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Week of March 13, 2016

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United Methodist

First Church

NEW TO FIRST CHURCH? Steps to find your way: Step 1) MEET FIRST CHURCH—SUNDAY, MARCH 20th Join one of our pastors for a few minutes getting to know First Church and learning about the ministries most relevant for you. Bring the kids. After 8:00 service; room 206 near the lounge After 9:30 service; room 206 near the lounge

After 11:00 Life Center service; upstairs in the loft After 11:00 North Campus service; in the lounge

Step 2) A DISCIPLE’S PATH 6 week group This group will guide you onto a path of growing discipleship and con-nection at First Church. It is also the membership group if you would like to join at any time. Led by Pastor D.G. Giordano, 6:00-7:00 p.m. Wednes-days beginning September 14th in Room 206 of the FEC. This group is in conjunction with Wednesday Night Children’s Ministry.

STAY CONNECTED AND GET INVOLVED!

First Church is a busy place. We want to make sure you aren’t missing out on anything. Besides reading the Weekly Newsletter, you can go to www.firstchurch.cc to learn all about First Church. The First Glance email newsletter, sent every Saturday, briefly highlights some important upcom-ing events every week. You can also like the First Church Williamsport Fa-cebook page. Stay connected and get involved!

PIZZA AT NORTH CAMPUS Next Sunday, March 20, is a Celebration Sunday at the North Campus. We will be sharing in pizza together in the lobby following worship.

SUNDAY WORSHIP

8:00am—Traditional

604 Market St.

9:30am—Blended

604 Market St.

11:00am—Contemporary

601 Market St.

11:00am—Contemporary

1157 Market St.

(live streamed message)

4:30pm—Celebrate Recovery

604 Market St.

WEDNESDAY WORSHIP

5:00pm—601 Market St.

Night meal, fellowship,

music, brief message,

small groups (kids, youth & adults)

Lent Challenge- Kids, parents, and family members will work together to share on social media how kids connect others to Christ in their everyday lives using the

#kidsconnectingtochrist What to do? Check weekly challeng-es on social media and respond. Write a post, take a pic, or record a video of Kids connecting to Christ.

Week March 13—What does it mean to be part of God’s Family? Have kids share!

Week March 20– Share posts of how your family celebrate EASTER.

Helping kids who have a terminal

illness feel the love and joy of GOD

First Church 604 Market St.

Williamsport, PA 17701

570-322-3572

fumc2@comcast.net

Check us out at

www.firstchurch.cc

Donate

TWO NEW WOMEN’S STEP STUDIES

These new step studies are based on the principles found in the Beatitudes and their purpose is to allow us to become free from life's hurts, hang-ups and habits. By working these steps you can and will be changed. The first study will meet weekly be-ginning Wed., April 6th 6-7 pm @ North Campus and will be led by Kathy Choate and Kathy Miller. The second will also meet twice per month beginning Mon., April 4th 7-8 pm @ North Campus and will be led by Janet Hessert. For more infor-mation you can contact Kathy Choate at kchoate3@comcast.net, Kathy Mil-ler at kmiller1961@gmail.com, Janet Hessert at jhessert@comcast.net or sign up on the Communication Card.

SEWING IN THE SPIRIT Do you love quilting, sewing, or em-broidery? Have you ever wanted to learn those skills? The goal of sewing in the spirit will be to create bags, quilts, and vests for the homeless, and for distribution on church mission trips. We will teach others to sew. Most importantly, we will share the gospel at opportune moments. If you are interested in more infor-mation about becoming a member of this new Acts Network group, please contact Judy Flook. Call or message: 570-447-2509; or email: jaflook@comcast.net.

UNITED METHODIST WOMEN Please join the United Methodist Women on Wednesday, March 16th at 1:30 p.m. in the Fellowship Room at North Campus.

PRAYER GUIDE—WEEK 6

Revive….Renew….Resurrect

Monday, March 14 – Worship. Revive us Lord. God, teach us to worship You. Hebrews 12:28 tells us “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe.” God, ever grow worship here to be pleasing and acceptable to You.

Tuesday, March 15 - God’s holiness. Renew us Lord. God, we are amazed that You would reach out to us. Mark 1:15 says “The Kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the Good News.” God, turn us away from sin and towards You. Be first in our lives.

Wednesday, March 16 – Radical Generosity. Revive us Lord. God, Your king-dom comes when we follow Your example and offer generosity to oth-ers. Proverbs 14:21 encourages us “….blessed is the one who is kind to the needy.” God, let us discover the joy that comes from giving and may our gifts be used for Your kingdom work.

Thursday, March 17 - Serving by Putting Faith into Action. Resurrect us Lord. God, awaken us to serve You by serving others. Revelation 5:10 re-minds us. “You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God.” God, may we not simply talk about serving – may we act! Use us, God.

Friday, March 18 – Hearts of Justice and Compassion. Renew us Lord. God, we seek Your will and Your kingdom on earth. Use us to be agents that will bring about change. Psalm 45:6 says “Your throne, O God, will last forever and ever; a scepter of justice will be the scepter of Your kingdom.” God, em-power us to be just in all our ways and reflect Your heart of compassion to the world.

Weekend of March 19 “For Thine is…” Revive. Renew. Resurrect. The King-dom, the power and the glory… God it all belongs to You. Show us how we can we reflect that in our own lives and in all of First Church! I Chronicles 29:11 praises God. “Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in Heaven and earth is Yours. Yours, Lord is the kingdom; You are exalted as head over all….” verse 13 continues “Now our God, we give You thanks, and praise Your glorious name.” God, bring Your kingdom to earth through Your people. Show us what You want each of us to do for You and then give us the conviction to live it out.

TEACH

MISSION OPPORTUNITY WILLIAMSPORT DISTRICT VIM Join us Sunday, April 10 through Sat-urday, April 16, 2016, as we travel to Sumter, South Carolina. Our mission is to share the love of Christ with those whose homes and lives were destroyed by flooding in October 2015. The cost is $250 (Includes housing at the Trinity United Meth-odist Church, meals Sunday night thru Friday dinner). THIS IS A CON-STRUCTION AND REBUILDING TRIP--NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY. WE ARE ACCEPTING VOLUNTEERS ON A “FIRST COMMITTED” BASIS—MAXIMUM 30 VOLUNTEERS. For more information or an application please contact John Best @ jmbest2@gmail.com or (570) 326-1943.

MISSION ITEMS NEEDED Local Food Pantry— tea bags (regular flavor), spaghetti sauce, and pasta (any shape) Shepherd of the Streets—gel shaving cream (both men and women), dis-posable razors (both men and wom-en), and feminine hygiene products. Donations for these missions may be left in the baskets at the following locations: Christian Life Center - the Market Street entrance; Evangelical Center - the Ross Street entrance; North Campus - Lounge.

SECOND MILE GIVING

The Second Mile Giving for March and April is Expectations. Formerly the “Pregnancy Care Center,” Expec-tations provides a variety of pregnan-cy and relationship services to ex-pectant mothers and fathers. These services include pregnancy testing program, ultrasound program, healthy pregnancy classes, labor and birth courses, healthy marriage/relationship program, adoption edu-cation, and other programs to assist parents. www.expectationswc.org Please make checks payable to “First Church” with “Expectations” in the memo line.

SAVE THE DATE: Transform Lycoming County

A week of mission in our community August 1-5, 2016

SEND

HOLY WEEK WORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES

First Night, March 23rd. 5 p.m. in the Christian Life Center; free meal with brief message

Holy Thursday, March 24th- 7 p.m. in the Sanctuary, First Evangelical Cen-ter; Living Last Supper with Communion. Worship online at live.firstchurch.cc

Good Friday, March 25th- 7 p.m. in the Sanctuary, First Evangelical Cen-tert; Service of growing darkness with nailing of sins to cross. Worship online at live.firstchurch.cc

Prayer Vigil, March 25 & 26— 9 p.m. Good Friday through 9 p.m. Saturday, First Evangelical Center.

Easter Morning-- March 27th- regular Sunday service times and locations: 8:00 and 9:30 worship will be identical. Please consider worshipping at 8 a.m. as an Act of Service— freeing up more seating for guests coming to the 9:30 service. Worship online at 9:30 and 11:00 at live.firstchurch.cc

Easter at Celebrate Recovery - 4:30 pm worship in the Sanctuary, First Evangelical Center. Worship including communion and reaffirmation of bap-tism followed by Easter dinner. Anyone 18 and older is welcome.

PRAYER VIGIL

Along with the morning prayer time at the North Campus, the Easter Prayer Vigil to be held March 25th-26th presents each one of us with a timely oppor-tunity to come and talk with our Lord in a quiet, uninterrupted 30 minutes. There is no better preparation for the Easter message of experiencing the risen Christ. Sign-ups will be available beginning March 6th! Please check your calen-dar, and sign up on the church website, at a table following the church services or during your small group meeting. The vigil will be held in the sanctuary of the FEC beginning at 9:00 p.m. following the evening Good Friday service and it will conclude at 9:00 p.m. on Holy Saturday. There will be greeters stationed at the Ross Street door. Prayer guides will be available.

Pastor’s Page MAKING ROOM FOR OUR GUESTS

First Church,

Imagine with me for a moment that I was starting up a new restau-rant. And imagine with me that I wanted to share the great food with as many people as possible. So I created a huge “grand opening” event to invite as many of my family, friends, and the general public as I could. But imagine that on the day of the grand opening all of my friends and family arrived first. Im-agine that they took every good parking space, every good seat, and left no room for anyone new to come and enjoy the restaurant.

What do you think the response of anyone new, from the general public, would be? We do not need to imagine what the response would be. We know those folks who were not family or friends would certainly not return.

In just a few weeks we will be celebrating something much greater than a “grand opening.” We will be celebrating the “grand victory” of life with our Easter celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ! We will be celebrating Christ as the bread of life as death is defeated! It will be a magnificent day!

On this day we are looking for your help by asking you to have a servant’s heart. Specifically we are asking for your cooperation in creating space for guests among us. There is no better Sunday morning time to welcome new folks than on Easter Sunday. In order to make that happen, we want to offer radical hospitality. Ways you can help us do this include:

**If able, please come to the 8AM worship service to make space for folks at the 9:30AM worship service. Both the 8AM and 9:30AM will be EXACTLY the same worship experience.

**Please park in the Lycoming College lots to free up spaces closer to First Church

**Sit in the middle of rows to leave space on the end of rows

**Intentionally look for people you do not know in order to welcome them.

I ask for your help on Easter Sunday, March 27 to serve others with the heart of Jesus who served us by dying for us. Oh, and I would ask that we do it with a spirit of joy rather than grumbling!

1 Peter 4:9 shares: “Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.”

I pray that we will share Christ with others by offering joyful hospitality in these ways.

Thanks so much First Church!

In Christ, Pastor Matt

The Lord’s Prayer: Temptation Matthew 6:9-13

Sermon Outline

I. The fact that Jesus includes a focus to pray about temptation in a pray-

er as brief as the Lord’s prayer indicates that there is something very

about the nature of temptation.

II. We could argue that the whole Biblical story is about

and then God’s efforts to save humans from the tragic consequences of

temptation.

III. Part of the power of Adam and Eve’s story is to realize that their story

is story.

IV. This is a prayer about is going to lead us in our lives.

V. How do we know where and how God wants to ?

Through:

A. The Holy Spirit

B. The Church

C. The scriptures

D. A small group

E. Quiet and Meditation

F. Worship

VI. With temptation each indulgence is enough.

VII. The proper translation is: “Deliver us from the evil .”

VIII. We pray this prayer because God’s desire for us is not death but abun-

dant .

Life Reflection: Where in my life am I experiencing temptation? Does anyone else know it? Where do I need to ask God to lead me? From what do I need delivered? Am I willing to share my temptations with others so that I might experience heal-ing? Pray: “Lord help me to know and be led by you: Lead me not into temp-tation, Deliver me from the evil one.”

Scripture Reflection: Matthew 6:13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one

We’re on the Web! www.firstchurch.cc and

FIRST CHURCH 604 Market St.

Williamsport, PA 17701 Phone: 570-322-3572

Weekly Worship Attendance for week ending March 6, 2016:

TOTAL — 913

Sunday, March 13 8:00 a.m.-Worship (MC, FEC-Sanctuary) 9:30 a.m.-Worship (MC, FEC-Sanctuary) 9:30 a.m.-Sermon Talk (MC, FEC-202) 9:30 a.m.-Children’s Sunday School (MC, CLC-1st floor) 11:00 a.m.-Contemporary Worship (MC, CLC-Stryker Hall) 11:00 a.m.-Contemporary Worship (NC) 4:30 p.m.-Celebrate Recovery (MC, FEC-Sanctuary) 6:00 p.m.-fuse* student ministries (MC, CLC-Stryker Hall/Kitchen) 6:30 p.m.-DivorceCare (MC, FEC-104) 6:30 p.m.-Women’s Small Group (Somers) (MC, FEC-201)

Monday, March 14 6:00 a.m.-Prayer Time (NC-Sanctuary) 7:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m.-FNS (MC, CLC-Entire Bldg.) 1:15 p.m.-The Joyful Hearts (NC-Fellowship Room) 5:00 p.m.-Open Gym (MC, CLC-Stryker Hall) 5:00 p.m.-Men of Integrity (1508 Elmira St.) 5:30 p.m.-GIFT Women’s Group (NC-Fellowship Room) 7:00 p.m.-Women of Faith (1508 Elmira St.) 7:00 p.m.-A Disciple’s Path (NC-Computer Lab)

NC = NORTH CAMPUS (1157 Market St.)

MAIN CAMPUS

CLC = Life Center (601 Market St.)

FEC = Evangelical Center (604 Market St.)

Tuesday, March 15 6:00 a.m.-Prayer Time (NC-Sanctuary) 7:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m.-FNS (MC, CLC-Entire Bldg.) 10:30 a.m.-Daughter’s of Grace (MC, FEC-101) 10:30 a.m.-Women’s Bible Study (McMurray) (MC, FEC-102) 12:30 p.m.-Jewels Small Group (MC, FEC-102) 2:15 p.m.-Worship Design (MC, FEC-Fellowship Hall/102) 3:30 p.m.-Tutoring (NC-Wesley Hall) 6:30 p.m.-Tuesday Night Small Group (Lane) (MC, FEC-206) 7:00 p.m.-Small Group (Murray) (MC, FEC-201) 7:00 p.m.-Volleyball/Bible Study (MC, CLC-Stryker Hall)

Saturday, March 19 7:00 a.m.-Men’s Group (Wegman’s) 10:00 a.m.-Williamsport District VIM Meeting (NC-Wesley Hall)

Friday, March 18 6:00 a.m.-Prayer Time (NC-Sanctuary) 7:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m.-FNS (MC, CLC-Entire Bldg.) 5:00 p.m.-Open Gym (MC, CLC-Stryker Hall)

Thursday, March 17 6:00 a.m.-Prayer Time (NC-Sanctuary) 6:00 a.m.-Men’s Bible Study (Marzo) (NC-Fellowship Room) 7:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m.-FNS (MC, CLC-Entire Bldg.) 9:00 a.m.-Pop-up Play via MOPS (NC-Wesley Hall) 3:30 p.m.-Tutoring (NC-Wesley Hall) 6:00 p.m.-Lead Council (NC-Wesley Hall) 6:30 p.m.-Bell Choir Rehearsal (MC, FEC-104) 7:00 p.m.-NC Praise Band (NC-Sanctuary) 7:00 p.m.-CLC Praise Band (MC, CLC-Stryker Hall)

CYCLE OF PRAYER: March 13-19 Pam Lewis; Courtney, Alexander, Jackson & Evelyn Linn; Joshua Lisson; Marsha Lloyd; Joe & Flicka Losch; Maxine Loudenslager; Pete, Missy, Abby, & Jake Loudenslager; Roberta Loudenslager; Peg Lowmiller; Ray & Susanne Lukas; Mike, Melissa, Elizabeth, Nathan, & Madelyn Lundy; Christopher, Anne, Nelson & Eleanor Macdonald; Howard & Loraine Man-ley; Steve, April & Andrew Manley; Sheena & Darren Mansfield; Dave & Kathy Marcello; Michael, Bethany & Genevieve Marcello; Mitch & Elizabeth Marcello; Glen, Hershey & Xavier Marks; Brian, Erin & Kennedy Marsh, Ben, Jess, Noah, Miles, & David Marzo; Bran-dy, Rudolph, Malachi & Rudolph Matthews; Ellen Maule; Jim & Donna Maule, Bob & Don-na Maxwell, Brent & Allisyn Maxwell; Genny Mayer; Tom & Deborah Mazurek; Sean, Mar-cy, Tyler, Andrew & Allyson McCann.

Wednesday, March 16 6:00 a.m.-Prayer Time (NC-Sanctuary) 6:00 a.m.-Men’s Small Group (Konieczny) (MC, FEC-102) 7:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m.-FNS (MC, CLC-Entire Bldg.) 10:45 a.m.-The Flock (MC, FEC-102) FIRST NIGHT SCHEDULE 5:00 p.m. Dinner (MC, CLC-Stryker Hall)

Wednesday, March 16 (continued) FIRST NIGHT SCHEDULE (continued) 5:15 p.m.-Wed. Night Worship Experience (MC, CLC-Stryker Hall) 5:45 p.m. Children’s Ministry (MC, CLC-1st Floor) 6:00 p.m. CR Step Study (Men) (NC-212/213) First Friends (MC, FEC-Fellowship Hall/101) Fuse* student ministries (MC, FEC-Lounge) Life of Christ (Reeder House, Lead Pastor’s Office) Married Couples Small Group (MC, FEC-102) Men of God (NC-Wesley Hall) Moms of Faith (MC, FEC-105) Sister’s in Christ (MC, FEC-201) Women’s Small Group (Netzley/Vierra) (NC-216) 7:00 p.m. Chancel Choir (MC, FEC-104)