the threefold gift: christ as prophet, priest and kingwednesday, december 4 lighting of the chrismon...

December 2013

In the Old Testament, a person could be a prophet, priest or a king, but it was impossible to be all three. Yet scripture a ributes all three of these offices to Jesus Christ. As the ul mate revela on of the Prophet, Jesus speaks the Word of God to us; as the Priest, He represents us fully to the Father and brings us the supreme atoning sacrifice (of Himself) that placates the Father's holy and just wrath against us for our sin; – the conquering and reigning King, He is forever worthy of our worship and adora on. He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Jesus Christ's threefold office of prophet, priest, and King is central teaching and reformed theology. John Calvin made the concept widely known by his teaching in the Ins tutes: "Therefore, in order that Faith may find a firm basis for salva on in Christ, and thus rest in him, this principle must be laid down: The office enjoined upon Christ by the Father consists of three parts. For He was given to be prophet, King, and priest." Ins tutes II. xv. 1 During the season of Advent we will follow a sermon series that will look more deeply at the meaning of each of these three offices of Jesus Christ and thereby enhance our an cipa on and celebra on of our Savior! Confidently and Expectantly,

The Threefold Gift: Christ as Prophet, Priest and King

INSPIRE

Advent Photo-a-day

December 1-25, 2013

Setup the tree, hang the lights, wrap the gi s…cleanup the wrapping paper, take down the lights, put the tree on the curb. Where did the me go?

Every year we promise that this Christmas will be different. We promise that we will slow down and enjoy me with our family and friends, that we won’t stress out, that we will focus on the true meaning of Christmas and what it means for our lives.

But somehow Christmas Eve is here before we know it and we won‐der why we don't feel renewed a er this joyous season.

We're invi ng you to enter this season of advent with inten on and awareness. Join us in a photo‐a‐day experience during advent that will help us open our eyes to the season as we await God’s promised messiah.

Each day there is a theme word. Take a picture of anything in your world that you think connects to that theme word and post it to Facebook, Twi er, or Instagram, using the theme of the day as the

tle and tagging it with the hashtags #rethinkchristmas and #columbusfpc. You can also email your pictures to JoAnna in the church office, [email protected].

To receive daily email reminders of the theme, visit h p://eepurl.com/INaOj.

To receive daily reminders via sms messaging, visit h p://eepurl.com/INcvj.

Take me to search for these tags to see how other people in our

1. 1 Go

2. Bound

3. Peace

4. Time

5. King/kingdom

6. Awake

7. Ready

8. Wisdom

9. Delight

10. Holy

11. Steadfast/steady

12. Hope

13. Justice

14. Gather

15. Rejoice

16. Strong

17. Free

18. Mercy

19. Patient/patience

20. Good news

21. Prophet

22. Sign

23. Neighbors

24. Joy

25. Light Christmas Eve Candlelight Communion Services

4:30 p.m. featuring Children & Youth Choirs

6:30 p.m. featuring the Adult Choir

INSPIRE

Church Family Suppers

Wednesdays 5:30 p.m.

Fellowship Hall

December 4 Lighting of the Chrismon Tree

December 11 Advent

United Kingdom – Dr. Lyle Dorsett Billy Graham Professor of Evangelism,

Beeson Divinity School

December 18 Caroling at The Ralston

December 25 No program – Merry Christmas

January 1 No program – Happy New Year!

ADVENT LUNCHEON SERIES

Christ Our Prophet, Priest & King

Thursday, December 5th

“CHRIST OUR PROPHET”

Rev. Johnny Flakes, III

Fourth Street Baptist Church, Columbus


“CHRIST OUR PRIEST”

Dr. Lyle Dorsett

Beeson Divinity School


“CHRIST OUR KING”

Rev. Dr. Ron King

Executive Director, Pastoral Institute

INSPIRE

December Youth Calendar 1st Youth Choir (5pm) Chrismon Tree Decora ng 7th Fantasy in Lights (Callaway Gardens) 8th No SNL! (Lessons and Carols) 15th Youth Choir (5pm) Youth Christmas Party

22nd No SNL! 25th MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! 29th No SNL!

Garry Cook joined the First Presbyterian Church staff on September 3rd. And did he ever hit the ground running! Garry directs the produc on of our television and live‐stream broadcast for the 11 a.m. Sunday morning worship service, which involves op‐era on of the new state‐of‐the‐art TriCaster, cameras, and computer equipment, recruitment and training of our faithful volunteers, set‐up and tes ng of the audio components, and transmission of the signal to WRBL. In essence, Garry is the primary contact for all of the television and audio‐visual equip‐ment in the church and this includes all of the programming on Wednesday night (FX:2:42) plus the three Sunday morning services.

Garry arrived at the busiest possible me of the church year. Our stewardship campaign had just kicked off so Garry spent countless hours taping, producing and edi ng the Remember YOUR Story video which was featured at the Stewardship luncheon on Sunday, October 27th and later posted on YouTube and emailed to the congrega on for all to enjoy. In addi on, he has li ed the “Stewardship Moment” from the worship services and prepared them for email distribu on each week. In the short

me he has been here he has already produced other high quality videos for the educa on and missions ministry as well.

Prior to Garry’s arrival at First Presbyterian, he worked at Columbus State University filming, direc ng, producing, and edi ng mul ‐camera video projects of guest lectures, theatre produc ons and concerts at such places as the RiverCenter, the Springer Opera House, Riverside Theatre Complex, Cunningham Center and University Hall Auditorium. He has a 20 year background in mul media and holds a Apple Final Cut Level 1 Cer fica on in film edi ng. He has produced 20 theatre produc on DVD’s (11 as editor and 9 as co‐editor) using so ware such as Apple Final Cut Studio, Sony Vegas and Adobe Premiere.

While it’s impressive to read about Garry’s qualifica ons on paper, it’s even be er to see the results of his work, and we have certainly been the beneficiaries of that here at First Presby‐terian in the past three months. Someone recently said, “I knew we needed someone with his skillset, but we just didn’t realize how much un l he arrived.” If you haven’t yet met Garry, please do so. He is a true asset to this church and will help us move forward into unexplored realms.

Our youth at the Infantry Museum’s IMAX theatre to see the Jerusalem movie.

Advent and Christmas Calendar of Events Sunday, December 1 – 1st Sunday of Advent

Christmas Benevolent Market Begins (through December 22)

Wednesday, December 4 Lighting of the Chrismon Tree – Dinner Begins at 5:30 p.m.

Thursday, December 5 – Advent Lunch Series Rev. Johnny Flakes, III, Fourth Street Baptist, Columbus

Sunday, December 8 – 2nd Sunday of Advent “The Threefold Gift: Prophet, Priest and King” Sermon Series Begins

Lessons and Carols 5:00 p.m.

Wednesday, December 11 Dr. Lyle Dorsett, Beeson Divinity School / FX 2:42 Family Experience

Thursday, December 12 – Advent Lunch Series Dr. Lyle Dorsett, Beeson Divinity School

Sunday, December 15 – 3rd Sunday of Advent Christmas Breakfast 9:30 a.m. – No Sunday School

Items due for Spreading the Cheer (Donations for the Ralston)

Wednesday, December 18 Church-wide Caroling at the Ralston – Dinner Begins at 5:30 p.m.

Thursday, December 19 – Advent Lunch Series Dr. Ron King, Executive Director of the Pastoral Institute

Sunday, December 22 – 4th Sunday of Advent No Sunday School

Tuesday, December 24 – Christmas Eve Candlelight Communion Services 4:30 p.m. – Children & Youth Choirs / 6:30 p.m. – Adult Choir

Church Office Closes at Noon

Wednesday, December 25 – Merry Christmas! Church Office Closed Thursday, December 26 – Church Office Closed

A BILLBOARD OF THANKS

From early April un l

June 25th, I struggled in

ge ng a diagnosis, both

in Columbus and at

Emory, due to swelling. I

shared this with the

Men’s Prayer Breakfast

and with some TSYS

members and asked for

their prayers. Once I was

diagnosed with lympho‐

ma, Ann and I were

deciding whether to seek

treatment at Emory or at

the John B. Amos Cancer Center here in Columbus. On

our first visit to Amos, we listened to the doctor about

our treatment, prognosis and op ons. He asked if I had

any ques ons and I asked him, “Do you believe in God?”

When he answered, “I do and all the good doctors I

know do,” I knew where I planned to get my treatment.

I shared my upcoming journey again with the Men’s

Prayer Breakfast group, asked to be placed on the

church’s prayer list, shared with my two work groups at

TSYS, out‐of‐town family and friends, who also shared

with others. Ann and I were sooooooo li ed up by pray‐

ers from so many people. We received calls, emails,

cards, and had personal discussions with many people.

A er three chemo treatments and two lumbar punc‐

tures, the tes ng showed no signs of the lymphoma but

the doctor felt I needed three more rounds of chemo

and another lumbar puncture. A er those first three

treatments I began to think about how I could possibly

express my thanks to all the people who had supported

us and to the Lord who had been with us every step.

Thank you notes and cards didn’t seem appropriate

because I knew there were people praying for us whom I

didn’t even know about and I thought if I sent some‐

thing to those I did know about, I’d forget SOMEONE.

One Thursday morning on the way to work, a er the

Prayer Breakfast, I no ced and wondered if I could get

the billboard on the Second Avenue bridge and do a

“Thank You” note to everyone. This form of public tes ‐

mony was pre y uncomfortable for this Presbyterian.

A er all, the First Presbyterian bumper s cker was a big

step for me! I was s ll a couple of months from finishing

the last treatment but I made contact with the billboard

people and found out it would be available the first of

November but that was several weeks before I would

actually know if my treatments had been successful.

Didn’t ma er, I knew they had been and decided to go

ahead.

I wanted to THANK everyone but I truly knew that it was

God working through Dr. Pawloski and lots of others at

John Amos and Emory who had healed me. The journey

will con nue but the Campbell’s are thankful and appre‐

cia ve of all of God’s gi s, especially prayer partners

‐ Jim Campbell

THANKS for your thoughts

and prayers. HE heard you!

Peace, Jim and Ann Campbell

The Upper Room, a

worship and teaching

event for college

students held on

Thursday nights at

The Abbey.

INSPIRE Page 5

Many of us are in a season of life much like the season of fall. It’s filled with perfect beau ful days, cold, cloudy, rainy days and lots of transforma on.

As a mother I am in the midst of that season today. When I entered into this season of life, I was preparing to be a first me mother in a new city, hundreds of miles from family with a deployed husband and wondering how I would ever survive. God quickly brought an answer to my fear‐filled ques on, MOPS (Mothers’ of Preschool‐ers). MOPS is a group filled with unique women all tack‐ling the same season in life, the wonderful years we get to mother young children. Being a Mom of a li le child is wonderful and scary all at the same me. It also brings with it new ques ons, issues, fears, anxie es, joys and hopes, all of which we tackle on three hours of sleep. MOPS is a group which seeks to provide a caring community where Moms can share with each other, care for one another, and gain knowledge to help us thrive, not only survive, no ma er how li le sleep we are ge ng at night. I am so excited to say that First Presbyterian is star ng a MOPS program that will reach out to mothers in our church and community. Mothers who could be a li le like me, who hope that every day in this season of life can be beau ful fall days but want to be ready for the cloudy, rainy days as well. If you want to have people in your life to rejoice on beau ful days with you when kids are smiling, their clothes are clean and they match, or no one has had a me out, then MOPS is for you. MOPS is also there for rainy days when no one will keep on their shoes, you really are exhausted and your pa ence is way past thin. Take it from someone who knows, MOPS has been a blessing for this Mom, no ma er the weather.

If you’re interested in ge ng a taste of what MOPS is all about, an informa onal mee ng will be held on Tuesday, January 14th from 9:30am‐11:30am. Stay tuned for more details to come regarding registra on, fees, and room loca on. Childcare for children ages 0‐5 will be provided and there will be MOPPETS programs for the kids to enjoy. You can learn more about MOPS Inter‐na onal at their website www.mops.org. Contact Andrea Heath, 843.276.2894 or email [email protected] or Debbie Spear, Children’s Director, 706.322.4523 or [email protected].

Men’s Prayer Breakfast

Packs Sack Lunches

INSPIRE

In Honor of Our Veterans Ed Adams Chuck Allen Ed Anderson Wayne Andrews John Bailey Kenny Bath Chris Beck Bill Benn Jack Benedict Ed Berry Rennie Bickerstaff Jimmy Biggers Ed Booth Tom Carlisle Letcher Crawford Hudson Downing Wes Driver Olice Embry Richard Erickson Bruce Gannaway Bill Graham Bob Hahn Shane Hancock Jim Harbison

Rob Harbison Bill Hardegree Lonney Harris Andy Heath Jon Hemmings Robert Hinson John Hopf Carl Hopp Neil Hotard A. Illges Jimmy Jarrell Will Johnson Hugh Kennedy Ed Kinner John Kinne Quen n Lami John Laney Chong Lee Cory Loomis Jim Lawlor George Lawrence Colin McElroy Cas Mendez‐Vigo Duke Miller

Jimmy Moye Bill Mullin Mike Nierode Dick Olson Bud Paepcke Bunky Pease Chris Peebles Lee Redmond Lowry Reid Gary Scheible Terry Sellers Daniel Shaffer Brian Shipp Gary Singley Gene Steger Dick Stone Bob Swygert Ken Todd Stacy Welch Cecil Whitaker Ben Williams Ray Williams

We honored our veterans during the Church Family Supper on Wednesday, November 13th. If you are a veteran and your name

is not listed, please contact Kimberly in the church office, 706.322.4523 or [email protected]. Thank you!

RECAP OF APPROVED ACTIONS NOVEMBER 18, 2013 STATED SESSION MEETING

- Received report from commissioners to Nov. 12, 2013 meeting of Presbytery.

- Authorized organization of a MOPS (Mothers of PreSchoolers) program.

Invest in People: Support the Christmas Eve Offering

Again this year we will receive a special offering at our 4:30 and 6:30 p.m. Christmas Eve Services. When you support this offering you invest in the lives of people. Half of the offering will go to support our sister

church, the Good News Bap st Church in Moscow. Our brothers and sisters in Russia minister to youth and children in their neighborhood, to orphans, to older adults, and to all they come in contact with in Jesus’ name.

The other part will go to the Joy Offering of the Presbyterian Church (USA). Half of the proceeds go to the Board of Pensions to aid re red servants of the church living on inad‐equate pensions. The other half expands the work of racial and ethnic Presbyterian schools and college. You can make a difference in the lives of people in Jesus’ name.

INSPIRE

24 Virginia Holman Glen Giles 25 Chris Moore 26 Pete & Amy Pease 27 Robert & Tootie Bickerstaff Bunky & Cherry Pease Cecil & Terry Whitaker Katherine Kimbrough Madden Hatcher, Jr. Laurie Billiot Ed Adams, III Lindsey Bauler Cain Harrelson Benton Bruce 28 Bud Paepcke Jake Burrus, Jr. Thomas Adams, IV 29 Matt & Jordan Cartledge Lynn & Ida Page 30 Thomas Cooper 31 Bill & Sara Heard

1 Terry Whitaker Judy Dean Mitchell Jarrett Will Richards Thomas Mobley 2 Edith Pignato

Jack Norman

3 Cal & Virginia Holman Ted Neumeister Tyler Rogers 4 Rick Peebles 5 Richard Doub Suzanne Saunders Julie Straus Barry Wells Charlie Straus Minna Straus Boyd Bickerstaff 6 Kathy Peebles Kevin Reherman 7 Frank & Tamie Lumpkin Carol Jackson Bob Elliott, Jr. Chase Pennington 8 Hunter & Amy Bryan Eleanor Grear Bill Poovey, Jr. Mint Flowers Charlie Landis 9 Mark Littleton Frank Tommey Maggie Johnston Garrett Welch 10 Cindy Jones Kate Snodgrass

11 Mitzi Allen Janis Miley Joe Morehead 12 Lucile Flournoy Clara Cooper 13 Mary Margaret Stone Edgar Chancellor, III Samuel Coffin 14 Jeanne Johnson Ed Adams Lew Shields Hendley Badcock 15 Lisa Powers Reynolds Saunders Audrey Shortt 16 Diane Andrews 17 Jim & Amelia Lawlor Jimmy Campbell Daniel Adams 18 Chong & Jane Lee Jim & Pam Moye Ron & Meg Murray Jake Burrus, III 19 Ginna Norman Ken White, III Henry Lemieux Anna Hurtt 20 Davis Quinn Madison Quinn 22 Dexter Jordan, Jr. Gary Buce 23 Allie Murray McKinley Bath

December Anniversaries and Birthdays

If your birthday or anniversary is this month, but is not listed, please contact the church office so we can add it to your member profile.

To opt out of receiving the Inspire Newsletter by mail, please contact JoAnna Williams at 706.322.4523 or [email protected].

1100 First Avenue

Columbus, Georgia 31901

Phone: 706.322.4523

Fax: 706.596‐8531

Web: www.columbusfpc.org

Share God’s Love: First Presbyterian, a historic church located in uptown Columbus, Georgia, seeks to minister to all people in Christ’s name through an inclusive, caring, and faithful community that joyfully shares the gift of salvation from a loving and forgiving God.

SEN IOR PASTOR

The Reverend Charles R. Hasty, Jr.

ASSOC IATE PASTOR

The Reverend Dr. E. Jones Doughton

ORGANIST AND CHOIRMASTER

Mr. Thomas H. George, Jr.

CHURCH ADMIN ISTRATOR

Ms. Suzanne McCary

CAMPUS PASTOR, THE ABBEY

The Reverend Jason Micheli

CH ILDREN’S MIN ISTRY DIRECTOR

Mrs. Debbie Spear

the threefold gift: christ as prophet, priest and kingwednesday, december 4 lighting of the chrismon...

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