First Presbyterian Church of Ottawa, IL | The Loving Community of Jesus Christ

Time 2020-12-18 08:02:57

Web Name: First Presbyterian Church of Ottawa, IL | The Loving Community of Jesus Christ

WebSite: http://www.ottawafirstpres.org

ID:137905

Keywords:

of,Ottawa,Church,

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Welcome to our First Presbyterian Church website!  We’re glad you’ve stopped by.  We hope you find the information you’re looking for about First Presbyterian Church in Ottawa, Illinois.  Please let us know by email to our staff or our elders if you need anything further than what you’ve found here.  We’re always trying to update our website based upon what will be most helpful and useful to those who visit these pages.  Please take time to look through our different pages to see who we are and what we’re excited about in life and ministry together.  Or just come join with us in the midst of our growing life in Jesus Christ and see what makes First Presbyterian Church a place that many love to call their spiritual home.In the love of Jesus Christ,Pastor John Walker5:00 p.m. Outdoor Christmas Eve Candlelight Celebration for the whole community:  a 25-minute, safe and social distanced service on FPC’s front steps with music by Steve and Jonah Sharp and a message by Pastor John Walker.  7:00 p.m. Candlelight Christmas Eve Worship Service inthe sanctuary: a 35-minute service combining music from FPC and acombined virtual choir from Park Presbyterian and Open Table Churches withleadership from Pastors John Walker, Caleb Suydam and Jenny Suydam8:00 p.m. A second identical Candlelight serviceif expected 7:00 p.m. attendance numbers require it in order to keep safelysocial distanced inside. Worship in the Sanctuary at 9:30 am; service is still abbreviated – no singing, no recitations, masks on, social distancing in effectNormal worship practices to be added back in incrementally when reasonably safe (e.g., the LORD’s Prayer)Scott Hall video/audio feed available if determined to be necessary.Fellowship time likely to remain outdoors following service (no drinks, no food, masks on etc)Live stream video of service on YouTube at 9:30 amHome visits by a small team still available*Please note that we ask that you print your own bulletin at home and bring it with you.Please print the bulletin which Cindy emails our each week and bring it with you to worship. No bulletin will be handed out to reduce surfaces that we touch. If you don’t currently receive emails from Cindy, please call her to add you to the list.Please arrive and be ready for worship to start on Sundays at 9:30 a.m.Masks should be worn – we will have hand-made masks and disposable masks for you to use and keep if you don’t have one.Watch your distance – we are all excited to be together again, we simply ask that you enjoy being in each other’s presence while maintaining a distance of 6 feet between you and your friends.Only one entrance and exit into the church – we will use the Opportunity School doors as the only entrance into the church and the main south-side doors as an exit.Main floor restrooms will be available – the main floor restrooms will be the only restrooms available for use, we ask that only one person use the restroom at a time, and hand sanitizer will be available at each restroom door.Scott Hall and/or library will have a video/audio feed available if determined to be necessary.Your health and safety is our top priority – All doors, restrooms, railings, podiums, and high-contact areas will be wiped down with sanitizer after the service by the safety regathering committee. For those not feeling well or unable to attend gathered worship services, please continue to worship remotely at 9:30 a.m. on the FPC Ottawa YouTube Channel The Grit Grace of Being the Loving Community of Jesus ChristDear brothers and sisters in Christ,We have been reviewing our FPC mission statement each Sunday since January 12. We began at the heart of what and who we are wanting to grow to be for Christ’s glory – a people whose lives and witness are identified and activated by love. It’s a supernatural kind of love. It is only by supernatural means of the Holy Spirit that we can begin to have inside and outside of us the kind of love that Jesus calls us to.It is always important for us to hold up the high ideal of that level of Loving Community, even as we are honest about how our love can often look in our everyday lives together. It is far from the ideal, but we are growing up and learning more of the kind of grit and commitment it takes to love, really love each other. We are also discovering just how this deep love can emerge from our frail hearts and hands as we look to Christ and his love for us. It’s amazing! Ordinary people like us who have good days and bad, who sometimes seem to be oddly matched with others in the church, can actually be drawn together by the grace of God that astonishes the world (and us!) with how much we are being transformed in LOVE! When we recognize this powerful truth of who we are together in Christ, others want to come find out what it is that’s going on. In short, we become very effective to WIN, GROW GO in faith to our world. That’s exciting!Here’s a personal reflection on the kind of Loving Community in church that I m talking about. It comes from a writer and NPR commentator named Heather King. She’s a recovering alcoholic who has come to faith in Christ and offers her unvarnished reflection on her initial experience with the church. See if you can relate to what she describes:“My first impulse was to think, My God, I don t want to get sober (or in the case of the church, worship) with THESE nutcases! (or boring people, or people with different politics, taste in music, food, books, or whatever). Nothing shatters our egos like worshipping with people we did not hand-pick …. The humiliation of discovering that we are thrown in with extremely unpromising people!—people who are broken, misguided, wishy-washy, out for themselves. People who are … us.“But we don t come to church to be with people who are like us in the way we want them to be. We come because we have staked our souls on the fact that Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and the church is the best place, the only place, to be while we all struggle to figure out what that means. We come because we d be hard pressed to say which is the bigger of the two scandals of God: that he loves us—or that he loves everyone else.” (Adapted from Heather King, The Better Church, Shirt of Flame blog, 10-23-11)I am grateful for our bold and challenging mission statement that starts at square one with the great challenge to be the LOVING COMMUNITY of Jesus Christ. That’s just where it needs to start, continue and end. It’s just where you and I need to start as we seek by great faith and hope in Christ to be a people whose lives and witness are identified and activated by his love.Welcome to the grit and grace of LOVING COMMUNITY!Pastor John Walker Search for: Location114 East jefferson StreetOttawa, IL 61350815.433.1045Sunday Worship Schedule:9:30am- Worship10:45am- Sunday School and FellowshipRecent Facebook Posts No recent Facebook posts to show Find us on Facebook

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