[Our opening gathering music set the tone for our Easter worship celebration. Ellen Brown and Jeff Daubenmire offered this beautiful piano duet. Our church is so blessed with musical talent that honors and glorifies the Risen Christ. For the sermon,&nb…

     Whenever I hear the gospel account of that first Easter, so many emotions surface to the top.  These emotions are so powerful, you can almost touch, smell, and taste the events of that first Easter morning.     E…

[Our church was honored to host this year’s annual ecumenical Good Friday service. Participating churches were First Presbyterian, Church of the Good Shepherd Episcopal, Richland UMC, Christ Lutheran, & Athens First UMC. Each pastor read a portion…

[Jesu, Jesu was our middle prayer hymn following the Maundy Thursday sermon. This hymn refers to that night when Jesus gathered in the Upper Room with his disciples, “Kneels at the feet of his friends, silently washes their feet, Master who a…

     During our season of Lent sermon series, we have been focusing on the different fears we face along our journey of faith. We have looked at the fear of temptation, doubts, fruitfulness, forgiveness, generosity, and confidence. …

[The children led the way in the procession for our opening hymn and then offered this hymn of praise for the congregation during our Palm Sunday worship. Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week that will lead us to Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, a…

     On this Palm Sunday, we are nearing the conclusion of our season of Lent series on the theme, “My fears relieved.”      If you were here five Sundays ago at the start of this series, you might recall that this lo…

[Our Sunday worship theme was about overcoming the fear of being generous with sharing our gifts with others. For the sermon, click here. The picture above is from one of our Athens First Saturday ministries this past weekend in which we went to d…

[Our church celebrated the completion of the three-year capital campaign with a church meal after worship on Sunday. The campaign helped us to add a handicap sidewalk cut-out, a new front entrance kitchenette, an expanded glass entrance, a completely r…

      A man named Jack was walking along a steep cliff.  He accidentally got too close to the edge and fell.     On the way down, he grabbed a branch, which temporarily stopped his fall. He looked down and to his…