First Congregational Church

This Sunday we will continue our worship series on modern saints. As part of this, we will be celebrating the members of our church who are in their 90s. We have 12 of them! To coincide with our celebration, the music for tomorrow’s worship service will feature some of the favorite old time hymns of our members in their 90s. To add to this, Kristen and Richard Trefren will perform their own selection of old time hymns with Kristen playing a mountain dulcimer, an Appalachian folk instrument. For the sermon, we will reflect on an old mythological story about broken pieces of light falling into each human throughout the world. Do we recognize saints by how bright their light shines? If so, what makes them shine so bright?

This Sunday we will begin a three Sunday worship series about modern day saints. The first sermon in the series will consider the saints who are all around us. We will see what we can learn about this topic from a psychologist who works with veterans and a teenager who recalls how his stepmother cared for his father with ALS. During this Sunday’s service, we have the good fortune of hearing the music of Grammy winning guitarist Doug Smith as he performs for us.

This is what we have in store for worship this Sunday: For the sermon, we will be imagining a special meal with the power to transform lives. For this meal, there will be six guests. We will learn about their stories and how a meal can make a difference. For the children’s sermon, we will also be exploring the power of a meal. (It remains to be seen whether Pastor Brooks will let the children try a bite.) For music tomorrow, we are fortunate to have two young superstars: Michael Wu will be playing cello and Leslie Wu playing violin.

Dear Church Family and Friends,

Before Danalyn appeared on the scene, I wasn’t much of a baby person. Don’t get me wrong. I wasn’t an anti-baby person. From a distance, I appreciated babies in general, and up close, I absolutely adored my two nieces from the moments they were born. Still, I wasn’t the kind of person who from a young age daydreamed about what colors to paint the nursery. For me to become a baby person, I needed to experience life with a baby in a more intimate and ongoing kind of way.
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