First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Disciples serving Middletown since 1912.
We will say farewell to our Music Director, Rachel Eve Davis. There will be a reception following worship in her honor and a box will be available for notes of appreciation.
Rachel Eve has served as our Worship and Choir Accompanist and later served as our Music Director.
Palm Sunday Worship– Sunday March 25th 10:30 A.M.
Maundy Thursday Service– Thursday March 29th 7:00 P.M.
Good Friday Stations of the Cross Open House– Friday March 30th 3:00 P.M. – 8:00 P.M.
Easter Sunday
Sunrise Worship– 8:00 A.M.
Breakfast
Easter Egg Hunt
Easter Worship– 10:30 A.M.
First Presbyterian Church is hosting Lenton Luncheons.
Lenten Luncheons: Growing Up When You’re Already Grown
On Wednesdays during Lent, come by for lunch and conversation with one of the new pastors in town. Each speaker has been asked to respond to theme “Growing Up When You’re Already Grown.” The program begins at 1:00 and lasts less than an hour.
Join us to Celebrate Jesus’ last days. Maundy thursday service will start at 7:00 PM Thursday March 29th.
Feb 14 John 10: 1 – 18 I am the Good Shepherd
Feb 18 John 11: 1 – 44 I am the Resurrection
Feb 25 John 13: 1 – 17 He Washes Feet
Mar 4 John 18: 12 – 27 He is Denied
Mar 11 John 18: 28 – 40 He is King
Mar 18 John 19: 1 – 16a He is the Son of God
Mar 25 John 19: 16b – 22 He is Not the King of the Jews
Mar 29 John 19: 23 – 30 I am Thirsty
Pastor Tracy will be starting a Pastor’s
class after the first of the year for the
youth. This is for youth who have been
baptized but have not done Pastor’s
class and for youth who are considering
baptism. They will be meeting every
other Sunday beginning 1/14/18:
1/14/18, 1/28/18, 2/11/18, 2/25/18,
3/11/18 and 3/25/18. They will meet at
9:30 am during the Sunday school hour
before church. Elder Martin Schaefer
will co-teach the class with Pastor
Tracy. If you have not already talked to
her about your youth participating in
the class, please do so ASAP. As Easter
approaches, she will have more details
about baptisms for those who choose
to be baptized after the class.
Please pray over the coming months
for the following who will be
participating in Pastor’s class: Cameron
Fowler, Aiden McMonigle, Owen Lyons,
Nick Otis, Angel Dearth, Travis
Hendricks and Riley McMonigle. These
youth, Martin and Pastor Tracy need
your prayers through these classes. It
is an important time for the youth to
learn and prepare for a new chapter in
their faith story.
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.
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
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.
When I was searching for a church to call home in my 20s, I visited many churches. I
remember a few of them particularly. One was a church focused on young adults. The
preacher was great. However, no one greeted me when I visited. There was a welcome table
that I had to go to be welcomed and get more information about the church and service. No
one invited me into conversation with their group or invited me to sit with them.
Another church I attended also had no welcoming person. I was handed a bulletin and I went
to sit by myself. The pastor greeted me and gave me an opportunity for participating in
ministry well before service started. The pastor was the only one to talk to me that morning.
I think I told you the story of visiting the church that I eventually called home. Wally Franz
greeted me at the front door of High St. Christian Church. He handed me a bulletin. He
walked me to the worship space and introduced me to Char and her family. Char invited me to
sit with them and they explained the service to me so that I knew what to do and when to do it.
Had it not been for Wally and Char, I probably would have went searching again.
I often wonder how visitors feel when they visit our church. I wonder if they feel as welcomed
as I did at High St. I wonder who our Wally and Char are. I wonder if the experience of a
complete stranger is different than a friend who visits or someone who has come back to
church after a long time away. Without a Wally and Char, our visitors may not feel welcome
and may not come back. Just as we welcome guests in our homes, we should welcome
guests to our church.
Welcoming churches have dedicated people to the ministry of hosting guests. Those hosts
know they are not at church to be served, but to serve our guests in a specific capacity. Hosts
greet visitors and introduce them to others. Hosts sit with guests and help them understand
what we do in worship. Like Wally and Char, hosts can serve in different ways to the same
guests.
I understand it can be scary to introduce yourself to someone new. I believe being a host at
the church is a spiritual gifting and calling. While we may expect this hosting ministry to be
done by our leadership, not all Elders and Deacons have that gift so it can be done by others
in the congregation. Hosting may be your opportunity to serve if you haven’t yet found your
niche.
Do you feel called to host our guests like Wally and Char?
