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

In This Issue
Worship
Deadlines & Subscriptions
Take a Look at Last Sunday's Party
Mark Your Calendar for Aug. 22
Engaging Volunteers: Current Needs
Not So Fast!
Register for Student Retreat by Aug. 19 for Discount, T-Shirt
Music Notes
Pray for One Another
Gifts to the Church
Church Calendar
Our Church Officers
Worship
August 12
19th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lessons
Isaiah 58:3-12
1 Corinthians 8:1-3
Sermon
Love Builds Up
Sam Weddington
Hymns
Here in This Place
My Faith Looks Up to Thee
Love Divine, All Loves Excelling
Anthem
Amazing Grace
Attendance Last Sunday
8:30: 164; 11:00: 139
Deadlines & Subscriptions
Deadline for contributions to Windows is the Monday of the week of publication. The newsletter is emailed a minute after midnight on Thursday morning. It is posted to our website later that day.

To have Windows delivered to your digital in-box, email the editor at the address below, giving your name and the email address you want to use for the purpose.

Windows is a publication of First Presbyterian Church, Bristol, TN. Please direct questions and suggestions to the editor, Kathy Acuff, kacuff@fpcbristol.org

Windows

on First Presbyterian Church

August 9 , 2018
Take a Look at Last Sunday's Party
Last Sunday afternoon's party under the trees was a wonderful time of fellowship, and of thanksgiving for where we have been and where we are going. We enjoyed a leisurely picnic, played games, and made music together as we became better acquainted with our new head pastor, Sam Weddington, and his family. Several church members have shared digital mementos of the event with us. You can watch George Linke's four-minute video, complete with aerial footage, here.


We welcomed Sam, seen here holding the mic.

Mark Your Calendar for Aug. 22
Our fall semester of Wednesday night programs will resume August 22, with our fellowship supper at 5:30, followed by programs for all ages. Fried chicken, a vegetable, salad, and dessert are on the menu for the evening. High School Small Groups, Middle School Gathering, and Wednesday Night Kids will meet at 6:00. At 6:20, Dave Welch will lead the Adult Learning session in "I Love to Tell the Story," a creative and purposeful look at sharing our faith journeys with others. Please join us!
Engaging Volunteers: Current Needs

FPC needs volunteers immediately for the following tasks:
Driver. An FPC member who no longer drives needs a ride to and from the 11:00 service every week. Contact Dave Welch at dwelch@fpcbristol.org for more information.
Kid's Kirk. We need rotating helpers for both services and Sunday School. These are helpers/assistants and not teachers. Volunteers can sign up for one week, one month, or a specific time, like a particular Sunday of every month. For more information or to sign up, contact Lilly Osborne at losborne@fpcbristol.org.
Kitchen Volunteers. We need folks to help us give our Wednesday fellowship suppers. The revised start date for the new semester is August 22. To sign up, contact Scottie Bales at sbales@fpcbristol.org. There are several ways to help:
  • Shop. Do the one-stop shopping at Sam's Club then deliver groceries to the FPC kitchen on Tuesday between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.
  • Prep. Spend an hour or two from 3:00 to 5:30 p.m. on Wednesdays chopping veggies, making tea, preparing sides, and so forth.
  • Set up. Those who don't care to cook can help, too. Set the tables from 4:00 to 5:30 p.m.; no training required! Simply set out plates, napkins, utensils, and salt and pepper.
  • Clean up. Be one of the crew that cleans up right after dinner. We will be using disposable plates and cups for more efficient cleanup.
Student Ministries. There are several ways you can become involved in Student Ministries:
  • SM Planning Team. Meet monthly with the Director of Student Ministries to plan, vision, and pray for student ministry. Assist with SM tasks and events.
  • Small Group Leader. Invest in the lives of a few students to encourage authentic faith. Attend Sunday night Student Fellowship (5:30-8:00). Assist with activities and spend time with teens through dinner, games, and worship. After worship, guide discussion with a small group of teens.
  • Dinner Coordinator. Coordinate volunteers to bring dinner to Sunday Student Fellowship.
  • Student Fellowship Setup/Cleanup. Set up dinner and special event activities; clean up after meal and activities.
Not So Fast!
With six more weeks of summer, we feel like Punxsutawney Phil in reverse. It's still the season of picnics and pedicures, as the photo clearly shows, but the events we associate with fall are already in season. Students went back to school this week, our own fall semester begins August 22, and Labor Day will be here before we know it. All nature anticipates a transition, even as the grass keeps growing, but we alone can console ourselves with expert mowers. (Style counts. Rabbits, take note.) Aaron Brooks (August 8-11) and David Moore (August 15-18) of the FPC mowing team will calmly keep the church lawn under control as the world lists. We thank them.
Join the mowing team! You can sign up now for spring. We welcome men and women, adults and teens, even families: younger children can move debris to the curb, and a parent or elder sibling can mow. It's easy, and you suit your own convenience, mowing once or up to three times. Simply contact Randy Cook at npolecook@aol.com or 423-956-1541. If you're new to Scag mowers, he will be happy to give you a lesson on ours.
Register for Student Retreat by Aug. 19 for Discount, T-Shirt
Students in seventh through twelfth grades are invited to a weekend of fun and fellowship at the FPC Fall Retreat at Whitewater Express in Copperhill, Tenn. The weekend will include wild fun, whitewater rafting, the great outdoors, worship, and bonding with your church family. We will leave early on Saturday, September 1, and return on the afternoon of Monday, September 3.
If you register with a deposit by Sunday, August 19, you will receive a T-shirt, and the total cost of the trip will be $150. After August 19, the price will increase to $160, and your T-shirt size cannot be guaranteed.
Ready to go? Register at https://goo.gl/forms/yrJOG0SnXcCHcbks1 and turn in a $75 deposit to Katie Arnold or the church office.
Music Notes
Sunday's music: The text of the anthem for the day, "Amazing Grace," was written by the English poet and Anglican clergyman John Newton (1725-1807) and published in 1779. Newton wrote the words from personal experience. He grew up without any particular religious conviction. He was conscripted into service in the Royal Navy, and after leaving the service, he became involved in the Atlantic slave trade. In 1748, a violent storm battered his vessel off the coast of County Donegal, Ireland, so severely that he called out to God for mercy, a moment that marked his spiritual conversion. He continued his slave trading career until 1754 or 1755, when he ended his seafaring altogether and began studying Christian theology. Ordained in the Church of England in 1764, Newton became curate of Olney, Buckinghamshire, where he began to write hymns with poet William Cowper.
John Newton
"Amazing Grace" was written to illustrate a sermon on New Year's Day of 1773. It is unknown whether there was any music accompanying the verses; it may simply have been chanted by the congregation. It debuted in print in 1779 in Newton and Cowper's Olney Hymns but settled into relative obscurity in England. In the United States, however, "Amazing Grace" was used extensively during the Second Great Awakening in the early 19th century. It has been associated with more than 20 melodies, but in 1835 it was joined to the tune "New Britain," to which it is most frequently sung today.
With the message that forgiveness and redemption are possible regardless of sins committed and that the soul can be delivered from despair through the mercy of God, "Amazing Grace" is one of the most recognizable songs in the English-speaking world. The arrangement we are singing is by Ron Smail, a native of Glasgow, Scotland, who was raised in Vancouver, Canada. Smail's arrangements tend to have a jazz component, which is evident in "Amazing Grace." Ron is currently director of choirs at Aldergrove Secondary School in Langley, British Columbia, and Director of Music at Trinity United Church in Kitsilano.
Sunday's music participants: Pat Flannagan, Bob Greene, Sanctuary Choir.
Choir season has begun: The Sanctuary Choir is back in the balcony, and we could use some extra voices. If you have an interest in helping to lead worship by singing with the choir, please consider joining us from 7:15 to 8:45 on Wednesday evenings. You'll find us upstairs in Room 220, off the choir loft. Don't consider this a volunteer choir; instead, think of it as a called choir whose members are giving time and talents in the stewardship of our church. Don't be shy; come and join us! If child care is an issue, that can be addressed.
Organist's footnotes: I have been listening to The Bach Project, Volume 2, the next installment in the complete organ works of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 -1750), performed by Todd Fickley. Mr. Fickley's performances have inspired me to select three pieces featured on his CD. The following are his comments on these pieces.
"Von Gott will ich nicht lassen" [our prelude] is from a set of chorale preludes ("The Great Eighteen") that Bach kept reworking throughout his life. It is a mature and introverted chorale that seems to explore the ideas in the text with persistent and leading musical motives:
                I will not forsake God,
                for he forsakes not me,
                leading me through all paths,
                otherwise I should have strayed.
                He reaches out his hand to me;
                morning and evening
                he cares for me,
                wherever I am.
The six "Schübler Chorales" of 1748 -1749 were the last pieces published during Bach's lifetime, yet the music was all penned decades earlier. They are all virtually note-for-note transcriptions of cantata movements. "Ach bleib' bei uns, Herr Jesus Christ" [our offertory] was originally a trio for violoncello piccolo, soprano, and continuo. The busy and cheerful writing is from Bach's Easter Cantata, BWV 6:
                Ah, stay with us, Lord Jesus Christ,
                for now evening is falling;
                your divine word - the bright light -
                let it not be extinguished within us.
"Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott" ("A mighty fortress is our God") [our postlude] has long been associated with Reformation Day in Protestant circles. It is a very early chorale in the style of Pachelbel. A somewhat rambling, freewheeling piece from Bach's early 20s on contrasting instrumental colors that he specified in the score, it is a glimpse into the sound of Lutheran liturgical improvisations.
Pray for One Another

In Our Prayers
DeeDee Galliher
Ron Grubbs
Chuck Thompson
 
Birthday Prayer Fellowship
August 12    Mary Bailey, Madison Ratliff, Penn Story
August 13    Katy Stigers
August 14    Nora McCracken
August 17    Jane Nickels, John Ratliff, Jack Southerland
August 18    Riley McCracken
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 to the church in memory of:
Lynn Rankin (daughter of Dot Mattison): to the Capital Campaign Fund from an anonymous donor
Bill Stone: to the Building & Grounds Fund from Craig & Brennan Rockett and from an anonymous donor
Church Calendar
Sunday, August 12
8:30 a.m.       Worship, Fellowship Hall
9:45 a.m.       Sunday School
11:00 a.m.     Worship, Sanctuary
2:00 p.m.       Finance Comm., Room 117
6:00 p.m.       Young Adult Dinner & Devos, Katie Arnold's Home
Monday, August 13
7:00 p.m.       Building & Grounds Comm., Room 117
7:00 p.m.       Worship Comm., Room 123
Tuesday, August 14
10:00 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, August 15
6:00 p.m.       High School Dinner & Devos, 
Katie Arnold's Home
7:15 p.m.       Sanctuary Choir
7:30 p.m.       8:30 Worship Team, Fellowship Hall
Thursday, August 16
7:00 a.m.       Men's Bible Study, Parlor
12:00 p.m.     Noon Bible Study, Room 117
5:00 p.m.       Human Resources Comm., Room 117
Our Church Officers
Church Officers
ELDERS
Class of 2018
Class of 2019
Class of 2020
Aaron Brooks
Anna Booher
Nancy Allerton
Randy Cook
Lee Galliher
Rebecca Beck
Debbie McMillin
Pete Holler
David Hyde
Stuart Parker
Han Ong
Jordan Pennington
Chuck Thompson
Pete Stigers
Jerry Poteat
DEACONS
Class of 2018
Class of 2019
Class of 2020
Adam Abel
Sujean Bradley
Blake Bassett
Nancy Butterworth
George Linke
Rhonda Comer
David Ginn
Greg Roberts
Brenda Lawson
Rett Stocstill
Nate Sproles
Barbara Thompson
Ann Woods
Bill Whisnant
 
TRUSTEES
Class of 2018
Class of 2019
Class of 2020
Charles Webb
Nancy Cook
Peggy Hill