Christmas Fund Offering Collected on Christmas Eve!

The Christmas Fund has been caring for active and retired clergy and lay employees of the United Church of Christ for over 100 years, providing emergency grants, supplementation of small annuities and health premiums, and Christmas “Thank You” gift checks each December to our lower-income retirees.

United Church of Christ congregations and members have blessed the Christmas Fund with their generosity for many years. This year, your care and compassion will be especially appreciated by those servants of the church who are facing a time of need, as reflected in the theme of this year: Be the Light! This year’s offering will be collected on December 24th, but donations may be given at any point before Christmas Eve.

"When They Saw the Star, They Were Filled with Joy"

- Matthew 2:10

It is possible to contribute in one of three ways: 

1. By mailing a check made out to The First Church in Oberlin with “Christmas Fund” in the memo line to the church office, 
2. By using the offering envelopes on the Welcome Table and depositing your donation in the donation boxes in the Meeting House by the doors exiting the room, 
3. Or by going to our First Church website, scrolling down and clicking on "Donate Online" and then going to the “Christmas Fund” section. Alternatively, click here and it’ll bring you to the page.

See the bulletin insert below for more information on this special offering. More information can also be found on the Pension Board website. Let your gift help those who have given so much for our communities.

“Here I am Lord. I will be your light.”

In the past two weeks, I’ve experienced what many of you have already experienced - cataract surgery. My right eye on the 3rd and my left eye on the 10th What a marvelous experience of “light” and clarity when looking now through my new eyes!

The light that I saw before my surgery looked normal to me. I didn’t know any different. I had to wait until after my surgery to experience a new, brighter light that I saw through my backyard windows. I had a “new normal.”

Step up and become someone’s “new normal” in 2026. By this I mean, live out our theme of stewardship, say to God, “Here I am, Lord. I will be your light.”

Be part of God’s light in the world. Share your time, your talent and your treasure. They can be a blessing to others.

Pledges for 2026 are continuing to be received.

From your Stewardship Committee

Furniture Moving Group

Our Furniture Moving Group is such a hit among our renters that we are EXPANDING the group and adding some people so no one gets burnt out! Some questions you may have before joining the group:

• What is the Furniture Moving Group? Folks who rearrange furniture on the stage in the Meeting House for various community events for the church.
• How often do you move furniture? As often as you'd like! The amount of times Miranda asks for help from the group varies in the year, but the busiest times of year are usually the late fall, early winter, and general spring time. We do ask for help in the other times, though!
• What do we ask to move? Anything that is on the stage EXCEPT THE PIANO could be moved off of the stage, and the piano can be moved around the stage.
• How will you know how to move these delicate items on this delicate stage? We will train you! There are casters on everything that you may be moving, as well! 

Please consider joining this crew because it takes a village to provide space for our community! Thank you for your consideration.

Liturgist Coordinator

Are you looking for a way to support worship at First Church without taking on a monthly committee meeting? The First Church worship committee is looking for a new Liturgist Coordinator. This important volunteer is responsible for lining up a liturgist each Sunday. Don't worry, there is no shortage of potential liturgists! Becky Thompson has built a strong cadre of liturgist volunteers over the years she has served so successfully in this role. She will turn a well-tuned process over to her successor. If you are interested, please contact Peter Thomas (pjthomasmathbio@gmail.com).

First Church building rental opportunities

The First Church buildings offer numerous opportunities for meetings, rehearsals, concerts, weddings, and family events. After long study, a reasonable rental fee schedule has been worked out to offer fair use of the facility to our members and our neighbors. Large rooms (the Meeting House, Fellowship Hall, or JFO Room) and small rooms (upstairs classrooms, Room 4, Reading Room) can be reserved by the hour or by the half day. Discounted rates for church members and community partners may be available. The city of Oberlin has limited spaces available for events, and we are happy to offer our facility to help fill that need for our neighbors.

There Are Requirements for Making Submissions to our First Things First eNews!

In an effort to make our eNews more readable and shorten the length, we have created new guidelines for submitting posts! The guidelines are as follows.

1. As usual, the deadline for submissions for the upcoming First Things First is Wednesday prior to 10 AM.
2. We will not be putting in any non-First Church job postings.
3. We will not be putting in any full flyers as the submission (however, we will put in a button that links to a PDF of the flyer).
4. There is a word limit of 100 words for the text of a submission.
5. You may insert links into the text post for more information, either by button or hyperlink in the text.
6. You may insert PDFs (accessible by buttons) for more information, a flyer, or anything else that would be helpful for the post, but the document must be in PDF format. Any other document format will not be included in your submission.
7. You may send one picture that you have the rights to use (i.e. a picture that is not subject to copyright, we suggest using the site pexels.com).
8. The submission will run for a maximum of 2 weeks in the eNews. These 2 weeks do not have to be consecutive.

When sending in your submission, you must have

• The title of the post
• The text of the post (maximum of 100 words)
• Which 2 weeks you'd like for your submission to run

When sending in your submission, you could have

• If you'd like, one picture
• If you'd like, PDFs (and what you'd want the title of the button that links to it to be)
• If you'd like, the links for spots in the text post (and which word(s) you'd like to be the hyperlink or what you'd want the title of the button to be)

Thank you for your patience and understanding as we try to make our eNews experience more manageable for our readers!