First United Methodist Church of Bristol, Tennessee

Your Weekly e-Newsletter and Events Schedule

Welcome to In-Person Worship Again….

If you are uncomfortable with worshiping in person or unable to join us for whatever reason, please tune in as we live-stream the service on Facebook.

> Enter the narthex doors beside the sanctuary.

> Wear a cloth mask that covers your mouth and nose continuously.

> Maintain at least six feet of space between yourself and anyone outside of your immediate household.

> Minimize your use of the lavatory and sanitize the spaces you use, and

> Exit the Sanctuary through the side doors closest to the parking lot.

Schedule Adjustment:

In-person worship at 11:00a.m. Sundays in the sanctuary can also be viewed on the church Facebook page.
If you have not connected to FUMC via Facebook, please go do that. You can also connect to Rev. Berg on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. He will try to share uplifting and empowering things on those media.

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Last Sunday at First UMC

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From the Pastor’s Pen
November 21, 2021

I wonder if becoming more fussy about what I eat is an effect of getting older. I don’t mean picky, really, because pickiness seems to assume refusal to try things. I try things. I compare things. Then I make qualitative decisions about things, and I become increasingly fussy about the way I like things.

So maybe it’s an effect of maturing.

I’m also fussy about the way I prepare foods. You can ask Karoline about that. If I chop a pepper for a snack, the chunks will be at least an inch wide and the length of the whole fruit. If I chop them for Sweet and Sour Chicken, they’ll be squares about an inch wide. If I chop them for pizza, they’ll be rings. If I dice them for spaghetti sauce or tacos, they’ll be the size of raw popcorn kernels. This is how it must be for the right mouthfeel.

But I get really fussy about mass-produced foods. Sure, at night I’ll shovel popcorn into my gullet mindlessly, but I have very little appreciation for raw cookie dough in breakfast sausage packaging or preformed into segmented trays. They are pointedly sweet and monochromatically flavored. Food should have qualities that make it stand out, that make the mouth pop, that differentiate it from other food. Food should be texturally diverse and should play with multiple flavor centers.

Like macarons. If you haven’t tried these little dream pockets, go to Blackbird and buy one. Just one, because self-control is a fruit of the Spirit. Bite into the thin, crunchy crust and let the flavor of the meringue explode in your mouth, then savor the cream sandwiched in between the cookies. Let the whole thing swim around in your mouth and set off brand new neural pathways in your brain. Then, five seconds later, eat the other half.

Thank me later.



Then ponder what it is that makes you unique, that makes you pop. How much effort have you spent being pre-segmented chocolate chip cookie dough? What does God actually have in mind for you? It’s all there already. It’s all in your passion and your giftedness. It just needs a little nurturing.

In a Nestlé Toll House world, be a homemade macaron.


Peace,
Brandon

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Morning Prayer

Rev. Berg streams morning prayer live on Facebook on weekday mornings in the 8:00 am hour.
Share your prayer requests with him or join him online.

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HELP FOR HAITI UPDATE

The Preptits are most concerned about the missionaries and family members who have been kidnapped by a gang in Haiti.  This is another worry on top of so many for them.  Can you imagine if this happened in our country!  Please pray for the Haitian people and the Preptits and the missionaries.

The items collected for the Haiti earthquake are on their way to Haiti.  The Preptits took them to Memphis to start them on their way.  There is a person chosen to pick them up and save them until they can be used.  Right now the Preptits are not able to travel to Haiti. The situation is just too dangerous.

Please pray for the Haitian people and the Preptits.  This is a most difficult time.

From the Finance Committee:

Red Number Report from Finance

As of September 1, we were-$9,929.91 in our General Fund.  As of September 30 we are -$27,253.18
There are no more loans to count on.  If you have not had the opportunity to give to the church, please consider donating at this time.  There are three months left in our fiscal year to change the report to BLACK Numbers.

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It’s Charge Conference Time!

Charge Conference is the Election Season of the local United Methodist Church. The mission and the membership (that’s you!) of the local church is represented in the work of multiple teams, including (but not limited to):

Administrative Council

Finance Committee

Board of Trustees

Staff Parish Relations Committee

Lay Leadership Committee

Missions Team

Worship Team

I hope you’ll do a handful of things in preparation for this year’s Charge Conference.

1. Pray. We need the power and guidance of your prayer for us, but also because prayer (as noted below) guides you to…
2. Get Involved. The gifts you bring to Christ’s Body are unique and beautiful and important. You see the needs of our community and the gifts of our church in a way that nobody else does, and we need your voice, your hands, and your feet.
3. Be Present. Charge Conference is the one regularly scheduled time we, as a church, are democratic. This is when your vote counts loudly and clearly. This is also when we get to see what ministries and miracles other churches around us are celebrating, and that’s an exciting thing to hear!

So put Charge Conference on your calendar, and in the meantime, talk to your Lay Leadership Committee about how God is nudging you to get involved and active at FUMC Bristol this year. We need to hear from you.

The Lay Leadership Committee is:

Brandon Berg

Sue Dietz

Sandy Gorrell

Trinka Felty

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Annual Conference Nominees Needed

Each District of the Holston Conference is allotted a certain number of at-large members of the Annual Conference in addition to those elected at Charge Conference and in other ministry areas. There are currently more laity positions available than nominees. If you are interested in being a member of the Holston Annual Conference in 2022 with full voting rights, please contact Rev. Berg or our Clinch Mountain District Administrative Assistant, Monika Hunter. 

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Calendar of Events

Nov 18-24, 2021

First United Methodist Church
Rev. Brandon Berg, Pastor (276.237.6498) 
322 Vance Dr., Bristol, TN 37620
www.fumcbristol.org

Our Vision – Building A Community Where Anyone Can Become A Deeply Committed Christian