Dear Friends,

On Sunday at the close of worship I tried to capture the moment when everyone stopped to listen to the guest musicians as they played the postlude. It was an extraordinary moment—a holy joyful-noise moment even—when we paused and savored the beauty together. My hope is that you will have more of these breath-catching, holy moments as we finish Advent and enter the official Christmas season. Prayers for all who are traveling and for all who are hosting, for all who are struggling and for all who are celebrating. The great good news is that the Christ child comes to all of us, for all of us.

Grace and peace,

Ellen

The Nursery will be available for the 11:00 AM worship service and the 5:00 PM worship service this Sunday, December 24.

We Will have Bible Study on December 27.

Usher sign up link:  https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0948acab2dabf49-fpcusher

Lay Reader sign up link:  https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0948acab2dabf49-scripture

link for online worship:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfpzVUz-ZgaCJuogIMor8Iw/live

link to Ellen's sermon podcasts:  https://bit.ly/Sermons_FPCConcord

Christmas Pageant

Thank you to the youth and children of our church family for leading last Sunday evening’s worship. It was a beautiful Christmas Pageant celebrating the birth of Jesus.

19 youth and 25 children participated this year. Thank you to all who donated non-perishable food items and to Heath for delivering the 105 pounds of food to Cooperative Christian Ministries last week. 

Thursday Connections...

The next Connections book study will begin

January 25, 2024 at 2 PM in the Commons, with Rev. Casey Aldridge leading the discussion of Priya Parker’s book 'The Art of Gathering…How We Meet and Why it Matters.’ 

Mark you calendars now for this winter read and as one reviewer remarks…"Read it for its wisdom, its charm, its insight, and its ability to make every encounter with others more meaningful and enjoyable."

Repurpose Your Christmas Trees

As you take down your decorations weeks from now, please be aware that we are accepting artificial Christmas trees of all sizes.

The lights do not need to work, but we would like trees to be green (some artificial trees come in a range of colors)

We will store these at the church for props for future Vacation Bible schools and other programs.

Please contact René Prager at r.prager@firstpresconcord.org or 704-788-2100 ext 4 to schedule a drop off. We do not need the trees this holiday season, so there is no rush. We would prefer to repurpose gently used trees that you are planning to discard versus purchasing new ones."

Fortnite

By request, an additional Youth Group date was added to the calendar this past Sunday. Seven of our Youth attended with projectors and game components in hand and engaged in an evening of Fortnite. Youth Group will not meet on Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve. We look forward to gathering again on January 7^th.

January 7^th schedule:

4:30 PM - 5:30 PM – Confirmation class

5:30 PM - 6:00 PM – Combined dinner

6:00 PM - 7:00 PM – Middle and High school youth group