What’s Going on at the Church
Imagine this: supporting the mission of First Presbyterian Church while scrolling through your social media feed! By engaging with our content, you’re not just filling your feed with uplifting messages; you’re also helping us spread God’s love and hope to our wider community.
So why not take a moment while you’re browsing through your social media to support the church. Below is a ‘how-to’ you can follow. So, we invite you to dive into our vibrant online community, and let’s make some joyful noise together—one like, one comment, and one share at a time! How easy and great is that?
“Weighing Truth and Life”
These days, we are seeing people of faith supporting actions and ideas that seem unrecognizable to “how we were raised“ in the church. We can see literally thousands of people gathered for worship in huge sanctuaries filled with enthusiasm, and praise to God – but when we listen to the messages, we can’t help but notice ideas that are obviously contrary to Jesus’ clear teachings. How can this be? When I was in seminary, my concentration was studying how spirituality and psychology work together in our lives. The following explains how, and what parts of our brains, are operating when we worship. Brian McClaren
“Worship is the highest exercise of all the parts of our multiform brains. No wonder the psalmist says, “Bless the Lord O my souls, and all that is within me bless God’s holy name.“
“Contemplating a loving God strengthens portions of our brain – where empathy and reason reside. Contemplating a wrathful God empowers the limbic system, which is filled with aggression and fear. This is a sobering concept. The God we choose to love changes us into his image whether he exists or not. This is not a simple critique of religious fundamentalism – a phenomenon varied in its beliefs and motivations. It is a criticism of any institution that allies ideology or faith with anger and selfishness. The enemy is not religion. The enemy is anger, hostility, intolerance, separatism, extreme idealism, and prejudicial fear – be it secular, religious, or political,” (Newberg and Waldman).
Worship is the practice of uniting all that is within us to celebrate the joyful goodness of God – and for us that must not be a reptilian God of anger, hostility, intolerance, and all that is listed above, but rather the God described poetically by the apostle John like this:
This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in God there is no darkness at all. Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. We love because God first loved us. Those who love God must love their sisters and brothers also. (1 John sel.vss.)
To worship is to exercise the highest capacities we have. It exercises the parts of our brains that transcend the reptilian and even the merely human. It invites us to contemplate the glorious, transcendent, living God of love, and in so doing, to experience transformation into that image ourselves. This it turns out, is a good and supremely joyful thing.“
Blessing and Peace, Ed
Looking to donate to our thrift sales?
If you have any furniture to donate, please take a photo of what you have and send the photos to office@1stpresrahway.org. At this time, we’re not accepting clothes or shoes.
Members usually work on Wednesday’s for our sales from 10:30 am -1:30 pm. If that’s not a convenient time for you to drop off donations, other arrangements can be made. Please email the church office and your request will be forwarded to the “sales crew” so they can respond to your inquiry.
As always, thank you to all who donate. Our sales have been a great success this year because of you!
Important Message from the USRC Board of Directors:
Please read these guidelines about Squier Hall and the formation of the USRC Board of Directors, who will be overseeing the groups meeting in Squier.
As part of the guidelines, please use this form if you have any concerns so that they can be addressed.
Interested in Getting Involved?
We have a lot of different ways for you to get involved – short-term projects, one-time opportunities, working with our livestream technology on Sundays, plus much more. Click on the button below to see what we have on our ‘volunteer wish list’. As more opportunities become available, we will be sure to update our listings.