help Dr. Matt plan, we are asking families to register their children. Registration is super simple! Please click the button below to register your child for Children’s Choir (2026/2027). Questions? Please reach out to Dr. Matt at mbrittain@fpcburlington.org.

Please register by August 31st.

This book will surely make you stop and think……Peggy Harrelson

Pastor Jim will lead off this year’s book club on September 8 with a book “for these times.” Love Big, Be Well by Winn Collier is a small but mighty read that brings an extraordinary feeling of connection and hope to those who dare to open its pages.

Amazon describes the book this way – “the story of a weary pastor without a congregation and a weary congregation without a pastor.” Through a series of letters, the reader begins to see what it means for a pastor and a church to do the slow work of ministry ‘in community,’ to be anchored by a common place and a life of faith and to be a part of a church community.

Eugene Petersen of The Message calls Love Big, Be Well a “tour de force” and I concur with that description. It carries a message of love, of presence, of friendship, of call, of showing up, of blessing, of faith, of what it means to be a member of a committed, caring church family. As Jonas, the book’s main character says, “Showing up, doing the work, being together – that’s our liturgy. And it matters.”

This book will surely make you stop, as it did me, and think about our life together as a church family and those elements that tether us to this place and these people – 508 W. Davis Street and the First Presbyterian Church community. I invite everyone to read the book and I invite those who can to join us on Tuesday, September 8 at 12 noon in Room 122 for a lively and meaningful discussion on what Pastor Jim describes as “one of his most favorite books.” 

• 9/8   Love Big, Be Well by Winn Collier
• 10/13 Theo of Golden by Alan Levi
• 11/10 In the Bleak Midwinter by Julia Spencer-Fleming
• 12/8 “Share and Tell” Reading Lists
• 1/12  All the Little Hopes by Leah Weiss
• 2/9   The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
• 3/9   Shades of Privilege by Jeanne Simkins Hollis and George Simkims III
• 4/13 The Wedding Veil by Kristy Woodson Harvey
• 5/11  Uncommon Favor by Dawn Staley

Flower Donation Form for 2026

If you would like to make a donation for flowers in the sanctuary for worship, please use the form HERE..

Sign Up for Usher's Guild 2026

Please contact John Walton (336) 263-6512 or waltonjohn518@gmail.com for more information. SIGN UP HERE!

Fall Midweek Bible Studies begin the week of September 15th 

Join us for one of our three midweek bible studies this fall led by Dr. Lunde! These studies are a vital part of our congregation’s ministry of Christian formation groups and are also great opportunities for fellowship and friendship. Whether it is your first time or you’ve been attending for years, we hope you’ll join us! Our Men’s study meets Tuesdays at 6:45 am, on Wednesdays at 10 am is a Co-Ed study, and our Women’s study meets Thursdays at 6:45 am—all in the Witherspoon Room. Please contact Dr. Lunde jlunde@fpcburlington.org for more information. 

“Let Those with Ears, Listen!” The Parables of Jesus 

Join us for our midweek Bible studies as they resume for the fall as Dr. Lunde leads us on a study of the parables of Jesus. These short stories give us a glimpse of God’s kingdom or the reign of God and how we might live into this reign right here and now. See below for a schedule of our study with the focus parable(s) of the day. 

Furniture Ministry News

The Furniture Ministry is now fully reopened following construction work in the warehouse. Donations can be dropped off at the warehouse on Mondays from 9 a.m. - 12N. For pickup of larger items, call 336-212-2937. 

Donations of sofas and upholstered chairs are critically needed. In housewares, juice glasses and stainless steel flatware (especially forks and soup spoons) are needed. 

Thank you for your support!

Benevolence Farm’s Tiny Home community is inviting you to help make each space feel like home. We are seeking organizations, church groups, and community teams to participate in a meaningful, hands-on project:

Each group will register for one of seven tiny homes (all but an ADA accessible home are identical) and design and sew custom curtains for every window in that home. These homes feature unique and non-traditional window shapes, offering a chance to be creative while providing something deeply practical: privacy, comfort, and dignity.

How It Works:

Your group signs up for one tiny home.

Design and sew neutral colored curtains for all seven windows in that space.

Color and style designs will be made in collaboration with Benevolence staff, feel free to share fabric options you already have, we are all about sustainability here!

What You Provide:

Fabric

Materials

Sewing time

The sizes of the windows are as follows, width by height. Curtains typically are 6 inches wider and taller than the dimension of the window.

- (2) 30"x60"

- (1) 30"x30"

- (2) 60"x18"

- (1) 59.5"x60"

- (1) 30"x40"

Contact Kenzie Ross for more information intern@benevolencefarm.org

Sewing needs to be complete by the 19th of September, reach out when you are ready to schedule an exchange. Thank you for your talents and time!

Mission Yearbook: Presbyterian Higher Education

Because our colleges and universities are Presbyterian-related, we value learning, faith, service and connection to each other, the Church, and the world, honoring the dignity and worth of every person.

We don’t value learning and all faith traditions represented on our campuses in spite of our church-relatedness. It is because we are church-related that we value and cherish all inquiry and welcome and encourage all faith communities.

Learning, faith, service — the order is important. We are schools, not churches, and our primary mission is education. Learning comes first. Nevertheless, as church-related institutions, we are concerned to educate whole people for the whole world. We strive to graduate students who are not only academically well-prepared but also spiritually and socially mature participants in the religious and civic communities of which they are a part.

We value our relationships with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and with other schools who share a similar relationship. We are not, and do not wish to be, identical institutions. Yet we appreciate our common connections and commitments. We benefit from our mutual relationship, we are all grateful for the historic and ongoing support of the Church, and we are committed to maintaining that relationship.

Our connection to the world is both social and environmental. We seek to serve the whole world through our service to each student. We understand ourselves to be part of a global community of teaching, learning and inquiry. We also work to exhibit, embody, and encourage environmental responsibility on our campuses and beyond. As stated above, we strive to educate whole people for the whole world.

Honoring our efforts to live out our commitment to learning, faith, service and connection takes place in the context of our ongoing and pervasive commitment to honor the dignity and worth of all people. Our schools are resources and instruments through which the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) serves the world as we serve each of our students in all their magnificent variety and particularity.

Jeff Arnold, Executive Director, Association of Presbyterian Colleges & Universities

Let us join in prayer for:

Barbara Betts, Manager, Presbyterian Distribution Services, Administrative Services Group

Beverly Bewley, Customer Service Representative, Operations, Presbyterian Publishing Corporation  

Let us pray:

Gracious God, we are grateful for the Presbyterian emphasis on education and for the many blessings that allow Presbyterian-founded colleges and universities to faithfully serve more than 140,000 students each year. Amen.

If you would like to have your name taken off the prayer list or added, please contact the church office reception@fpcburlington.org

Minister on Call: 336.228.1703, choose option #9

Did you know. . .

That you can securely make payments on your Capital Campaign Pledge online. Following the link below, in the drop-down menu, choose "A Place to Gather and Grow Capital Campaign" option.