First United Methodist Church
Bristol, Tennessee
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Your Weekly e-Newsletter and Events Schedule
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September 9, 2018
Sixteenth Sunday After Pentecost
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James 2:1-17
A Song You Can’t Sing
Rev. Catherine Rollins
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From the Pastor’s Pen . . .
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I am excited about this weekend, y’all! I am pumped because our astoundingly gifted United Methodist Women are taking over our worship on Sunday!
Wahoooo!
I’m not just excited because I want or need a break from the pulpit. It’s not that at all.
It’s a few different things.
It’s first that I don’t have a lot of opportunities to hear my colleagues preach. I got to hear from some superstars in May at the Festival of Homiletics, and during our community services I get to hear from some of our local folks, but there are a lot of my peers I’ve never had a chance to hear.
One of those is the Reverend Kate Rollins.
I am SUPER excited to hear how Kate’s presence and intellect and sense of poetry come together when God’s Spirit starts breathing the Word through her. I’m not sure what to expect, but I’m excited about it!
I’m also excited about handing our worship over to our women. I’m excited about that because women still lack a full voice and full value in our larger culture, which is frankly ridiculous. Especially in churches, albeit less so in United Methodist churches, women’s voices and dignity are pointedly devalued. That is completely inane! Most of my women colleagues in ministry have more talent and authority in their little fingers than their male counterparts who’ve had everything handed to them for generations!
So bring on our United Methodist Women! They’ve been the primary movers and shakers in our churches, and in our culture, for generations; operating primarily behind the scenes to create groundswells of social and liturgical change. It’s about doggone time we recognize their talent and power and let them formally lead.
Another thing that has me excited about Sunday is that the leadership we experience in worship looks like it’s going to be more diverse. Yes, our leadership will be all United Methodist Women, but we’ll have more people more involved in leading than we do most Sundays.
Frankly, that’s the way it ought to be, anyway. Liturgy is, literally, the “work of the people”. It should never be just a show offered by one or a handful of folk in the chancel. It should be all of us, bringing the best we have to offer for the sake of cooperative praise and mutual uplifting.
And maybe that’s an important point to make to balance this article a bit. What the Spirit is leading us into is a Divine Family in which all God’s children are valued equally, are loved without question as the beautiful creatures they are. But in order to get there from our patriarchal, anglo-centric, bought-by-the-highest-bidder culture, we have some serious correctives to make. Our United Methodist Women, the drivers of all our missional efforts for over a hundred years, are equipped and empowered to spearhead a lot of those correctives.
I’m really excited to do just that.
I’m really excited about this weekend.
I think God has something very special in store for us.
Peace,
Brandon
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Our “Feed the Hungry” offering this week is for Family Promise of Bristol.
This program provides an opportunity for us to show God’s grace and
Christ’s love to children with homeless families in the Bristol area.
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Mission News:
Food Collection for
Bristol Faith in Action–
Your donation of non-perishable food was gratefully received by BFIA volunteers.Thanks for helping to
keep the shelves stocked!
Hospice Lunch Week
Food Donation-
We are midway through our week of providing food for Hospice House.
Pasta salad, chicken salad, baked spaghetti, fried chicken, and more have been or will be delivered.
Many thanks to those participating.
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The lovely flowers that graced our sanctuary last Sunday were given by former member, Judy Ditmore, in memory of her late husband Jeff.
After morning worship, the flowers
were delivered by Kathy Wagner
to Hospice House for the residents and staff to enjoy.
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Last Sunday
Mark 7:1-23
The Celebration of Beauty
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Fairest Lord Jesus, ruler of all nature,
O thou of God and man the Son,
thee will I cherish,
thee will I honor,
thou, my soul’s glory, joy, and crown.
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Fair are the meadows, fairer still the woodlands,
robed in the blooming garb of spring:
Jesus is fairer,
Jesus is purer,
who makes the woeful heart to sing.
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Fair is the sunshine, fairer still the moonlight,
and all the twinkling starry host:
Jesus shines brighter,
Jesus shines purer
than all the angels heaven can boast.
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Beautiful Savior! Lord of all the nations!
Son of God and Son of Man!
Glory and honor,
praise, adoration,
now and forevermore be thine.
~Munster Gersangbuch, 1677
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Erica announced that she will begin taking blood pressures on Sunday
mornings twice a month for anyone who has interest. Be sure to check
your church bulletin and newsletter for announcements.
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In remembrance of Me eat this bread.
In remembrance of Me drink this wine.
In remembrance of Me pray for the time
When God’s own will is done.
In remembrance of Me heal the sick.
In remembrance of Me feed the poor.
In remembrance of Me open the door,
And let your brother in, let him in.
Take eat and be comforted, drink and remember too
That this is my body and precious blood shed for you,
Shed for you.
~Buryl Red
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We have come here, Lord,
trying to make something beautiful of this dust;
Open our eyes Lord,
To see the beauty you have already created
in ourselves and in each other.
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September 9 is Spaghetti Sunday!!
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Join the Youth In Tankersley Hall at either
11 a.m. or 12 noon, following worship.
They will serve spaghetti with mouth-watering, made-from-
scratch-just-the-way-your-mama-used-to-make-it sauce.
You won’t want to miss this special treat cooked up
by First’s very own young people.
So, come, make a donation to the youth ministry.
and eat to your heart’s delight.
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Youth Event- Wednesday, September 12
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It’s time for Walmart Tag!
Meet at 6:30 at the Church.
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Five Week Book Study
Begins Wednesday, September 12
and Sunday, September 16
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Alzheimer’s/Dementia: Ministry with the Forgotten by Bishop Kenneth Carder
will be offered in two sessions:
one on Wednesday mornings at 11:00 a.m. and
the other on Sunday evenings at 7:00 p.m. in the Library.
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Bible Study for 5th and 6th Graders
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Beginning September 19
Wednesdays 6:30 p.m. – 8 p.m.
Come and Bring Your Friends!
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Missing Sunday School? How about “Sunday School” on some other day? Come to an organizational meeting of a group, enjoy fellowship and plan how we might find a time and way to learn about God’s word for our life. Book study? Bible review? Videos and movies? Want to eat? What would you like? We’ll decide together.
Organizational meeting Wednesday, September 19 at 5:30 at the church. Previous Fellowship Class-you might like this. Those looking for a small group-this could be it. New to the church and want to connect and study-try this out. Everybody-this could be a new way to find God in the midst of new and old friends.
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An Invitation from the Choir
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Join with the choir on September 23, Unity Sunday, for the 9:30 a.m. Contemplative Service followed by brunch.
September 23 is also Rhythm and Roots Festival
Sunday in Downtown Bristol.
Come to First United Methodist Church’s early worship at
9:30 a.m. and bring a brunch dish
(the choir will provide juice and drinks).
After worshiping together, we will enjoy a time of
food and fellowship and be
ready for the final day of music downtown.
This will be FUMC’s only worship service on September 23.
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Martha Circle
Next meeting at Sue Bryngelson’s House
September 25 at 5:30. NOTE NEW TIME!
We’ll have pizza so don’t worry about supper.
Come and bring a friend.
All women of the church and your friends are welcome.
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The Date of Charge Conference for 1st UMC, Bristol Has Been Set:
Sunday, October 14, 2018, 5:30 p.m.
Weaver United Methodist Church
132 Peoples Road
Bristol, TN 37620
Please include this important meeting in your schedule.
This is our opportunity to voice our vote for leadership
within the local church.
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2018 Holston Evangelism Conference
State Street UMC
Sunday November 4
2:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
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Cost $10.00 at the door.
Books available for purchase on site.
Childcare provided.
Sponsored by the Holston Conference Witness Team and Discipleship Teams.
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Youth Conference
REZ 2019
Pigeon Forge TN
January 25-26-27
Registrations paid by
Aug. 31 are $50
Price through September is $75,
as long as space is available.
Our cabin sleeps twelve.
See John Mack to sign up.
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Fall house cleaning? Don’t throw anything away. Save for our Church Yard Sale. May 2019! We can find a place to store anything if you want to get it out of your house. See any UMW member for more information.
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Dinner for Eight Enjoyed at Captain’s Table
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Our Dinner for Eight group met at Captains Table last Saturday for a delicious dinner and conversation. The first picture shows us hungry and ready for a great dinner.
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Our next outing will be to Amis Mill Eatery in Rogersville for lunch.
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Worship in Children’s Church Last Week
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Ms. Kathy taught from Mark 7:1-23 about how being kind to others is clean while
being unkind (fussing, bullying, and doing other mean things) is unclean.
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We played a game. Ms. Kathy taped yarn to the floor and we stood behind the first line. Ms. Kathy asked us to raise our hands if what she said was in the Bible. If we were correct, we got to move to the next line of yarn. (Ms. Kathy tried to trick us, because
she raised her hand every time!)
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We pulled pictures out of a bag and had to decide if they were clean (good things) or unclean (not good things) and glued our pictures on the right side of the paper.
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We made hearts from foam and put a mark on them if we had done anything wrong
like take something that didn’t belong to us, tell a lie, cheat, or call someone an ugly name. We washed off the marks in soap and water, but only Jesus can give us
a clean heart.
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We had a snack of graham crackers with frosting and a red heart
made with sprinkles.
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Youth Find Adventure
at Dinosaur Park
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We are happy to report no one was trampled or eaten.
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Dear all,
I would like to invite you to our Chamber Music Concert this Friday night.
We will be performing the celebrated Schubert String Quintet and other chamber works with our guest artists – cellist Daniel Veis, Sean Hawthorne – the newly appointed ETSU faculty, violinists
Yu-Fang Chen and Miroslav Hristov.
Friday, September 7 at 7:30 pm
Brown Recital Hall, East Tennessee State University
Free admission (Donations accepted)
I am looking forward to seeing you this Friday.
Please, share this information with anyone that might be interested.
Musically,
David Kovac
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Send Your Pictures and Announcements
to Publish in the Newsletter
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Send your photos and announcements for the Newsletter
For each publication, information is
needed by noon on Wednesday.
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Your Church Event and Planning Calendar
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Week of September 6-12, 2018
Thursday, September 6
6:00pm-Yoga with Jean-Yoga Studio
6:30pm-Girl Scouts-TH
8:00pm-AA
Friday, September 7
5:30pm-Belly Dancing Class-Yoga Studio
6:30pm-Belly Dancing Class-Yoga Studio
7:00pm-NA
Saturday, September 8
Sunday, September 9
9:30am-The River Worship-TH
9:30am-Sunday School Hour
10:00am-Common Ground Service-Chapel
11:00am-Spaghetti Dinner
11:00am-Worship-Sanctuary
(Childcare is provided from 9:30am to 12:00pm.
Children may be picked up at any time.)
12:00pm-Spaghetti Dinner
12:15pm-Choir Rehearsal
6:00pm-Love Overflowing-Tennessee High School Auditorium
8:00pm-AA
Monday, September 10
6:00pm-Belly Dancing Class-Yoga Studio
Tuesday, September 11
8:00am-Men’s Prayer Group-TH
8:00pm-AA
Wednesday, September 12
6:30pm-Youth (MAFIA)-Walmart Tag
To make changes or additions to the calendar contact Alan Gorrell 423-652-7377
or Sandy Gorrell 423-652-1987.
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First United Methodist Church
Rev. Brandon Berg, Pastor (276.237.6498)
322 Vance Dr., Bristol, TN 37620
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Our Vision–
Building A Community Where Anyone
Can Become A Deeply Committed Christian
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First United Methodist Church of Bristol 