First Presbyterian Church News (Clarksville, TN)

At Faith Focus on April 24, John R. Morgan of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints will present “Cultivating Confidence by Connecting with our Divine Identity." Join us from 5 to 6:30 for dinner and the presentation. Children's activities provided.

Make sure you take advantage of this grant-funded program for its final month! Dr. Quentin Humberd will speak at Faith Focus this Wednesday on mental health challenges, foster care, and how we can help children in Clarksville. Join us for dinner at 5:00 and the program until 6:30 in Fellowship Hall. Childcare is provided. 

Join us on April 10 from 5 to 6:30 for Faith Focus in Fellowship Hall. Local writer Susan Steen will speak on “A Diversity of Truths,” helping us develop an understanding of diverse truths through the lens of unity and love, guided by the wisdom and compassion of our faith. Complimentary dinner and childcare!

Youth, please practice and prepare with us for Youth Sunday on May 5 at our upcoming meetings: April 14, 4-6pm; April 28, 4-6pm; May 4 (Saturday), 9-11 with lunch until 12.

Palm Sunday Maundy Thursday Easter Sunrise Service Easter Worship

The Faith Focus presentation on Wednesday, April 3 will be “Human Flourishing: Communing with God in Creation” by priest and paramedic Clifford Syner. Dinner starts at 5:00 in Fellowship Hall. Programming for adults and children is provided through 6:30. Cliff,  priest at Church of the Resurrection in Clarksville,  has been working in healthcare for over 20 years, initially as a special Operations Flight Medic and then as a Physician Assistant in the Army. He has served in public health initiatives in multiple third-world countries and helped to develop infrastructure that lowered the infant mortality rate in eastern Afghanistan. In 2014, Cliff began working in Functional Medicine. He quickly began seeing the connections between physical and spiritual health and attended seminary to explore God's desire to see us flourish within creation. After seminary, his family moved back to Clarksville. They have recently started a non-profit functional medicine clinic. Cliff has been married

Easter Lilies Given in Memory of: William Banyas by Pixie McCord Mills Zachary Davis by Gail & Bob Hudson CW4 Michael Harris by Sheryl & Richard Parker Buddy & Shiela Foust, Scott W. Hedstrom, Heidi Kathleen Hedstrom & Mitcheal K. Ostlund by the Foust, Hedstrom & Neuman families Mildred S. Glenn, Evelyn G. Hunter, & Harper N. Ausenbaugh by Millie Armstrong Karen Goggin & Liz Thomas by Mark, Rhonda, & Allister Banasiak Tom Graves by Charlotte Graves Aubrey Harvey and Cindy C. Harvey by the Harvey family Nell Harris by Vicki Hildreth & family Loretta Mattade by Pixie McCord Mills, Lori Jordan & Ryan McCord Ruby Jean McLeod by Roger & Elynor Busler Jerry Mealer by the Mealer & Goodwin families Edgar & Sara Frances Mills by Sam Mills & Martha M. Richardson James Pedigo by Vickie Duncan     Easter Lilies Given in Honor of: Nicholas, Christopher & Mae, and William & Vanessa Cox by Paul Cox John & Irene Polacsek, Robert &

On Easter Sunday, March 31, we will collect a special offering for One Great Hour of Sharing. Offerings will go to ministries like the Presbyterian Hunger Program, Self-Development of People, and Presbyterian Disaster Assistance. To give, visit pcusa.org/oghs or drop a check in the plate (add OGHS to the memo). Thank you! 

 New Sermon Series (April 7 – April 28) “A Brief Statement of Faith” In 1983, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) was born when the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America and the Presbyterian Church in the United States joined together. Important to this reunion was the drafting of a brief statement of  faith that would articulate the commonalities of all Presbyterians. This confession was  adopted by the church in 1991 and placed in our Book of Confessions. As one of the  newest confessions, it is only two pages in length, totaling 80 different lines that explain  our faith. We will dive into each line to help answer that age-old question,  “Presbyterians, what do you believe?” April 7 – “Love and Trust” Lines 1-6; Proverbs 3: 1-12; 1 John 4: 7-21 April 14 – “Outcasts and Salvation” Lines 7-26; Matthew 25: 31-46; John 3: 16-21 April 21 – “Justice and Mercy” Lines 27-51; Micah 6: 1-8; Amos 5: 18-24 April 28 – “Courage and Life” Lines 52-80; Joshua 1: 1-9; Romans 8: 31-

On Wednesday March 21 at Faith Focus, school psychologist and certified life coach Stephani Cook will present "Positive Psychology and Faith: Discovering the Key to Happiness." Join us in Fellowship Hall from 5 to 6:30 p.m. for dinner, the presentation, and discussion. Childcare and children's activities provided. 

On March 31, we will have an Easter Sunrise Service in the Downtown Commons at 6:30 a.m. and Easter Worship Service in the sanctuary at 10:00 a.m. Come celebrate the resurrection of our Savior!

This week at Faith Focus, APSU librarian and FPC member Jenny Harris will present “Faith in a Digital Age” about fostering community that is not only aware of digital challenges but also equipped to address them with love, wisdom, and action. Join us on Wednesday in Fellowship Hall for dinner and the program from 5:00 to 6:30.

Experience Maundy Thursday at FPC on March 28. At 6 pm, we will enjoy a simple meal of soup and homemade breads in the casual setting of our Fellowship Hall and then will worship with acoustic music, prayer, a short sermon, and communion.

For Faith Focus this week, Tyler Nolting--FPC member and APSU professor of public health--will present "God Moments: Embracing the World through a Lens of Love." Join us at 5:00 in Fellowship Hall (dinner and childcare provided) to reflect on the importance of leaving our comfort zones and embracing diverse people and cultures with love, all while recognizing God’s presence in these moments.

On Wednesday February 21, Army flight paramedic and member of our congregation Blake Tindle will talk on "Experiencing God: the Wilderness." We will explore his spiritual journey, what it means to experience God, and where you can experience God. Faith Focus starts at 5:00 with dinner in Fellowship Hall. Child care/activities pro vided.

  Lent & Easter 2024 Sermon Series Christian Somatics: A Celebration of Incarnation February 14 - March 31 We are called to follow Jesus with our whole self. This is what Jesus meant when he affirmed that the two greatest commandments are to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Our “self” or “me-ness” does not just live in our heads or our minds. We are also our bodies. ( Soma is the Greek word for “body” in the New Testament.) Our “self” is just as much in our shoulders, knees, and toes as it is in our head. I am my body and you are your body. In this series we will go to Scripture to learn what it means to follow Christ with our whole body. Along the way, each Sunday we will introduce a new body-prayer practice into our discipleship: somatic awareness, conscious breathing, radical resonance, mindful movement, attuned touch, and the like, as we seek to become more and more like Christ. Ash Wednesday, February 14 (Dinner, 5

One Great Hour of Sharing invites us to join together in expressing our gratitude for what we have and generosity towards others in need. May these daily prompts guide you in joyful giving this Lent.  Download the sharing calendar here. Ash Wednesday 14th: Read Isaiah 58:6–8, 12. What are we asked to do? Who helps meet those same needs for you (v. 12)? Say a prayer of gratitude for them. Thursday 15th: Our Gracie Fish coin boxes will hold many gifts of money this season, but what other kinds of gifts can we give? What gifts can share? Friday 16th: Sunday is PDA’s Blue T-Shirt Sunday. What does PDA do to show God’s love? Choose something blue to wear or share with your congregation. Sunday 18th: God, open our eyes to your face in every person. Let us see the ways we are all connected with all of Creation. May we as your Church, together, seek love, justice and peace with all. Amen.  Monday 19th: Over 23 million Americans live in a food desert, far from a store where

The Worship Committee is in need of individuals to provide sanctuary flowers from March 24-April 28. Contact Rhonda Banasiak or Lesa Goder if you are interested. The cost is $25 plus tax, and we will provide you with all the information you need to make your order.

At Faith Focus this week, Emily Vaughn will lead us in a Poverty Simulation, designed to shift the paradigm away from poverty being seen as a personal failure and toward understanding it as structural, a failure of society. Join us in Fellowship Hall from 5 to 6:30 for dinner, the presentation, and discussion as we put our faith into action.

Our 2024 Sabbatical Preachers: Revs. Austin and Sara Hill The Hills are a clergy couple who were ordained in 2009 and served 15 years in a church slightly larger than ours in worship attendance (600 members) in Fort Dodge, Iowa.  He is from California, she from Philadelphia.  They met and married at Princeton Theological Seminary.  They have two children, Lyla and Everett.  They moved to Franklin, TN in 2023 to be closer to family and are at-large members of the Presbytery of Middle Tennessee.  Austin currently flies commercially as a pilot.  They share a deep faith and love of the church and have extensive preaching experience.  You can hear either (and both) of them preach by going to First Presbyterian Church, Fort Dodge (http://fpcfd.org/), clicking on “Sermons” and choosing Austin or Sara from the pull down menu of preachers. Originally from Southern California, Austin received a B.A. in Psychology from Seattle Pacific University, in Seattle, Washington. Because Seattle didn’t hav