FPC connects
The Chimes nline
Newsletter of First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta
SUNDAY Schedule Sunday, September 18 • Prayer breakfast for Homeless persons - 6:30 am, Fifield Hall • Communion Service 8:30 am, Winship Chapel • The Mustard Seed Bookstore 9:00 am - 1:00 pm • Cherub Choir - 9:30 am • Worship Service - 9:00 am, Sanctuary • Sunday School - 10:05 am • Worship Service - 11:15 am, Sanctuary • Fellowship Hour - 12:15 am, Fifield Hall • Excelsis Choir - 1:00 pm
Sunday, September 25 • Prayer breakfast for Homeless persons - 6:30 am, Fifield Hall • Communion Service 8:30 am, Winship Chapel • The Mustard Seed Bookstore 9:00 am - 1:00 pm • Cherub Choir - 9:30 am • Worship Service - 9:00 am, Sanctuary • Sunday School - 10:05 am • Worship Service - 11:15 am, Sanctuary • Fellowship Hour - 12:15 am, Fifield Hall • Parenting Lunch and Learn 12:15 pm, Fifield Hall • Excelsis Choir - 1:00 pm • Book Club - 2:00 pm, Home of Darryl Payne, Decatur
September 18 & 25, 2011 Christ at the Center
D
ear Everybody, As we continue to make our way into another new church year, I hope you will join us this coming Sunday as we focus on the sermon theme “Stay Centered - Get Connected!” Sept. 18 - George Wirth to preach T h e o l d A f r i c a n American Spiritual written by James Weldon Johnson and his brother J. Rosamund Johnson which is familiar to most of us, begins this way: “Ezekiel cried, ‘Dem dry bones!’ Oh hear the word of the Lord... The foot bone connected to the leg bone, the leg bone connected to the thigh bone, (and on to) the neck bone connected to the head bone, Oh hear the word of the Lord!” Although we will not be singing that song on Sunday, the words remind us that just as our bodies are interconnected the way God made us, so too is the church interconnected in a marvelous and mysterious manner. The Apostle Paul wrote that “we are the Body of Christ, and individually members of it” (I Corinthians 12:27). The image portrayed is Christ as the Head and Center of the Body, with all the members of the church joined together through Him. Although each of us is different and unique, we are united as one people through our faith in the Lord. And unity in the midst of our diversity is a gift from God that is pervasive here at the First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta. So I hope that you will come celebrate with us in worship this Sunday, as we rejoice in the “ties that bind us together” and get more deeply connected to one another here at the corner of 16th and Peachtree Streets. And please invite your family and friends to come on along as well - I look forward to seeing you Sunday! Faithfully yours, George B. Wirth
W
h e r e do you belong? Where is that place where you feel most at home, or who is that person with whom you feel most yourself ? Sept. 25 - Craig Goodrich to preach W h a t d o e s i t mean to “belong” anyway? We all long to be affirmed, loved and accepted as we are, warts and all. We all long to belong. In the gospel lesson for this Sunday, Jesus is baptized by John in the Jordan River. As he rises from the water he hears a voice from heaven saying “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:17). And it is in the assurance of the Father’s love that Jesus begins his ministry. In Paul’s letter to the Church in Corinth he writes in the familiar chapter 13 that the love of God is the greatest gift of all, “And now faith, hope, love abide these three, and the greatest of these is love.” 1st Corinthians 13: 13. Like Jesus, our baptism tells us that we too are loved unreservedly by God and that we are also called to ministries of service. Simply put, we belong to God and in Christ we belong to each other. Maybe that is what being a “community of grace” is all about. Is it time for you to “get connected” or to reconnect? To find where you belong? I hope to see you Sunday. The sermon title is “Longing to Belong.”
Faithfully,
Craig