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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September 2016 Pastor's Letter

9/15/2016

 
As many of you did, Gayle and I spent a lot of time watching the Rio Olympics. We especially enjoyed the women's gymnastics, men's and women's swimming performance and the 2 person beach volley ball. We watched every night to witness the drama and excitement which surrounds world record setting performances. History was made again and again and it was exhilarating.

It wasn't until this week, however, that I learned unusual performance by two competitors in the women's 5000 meter race. American Abbey D'Agostino and New Zealander Nikki Hamblin who did not qualify for the medal race, were given the little known but highly prized Pierre de Coubertin Medal. The medal, awarded by the Olympic Committee for "exemplary sportsmanship", has only been conferred on 17 other recipients and is, according to the Olympic Museum, "one of the noblest honors" that can be bestowed upon an Olympic athlete. Here is a summary of their story from a post on the People magazine website on 8/16: Track and field star Abbey D'Agostino may have had one of the most inspiring moments of the 2016 Summer Olympics.  On Tuesday, during the second semifinal heat of the women's 5,000-meter race, the 24-year-old distance runner showed a remarkable case of Olympic spirit – stopping along the race to help a fallen rival and finishing the race herself despite injury. 

It all started when New Zealand's Nikki Hamblin took a tumble on the inside track. [Unable]. . . to avoid the fallen runner, D'Agostino tripped over Hamblin, stumbling to the ground herself.  Rather than get up and plow past Hamblin, D'Agostino stopped to check to see if her Olympic rival could continue and helped her off the ground . . . Continuing on, it was clear the pain of D'Agostino's ankle injury was settling in. Meters later, she collapsed to the ground. It was Hamblin this time who came to her aid, checking to see if she was okay to continue. But D'Agostino wouldn't back down. She got back up on her feet, and completed the rest of her laps at a slow pace.  Waiting for her at the finish line was Hamblin, who quickly embraced her rival in an emotional moment. Later, D'Agostino was taken away in a wheelchair by the Olympic medical team. Hamblin appeared by her side in support. 

In a subsequent interview, D'Agostino said, "The only way I . . . have rationalized it is that God prepared my heart to respond that way . . . This whole time here, He's made clear to me that my experience in Rio was going to be about more than my race performance - and as soon as Nikki got up I knew that was it." 

D'Agostino's words reminded me of Paul's citation of Isaiah in his first letter to the Corinthians: 

" . . . Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." (I Cor. 2:9 KJV)

Abbey D'Agostino received a surprising and unique award for her sportsmanship, but she has something greater on the horizon of eternity. She realizes that her life and her pursuits of excellence have a higher purpose than her own agenda. She placed herself in God's hands at Rio and God used her fame and her faith to bring glory to Himself and joy to her.

I pray that we will take D'Agostino's example to heart and will live our lives in the happy anticipation that God is preparing us for a greater joy and deeper purpose than we can imagine. I hope that all of us will be able to see that our experience of life is about daily preparing ourselves for those shining moments when God sends us an opportunity to challenge the world to acknowledge Him. Amen.

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