Tracy Talks XV

A Christian’s calendar is complex. We have the Gregorian calendar of January through
December with reminders of full moons, the beginning of seasons and civic holidays. For the
(c)hurch, we have the fiscal year that runs July through June and time seasons based on
budgets and nominations. The Christian (C)hurch calendar runs Advent through Christ the
King Sunday which is late November to mid-November noting seasons of Holy days. On the
Christian (C)hurch calendar, the first Sunday of Advent is the beginning of the new year.
Advent is a season of hope – Advent is Latin for waiting. The image of pregnancy is often
thought of during Advent as we are preparing for the birth of a baby. Throughout the season,
the church reads Scripture about the hope of a Messiah and lights candles that express our
waiting for the hope, peace, joy and love that the Messiah will bring to the world. Advent is an
opportunity to prepare ourselves for the coming of the Christ child born anew each Christmas.
During Advent, it is a good practice to do something daily to prepare our hearts for Christ. A
recent addition to the observance of the season of Advent in the Christian church is the Advent
calendar. The observance of the Advent calendar to number the days in Advent began in the
19th century among the German Lutherans. You may think of calendars with chocolates for
each day when you think of an Advent calendar. You may have read books with ordered
devotions in the past.
I’d like to offer you a calendar to observe this year. The SALT project offered a set of Advent
calendar devotions last year that I think were helpful in observing the Advent calendar in a new
and different way. Several of us prepared packets of the SALT project Advent calendar for you
to pick up on this Sunday. You will find envelopes with the cards on the table in the Narthex.
(The SALT project is a donor-supported, not-for-profit production company. The suggested
donation for the calendar project is $25 / church. If you’d like to contribute to that donation,
please leave a dollar in the basket next to the calendars.)
The SALT project Advent calendar of notecards gives you a daily idea for doing something to
devote yourself to Christ and prepare for His coming. This calendar is designed for youth and

young adults and is easily adapted for people of all ages. This calendar can be followed as a
family, a couple or individuals. Mo Mo and I will be observing the calendar with you.
Some of the daily suggestions may be easier to fulfill than others. For instance, day 13
suggests you invite friends over for a vegetarian feast – that may not make sense for you.
Still, think of something else to do that day like no meat for dinner or taking a friend to lunch.
You may not do the days in order, either. Perhaps your schedule allows you to do day 5
(writing a faith statement) on day 7 and day 7 (leaving quarters in gumball machines) on
day 5. You can do what you need to do to make it easier to follow and still practice daily
devotion during the Advent season.
You may start your Advent calendar on the 1st Sunday and 1st day of Advent which is
Sunday, November 26th. For the candle lightings suggested on Sundays in the calendar,
you may consider lighting a candle at home or allow our candle lighting on Sunday morning
during worship to fulfill that practice as we will be lighting a candle each Sunday on our
Advent wreath.

If you follow the church’s Facebook page, there will be a daily post for the following day’s
devotion. For example, on Monday afternoon you will see a reminder for the devotion for
Tuesday. Feel free to post your progress in the comments on those posts to let us know
how you’re doing, what worked for you, or a faith statement you wrote on those days.
If you have any questions, want to share your progress, have any ideas, let me know. I’d
love to hear how this practice is working for you.

Sermon Series: Season of Promise

Date                        Scripture                       Promise

Nov 26                Daniel 3: 1 – 30         The Promise of God’s Presence

Dec 3                Ezekiel 37: 1 – 14                The Promise of New Life

Dec 10             Isaiah 55: 1 – 13            The Promise of Abundant Life

Dec 17            Psalm 130                           The Promise of Redemption

Dec 24 am                                                                     Lessons and Carols

Dec 24 pm              Luke 2: 1 –20        The Fulfillment of God’s Promise

Tracy Talks XIV

 

People often site the reason they love the Fall is the beauty of all the changing colors on the
trees. It is a beautiful time of year. I think equally as beautiful as Spring, because we see
many colors of God’s creation in both seasons. Traditionally, we think of Fall as the season of
harvest and Spring as the season of planting. This year, Fall will be a season of planting at
First Christian Church.

As some of you have noted and many have noticed, the plants and shrubs around the church
need some new life. Our gardeners have worked diligently to maintain our gardens, pruning
trees and bushes, removing weeds, and planting flowers. Their work has been marvelous,
especially given they’ve been working with some unwieldy plants and others that are showing
no signs of life.
It is important for us to maintain the grounds around God’s house so that we have a beautiful
and inviting building to welcome our members and visitors where we can love and serve the
Lord. In addition to us just wanting the church to look nice, we need to be mindful of who can
hide in overgrown bushes who may want to enter the building without our invitation whether it
be a would-be thief or our wildlife neighbors.
Our gardeners have taken time to procure plans from Berns Garden Center to add some new
life to the gardens around the church. The Property Team approved the work. Will, Gifts and
Memorials has approved funds to be used to cover the expense of the new plants and labor for
this project. The work will begin later this month and take a couple of days. Our gardeners,
Property and WGM are all very excited about the project.
Some of the funds will come from memorials given in memory of Lois Hafer. Like many of our
members and departed saints, Lois had a great love for the church. She enjoyed helping take
care of the church grounds for many years. WGM are glad for the plans and feel this will be an
excellent way to use memorial funds.
I want us to get our hopes up about how beautiful the church will look with new plants, trees
and shrubs; I also want us to have reasonable expectations. Our current landscaping is very

mature and our new landscaping will be young. We’ll need time for them to mature and it may
look sparse for a couple years. Everything will be planted with room for the plants to mature
meaning there will be space between them until they reach their full size. The plans have
taken into account flowering times for the plants so that there is a bit of color throughout the
Spring and Summer seasons without everything being in color all at once.
After the work is complete, we’ll have a prayer and dedication during our worship service to
celebrate God’s creation and the means to do this work thanks to memorials given in memory
of our departed saints. If you have any questions about the plans, please see Sharon
Amburgey, Linda Pointer, or Charlotte Steele.

General Assembly Elects a new General Minister/President

FCC Calls Rev. Tracy Siegman!

First Christian Church is Excited to Announce it’s Call of a New Pastor.

 

After months of interviews and research, the First Christian Church pastoral search committee made a recommendation to the congregation, who voted to approve the call of Rev. Tracy Siegman.

Rev. Tracy Siegman

Rev. Tracy Siegman

Tracy is an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).   She believes we are all given gifts of the Spirit at our baptism.  Her spiritual gift is to be set aside for full-time vocational ministry. She has the joy of being Christ’s ambassador for the Church sharing the love and mercy of Christ with the gracious support of a local congregation. She loves the work she is called to do.

Pastor Tracy grew up in Northeast Ohio. she is a Graduate of Walsh College in Canton, Ohio with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Management, Lexington Theological Seminary in Lexington, Kentucky with a Master of Divinity Degree.

Previously Pastor Tracy has served as Pastor of First Christian Church(Disciples of Christ) in Bethany, Illinois, and Associate Pastor of Union Avenue Christian Church(Disciples of Christ) in Litchfield, Illinois. She likes cooking, chocolate, shoes, and reading. Oh, and lots and lots of coffee. She can often be found working in the chapel at St. Arbucks. She likes her chocolate dark and her coffee hot and black, unless its a Holiday Spice Flat White!

Pastor Tracy Siegman will be installed as Pastor of First Christian Church(Disciples of Christ) in Worship on Sunday May 7th, 2017.

Photo Courtesy: Donald Dixon

 

Photo Courtesy: Donald Dixon

 

Sermons are now online!


Check out the new sermons page to listen to the latest messages from the pulpit!

Elders

The Elders of First Christian Church are the Spiritual Leadership of the congregation. They are responsible for leading the ministries of the church as well as leading in worship at the communion table.

Cliff Thompson, Elder

Roger Byrd, Elder

Dave

Dave Lombard, Elder

10399099_100387536641407_7453257_n

Dorice Perkins, Elder Emeritus

10259412_968859159834669_2783386386333695877_n

Karen Powers, Elder

Sharon Amburgy, Elder

Matt Lyons, Elder

Guy Stone, Elder

Marilyn Stong, Elder Emeritus

Helen Morgan, Elder Emeritis

 

First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)