Dear First Pres Family, The holiday season is once again upon us. This is a time when our lives are filled with special events and obligations, but I hope it’s also a time when you stop to consider the reason for the season. As we did last year, this Advent magazine features an Advent Calendar. It kicks off on Sunday, December 1 — the first Sunday of Advent — and it is meant to offer you guided activities to help keep your focus on what’s important this holiday season. We have also, once again, embraced the concepts of the Advent Conspiracy for this holiday season. For those that need a refresher on the main points of the Advent Conspiracy, there is an introduction on page seven. In addition, we have some features on some of the mission organizations that have partnered with the Advent Conspiracy. Having just returned from a trip to India where I got to meet with and learn from our mission partners, I can tell you that engaging with our global mission partners will really open your eyes and challenge your faith. A little closer to home we have a number of events that will keep us busy during the holiday season. Our traditional family events — Breakfast in Bethlehem, the Father-Son Brunch and our church-wide Christmas party — will all take place in December. I hope you’ll make time to join us for these events. For those more musically inclined, Carols and Cocoa returns this year and will be a time of singing and celebration on Friday, December 20. Of course we also have our traditional Christmas music celebration, Christmas Joy, which will take place at 2:30 and 6 p.m. at the Pikes Peak Center on Sunday, December 15. All of that leads into Christmas Eve. Just like last year, we will get the festivities started early with a special 6:30 p.m. Christmas Eve service on Monday, December 23. We will also have a children’s service at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, December 24. That will be followed by services at 2, 3:30, 5, 7 and 10:45 p.m. on Tuesday, December 24. I hope you’ll join us for those services and invite some friends. Finally, while December is a month of special events and celebration, it’s also a time to say goodbye and thank you to Nancy Maffett, who is retiring. We will have a special celebration of her ministry at First Pres during a reception in the Fellowship Hall on Sunday, December 8. I hope you’ll join me in thanking Nancy for her more than 26 years of faithful service at First Pres. This place wouldn’t be the same without her. In Christ, Graham Baird Senior Pastor First Presbyterian Church of Colorado Springs
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december 2013 contents Driven by a Love of People . . . . . . . . 4 Matthew Fox Join the Conspiracy This Year . . . . . . . 7 Katie Dayton Advent Conspiracy Advent Calendar . . . 8 Justice for All . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Katie Dayton
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The Gift of Living Water . . . . . . . . . 11 Erin Eilmes “I Thee Worship?” . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Eunice McGarrahan Advent Season Roundup . . . . . . . . 14
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Contributing Writers: Katie Dayton, Erin Eilmes, Matthew Fox, Eunice McGarrahan Contributing Editors: Matthew Fox, Alison Murray Graphic Design: Beryl Glass Proofreading Team: Mary Bauman, Deb Berwick, Christine Dellacroce, Betty Haney, Daisy Jackson, Marty Kelley, Karen Kunstle, Linda Pung All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, © 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. First Pres Magazine December 2013, Volume Five, © First Presbyterian Church of Colorado Springs, CO. Published by First Presbyterian Church, a non-profit organization. To contact First Pres Magazine: 719-884-6175 or 219 E. Bijou Street, Colorado Springs, CO 80903-1392 or magazine@first-pres.org. Printed in the U.S.A.
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Nancy Maffett retires after more than 26 years on s ta f f at F i r s t P r e s
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hroughout her more than 26 years on staff at First Pres, Nancy Maffett has seen a lot of things change. She’s seen people come and go. She’s worked under three different Senior Ministers. She’s seen her job title and ministry responsibilities shift. She’s even seen First Pres embrace a new denomination. But throughout all that time, one thing has remained consistent. No matter what else has shifted in her day-to-day responsibilities, her view has remained the same. Each day Nancy has come to work in the same office on the first floor of Hansen Hall with a view of the YMCA and the parking garage shared by First Pres. 4 | www.first-pres.org 12/13
By Matthew Fox When she reflects on what will be the most different after she officially retires in December, it’s the idea of not being in that office that jumps out in her mind. “I’m so used to being on auto pilot when I come in this building, just walking through the door and heading straight for my office,” she said. Nancy came to First Pres in 1974, and quickly became a part of the life and ministry of the church. Early on, she joined Big Blue and took the training to be a teacher in the Bethel Bible Class program, something she did for 22 years in a row then, after a break, resumed a few years ago. She has also served two terms as an Elder at First Pres. One Sunday in the spring of 1987 she saw an announcement in the bulletin
advertising the position of Associate for Membership. Something about that announcement called to her. “I had been very active here since joining,” she said. “I had no inkling I’d ever work on the staff of a church, but I happened to see a notice in the bulletin for this position of Associate for Membership and I just felt this huge conviction I was supposed to inquire about that.” Soon after inquiring Nancy interviewed with Jim Smith and was hired for the position. Nancy first joined the staff of First Pres in 1987, and has been a part of the team ever since. She quickly hit the ground running, starting her position shortly after Easter, and began calling worship visitors. She noted it was scary because she hadn’t done anything like it before, but having Smith as a mentor made the transition easier. After joining the staff, it didn’t take long for her to get involved in the national Presbyterian conversation. ThenSenior Pastor John Stevens recommended her for a position on the board of Presbyterians For Renewal (PFR). Nancy not only became part of the board, she was elected President of PFR in 1993, serving in that post for two years. Nancy was also frequently a part of the discussion and debate at the General Assembly — the highest governing body of the Presbyterian Church USA, attending 13 times. In June of 2001, at the request of Dr. Stevens and the Session at First Pres, she even ran for moderator of the PCUSA, finishing a close second. At First Pres Nancy’s primary responsibility for more than 20 years was reaching out to visitors and coordinating the membership process. She did that first as the Associate for Membership, then as the
Director of Outreach. That role afforded her a chance to connect with many different people and departments at First Pres. During that time she spear-headed a number of programs and events — including membership classes, Festival Sunday, evangelism training, outreach to non-attending members, launching Cursillo retreats and facilitating the Alpha Program. But when Jim Singleton became the new Senior Pastor at First Pres, Nancy’s role shifted again. Nancy stepped into her current role as Director of Caring Ministries in 2008. It was an opportunity that provided a new learning experience and a chance to learn a new skill set. In that role she’s had a chance to be a part of some wonderful programs — Deacons, the Grief Workshop, Divorce Recovery Workshop, Help For the Holiday Blues Workshop and Pastoral Care Teams, among many — that provided healing, support and new ways to connect with the life of the church. She has continued to minister to people during some of their toughest moments, including hospital visits and coordinating memorial services. “I have been able to see hundreds if not thousands of our members step up and offer care,” she said. “That is what is so extraordinary to me — watching our members do these things. I am absolutely in awe of the Deacons, Pastoral Care Teams, workshop and support group leaders, Stephen Ministers and CanCare volunteers because they are in the trenches.” Her guidance, leadership and presence will be missed in Caring Ministry as well. “We’ve been incredibly blessed over the years here at First Pres by all the ways Nancy’s ministry gifts have been expressed,”
”We‘ve been incredibly blessed over the years here at First Pres by all the ways Nancy‘s ministry gifts have been expressed.“
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Looking for archival pic of Nancy Nancy helps Rev. Herbert Lockyer, Jr. prepare for a Christmas event in 2003.
said John Goodale, Associate Pastor for Caring Ministries. “In recent years, Nancy’s rich knowledge of people in this congregation and her willingness to be Christ’s love to others in a variety of settings has significantly enhanced our Caring Ministries impact. She will be missed!” After stepping into her new role, at the encouragement of Singleton, Nancy enrolled in the Commissioned Lay Pastor (CLP) program in the summer of 2008. She was ordained in 2010, something she had never imagined when she first joined the staff at First Pres in 1987. “I never felt a call for seminary,” she said. “But I felt like this was something I could do.” Not long after she began her CLP training, Nancy became a regular assisting minister in worship — something else she didn’t expect. Once she finished and was commissioned she received her black robe, similar to other ordained ministers. But even that came about in an unexpected way. “They didn’t have anything formal they would do with the congregation, so I was robed in the middle of one of the services,” she said. “Jim (Singleton) grabbed one and robed me during a service, which was really sweet.” After more than 26 years, Nancy still has a passion for her work and for First Pres, but she is excited to explore other passions and time with family as well. She’s looking forward to spending more time with her four grandchildren — two who live with her 6 | www.first-pres.org 12/13
daughter Susan and husband Stan in Colorado Springs and two who live with her son Steve and wife PJ in Seattle. Though she will no longer be a part of the full time staff, Nancy plans on remaining a full time part of the body of First Pres, finding new ways to serve. She’s excited to continue singing with Big Blue and was unanimously elected as a Parish Associate by the Session during its September meeting, something Nancy called an honor. Senior Pastor Graham Baird noted that Nancy has been a vital part of the ministry at First Pres and a trailblazer as a woman in ministry in the Presbyterian Church. “Nancy has conducted herself with grace and poise throughout her ministry at First Pres,” he said. “She has been an example as a strong woman in ministry during a time when that was much less common. She’s also walked alongside so many people at First Pres during critical and difficult times in their lives and been a wonderful and comforting presence.” As she reflects on her ministry at First Pres, Nancy notes that it has been an amazing, unexpected and life-changing journey. “God has been full of surprises but He has been faithful to equip and empower me with each new opportunity or challenge,” she said. “I just really love being with people. We have an amazing community here. It has been my privilege to have witnessed Christ at work in and through all these people, and it’s changed my life. I am the one who’s been blessed.” Matt Fox is the manager of Communications at First Pres
A special reception and celebration of Nancy’s ministry will take place
Sunday, December 8 11 a.m. in the Fellowship Hall.
By Katie Dayton
Join the Conspiracy This Year
I tend to forget. It’s not that I mean to or that
I want to. But somehow the days slip into weeks, fade into months and I can go about my business in such a way that I forget. I forget that I am part of a revolution. I forget that Jesus came to turn the world upside down. I forget that I have a role to play. So I am grateful for things like Advent; seasons in the life of the church where we take time to remember. It is not easy, of course — especially during the holidays. There can be this warring madness around us fighting for our time, our attention and our very brain space. Advent is a season in the church where we push back a little against the madness. Where we remind ourselves that there is more going on, there is more to reality, than what we see with the naked eye. There is more to this time of year than Black Friday and fill-in-the-blank shopping days until Christmas. Who would have guessed that more than 2,000 years ago in a small, easily forgotten place the Savior would be born? And a revolution was begun. God’s invasion of a broken world. God’s rescue of a weary planet. God in the flesh now appearing. And nothing has been the same since. This year, as a church, we are again participating in something called Advent Conspiracy. Advent Conspiracy was started by five pastors who wanted to lead their churches deeper into the heart of Christmas. Four phrases marked their way: Worship Fully, Give More, Spend Less and Love All. Each of these ideas serve as guideposts to how we might participate in the revolution and embrace more fully this upside-down Kingdom that Jesus is ushering into the world. Consider, what does it looks like for you and your family, for us as a church family, to worship fully this Advent? How do we
abandon ourselves to the celebration of our King? And what might it look like to give more? To give more of yourself, your time, your care and affection for others? And to spend less? To not buy gifts simply because it is what we do this time of year but to consider alternative ways of showing love, perhaps giving items from our church’s alternative gift catalog, Something Significant for Christmas? And what might it mean to love all? Not just those who are pretty and poised, easy to love, but those who are rather unlovely? What does it look like to love the poor, the forgotten, the outcast? As we pursue the answers to these questions, may Jesus turn our Christmas upside down. Here are some simple ways to participate in the Advent Conspiracy: Use the Advent Calendar in this magazine. Each day will prompt you to pursue King Jesus and his upside down Kingdom through the reading of Scripture, prayer, reflection questions and action steps. Consider how you might use the calendar with your family, roommates, or small group. Join the conversation: For four weeks in December a small group will be meeting in the Community Living Room (the Sheldon Jackson room beneath the sanctuary) at 9:45 a.m. to explore together what it means to Worship Fully, Give More, Spend Less and Love All. Come be a part of it! Shop using the Something Significant for Christmas Catalog. May the true joy of Christmas be yours! Katie Dayton is the Associate Pastor for Missional Strategies at First Pres.
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Advent Conspiracy 1
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Read Luke 1:46-55 How is God turning the world as it is upside down? How are God’s actions actually making the world right again? WF
What would make this Christmas significant for you? SL
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Ask Jesus, “How do you want to Every 20 seconds a child dies from unsafe water. Consider reveal yourself to me this Advent?” Talk to Him about this; giving the gift of clean water in write down what God is saying Jesus’ name. Living Water’s to you and share with a friend. Website: https://www.water.cc/ LA WF
Try giving away one of your Listen Well: possessions today. Find out just Call up a friend, ask about how attached you are to your their life, listen to their things. What is this experience stories and spend some time like for you? praying for them. SL GM
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Buy a caffe’ suspeso suspended coffee from 225, which is when you buy a cup of coffee in advance for someone else as an anonymous act of charity. LA 8 | www.first-pres.org 12/13
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Find a quiet place without interruption and spend ten minutes in silence in God’s presence. WF
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Share a meal with someone, or spend time with someone over coffee or tea. GM
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Write out all the ways that God has been a Refuge to you this year. Share your list with family or friends. WF
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Tonight is the longest night of the year. Take some time to think about and pray for those who are living in homeless situations in our city tonight. LA
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Pick an international news story from today that stands out to you. Pray for the people involved. LA
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Come up with one thing you can do today to enjoy God. Take a walk around the block or enjoy a cup of tea as you talk with God, be creative and enjoy!
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Bless someone today with an act of service, a kind word or however the Lord leads you. GM
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Write out all the ways that God has been Redeemer in your life this past year. Spend some time praising God. WF
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Give your undivided attention. Choose to turn off your phone before starting a conversation with someone. GM
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The best gift you can give is yourself. How can you give of yourself today? GM
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Instead of buying a present for someone, consider creating a poem or crafting a gift with what you have. SL
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Pray for all those attending Christmas Eve services today. Pray that the love of Christ would be experienced by all. LA
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Read 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 Set an alarm to go off every three hours. Every time it goes off spend time praying. Ask God to help you be compelled by love today. LA
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Read Galatians 5:6b Spend some time reflecting on this verse and how you might express your faith through love today. LA
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Read Colossians 1:9-14 Spend some time praying this passage for our church that this Advent we might know God more. WF
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Read Ephesians 3:14-21 Pray this Scripture for the refugees in our city. LA
“A prison cell, in which one waits, hopes... and is completely dependent on the fact that the door of freedom has to be opened from the outside, is not a bad picture of Advent.� - Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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Create space today to worship Jesus with your heart, mind, soul and strength. WF
Praise God for His rescue of us. WF
WF = Worship Fully SL = Spend Less GM = Give More LA = Love All
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Justice For All
By Katie Dayton
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aybe you have heard the stats. Some 30 million people chained in modern day slavery. Two million children a year exploited in the global sex trade. Seven hundred and eighty three million people lack access to clean water. As those numbers swirl around your head, consider this: what does Jesus have to say to such injustice? What is Jesus’ response to girls chained to brothel walls, women walking miles a day for clean water and the oppression that we see in all of its ugly forms the world over? To ponder this, for a moment consider the hymns we will be singing over the next few weeks. The words are strong and true. Truly He taught us to love one another, His law is love and His gospel is peace. Chains He shall break, for the slave is our brother. And in His name, all oppression shall cease —O Holy Night Then pealed the bells more loud and deep: “God is not dead, nor doth he sleep; The wrong shall fail, the right prevail, With peace on earth, good will to men.” —I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day Jesus, we know, has come with healing in His wings and freedom in His touch. But there is more to consider, as Jesus has arrived to set the captives free. What role does He call His bride, the church, to play? This past Lent as a church we explored God’s heart for justice. We heard more of the work of International Justice Mission and considered our role in doing God’s will on earth as it is in heaven. This year, as a church, we have begun a partnership with IJM to learn more of God’s heart for justice and ways we can engage God’s just purposes. So many of our local partnerships in Colorado Springs allow us to seek justice and work for healing and freedom. Mission Trips, like the one to El Salvador referenced on the next page, also enables us to participate in the call on God’s people to do justice and love mercy. This is an ongoing pursuit at First Pres, and part of our journey of discipleship. As we end the calendar year, consider again what it means for you to join Jesus in His revolution of love, peace and justice. Some possible action steps: • Pray. Jesus lifts up the persistent widow who keeps crying out for justice. Spend some time praying for justice in our city — for refugees, for victims of domestic abuse, for teenagers in homeless situations. • Read Gary Haugen’s Good News About Injustice or Just Courage • As you participate in the Advent calendar, consider how you are learning more about God’s heart for justice and His love for all people as we care for refugees, those without clean water and those caught in the sex trade. Purchase some gifts for loved ones from the Something Significant for Christmas Catalog.
Katie Dayton is the Associate Pastor for Missional Strategies at First Pres.
The Gift of Living Water By Erin Eilmes
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emember a few short years ago when God led First Pres MOPS moms to raise awareness and funds to help support the clean water movement around our globe? Remember how faithful He was leading those MOPS moms, their young children, families and friends to raise enough to fund an entire well project? Remember how shortly after that, we heard a sermon series focusing on water? Remember how an effort that began with God’s call on MOPS moms for justice, followed by the sermon series, spurred on the entire body of First Pres to raise yet another $5,000 for charity: water to distribute to an indigenous ground agency to fund a second water project? Remember how, without any knowledge of the cost ahead of time, the remaining money raised by our congregation was the exact amount of money necessary to fund a needed sanitation system in Kalimpong, India, where our Compassion International sister church is located? The journey with water continued last year when Women’s Life studied water and the Living Water throughout scripture for nine months, while Collin Grant and Route 56ers gave up traditional Christmas gifts and asked for donations for Living Water International. Now, after preparation and prayer, as you read this (Saturday, November 30 to Saturday, December 7), a group of 12 of us are in Acajutla, El Salvador with Living Water International to help drill a well (which the church funded through Something Significant for Christmas), teach sanitation/hygiene sustainable practices, study the Bible with the women and children and develop relationships with the people of this small community.
Clearly, God has a heart for bringing clean water, and ultimately His Living Water to all of His children. Not only that, He has graciously invited us, the body at First Pres and many others elsewhere, to help in His mission, not because He needs us, but as an opportunity for us to be a part of bringing His Kingdom now. We have witnessed God weave the pieces of this journey together over the past several years and that in itself is something to celebrate. This Advent season, as we prepare our hearts for Emmanuel, we can join the Advent Conspiracy by keeping our eyes on Him and His mission, being counterculture by worrying less about the “things of this world,” and by watching and participating in His restoration of the world through water. Erin Eilmes is a member at First Pres
Why Water?
From Living Water International’s website (www.water.cc): For Living Water it’s all about Jesus. It’s about demonstrating God’s love, announcing His kingdom, seeing Jesus in the least of our brothers and sisters, offering a cup of water in Jesus’ name and proclaiming His Gospel, the living water. Helping communities create sustainable water, sanitation, hygiene and Christian witness programs in partnership with local churches is just the best way we’ve found to do that. Why? Because the water crisis affects poverty, women, health and education — and for us it’s a spiritual issue.
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“…� ��ee �ors�i�?”
By Eunice McGarrahan The first wedding I officiated came with an unusual request from the bride. She insisted on using the wedding liturgy from Thomas Cranmer’s Book of Common Prayer (1662): “With this ring I thee wed, with my body I thee worship, and with all my worldly goods I thee endow: In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.” The language is beautiful but it is not used much anymore. In fact, many people are uncomfortable with the phrase, “with my body I worship thee.” And yet, this is a very rich vow, not only for marriage, but also for all of us who are committed to worshiping the living God “in spirit and in truth.” In Scripture marriage has been used as a metaphor for the relationship of Christ and His church, so it makes sense to think about worship with regard to marriage. As we come to the end of this series of articles during this Year We Are to Worship, we need to be clear as to the purpose of our worship before we think about the music, the architecture and even the order of our worship. The language of the Cranmer liturgy helps us. What does it mean, therefore, when we say, “with 12 | www.first-pres.org 12/13
my body I thee worship?” First, our word As the church we are the Bride of Christ “worship” comes from an Old English word, and our worship of the Lord should demonweorthschipe, meaning “demonstrating that strate that He alone is indeed worthy of our which is worthy of my commitment.” commitment. Just as bride and groom stand When a bride and groom promise to in the sanctuary and profess their love for one worship one another with their bodies, they another and then leave for a life filled with are saying that they will actually do things deeds of love which demonstrate their that show what their love means. Rather than commitment, so we stand in the sanctuary taking pleasure they will give it; rather than and profess our love of God and then leave so insisting on their own way, they will defer. that we may “do justice, love mercy and Self-will is replaced with an other-centeredwalk humbly with our God.” (Micah 6:8) ness and it shows itself in actions as well as in Towards the end of The Dangerous Act of feelings of affection. We all know of marriages Worship, Mark Labberton says, “Love has filled with love-feelings but when crunch time been so sentimentalized in our culture that comes, self-centeredness wins out. Selfish putting love and justice in the same sentence actions, harsh words and time that is withheld seems as dissonant as joining worship and violate the marriage vow to demonstrate that justice. Yet all these things are intertwined in the other is worthy of the character of God, none commitment. is inseparable from the Let us think about Second, notice how the others. They are qualities Cranmer wedding vows intrinsic to God’s being, and include the promise that each one names God’s life in how each of us and “with all my worldly goods different ways. None is to be I thee endow.” This is a present without the all of us together can tangible act of worship other.”(page 181) — handing over everyThis moves us to realize more fully worship the thing that is yours to the that the really radical thing other. Worship in marriage about worship is this — just One who gave all of is, therefore, relinquishing as husband and wife become all claims that anything one, so we are to become belongs to me. And one with Christ. We are not Himself to us in though we are tempted, we just to think that the way of cannot live like that old Christ in the world is a good Christ Jesus. joke: What’s yours is mine idea. We are actually and what’s mine is mine. supposed to live in Christ, So it is with our worship of God. We often for Christ and as Christ. This thought should think that worship has gone well if we leave have a sobering effect on our thinking about the sanctuary on Sunday feeling good about worship. As we move into a year of thinking God and ourselves. We agreed with the about how we serve the city in which we live, sermon; we loved the music; there was a let us think about how each of us and all of us moment when we wanted to shout “Amen” together can more fully worship the One who (Presbyterian sensibilities aside) or when a gave all of Himself to us in Christ Jesus. Out tear came to our eye. And worship was good. of deep wells of gratitude, let us worship in But if we bring a clear eye to thinking about ways that help us to “love the Lord our God worship in this way, we have to be careful. with all our heart, soul, strength and mind Are those things “good” because they moved and to love our neighbor as ourselves.” us to give more of ourselves to God and His Eunice McGarrahan is the lead Parish Associate at First Pres and purposes for us, or are they “good” because organizer of the Oasis worship service on Thursdays at 12:15 p.m. they just made us feel good? 12/13 | www.first-pres.org | 13
Advent Season Roundup Art in Advent As we did in 2012, First Pres will feature live art during Sunday morning services throughout Advent season. This year’s Advent series — Got Joy — kicks off on Sunday, November 24. Each Sunday artists will offer their interpretation of the Advent theme during the morning services. Traditional Advent art will be hung in the halls leading to the Sanctuary. You won’t want to miss what our First Pres artists have to offer in 2013. Women’s Christmas Potluck Wednesday, December 4 6 to 8:30 p.m. Cost is $3 An all generations Women’s Christmas Potluck will be held in the Fellowship Hall. Marsha Livingston will share a devotional about hope and fellowship by singing carols. All women are welcome. Breakfast in Bethlehem Saturday, December 7 9 to 10:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Cost is $4 per person up to $15 per family This annual event for the whole family is a great kick-off to the holiday season. This year there will again be two seatings 14 | www.first-pres.org 12/13
in Fellowship Hall. The morning will consist of a pancake breakfast, fun, simple crafts for young children, and an engaging play that will involve the kids in the Christmas story. Seating is limited, so buy tickets by Monday, December 2 by calling 884-6144 or visiting www.first-pres.org/ breakfastinbethlehem Church Christmas Party Wednesday, December 11 3 to 4:30 p.m. Cost is $5 The First Pres Church Christmas Party, sponsored by Prime Time, will take place in the Fellowship Hall. Join us for fun, food and entertainment as we celebrate the Christmas Season. The program will include offerings from pastors, singing and music. Space is limited. Tickets must be purchased in advance by calling the Congregational Support Desk 884-6144. Father/Son/Grandson Brunch Saturday, December 14 9:30 to 11 a.m. Cost is $10 per person This annual brunch, hosted by Men’s Ministries, is a chance to get men of all generation together for fun, fellowship and brunch. Tickets must be purchased before Monday, December 9. This year’s speaker is Jeff Lucas, international speaker, broadcaster and bestselling
The busy Advent season is upon us. In addition to special Advent services and our traditional Christmas Eve services, First Pres has a host of events this holiday season. The following is your guide to all that’s happening at First Pres this Advent season! There’s truly something for everyone, so mark your calendars accordingly.
author. Lucas is a teaching pastor at Timberline Church in Fort Collins. To get tickets, call Congregational Support at 884-6144. Christmas Joy Sunday, December 15 2:30 and 6 p.m. Cost is $14, $17 or $22 This annual musical extravaganza will take place at the Pikes Peak Center. In addition to selections from Big Blue, this year’s show will feature soloist Alvy Powell and the Pikes Peak Ringers. This is a special event that is fun for the whole family and is not to be missed. Tickets, which went on sale on November 18, are available at Congregational Support, TicketsWest and the Pikes Peak Center Box Office. Cocoa and Carols Friday, December 20 5:45 to 8 p.m. The second annual Carols and Cocoa event will be a chance for carolers to bring Christmas cheer to neighborhoods throughout Colorado Springs. Several First Pres families have opened their home to serve as “caroling outposts” for teams to head out and bring Christmas cheer to neighborhoods throughout the city. At 7 p.m. all the carolers will meet back at the Aspen Room in the Weber Street Center for a post-caroling party that will include fellowship, food, live music and gingerbread cookie decorating for the kids.
Christmas Eve Services Monday, December 23 and Tuesday, December 24 Celebrate the reason for the season this Christmas with our special Christmas Eve services. There will be services and events for the whole family, with this year’s theme “Closer Than You Think.” This year we will again offer a special preview service on December 23. The full slate of Christmas Eve services includes the traditional children’s service as well as the Celtic Christmas service to cap the day’s events. For a full list of services, see below: Monday, December 23: 6:30 p.m. Candlelight Service Tuesday, December 24: 10:30 a.m. Children’s Service 2 p.m. Candlelight Service 3:30 p.m. Candlelight Service 5 p.m. Candlelight Service 7 p.m. Candlelight Service 10:45 p.m. Celtic Christmas Service New Year’s Eve Service Tuesday, December 31 7 p.m. We will again be offering our traditional New Year’s Eve service. This is a time to come together, worship, give thanks and reflect on 2013 as we prepare for 2014.
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Monday, December 23 & Tuesday, December 24
Christmas Eve Services Tuesday, December 24: 10:30 a.m. Children’s Service 2 p.m. Candlelight Service 3:30 p.m. Candlelight Service 5 p.m. Candlelight Service 7 p.m. Candlelight Service 10:45 p.m. Celtic Christmas Service
Monday, December 23: 6:30 p.m. Candlelight Service
Non Profit Org. U. S. Postage PAID Colo. Spgs. CO Permit No. 419