Greetings from your Pastor Nominating Committee. First, we want to thank God for calling us and you for electing us to this vital and exciting work. It is challenging, but we have all grown in our individual faiths as we have learned to depend more and more on the Holy Spirit for guidance, encouragement, and inspiration. It is also important for you all to know that the members of the committee love and trust each other.

Second, we want to update you on our activities. We have met at least 65 times since you all elected us in September 2016. Last year, members even joined the committee meeting by Skype from Scotland, Germany, and the Bahamas.

Our first task was to write the Mission Information Form (MIF), which describes who First Presbyterian Church is and the qualities we are seeking in our next Senior Pastor. You all made the MIF possible by participating in the congregational survey a year ago. We began the process of discernment shortly after our MIF was approved by Holston Presbytery in March 2017. We have reviewed the Personal Information Forms (PIFs) of more than 200 PCUSA pastors who have posted their PIFs on the denomination's Church Leadership Connection website. We are also continuing to reach out to personal and professional contacts for referrals and to get our MIF to people who might not have a PIF on the denomination's website.

Cumulatively, we have spent several hundred hours listening to or watching sermons online. We have interviewed many candidates and, in the process of doing so, we have come to appreciate the wisdom of the PCUSA leadership call process. We have met some wonderful men and women, but either they or we have discerned that our position is not one to which God is calling them. We all believe that God has chosen our next Senior Pastor and that God will make it clear to us who that person is when the time is right. Therefore, we are dedicated to continue to identify and interview candidates until both we and they discern God's call.

The time this is taking is worth our wait because, in the end, God will provide the person who is the right match for First Presbyterian Church. In the meantime, we covet your prayers and your patience as we continue this work on your behalf. We are praying for this congregation to grow in faith as we go through this process together. Finally, if you have any suggestions for candidates for this position, or if you know someone who can help get the word out about our position, please don't hesitate to contact any member of the committee: Ann Abel, Nancy Allerton, Randy Cook, Stuart Parker, Matt Richardson, Annette Tudor, John Vann.

I remember hearing as a child, then sharing in children's sermons, the nursery rhyme with hand motions, "Here's the church, here's the steeple, open the doors, and see all the people." I've been thinking about the words and the image even more recently as we completed 2017 with an intentional yearlong focus on stewardship. The Stewardship Committee's mission goal from the very beginning was to promote broader theological and biblical understanding of stewardship. In many churches, "stewardship" is wrongly used to mean the "stewardship season" of September or October when budgets are being set, and the accompanying invitation through preaching and teaching to support the mission and ministry of the church through pledges. Instead, our Stewardship Committee intentionally focused their videos, newsletter articles, and announcements in 2017 on being engaged in and with FPC through our time and talents, by first inviting and encouraging involvement, then by publicly celebrating it as and how we do. Have you seen the bulletin board in the Fellowship Hallway recently? Both the nursery rhyme and the bulletin board celebrate opening the doors and seeing all the people of our church.

I have to note that Paul's best biblical statement about the church comes in his letter to those gathered in Corinth. Paul imagines church like the human body that endorses a theology of correlation and mutual dependence:

Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot would say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear would say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many members, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you," nor again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you." On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it. (1 Corinthians 12:14-26)

Some two thousand years later, we have our own understanding of how to do church. We have become accustomed, in the American church at least, in a reflection of our culture, to expect a highly skillful, proficient, adept, and even adroit church through job specification and specialization. Just as we have specialists for our cars, for our health, in our jobs, on the sports fields, so too do we have in them in the church. For instance, FPC has a pastor (well educated and handsome, I might add), a music director, musicians, a youth director, a children's director, and a business administrator, just to name a few, who focus their ministry very specifically and very proficiently. We have committees who similarly focus on areas of ministry (Evangelism, Outreach, Stewardship, Education, Finance, Human Resources, etc.). Specialization, though, always comes with a cost. Remember the rhyme? I think a cost of our current culturally relevant church model is the loss of ministry by/for/with/of "the people." Too often we come and partake, but we don't engage.

There is another cost of specialization, and it is money. The current budget being discussed by Session (not yet approved at the time of this musing) will be in the neighborhood of $700,000, but there is not currently enough money to support it. Please recognize that staff salaries and program costs are not the entire anticipated budget; there are other areas as well, like building or maintenance costs and supported benevolences. Unfortunately, there is a significant shortfall, perhaps $140,000 or more, between what the church must raise to continue our current model of ministry and staffing (budget) and what has been pledged to date.

The leaders of FPC, the Elders, now have to make difficult decisions about how we are to be the church gathered at FPC. We have to discern what God is calling us to faithfully do while envisioning, developing, and implementing a different way of doing things. Please pray for the Elders and their vision. Please engage them with your questions, encourage them in their task, and join them in their ministries. "Here's the church, here's the steeple, open the doors and see all the people!"

Michael Thornton, under the care of FPC Bristol as he moves through the ordination process in the PCUSA, and his wife, Cassie, are new parents. Their son, Amos Lee Thornton, was born January 20. While working toward ordination, Michael also serves as Youth and Young Adult Ministries Pastor with St. James Presbyterian Church in Littleton, CO.

It's time to fill in the weekend of February 23 on your calendar! Our annual Women's Retreat will begin that Friday and continue through Sunday, February 25, in Blowing Rock, NC. This Heart to Heart retreat is always a blessing to those who attend. Don't miss it!

We are resuming our collection of snacks for the students at Fairmount Elementary School. We'll start this semester with boxes of Teddy Grahams. About 80% of the children get help with lunch; their families can't afford to buy snacks to get them through the afternoon slump. That's where we come in. We collect the snacks from our generous church family, and our Christian Hands Ministry folks make sure they get to our neighborhood school. Please bring your boxes to the Little Red House in the Fellowship Hallway to help our friends at Fairmount concentrate on their afternoon lessons. Thank you!

Join FPC Middle School Ministry on a summer adventure to the Great Escape! Departing from the church on Sunday, June 10, we will head to Lee University in Cleveland, TN, where middle school students from all over the USA will be gathering for a wild 'n' crazy week of incredible music, captivating speakers, engaging entertainment, and the messiest games you can imagine! On one day of the week, students will enjoy whitewater rafting on the Ocoee River. We will return to the church around noon on Friday, June 15.

We do our best to make camp available to students at the lowest price possible by offsetting the cost by 50 percent per person. Scholarships are available but must be requested. The Early Bird price is $415. To get this price, you must register and pay the $100 deposit by this Sunday, January 28. After January 28, the price goes up to $445. The total balance is due May 19.

What do you get for your money?

This is an event you won't want to miss! Start inviting your friends and register early for the best price. For more information, contact Katie Arnold, Director of Student Ministries, at [email protected] or 770-296-1671.

Join FPC High School Ministry on a summer adventure to Jacksonville and Hilton Head Island! Departing from the church on June 24, we will travel to Hilton Head Island for The Journey. FPC students will join other church groups from across the Southern states for a week of wild games, challenges, fellowship, worship, and time on the beach, all while on a journey to experience God in a whole new way. We will return home June 28.

We do our best to make camp available to students at the lowest price possible by offsetting the cost by 50 percent per person. Scholarships are available but must be requested. The Early Bird price is $400. To get this price, you must register and pay the $100 deposit by this Sunday, January 28. After January 28, the price goes up to $450. The total balance is due May 19.

What does your money buy you?

This is an event you won't want to miss! Start inviting your friends and register early for the best price. For more information, contact Katie Arnold, Director of Student Ministries, at [email protected] or 770-296-1671.

Sunday's music participants: Pat Flannagan, Bob Greene, Sanctuary Choir.

Sunday's music: Sunday's anthem, "Creed," was composed by Calvin Hampton (1938-1984). This is a setting of the Nicene Creed in a straightforward declaration of what we, as Christians, believe. This text is the only ecumenical creed because it is accepted as

	Calvin Hampton

authoritative by the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and major Protestant churches. Until the early 20th century, it was universally assumed that the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed (the more accurate term) was an enlarged version of the Creed of Nicaea, which was developed at the Council of Nicaea (325). It was further assumed that this enlargement had been carried out at the Council of Constantinople (381) with the object of bringing the Creed of Nicaea up-to-date in regard to heresies that had arisen about the Incarnation and the Holy Spirit. Additional discoveries of documents in the 20th century, however, indicated that the situation was more complex. It was most likely issued by the Council of Constantinople and probably based on a baptismal creed already in existence, but it was an independent document and not an enlargement of the Creed of Nicaea. The Nicene Creed was originally written in Greek.

A 1960 graduate of Oberlin Conservatory and a 1963 graduate of Syracuse University, Hampton was a leading American organist and sacred music composer. From 1963 to 1983, he served as organist and choirmaster of Calvary Episcopal Church in New York City. Hampton dared to take chances and his "Fridays at Midnight" organ recital series, running from 1974 to 1983, was one of the most famous and popular organ recital series in American history. Hampton was also a respected composer for the church and for the concert stage. Erik Routley (1917-1982), a noted authority on church music, called Hampton "the greatest living composer of hymn tunes." His settings of the Episcopal liturgy, and his choral works are milestones of innovative, challenging sacred music. Toward the end of his life, Hampton gave up church work and concentrated on composition and organ consulting.

Organist's footnotes: Calvin Hampton was a remarkably eclectic personality. He pioneered the idea of bringing the orchestral transcription back. His arrangement of Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" was on the cutting edge back in the late 1970s. He also wrote some profound and beautiful music, some of it for the church. His "Antiphon," our prelude, is soulful and represents a talent that we lost far too soon. He died at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, a great loss to American music, to the organ scene. But his music lives on as a worthy representation of a great spirit. Imagine the "dove of peace" and her song when you listen to this piece.

Barbara Harbach (b. 1946), Curators' Distinguished Professor of Music at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, has a large catalog of works, including symphonies, operas, and musicals; works for string orchestra, chamber ensembles, and modern ballet; film scores;

	Barbara Harbach

pieces for organ, harpsichord, and piano; choral anthems; and many arrangements for brass and organ of various Baroque works. Harbach has toured extensively as both concert organist and harpsichordist throughout the United States and Canada as well as overseas. She holds academic degrees from Pennsylvania State University (BA), Yale University (MMA), the Eastman School of Music (DMA), and Musikhochschule (Konzertdiplom) in Frankfurt, Germany. Her arrangement of the traditional English melody "O Waly Waly," our offertory, is elegantly simple.

Peter Pindar Stearns (1931-2016) taught music composition for 32 years at the Mannes School of Music in New York City. His output of more than 300 musical compositions in all media includes seven symphonies, six string quartets, numerous other orchestral and chamber works, and a substantial number of organ and choral pieces. He served various churches as an organist and choral director. He worked for Carl Fischer Inc. as an editorial assistant and was Director of Publications for Coburn Press Music Publishers for eight years. He also worked as an organ builder under Charles B. Fisk and Robert Noehren. Stearns and his wife, Marcia, lived in Vermont. He died on October 15, 2016, in Stowe, Vermont. Our postlude is his "Hymn Prelude on RATISBON," which intersperses colorful "flashes of light" between phrases of the hymn tune, no doubt to illustrate the very glory to which the hymn refers.

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

Sunday, January 28

8:30 a.m.       Worship, Fellowship Hall

9:45 a.m.       Sunday School

11:00 a.m.     Worship, Sanctuary

5:00 p.m.       Middle School Fellowship

6:00 p.m.       High School Fellowship

Monday, January 29

5:30 p.m.       Adult Handbells

Tuesday, January 30

9:30 a.m.       Staff Meeting, Room 117

10:00 a.m.     Morning Prayer Group, Conference Room

7:00 p.m.       Boy Scout Troop 3, Scout Wing

Wednesday, January 31

9:30 a.m.       Women's DVD Bible Study, Coffee Klatch Room

5:15 p.m.       Baby & Toddler Care, Rooms 34-36

5:30 p.m.       Fellowship Dinner, Fellowship Hall

6:00 p.m.       Pastor Nominating Comm., Room 117

6:00 p.m.       Wednesday Night Kids

6:00 p.m.       Middle School Gathering

6:15 p.m.       Adult Learning Program, Fellowship Hall

7:00 p.m.       High School Small Groups

7:15 p.m.       Sanctuary Choir

7:30 p.m.       8:30 Worship Team, Fellowship Hall

Thursday, February 1

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