First Presbyterian Church, Sterling IL

Everyone! Pentecost, May 27, 2012 Christina Berry First Presbyterian Church, Sterling, IL Acts 2 1 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. 5 Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6 And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. 7 Amazed and astonished, they asked, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us, in o...

Witnesses Acts 3:12-16; Luke 24: 36-48 First Presbyterian Church, Sterling, IL Christina Berry Acts 3:12-15. When Peter saw it, he addressed the people, "You Israelites, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we had made him walk? The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our ancestors has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and rejected in the presence of Pilate, though he had decided to release him. But you rejected the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer given to you, and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. And by faith in his name, his name itself has made this man strong, whom you see and know; and the faith that is through Jesus has given him this perfect health in the presence of all of you. Luke 24: 36-48 While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to t...

Worship Service First Presbyterian Church Sterling, Illinois Holy Humor Sunday April 15, 2012 This was our third annual Holy Humor worship, and I think our best ever. The week before Palm Sunday, we handed out postcards for our folks to invite their friends and neighbors for Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Easter and Holy Humor Sunday. We sent a press release (see it at the end of this post) to the local paper, and it ran on Saturday the 14 th . We also put the word out on Facebook. We used our regular order of worship, but the bulletin had rebus pictures instead of words (for example a picture of a phone, the numeral 2, and a picture of a battleship – “Call to Worship” Get it?!) The chancel was strewn with balloons, red Solo cups, party hats, streamers and confetti. There was confetti up and down the aisles, and smiley face helium balloons where the flowers normally are. There were “joke breaks” and the jokes are included here, plus a few brave members shared their ...