Church Blog (Page 13)

Church Blog (Page 13)

Mother’s Day Service

First Church Family,     Blessings on you this first full week of May. The experts tell us that our last chance of a killing frost is past us, meaning that we are free to set out annual plants and garden vegetables without fear of losing them to cold weather. But is anyone really an “expert” on weather? Ha!     We continue to move forward following our resumption of in-person worship services on Sundays. Thank you for participating the way you have. And many thanks to…

May Message

First Church Family, The sunny weather has been wonderful! After a cold, dark, wet winter, spring has actually sprung. But what about the saying: “April showers bring May flowers?” One of the things our congregation is known for in our region is our commitment to food ministry for the poor. Though the COVID pandemic has been a challenge for us, and prevented us from reaching out to the community through our Thanksgiving Day provision of “ready to cook” meals for…

Spring Worship

April 28, 2021  First Church Family, I pray you are enjoying the wonderful Spring weather with which we’ve been blessed the last days. A couple of weeks ago I spent several days at the beach, and while it was fun and restful, the water temperature was still in the mid-fifties! Evidently, winter was cold, dark and wet there too… But now things are changing. I actually set out annual vegetables on my Sabbath yesterday. And so far, there is not a predicted frost/freeze in…

In-Person Worship

First Church Family, What a glorious Easter season we enjoyed at FUMC! Easter Sunday was the first Sunday we didn’t rigidly limit the number of people in our Sanctuary, but we were well under our maximum of people limited by COVID protocols. And what a great feeling it was to be together! Our total worship attendance (including those worshiping with us online) was well over 400 persons. Many thanks to staff and volunteers who worked together to ensure our safety as they encouraged COVID-19…

What Wondrous Hope

First Church Family, What a glorious Easter we experienced together! Many thanks to all of our staff members, volunteers, musicians, and ushers for going beyond the call of duty to provide meaningful worship in as safe a context as possible. And thank you for being patient with us, and also following our COVID protocols. We had been trying to limit our attendance to between 50 to 60 worshipers at previous services, but we were able to handle twice that many on Easter fairly easily. It has…

Easter Week

Dear First Church Family, Holy Week blessings to you! What a difference in mood we experience during this sacred time of year. Last Sunday, we began worship with Jesus’ triumphal entry to Jerusalem, amid shouts of “Hosanna.” In fact, things were going so well that John says the Pharisees murmured: “Look! The whole world has gone after Him!” (John 12:19) Everything seemed wonderful! But Jesus knew it wouldn’t last. He knew how fickle crowds could be. He knew that the faces of people inside…

April Message

First Church Family, I continue to pray for you as we begin to move through spring. I pray that your life is being renewed just as our surroundings are. Something we don’t often talk about is the many miles Jesus walked during his ministry. There were no trains, planes, or automobiles to help in His transportation. And walking was a slow process. Interestingly, though, He came into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday on a donkey. He only rode it a couple…

Passion Sunday

First Church Family, I pray you are enjoying some of the signals that spring is here, arriving this past weekend. And God’s creation is alive with new life: blooming daffodils and  jonquils, budding and flowering trees, Hostas breaking the surface of the ground, and the like. Last Sunday we gave in-person worship a trial run in our Sanctuary with a  limited number of people. And things couldn’t have gone better. This coming Sunday, Palm/Passion Sunday, we will hold in-person worship at  10:00am in our Christian Life Center.…

Resurrection Greetings!

March 22, 2021 Resurrection Greetings! Here we are again at that beautiful time of year we know as Easter. Many have rightly called it the “Season of Resurrection,” because it highlights the most amazing event in all of human history: the moment God raised Jesus from the grave! As we enter this blessed season, I’m reminded that things are different than they used to be. We are still cautious about our comings and goings, even though we are beginning in-person…

Welcome Back

First Church Family, I pray you are enjoying some of the signals that spring is coming: blooming daffodils and jonquils (what we used to call “March flowers”), budding and flowering trees, Hostas breaking the surface of the ground, and the like. Spring will officially arrive before we worship together for the first time in a year this coming Sunday. And after a cold, dark, wet winter it couldn’t be a more anticipated arrival. As we announced last week, we are giving in-person worship a…

Re-Opening: March 21

First Church Family: Much has changed in regard to COVID 19 in the past months. Infection rates are down; vaccines are being given to a much larger number of persons across our community; and it is being reported that all three of the vaccines (Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson and Johnson) will prevent 100% of possible hospitalizations from the virus. Our leadership has sought to move wisely and cautiously over the many months that we have dealt with the pandemic. And we have been blessed that there…