Events

Archives Adult Education May 3rd

Following service on May 3rd there will be an adult education session all about our Archive at First Church. Our 2025 Archives Intern will be giving an overview of the material held in our Archives, as well as highlighting special pieces on display in our Archives room. She will also be explaining the process of using and donating to the First Church Archives. Following the session all are welcome to join her upstairs in the Archives room for its grand opening.

SAVE THE DATE!!!

We cordially welcome you to celebrate the arrival of spring with a multigenerational music showcase at First Church in Oberlin. Bridging academia and town residents together, the 2026 Spring Revival Showcase features talented musicians from the Community Music School, Kendal at Oberlin, and groups from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. The program features vibrant original works, elegant classical repertoire, and the premiere of a new musical suite by student jazz trumpeter and composer Tim Park.

Following the performance, guests will be invited to enjoy a selection of appetizers and refreshments in Fellowship Hall at First Church in Oberlin.

The 2026 Spring Revival Showcase is generously sponsored by the Office of the Dean of the Conservatory, the Office of the President, the Oberlin Jazz Society, and the Oberlin College Bonner Scholars Program.

Regular Meeting of the Congregation

Our Constitution directs us to have a regular meeting of the congregation to elect officers and committee members, as reported by the Nominating Committee.

We have scheduled this meeting to occur in person immediately after the close of Sunday morning worship on April 26th.

At that time we will also vote on the recommendation for a minor wording change to our church constitution. A full narrative report in hard copy and an electronic version will be available prior to the meeting.

A 50 person quorum is required to pass any motions, so please plan to attend the meeting that day.

Dinner and Conversation

The Fellowship Committee is sponsoring an evening at Bella Luna’s on Sunday, April 26th at 4:00 p.m. We will have the restaurant to ourselves! The cost will be $33.00 person, to be paid in advance, plus the gratuity the night of the event. You can make your check out to First Church with “Bella Luna” on the memo line.

We will begin the evening with appetizers followed by a plated salad. Dinner will be served buffet style and will include pasta, steamed vegetables, salmon, chicken marsala, and roast pork loin, with cannoli’s for dessert. Beverages are included but feel free to bring your own wine if you like.

We need to give Bella Luna a total number of people attending by April 21st. A sign-up sheet is on the bulletin board in the Fellowship Hall hallway.

Join us for an evening of good food and fellowship!!

Earth Day Oberlin Green Group Gathering

The First Church Green Team will be hosting its annual Earth Day Oberlin Green Group Gathering this Friday at 5:30 in Fellowship Hall. You are invited to join this Pot Luck Dinner (bringing a VEGETARIAN ONLY main dish, side dish or dessert for 8 or more to share). Following the meal Professors John Petersen and Rumi Shammin will present a program on "Eco-Industrial Parks." Doors open at 5 p.m. to bring your dish to share with members of Oberlin's many groups concerned with environmental sustainability.

Come join the fun!

Be a part of Oberlin's Big Parade! This year's theme is Ye Olde Big Parade, featuring knights, princesses, jesters, dragons, and more. Let's show the community what a vibrant and fun place First Church is by joining in with costumes, a float, flags, or just your shining faces - whatever you can think of! Contact Anne Sprague if you have ideas to share.

The parade will be Saturday, May 2, and our annual Spring Festival will be the following week, May 9.

Let's celebrate Spring and First Church!

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.

As usual, the deadline for submissions for the upcoming First Things First is Wednesday prior to 10 AM.
We will not be putting in any non-First Church job postings.
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).
There is a word limit of 100 words for the text of a submission.
You may insert links into the text post for more information, either by button or hyperlink in the text.
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.
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).
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!

Worship - Live Streamed and in the Meeting House on Sundays @ 10am
Children's Church (grades K - 5) 10:15 AM each Sunday during the school year
Summer Storytime - 10:15 AM during the summer
Finance Committee - 2nd Monday each month
Facility Committee - 1st Tuesday each month
Stewardship - 2nd Tuesday each month
Office Staff Meetings - Mondays at 2:00 PM
Book Group - Tuesdays at 4pm via Zoom
Witness and Membership - 2nd Wednesday each month
Christian Education Committee - As necessary
Outreach and Service Committee - 1st Monday each month
Executive Council - 4th Tuesday each month
Green Team - 3rd Wednesday of each month