Category: Adults

2023 Advent Workshop

Cheri Simonet
Advent Workshop

Sunday, December 3rd

“Advent” means coming or arrival. Rather than just waiting for Christmas to get here, we use the season of Advent to prepare for Christ’s coming. Advent begins this year on Sunday, December 3rd and we will kick off the season with our annual Advent workshop following worship.

Open to all ages, this event will feature crafts, activities, and Kevin’s famous chili lunch. Brenda has designed some great crafts once again, including a beautiful coaster suitable for gift-giving and an Ugly Christmas Sweater ornament. New this year is the option to decorate an Advent Yule Log for your home. And of course, as always, we’ll have Loni’s cut-out cookies to decorate (and eat!).

Returning this year is our Socks of Love project that was initiated last year. Filling a sock for persons in our community who are experiencing homelessness is one way to show our love and share our bounty with neighbors in need. Each pair of warm wool socks is filled with travel-size toiletries and other necessities for those who struggle with basic needs. Last year we filled 48 socks—this year can we do more? Our socks will go to St John’s shelter.

Please join us for this all-church celebration.

In Our Church Library

Cheri Simonet
Hostage Bound Hostage Free Bookcover

From Mike Melton —

During a recent Christian Education meeting I offered to put in a recommendation for a good book someone might want to check out in our church library.  I was perusing the shelves when I saw it; Hostage Bound Hostage Free by Ben & Carol Weir.  I remember when I got my copy of this concise book back in the early nineties because I purchased it at a Presbytery meeting where the Weirs were speaking.  

If you’re not familiar with their story, Ben had been a Presbyterian pastor in Beirut, Lebanon for over thirty years but was kidnapped off the streets by Shiite extremists in front of his wife Carol on May 8th, 1984.  Ben was a captive for over a year and the book’s chapters alternate between Ben’s horrifying ordeal with his faith sustaining him and Carol’s increasingly more public campaign seeking government action for his release.  Just a modest couple in a whirlwind of madness. Now I see all the news of Hamas and Israel.  I hear the shock and despair in the victim’s voices.  We see people kidnapped and the tears of their families.  As Christians, we pray for all these suffering today knowing their stories are yet to be told, but we can read the Weir’s story now. I recommend you read it and pray that God gives us the heart to grow ever more compassionate.      

2023 Blue Christmas

Cheri Simonet
Blue Christmas

December 19th at 6pm

For any of us who have experienced loss or are in the midst of struggles, the holidays can be a particularly painful time, stirring up grief in acute ways. As a result, churches of every denomination and style have adopted the practice of a “Blue Christmas” service. We continue this tradition with a Blue Christmas service on Tuesday, December 19th at 6:00pm in the sanctuary.

This time of worship is designed to provide space for prayer, reflection, and remembrance in the midst of the holiday hustle and bustle. It will include special music, candle lighting, and the sacrament of holy communion. All are welcome to join us for this contemplative service of worship. A dessert reception will follow in the Fellowship Room. Invite a friend or neighbor!

Annual 2024 Ski Trip

Cheri Simonet
Annual Ski Trip

The calendar just turned to December, the cold air has sunk in and snow’s even flurrying which means our Christian Education Committee has plans well underway for our annual Ski Trip!

Although the event is primarily coordinated with Youth Group, the ski trip is considered a family event so all are welcome to join!

Mark your calendars for fun on the slopes January 26th. Our ski destination is Ski Brule and we’ll be checking in on Friday the 26th, checking out Saturday the 27th at the Chicaugon Lake Inn. 

Registration forms with more details will be coming in our January Newsletter. We will need a minimum of 20 skiers to take advantage of the Ski Brule group discount so spread the word to family, friends and neighbors. The more the merrier!

We hope to see you on the slopes!

Church Chix Gather December 7, 2023

Cheri Simonet
Church Chix

Please join us, women of all ages, for our December Church Chix Social on Thursday, December 7th!

Our dinner reservation is for 6:00pm and we’ll dine at Old Mexico Cantina & Grill located at 11884 Velp Avenue in Suamico.

Some Chix like to meet up for a cocktail the hour before dinner so that’s always an option and before our evening wraps up we’ll decide where next month’s dinner will be, trying our best to alternate the east side of town with the west side of town. No monthly commitment required.

To attend, you can email an RSVP to office@firstpresgreenbay.org or there’s a sign-up sheet on the bulletin board.

For more information, please contact Linda Michael at lindan9woa@gmail.com or by calling 920-347-0261.

So, if you haven’t already RSVP’d, do it today and join the Church Chix December social for a great night of laughter that’s sure to be memorable!

Christmas Prayer Baskets 2023

Cheri Simonet
Christmas Prayer Baskets

We are excited to once again be ‘adopting’ three families from nearby Tank Elementary School to bless with our love, prayers and Christmas gifts and a meal. This will be our final Christmas adopting families from Tank School as the District has voted to close the school following this academic year.

We have obtained wish lists for the children and adults in each family and those wishes are in three separate baskets on the table in the back of the Sanctuary. Members should take a tag or tags from the baskets and return gifts to the church unwrapped by Thursday, December 14th. Monetary contributions are also welcome.

Thank you to our family coordinators: Patti & Kevin Kabacinski for the Angel Family, Olivia Crooks for the Jesus Family and Lisa Olsen for the Star Family. The coordinator’s role is to make sure the wishes are distributed and returned, then to deliver the gifts and meal. Our youth will wrap and tag all the gifts.

Thank you for your support!

Thank you for your support!

November 2023 Fourth Sunday Forum

Cheri Simonet
4th Sunday Forum - Internet Safety

“Internet Safety: How To Protect Yourself Online”

Our new opportunity for adult enrichment and connection on the fourth Sunday of each month has been well-received! We continue this month on November 26th from 9:00 to 9:45 am in Fellowship Room with a special presentation from our own Lisa Olson on Internet Safety.

Lisa has recently retired from the Green Bay Public schools after a long career in internet technology, and she brings us a wealth of knowledge in how to stay safe and still make use of all the rich resources technology has to offer. Learn about the importance of knowing what apps to access on your phone or tablet, and how to be careful about where you give your personal information. She will also address what AI is, and why we should care. Bring your questions and your concerns—coffee and treats will be available, too.

2023 Advent Bible Study

Cheri Simonet
Holy Disruption Discovering Advent in the Gospel of Mark

Begins November 29th & 30th

Where’s the baby?! The Gospel of Mark doesn’t have a nativity story—so where’s the Advent message? It’s in every aspect of Jesus’ life, to his death and beyond. The incarnation—God’s coming to earth in human form to be baptized, teach, heal, eat, and die—is what we celebrate at Christmas, and Mark shows us just how radical and celebration worthy it is.

Holy Disruption presents a fresh understanding of the holiness of Christmas grounded not in a conventional, cozy Christmas message but through Mark’s disquieting Gospel, which invites its readers to experience God’s disruptive but transformative love for us and our world.

Join us on Wednesday evenings from 6:30 to 7:30pm via Zoom or on Thursday mornings from 11:00am to noon in the Fellowship Room. The lesson is the same for each group, so you may move back and forth as your schedule necessitates. Books will be available by mid-November in the church office or from Pastor Katie.

FUPC 2023 Thanksgiving Dinner

Cheri Simonet
FUPC 2023 Thanksgiving

November 18, 2023

Our sisters and brothers in Christ at First United Presbyterian Church in DePere have invited us to join them once again for a special worship service celebrating Thanksgiving followed by a Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday, November 18.

Worship will be at 4:00pm and Pastor Katie will preach the sermon this year. Pastors Meggan and Luke Farwell will also participate. Choir Director Andy Parks is assembling singers from both churches to comprise a choir, so all are welcome to join in. A delicious Thanksgiving dinner will follow the service, and is open to the community.

Let’s have a big showing from our congregation in response to this gracious invitation—we ALL have so much to be thankful for.

World Communion Sunday and Global Foods Potluck

Cheri Simonet
World Communion Sunday

Sunday – October 1, 2023

This Sunday we will join Christian churches all over the world to celebrate World Communion Sunday as we gather at Christ’s table for the sacrament.

Following worship that day, all are invited to continue the celebration at a global foods-themed potluck in the Fellowship Room.

Plan to try out a new recipe or bring a favorite from your own ethnic background, but the point is to have a wide variety of foods from around the world as our lunch together.

All items should be labelled with ingredients listed, and we’ll enjoy fellowship around the tables as we sample foods we may have never tasted before!

Please join us!