I'll be real honest with you: I always cringe when applying 2 Corinthians 9:6 to notes, letters, or appeals for giving within the church. There are an overwhelming number of examples within the body of Christ where hawkers of the Gospel use this passage to ask for money so that they can buy their next jet. Used this way, the passage seems to transform the free gift of God's grace into a transaction between us and God. The equation goes something like this: Want a lot of stuff? Want to be wealthy, healthy, and wise? Want to "reap bountifully?" Then give a lot. "Name it and claim it." Put a down payment on the prosperity God is just waiting to bestow upon you, if you will just send in your check. Call now, God has "angels" waiting on heaven's hotline to take your pledge today!

Such thinking is a parody of what Paul means here; it is time for us to reclaim our birthright. In chapters 8 and 9 of 2 Corinthians, Paul is challenging the church to give, but this isn't a transaction between the church and God for the sake of a future blessing. Instead, Paul is asking them to examine their hearts, acknowledge the need they know exists, and to allow the Holy Spirit to direct their giving to meet that need. The blessing comes, not as a transaction, but instead as an operation of the Spirit by which the church shares in the joy and abundance of the proclamation of the Gospel, both near to them and afar, with their brothers and sisters in need.

Paul's challenge is for us. We are wrapping up our Stewardship 2019 campaign, and I thank God for each of you who give so generously to the church and its work of proclaiming the Gospel. I also know there are some who aren't quite sure if they can give, whether they ought to give, or how much is enough. I understand the dilemma; we've all been there. However, I would only ask you to listen to the witness of Scripture: "Through the testing of this ministry you glorify God by your obedience to the confession of the gospel of Christ and by the generosity of your sharing with them and with all others" (2 Cor. 9:13). Your generous giving is a way to glorify God within the context of the work of the church so that the body of Christ becomes a blessing to our community, to the world, and to the ends of the earth.

For this reason, I thank you for what you have given, and I look forward to seeing the fruit of our collective generosity as we seek to glorify God here at First Pres Bristol and our larger community with all that we are and have. Thanks be to God!

In Christ,

Pastor Sam

We will collect our quarterly Five Cents a Meal offering Sunday, October 28, at both services. The suggested offering is $13.65 per person, or about a nickel for each meal you eat in a three-month period. Your offering will provide hunger relief through both local and global ministries. Last year, our Five Cents a Meal offerings enabled FPC to help feed the hungry in Bristol through Haven of Rest and Bristol Emergency Food Pantry, and in Ethiopia and Brazil through our missions in those countries. Please be generous!

We don't want to spook anyone, but our regular Wednesday night programming will vanish on October 31. It will be beyond incorporeal, formless, nonexistent. There will be no fellowship supper, no Adult Learning session, no on-site youth or children's activities. Yet from somewhere in the upper reaches of the church, stray creatures below will hear unseen hands ringing bells, followed by disembodied voices singing. Eerily from the Fellowship Hall will come distant sounds of voices and instruments and the beating of drums. Could that have anything to do with Halloween? Only members of our three choirs know.

We are collecting vanilla wafers for the many students of Fairmount Elementary whose families can't buy them snacks for the afternoon break. We collect snacks from our generous church family, and the Christian Hands Ministry folks make sure they get to the school. Please bring boxes of any brand of vanilla wafers to the Little Red House in the Fellowship Hallway to help our friends at Fairmount pay attention through the fall afternoons. Thank you!

Sunday's music: Our anthem, Jubilate Deo, was composed by Benjamin Britten (1913 -1976). Britten was the leading British composer of the last half of the 20th century and considered the finest English opera composer since Henry Purcell (1659 -1695). Britten

	Benjamin Britten

studied at the Royal College of Music. From 1939 to 1942, he lived in the United States as a pacifist, but love for his homeland took him back to England. He continued to experiment with modern musical styles, forms, and sonorities, which are the characteristics of his music. Jubilate Deo, a setting of Psalm 100, was written in 1961 for St. George's Chapel in Windsor Castle. It is, indeed, a joyous work that displays a unique partnership between choir and organ. The melodic lines are mostly unison with ornamentation in the upper voices and are presented antiphonally between sopranos/tenors and altos/basses. An introspective middle section heightens the joy of the brilliant "Doxology" and ""Amen."

Organist's footnotes: Three transcriptions. On Sunday you will hear three well-known pieces, each transcribed from their original arrangements. "Vocalise" [Prelude] is a song by Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873 -1943),

	Antonina Nezhdanova

composed and published in 1915 as the last of his 14 Songs or 14 Romances, Op. 34. Written for high voice (soprano or tenor) with piano accompaniment, it contains no words but is sung using a single vowel of the singer's choosing. It was dedicated to soprano Antonina Nezhdanova.

Charles Gounod (1818 -1893) considered The Well-Tempered Clavier of Johann Sebastian Bach to be "the law to pianoforte study ... the unquestioned textbook of musical composition." He was inspired to devise a melody and superimpose it on the "C Major Prelude" (BWV 846) from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1. In 1859 Gounod fitted the words of the "Ave Maria" [Offertory] to his melody. Bill Linderman plays Bach's accompaniment on the piano while I play Gounod's melody with handbells.

"The Flight of the Bumblebee" [Postlude] is an orchestral interlude written by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844 -1908) for his opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan, composed in 1899-1900. It is intended to musically evoke the seemingly chaotic and rapidly changing flying pattern of a bumblebee. Despite the piece's being a rather incidental part of the opera, it is today one of the more familiar classical works because of its frequent use in popular culture.

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

The more the merrier: The Sanctuary Handbell Choir welcomes all adults who'd like to help the music ring out on Sunday mornings. No experience required: it will be fun to teach you! We practice Wednesdays from 6:15 to 7:15 p.m. Please talk with Beth Flannagan, Mary Ellis Rice, Rebecca Tate, Jim White, or Bob Greene, and join us upstairs in room 212 after the fellowship supper.

Sunday, October 28

8:30 a.m.       Worship, Fellowship Hall

9:45 a.m.       Sunday School

11:00 a.m.     Worship, Sanctuary

6:00 p.m.       Student Fellowship, Youth Wing

Tuesday, October 30

10:00 a.m.     Staff Meeting, Room 117

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

1:00 p.m.       Jackie Burt's Heartsburn Bible Study, Room 117

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

7:00 p.m.       Boy Scout Troop 3 Court of Honor, Chapel

Wednesday, October 31

9:30 a.m.       Women's Bible Study, Room 117

6:15 p.m.       Handbell Practice, Room 212

7:15 p.m.       Sanctuary Choir, Room 220

7:15 p.m.       Worship Team, Fellowship Hall

Thursday, November 1

7:00 a.m.       Men's Bible Study, Parlor

12:00 p.m.     Noon Bible Study, Room 117

Saturday, November 3

9:00 a.m.       Leaf Raking Crew Meets in FPC Parking Lot

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