May 2022 | Volume 48 | Issue 5

Family News

Next Generation Prayer Meeting |

Memorial Gifts

May 1 following service in ALC

THANK YOU TO ALL WHO CONTRIBUTED MEMORIAL

Welcome Home Membership | May 1 at 12:30 p.m.

Creative Arts Appreciation Dinner | May 7 at 6 p.m.

Senior Achievers | May 10 at 6 p.m.

GIFTS FOR THE FOLLOWING PEOPLE.

For Nancy Maser Ruth Bowers

May 17 at 9 a.m.

Todd & Cheryl Nestor

Memorial Day - office closed |

New Baby CONGRATULATIONS TO...

Michael & Lindsay Murray on the birth of a son, Mac Murray, April 1. Mac joins older siblings, Emmitt & Kennedy.

Monday, May 30 Being & Bringing Good News | June 4 from 9 a.m. - 3 p.m.

Anniversaries CONGRATULATIONS TO...

First Free 140th anniversary |

Russ & Bernadette Breitinger for 40 years of marriage on

June 9

May 15.

White Cross | June 21 at 9 a.m.

John & Tina Strong for 30 years of marriage on May 18.

Sympathies The family & friends of Rose Ann Grimenstein.

The family & friends of Michelle Bezak.

The family & friends of David Judy.

Please visit www.myfefc.org for our full and updated calendar.

Creative Arts Search Written by Kevin Labby

Growth Group Leaders meeting |

May 22 at 5:30 p.m.

OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF FIRST FREE CHURCH

Vilma Pavuk

For Taylor Ann Nestor

Reach Senior Recognition |

EVANGEL

For Rose Ann Grimenstein

White Cross |

May 22 at 12:30 p.m.

MAY 2022 |VOLUME 48| ISSUE NO.5

the

Mark Your Calendars

As announced at April's General Assembly meeting, our search for our next Pastor or Director of Worship and Creative Arts will begin shortly. We are grateful for Nancy Jo Demolin's years of faithful and fruitful leadership and want to discern the Lord's gracious plan and choice for her successor. We've retained a firm to help us conduct a thorough and prayerful search.

The search firm plans to visit our church later this month, meeting with and interviewing key ministry leaders, team members, and staff. They will also attend a worship service, develop detailed profiles of our church and preferred candidate, and prepare promotional tools and other resources to support the search. They will then conduct a thorough nationwide search, identifying leading candidates for our detailed and prayerful consideration.

This search partner enjoys a broad network of connections with musicians, worship leaders, and institutions like seminaries and Christian colleges.

Using these connections, they will compile detailed information from various potential candidates—information like experience, education, church affiliation, ministry values and approaches, and more—which they will then pass to church leaders to help First Free in its search.

As part of this research package, leaders at First Free will also receive an inventory of candidate skills and strengths, resumes, videos of worship leadership, and video introductions. This information will help us offer and conduct interviews with promising candidates.

Of course, candidates will also receive a detailed rundown about our church to help them consider a move to our community and the possibility of joining our team. They will learn about our church's history and identity, mission and vision, communities, and more.

The search firm will carefully select potential matches based on our most important criteria and provide us with exclusive access to promising candidate profiles through its work.

Candidly, we do not know how long this search will take. We are, therefore, so grateful for Nancy Jo's gracious willingness to serve through this search, enabling us to pursue as smooth a transition as possible.

With all of this in mind, would you please join us in praying for every aspect of this process?

As the Lord leads, please pray: With gratitude for Nancy Jo Demolin's past and continued ministry as our Director of Worship and Creative Arts and her gracious help through this search process; For church leaders, staff, musicians, and others who will help shape and guide this search; For our search firm as they help us plan, promote, and execute a thorough and prayerful search for our next Pastor or Director of Worship and Creative Arts; And for God to reveal the person of His choosing to lead the next generation of worship and creative arts ministry at First Free Church.

Creative Arts Search, con't There might be times of relative quiet even as the search moves forward behind the scenes. However, as this search unfolds, we will do our best to keep you apprised of our progress through occasional announcements on Sunday morning, social media updates, and our weekly email.

With our much-anticipated renovations proceeding at a steady pace, considerable upgrades within our technical ministry, our 140th anniversary only a month away, and so many more exciting things happening at First Free Church, we are excited about the possibilities and God's plans for us. However, we remember that we can do nothing apart from reliance upon our Savior, Jesus. That is why we seek your prayers for and throughout this process.

Thank you for your prayers and partnership. We're so glad you're part of First Free Church and its mission to help guide people into becoming healthy followers of Jesus Christ. May God bless our search!

Guard Your Heart

Building Update

Written by Alex Iealse

Recently, Reach Student Ministries was in a series focused on Proverbs 4:23: “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life." What does that mean? Why is it important?

The “heart” in the Bible is the seat of our emotions and our will the core of our being. Just as our physical heart sends life to the rest of our body, our “spiritual heart” sends vitality to our spiritual being. God calls us to hide His Word in our hearts, so that we won’t sin against Him (Psalm 119:11). We must take care to watch over it and guard it well.

Auditorium | new carpet partly laid

I recently did a bathroom shower renovation. I stored the new shower parts in a secure place in my home. I placed towels and padding around the fiberglass walls and pan, so they were protected. When I took out the old parts, did I put them in the same spot? No! They went out to the curb where anything could happen to them. The priority was on protecting the most important parts.

Upcoming Senior Achiever Schedule May 10: Honoring Women 6-6:30 p.m. – Social Time 6:30 p.m. – Catered Dinner(Price $15) Devotions by Pastor Kirk.

Program by Shepherds Voice.

Job Postings Lead Pastor Assistant We are looking to hire a part-time Lead Pastor Assistant. If you are interested in applying, please contact the main office at info@myfefc.org, or 412-678-6655

Changed Lives To see more people know God's life-changing power and love, grow in community, and live out his truth daily, we need you. Specifically, we're asking every member and friend of First Free Church to: Pray Listen Respond Watch

God commands us to watch over our hearts because He knows that when we focus on things which are “honorable, praiseworthy, right, true,” etc. (Philippians 4:8) then our hearts will be healthy. We ask the Lord to reign in our hearts, we “Trust Him with ALL OUR HEARTS . . .” (Proverbs 3:5) so that He will guide and protect us.

Auditorium front | new paint & trim

God wants to take our heart of stone, and replace it with a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26). The miracle of regeneration-God literally changing our hearts-is the foundation for why we guard them.

By faith, we believe that Christ dwells in our spiritual hearts.

Paul prays that this would happen, so we can have God’s love ruling our lives: “I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:16-19).

For more information, please visit myfefc.org/changedlives. Thank you for your continued support of this ministry!

As we ask the Lord to focus our minds on these Word-saturated truths, we can truly guard our hearts, dwelling on the right things, and experiencing God’s deep and abiding love.

Lobby | new cafe space