First Congregational Church

Before Nirvana became one of the biggest names in rock music in the 1990s, Slim Moon organized concerts for them and loaned them his fourtrack player to record demo versions of their songs. With Nirvana’s help, Moon later started his own music label to release CDs from underground performers, many of them local. Some of them eventually became international music stars. Among the talented acts produced by his label are the Decemberists (a chart topping folk rock group) and Elliott Smith (a top 20 performer known for his songs on the Goodwill Hunting soundtrack).

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Next Sunday Pastor Brooks will be joined for a dialogue sermon by Brian Willson, a Vietnam veteran whose wartime experiences transformed him into a nonviolent pacifist. He gained renown as a participant in a prominent 1986 veterans fast on the steps of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. The fast was in response to funding of the Contra wars in Central America. One year later, he was again thrust into the public eye when he was run over and nearly killed by a U.S. Navy Munitions train while engaging in a nonviolent blockade in protest of weapons shipments to El Salvador. Since the 1980s, he has continued efforts as an advocate for peace. Brian Willson’s autobiography Blood on the Tracks received acclaim from notables ranging from actor Ed Asner to intellectual Noam Chomsky.

On Mother’s Day, we will conclude our worship series on women in the Bible. For his sermon, Pastor Brooks will reflect on how we might consider the lack of an equal presence for women in the gospels. He will recall a time when he was even tempted to rewrite the gospels.

This Sunday we continue our series on women in the Bible by looking at Queen Vashti, a woman who defied the wishes of her husband, King Ahasuerus. The sermon will begin by considering the recent views of mega church preacher Mark Driscoll who compared nagging wives to water torture in preaching that wives should submit to their husbands.