Windows 10-8-2020

Windows

October 8, 2020

Word from the Pastor: Silence

Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart.… Awe came upon everyone.

Acts 2:37a & 43a, NRSV

I was recently reminded how strongly we all hold our opinions about various matters close to our hearts. Sometimes we are quick to share those opinions that shape our convictions, and sometimes we keep them to ourselves. This is natural, and only human.

As the church, when we deal in matters that don’t shed light directly on points relating to faith in Jesus Christ, then we all ought to manifest a healthy dose of respect for others because opinions, either ours or theirs, are nowhere carved in stone. Of course, life as the church would be much simpler if we followed this advice. Unfortunately, we are all only human, and that means we fall short on this point, among others.

As a corrective, I offer a quote, as well as the witness of Scripture. The quote comes from Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s book, Christ the Center, where he writes (p.27):

Teaching about Christ begins in silence. ‘Be still, for that is the absolute,’ writes Kierkegaard. ... The silence of the Church is silence before the Word. In so far as the Church proclaims the Word, it falls down silently in truth before the inexpressible: ‘In silence I worship the unutterable’ (Cyril of Alexandria). The spoken Word is the inexpressible; this unutterable is the Word. ‘It must become spoken, it is the great battle cry’ (Luther). Although it is cried out by the Church in the world, it remains the inexpressible. To speak of Christ means to keep silent; to keep silent about Christ means to speak. When the Church speaks rightly out of a proper silence, then Christ is proclaimed.

What is Bonhoeffer on about in this quote? I think it is this: God is totally beyond us, yet in the revealed Word Jesus Christ, shown to us in Scripture and through us to the world, what was once a far-off mystery becomes lived reality with and among us. Indeed, Christ is the center of our entire reality, the holy mystery of God making God’s home within us. To speak of Christ, to condense him down to the categories of human speech and thought, is to collapse the mystery of this divine union with us. To allow Christ the Word to inhabit us, silencing all others voices and inclinations within ourselves before God, is the act of submitting to the lived and expressed presence of Christ within us, his body, the church.

Before a paradoxical mystery like God’s Word, Jesus Christ, we all ought to exercise a healthy dose of humility. Sometimes this is the hardest thing about a life of faithful discipleship: learning when we ought to be silent and allow God to speak to us and through us.

I point you to what happened the day the church was born. Acts 2, verses 37 and 43, tells us that the proclamation of the Gospel that Jesus is Lord cut listeners to the heart and left them in awe. Christ proclaimed, I believe, shuts every human tongue up before the glory of Jesus Christ. Broken hearts and awe are definite marks of the church!

When was the last time this happened to you? Maybe the challenge for all of us will be learning to silence our hearts, our opinions, and our takes on things, and learning the difficult art of listening to what God is proclaiming to the church. If we listen closely, it will always be Christ, and him crucified, raised, and glorified. No additives, preservatives, or gimmicky hooks needed. Christ plus no one, no thing, and no human project is the Gospel.

In Christ,

Pastor Sam

October Is Stewardship Month

We have kicked off our 2021 stewardship pledge campaign, More Than the Sum. If you have not received your pledge card, or would like to obtain your first pledge card, please let us know by emailing or contacting the office so that we can send you one. If you are not yet a member of the church, or are one of the many who are joining us from afar, please consider making a pledge to help support our ministries. We will gather together, both in person and virtually, on Sunday, October 25, to dedicate ourselves and our pledges to God’s work in our community.

Worship

October 11

19th Sunday after Pentecost

Lessons

Exodus 14:10-14

Romans 8:37-39

Sermon

God Watches Over Us

Sam Weddington

Last Sunday’s Attendance

In person: 9:00: 69; 11:00: 34

Livestream: 57

Playbacks: 103

Calendar

Sunday, October 11

9:00 a.m.

Worship,

Fellowship Hall & Livestream

10:10 a.m.

Sunday School

11:00 a.m.

Worship,

Sanctuary

Monday, October 12

7:00 p.m.

Building & Grounds Comm.,

Fellowship Hall

Worship Comm.,

Zoom

Tuesday, October 13

10:00 a.m.

Staff Meeting,

Fellowship Hall

6:00 p.m.

Venture Crew 3,

Room 165

Thursday, October 15

7:00 a.m.

Men’s Bible Study,

Fellowship Hall

12:00 p.m.

Noon Bible Study,

Room 117

Sanctuary Acoustics Informational Meeting

Please join us on Sunday, October 18, for an information session on our plans to address acoustic issues in the sanctuary. Those of us meeting in person will gather in the Fellowship Hall after the 11:00 worship service, where we will livestream the meeting for those joining us from home. The purpose of the meeting is to share the latest report from the Renkus-Heinz sound engineer, as well as the next steps in the process.

Join Us Online

Remember to subscribe to our YouTube channel to watch the livestream of our early worship service and other activities. Go to YouTube.com and type in “FPC Bristol.” Click on the link and hit “subscribe.” You will receive notifications of new videos. We also suggest that you connect to our various Facebook sites. Go to Facebook and 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.

Subscriptions & Deadline

Subscribe to our free e-newsletter by emailing your name and preferred email address to kacuff@fpcbristol.org.

The newsletter is emailed at midnight on Thursdays and posted to our website later that day.

The deadline for contributions is the Monday before publication.

Visit our website

Confirmation Course Kicks Off Oct. 18

Our fall confirmation class will be held on Sundays at 10:15 a.m. beginning October 18. Anyone in seventh grade or older who is interested in participating should contact Katie Arnold at karnold@fpcbristol.org. We will learn, discuss, and ask hard questions about faith, God, and more. At the conclusion of the two-year course, participants will be invited to confirm their faith and join the church.

Each class builds on the information from the previous week, so class attendance is very important. We ask you to make a commitment to attend every Sunday. If you miss a class, we can help you make it up, but we ask all confirmands to take this commitment seriously.

As you learn through discussion and activities, you will find the confirmation journey to be a time of both individual growth and relational growth with your church family. You will play games, watch videos, and meet friends in new ways. And in addition to your teachers, you will have two mentors, an adult and a high school student, to help you as you go through the process.

Treat Folks to Leaf Raking

on Halloween Morning

It’s no trick! We’re getting together for some leaf raking Saturday, October 31, from 8:00 to noon. If you have a leaf blower, a rake, and a servant heart, then please join FPC’s Deacons, Boy Scouts, and other volunteers to rake leaves for folks who can use the help. If you need help removing leaves from your yard, please contact the church office at 423-764-7176. For more information, contact Dave Welch at dwelch@fpcbristol.org.

FPC Fights Hunger in Brazil

With gifts provided by FPC, our mission partners in Natal, Brazil, were able to purchase and distribute two tons of food to food-insecure neighborhoods in August and September. Teams of workers sorted food and packed bags for the people in the neighborhoods of the churches in Felipe Camarão and Cidade Nova. “Hungry people were satisfied,” Pastor João Batista and Pastor Gil said. “It was a tremendous blessing. Thank you very much from your brothers and sisters in Christ in Brazil!” /John Vann

New Circles Roll Out Saturday

The women of the church will begin a new series of gatherings this Saturday, October 10, at 10:00 a.m. Second Saturday Circles are Presbyterian Women Circles for the pandemic, bringing us Bible study, the joy and comfort of Christian fellowship, and the blessing of shared prayer. We hope you and your friends will join in! Our topic for October is, What does it mean to not be anxious during a pandemic?

Some groups will meet in person at the church; others will meet online. In-person meetings will be outside, if possible. Please wear a mask indoors and, if not physically distanced, outdoors. To attend in person, just come to the Fellowship Hall on Saturday at 10:00 a.m. Bring a Bible, a lawn chair, a mask, and your own beverage. Some chairs will be available. To participate in the online circle, please call or text Elizabeth Patrick at 423-956-9716 or email her at elizabethpatrick22@hotmail.com. For more information, contact Elizabeth.

Connect with a Connect Team

We’re developing new resources for church communication, and we ask you to share your time and talents in this vital ministry. Are you interested in helping others in the church stay current and connected? Do you have the skills, gifts, and time to make a quick call once a month to approximately eight members of the church, to see how they are doing and share what’s new at FPC? If so, please let Dave Welch know. Contact him at dwelch@fpcbristol.org or 423-764-7176.

Home Group Leaders Check-In

We’re going to have a Zoom meeting on Thursday, October 15, at 7:00 p.m. for all Home Group leaders. It will be an opportunity to check in and check up on how things are going. If you would like to be included, and have not received an email invitation, please contact Dave Welch or Katie Arnold.

Please Help Us with AV

We need you on our audiovisual team! No experience is necessary. We will train you to control the cameras, modulate the sound, or run the videos and graphics. Just contact the church office to join.

Give Safely

During the COVID-19 crisis, we encourage you to give by way of our website or by text or mail. Your continued, faithful giving ensures that we have the resources to continue our ministries. You can give online by going to fpcbristol.org and clicking on “Give” in the upper right corner. You can send your pledge, offering, or special gift by texting fpcbristol to 73256. You can also mail your checks directly to the church. Thank you!

Reaching for the Sky

Grass grows under rain and sun, and our church family, too, perseveres in a rough season. We all strive and grow. The stewards of our church grounds continue their faithful work as if to illustrate that our stewardship campaign is under way. Look! Randy Olson mows October 7–10, and JB Madison takes over October 14–17.

Study the Bible Online

We are continuing to offer two adult studies on our YouTube channel. The Sunday Bible study, Praying With the Psalms, looks at the Book of Psalms through the lens of prayer. All you need is a Bible and an open heart. We also post a short study every Wednesday. If you subscribe, you will be notified when new studies become available.

Cheerios for Fairmount

We are collecting boxes of Multi Grain Cheerios for the students of our Fairmount school. Please drop your contributions in the little red house in the Fellowship Hallway or leave them on Dottie Havlik’s porch. For more information, email Dottie at dhavlik@charter.net or call her at 423-956-6747.

Pray for the World

As we weather the COVID-19 pandemic, we are asking you to spend more time in prayer for our church, our community, our nation, and the world. Pray for our leaders, first responders, frontline workers, and the vulnerable. We also ask that you pray for an end to this disease.

Organist's Footnotes

Benjamin Carr (1768–1831), “decidedly the most important and prolific music publisher in America during the 1790s (as well as one of its most distinguished composers),” was born in London, England. He studied organ with Charles Wesley and composition with Samuel Arnold. In 1793 he traveled to Philadelphia with a stage company, and a year later went with the same company to New York, where he stayed until 1797. Later that year he moved to Philadelphia, where he became a prominent member of the city’s musical life.

He established a publishing house in Philadelphia and opened a branch in New York that he ran from 1794 to 1797, when it was acquired by James Hewitt. In 1794 Carr began publishing “a new song every Monday.” The initial offering, “The Kentucky Volunteer,” is noteworthy as the first song copyrighted under the new US Constitution. This song was composed by Carr’s friend and fellow English immigrant, Raynor Taylor. This “each Monday” series, however, lasted only five weeks.

Carr composed “Voluntary for the Organ” (1801) for the dedication of a new instrument. It had two manuals without pedals, but the manual compass went lower than on our modern organs, so the lower notes must now be played on the pedals. This composition has a very free, improvisatory style. Carr precisely specified his choice of stop registrations. He probably wanted to demonstrate all the stops of this new organ. I have divided this longer composition into smaller sections to play as our prelude, offertory, and postlude for today.

You can watch the September 27 late service here and the October 4 late service here. /Robert Greene

Gifts to the Church

Memorials and honoraria are published in the newsletter only after the family has been personally notified by our business office. Today we gratefully acknowledge gifts in memory of:

Alice Caldwell (sister of Margaret Wade): to the Minister’s Discretionary Fund from Eddie & Peggy Hill
Chad Cline (son of Karen White): to the Minister’s Discretionary Fund from Eddie & Peggy Hill
Martha Ginn (mother of Dave Ginn): to the Minister’s Discretionary Fund from Eddie & Peggy Hill
Diane Glymph (mother of Mary Ellis Rice): to the Minister’s Discretionary Fund from Eddie & Peggy Hill
Vivian Hill: to the Christian Hands Ministry from Barbara Daniel
Lisa Holmes: to the Minister’s Discretionary Fund from Eddie & Peggy Hill
Virginia Long (mother of Lilly Osborne): to the Children’s Ministries Fund from Eddie & Peggy Hill
Virginia Rutherford: to the Minister’s Discretionary Fund from Barbara Daniel, from Barbara Duncan, from Eddie & Peggy Hill
Bill Whitesides (brother of Dave Whitesides): to the Minister’s Discretionary Fund from Eddie & Peggy Hill

Pray for One Another

In Our Prayers

Please also include in your prayers the members of our community who wish to remain anonymous.

Family of Brian Alderman

Joe Bell

Family of Eddie Bishop

Irene Blankenship

Blountville Presbyterian Church

Sujean Bradley

Bud Branscomb

Bristol Tennessee School System

Becky Busler

Christians in Nigeria/ECWA

Community, nation & world

Ethiopian brothers & sisters

First responders & medical & infrastructure personnel

DeeDee Galliher

Deborah Garritson

Goddards (missionaries in Paraguay)

Sara Roth Gooden

Ron Grubbs

Conor Haaser & squadron

Lou Hebb

Nate & Angela & newborn Higgins

Kate Hill (missionary)

Davan & Kristi Johnson

Marty Keys & family

Josh & Morgan King & family

Danae & Dan Kreiss

June Lamb

Nancy Lilly

Dot Mattison

Kathleen McGlothlin

Family of Bob Millard

Family of David Mills

Alice Moore

Brianna Necessary

Martha North

Rosa Poteat

Brittany Salter

Strickland family

Jim Swartchick

Bill Wade

Dave Whitesides

Windsor Avenue Presbyterian Church

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