November 2016 Pastor's Letter

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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November 2016 Pastor's Letter

11/7/2016

"Greet Philologus, Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints who are with them." - Romans 16:15 NRSV

It is an early Friday morning as I write this letter. For various reasons I gave up trying to sleep at about 5:00 a.m. and settled into my home office intent on getting a jump on my "to do" list. Sunday worship is 48 hours away; Halloween is Monday if you can believe it!

But as I think of the upcoming days I keep returning to November 1 - All Saints' Day. It seems to me that it is an appropriate celebration to begin the month of November which, secularly, is focused on Thanksgiving. All Saints' Day lets us pause at the beginning of the season of gratitude to remember those whose lives and love have contributed so much to our faith.

The apostle Paul often expressed gratitude for the saints whose faith sustained the churches he loved. The text above reminds us that the church is not an institution - it is people. Though Paul was not the founder of the church at Rome - in fact he hadn't visited it before he wrote the letter - he had friends there who helped introduce him to the church and established a connection which opened the door to ministry. Later, when the apostle was imprisoned in Rome, this connection was a great source of encouragement. That is, I think, the chief reason to belong to and participate in the life of a church - to offer and accept encouragement.

Of all the gifts given to the church through the Holy Spirit, I believe the gift of encouragement is our most vital and valuable form of witness. Why? Because encouragement is a pure expression of love, the greatest gift according to I Corinthians 13. When we encourage one another we are offering grace, hope and compassionate companionship. When we do that the world notices. In an article titled, "A Love Without Condition", the Christian church history website www.earlychurch.com begins this way:

At no other time in the history of Christianity did love so characterize the entire church as it did in the first three centuries. And Roman society took note. Tertullian reported that the Romans would exclaim, “See how they love one another!”

May I give you a suggestion for All Saints' Day? Find a quiet place and let your mind roam over the names and lives of saints who have blessed you on your pilgrimage. Breathe a prayer of thanks for them. If they are still living, pray for their faith to be strong and their lives to continue to bless those around them. If they have gone on to be with the Lord, rejoice that you had the privilege of entering their circle of influence and commit yourself to follow their example of loving encouragement. It will transform your day, your life and possibly your world.

Dr. Phil