Adult Education this Sunday

Pull back the curtain to hear more from the creative minds behind the production of Myths & Hymns, a song cycle with music and lyrics by Adam Guettel, happening in the Meeting House Wednesday November 11th - Saturday November 14th. Drawing from Greek & Roman mythology and a collection of 19th century Christian hymnals, Myths and Hymns is a nonlinear exploration of faith, yearning, and the quest to find one’s place in the world. Reimagined with a cast of transgender and nonbinary performers, this production examines trans mythologies as characters navigate spaces that have not been built with them in mind but where they will inevitably exist. Join us Sunday, October 11th after worship for a presentation and conversation from the production’s director, Quinn Renbarger-Miller (‘27) and Assistant Professor of Theater Juliana Frey-Méndez.

First Church History Group

The First Church History Group will be meeting on Monday 12 October at 11:00 in the JFO Room. You are invited to come along and hear what this important and enthusiastic group has been — and will be — up to.

FALL HARVEST SUPPER

Wednesday, October 21 @ 5:45 PM

Skip cooking tonight and join us for a delicious taste of autumn!

What’s Cooking: Roast Pork & Savory Vegetarian; Squash & Sweet Potato Casseroles; Fresh Vegetable; Quick Breads; Homemade Applesauce & Freshly Baked Pies.

You don't need to cook anything this month—everything is provided. Just bring yourself and enjoy! If you can come early (at 5:00pm) to help set up or stay late to clean up, please indicate when you sign up for the supper.  

Looking for occasional substitute helpers with our youngest children

We have wonderful staff who teach and care for our children during every church service. On occasion, one of those workers needs to be absent, especially in the summer months. To make sure we always have coverage, we are looking to build a pool of church members who can be called upon to help. If you can be part of this pool, please talk to Sarah Colson or email her at noramomma@yahoo.com.

2026 Stewardship Campaign: 

Rooted in Faith, Growing in Generosity; Sowing Seeds of Hope

The focus of our 2026 Stewardship Campaign this week is service.

Through our acts of service, we extend the ministry of Jesus to each other, to the community and to the world.

"Love cannot remain by itself. Love must be put into action and that action is service." 

These words from Mother Teresa are a good reminder of why even the smallest acts of kindness are so vital.

Please consider carefully your support of the 2026 Stewardship Campaign.

Join us in sharing your acts of service on Sunday, October 11, 2026.

To create a visual reminder of the ways in which we are all serving, please don't forget to add your service "acorn" to the oak tree.

Big and small, every act of service matters.

Let's make it a mast year at 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.

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!