Parking Lot Update

It's almost over! The parking lot project should be complete in about another week. Here's what to look forward to, as shown in the drawing:

There will be two angled parking spaces facing the building for handicapped drivers. At the north east corner of the drive is a drop-off spot for mobility challenged passengers. The driver can then turn directly into the small lot to the north, and park. That lot will offer additional parking spaces and access back to that drop-off spot to collect passengers. 

The traffic flow should be more smooth than it is now, and will offer several additional parking spaces. The pavement will be tripping hazard free, and make snow removal simpler in the winter.

Thank you for your patience! 

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).

Wednesday Night Supper

This fall we’ll kick off our popular Wednesday Night Supper with a Garden Harvest potluck meal on the third Wednesday of the month, Sept. 17, at 5:45 pm. Grilled hamburgers and veggie burgers will be provided. You may bring a salad, vegetable, or dessert to share so that we can savor our local crops.

Sign up before September 16 if you plan to attend. All are welcome, whether you bring a dish or just come to enjoy the fellowship. Feel free to invite friends, neighbors, and OC students!

Shared dishes should serve 10 to 12 persons. You can indicate what you plan to bring when you sign up. When you do, you might mention whether your recipe is gluten and/or lactose free. Sign-up sheets are posted in the hallway on the way to Fellowship Hall or through the link below.

There are opportunities to volunteer to come at 5 and help with set-up and serving or to stay afterward and help clean up. If you’d like to assist in some way, speak to a member of the newly formed Wednesday Night Supper Task Force: Joanne Bennett, Martin Buck, Carol and Brian Burke, Sandy Matthews, and Linda Slocum. 

Jen Bertoni is getting ordained!

The ordination is taking place at Jen's new church in Silver Lake - and she would love to see you there! The invite's below, but Jen has a special request: she's trying to put a choir together to sing "Child of God" by Mark Miller. If you would like to sing, please download the pdf and be at the church at 2 pm to rehearse. Please also let Jen know you're coming, so she can get a choir headcount.

Thanks so much for supporting Jen on her journey. She hopes to see you on September 21st! 

Neighbors in Need Offering on October 5th!

The Neighbors in Need offering, which we will receive on October 5, supports the UCC’s ministries of justice and compassion throughout the United States. Two-thirds of the offering is used by the UCC’s Justice and Witness Ministries to fund a wide array of local and national justice initiatives, advocacy efforts, and direct service projects. One-third of the offering supports the UCC’s Council for American Indian Ministries (CAIM). CAIM is an invaluable resource for more than 1,000 individuals from dozens of other tribes and nations who are members of other UCC congregations in the U.S.

In 2025, the Neighbors in Need offering focuses on advocacy. With your generous support, the United Church of Christ (through the Neighbors in Need special offering) helps its members live out their beliefs via acts of service. Please see the attachments for more information on this special offering and mental health justice.

"Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ."

-Galatians 6:2

It is possible to contribute in one of three ways: 

1. By mailing a check made out to The First Church in Oberlin with “NIN” 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 “Neighbors in Need” section. Alternatively, click here and it’ll bring you to the page.

Please see this week's bulletin insert, for more information on this special offering. More information can also be found on the UCC website.

Let your gift help to put prayer into action.

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!