First Presbyterian Church of Middlesboro
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Welcome!

Worship With Us

COVID-19 UPDATE as of 3/22/21
​

First Presbyterian Church of Middlesboro will resume in-person worship beginning this Sunday, March 28 (Palm Sunday). Worship begins at 11 a.m.

Our normal Sunday morning habits will be altered due to COVID-19 concerns. Please note the following guidelines for proceeding with in-person worship at FPC Middlesboro during this time:

--Please do not attend worship if you are feeling sick and/or have a fever. We will be broadcasting the worship via Zoom for those who cannot attend in-person.
--Masks are encouraged.
--Please remember 6-foot social distancing recommendations as you come into the church, and refrain from hugging, shaking hands, etc.
--All high traffic areas, such as faucet handles, doorknobs, etc., will be sanitized prior to worship and again after worship.
--Hand sanitizers, wipes and Kleenexes will be in plain sight throughout the sanctuary should you need any of these items.
--Please sit only with those that are in your household.
--Bulletins will be spread out among the pews so that no one has to pick a bulletin up out of a pile that has been touched by others.
--There will be no congregational or choral singing. Additional readings or instrumental only hymns may be used in these places instead.
--We will not pass the offering plate. Instead, an offering plate will be placed in the front and the rear of the sanctuary. Please drop your offering into the plate as you enter or exit.
--We have removed all hymnbooks, Bibles, pencils and papers from the sanctuary to eliminate as many items that could cause cross-contamination as possible. Prayer requests can continue to be emailed to fpc4me@yahoo.com or mentioned during prayer time during worship. If you may need a Bible, pen, etc., during worship, please bring your own.
--There will be no refreshments after church. Instead we recommend that once worship has concluded everyone go ahead and leave the church building and return home.
--Children’s Sunday School lesson packets will be spread out among the pews for the kids to pick up and look at during the service. To be added to our email list to receive Zoom links, the weekly bulletin, the weekly prayer request list, or children's Sunday School materials, please email fpc4me@yahoo.com.

If you would like to contribute an offering to the church, it can be mailed to the church at PO Box 1796, Middlesboro, KY, 40965. The Presbytery also has a means to take online offering payments and distribute them to the designated church. The link is https://transypby.org/paypal/. If you choose to use this link, you will need to click the "other" button and then type in First Presbyterian Church of Middlesboro so the Presbytery knows which church to send the funds to.

Please visit our Facebook page for the most current worship updates.

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First Presbyterian Church has been a vital part of Middlesboro, Kentucky, for more than 100 years.
We invite you to worship with us!

Our Typical Sunday Schedule (currently suspended due to Covid-19):

Choir Rehearsal: 10:15 a.m.
Worship: 11:00 a.m. 
Children's Sunday School: 11:15 a.m. 

Join us for a time of refreshments and fellowship after worship each Sunday!

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December 2016 Pastor's Letter

12/9/2016

 
“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign forever and ever.” - Revelation 11:15b NRSV

 Before I became your pastor, I was an active member of First Baptist Church in Corbin, teaching Sunday School and serving part-time on the staff. I was also very involved in the choir. One year, as Christmas approached, we were preparing to do selected pieces from Handel's Messiah. Of course the Hallelujah chorus was one of those pieces. It is challenging, to say the least, for untrained, amateur voices and many of us carried the score home and practiced with a recording or took the score and recording "on the road" at Thanksgiving. I was one of those who thought that I could profitably use the time when Gayle was driving to sharpen my skills by singing in the car. As we drove to Nashville, I popped the cd in the player and selected the track for the Hallelujah chorus. I stumbled my way through the early part until I came to the section where the basses have the phrase, "And he shall reign forever and ever" and I really belted it out - "AND HE SHALL REIGN FOREVER AND EVER". Then I heard laughter and Gayle was almost in tears. When I said, "What?", she just shook her head and said, "You mumbled through the rest of the chorus until you came to that phrase. You've really got it!" To this day we joke about it being my musical "forte".

"And he shall reign forever and ever" is a particularly potent truth to hold onto in our country today. The recent turmoil of the outcome of the presidential election coupled with the increasingly bitter divisions among various groups in our country adds a great deal of stress to an already stressful season. The message of Christmas is "Emmanuel" - God with us - and offers us truth for coping with these turbulent times. Christmas reminds us that God is overseeing and over-ruling the world when it seems that nothing could be further from the truth. Remember Paul's words about the first coming of Christ in Galatians 4:4-7:

4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. 6 And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God.

The Roman world had its share of troubles and heartaches and the government was not a friend to the faith of Christians. But Paul's hope, peace, joy and love were not produced by the government and therefore not subject to government whim. Instead, Paul and the early Christians celebrated the eternal sovereignty of God who had repeatedly demonstrated that the "kingdoms of this world" belonged to Him.(Rev. 11:15)

Here is the beauty of the Christmas story: the gift of the Christ child is the historical truth that God is on our side every day in every way. Coming to us as one of us, God reveals that there is no experience, no thought, no concern, no anxiety, not failure, no joy, no experience of life that He does not understand. There is no person, political party, nation, army, evil or terror which can change our eternal destiny or cancel our promised rest. Rejoice, for this is the season of "good tidings" to all humanity! Belt out those Christmas carols and decorate with light and beauty and joy! Christmas is on the way! Hallelujah! "AND HE SHALL REIGN FOREVER AND EVER!

Dr. Phil

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