ANNOUNCEMENTS AND EVENTS

Daylight Saving Time

 

Daylight Saving Time begins THIS Sunday, March 8th. Make sure to spring your clocks an hour ahead!

Adult Education THIS SUNDAY, March 8th

 

Mr. Paul Baumgartner, Executive Director of the Lorain County Free Clinic, will give a presentation on the longstanding history and vital community services provided by the Free Clinic. The LCFC provides comprehensive patient-centered health services by a team of volunteer primary care and specialty physicians, nurses and local hospitals.  First Church in Oberlin has been a continuous annual supporter of the Free Clinic for 30 years. The Outreach and Service Committee invites you to come and see what your support is doing in our community.

Adult Education NEXT SUNDAY, March 15th

 

Dr. David Grayson, M.D. is a retired family physician and he will provide a discussion on substance abuse, overdose and recovery.  Dr. Grayson has experience running a busy Suboxone Clinic treating substance abuse at Firelands Counseling and Recovery in Sandusky from 2019-2022.

 

   Substance abuse is a pervasive and widespread problem in Lorain County that has touched the lives of many of us directly or indirectly. His insightful presentation will review the problem of opiate abuse, overdose and treatment. This will include the community bystander use of Narcan (naloxone) for reversal of opiate overdose and the distribution of Narcan kits and local resources available to interested participants.

Shake Off the Winter Chill with a Warm Spaghetti Supper! 

 

Join us on Wednesday, March 18 at 5:45 PM for a delicious community meal. We’ll be serving up:

 

  • Hearty Spaghetti (Meatless and Gluten-Free options available!)
  • Fresh Salad & Garlic Bread
  • A decadent spread of Chocolate Dessert

 

We Need Your Help! 

To make the evening a success, we are looking for:

 

  • 6 Dessert Bakers: Bring your favorite chocolate treat (to serve 10–12).
  • 3 Cleanup Stars: Help us clean up after the meal.

 

RSVP & Sign Up: Register your attendance or volunteer via the link here or on the sign-up board in the Fellowship Hall hallway.

 

Invite friends, neighbors, and college students! All are welcome— we'll see you there!

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! 

One Great Hour of Sharing,

Collected on Easter, April 5th!

 

One Great Hour of Sharing is one of four special mission offerings of the United Church of Christ. This Lenten Offering supports the disaster, refugee, and development ministries of the United Church of Christ within Wider Church Ministries. This year, the special offering's theme is being a cheerful giver!

 

We can make a difference. We do make a difference. Your generosity makes all the difference. Your gifts to One Great Hour of Sharing provide immediate aid and long-term support to people experiencing hunger, thirst, disaster, or crisis around the world. 

 

"Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion for God loves a cheerful giver"

-2 Corinthians 9:7

 

The 2026 offering will be collected on Easter, April 5th. It is possible to contribute in one of three ways: 

 

  1. By mailing a check made out to The First Church in Oberlin with “OGHS” 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 “One Great Hour of Sharing” section. Alternatively, click here and it’ll bring you to the page.

 

Please see below for the Mission Moment for this week and the bulletin insert for this year's offering. More information can also be found on the UCC website. 

 

Let your gift help to put prayer into action. The need has never been greater. The opportunity is now. It’s time to share.

Mission Moment
Bulletin Insert

Outgrow: Lenten Devotional

 

This Lent, shed what you've outgrown!

 

"There is perhaps nothing more futile than allowing people and circumstances we've outgrown to dictate our direction in the present," writes Kenneth L. Samuel in his introduction to Outgrow.

 

Lent begins with a divine demonstration of outgrown circumstances: the temptation of Jesus by the devil in Matthew 4. "When Jesus was being tested in the wilderness," Ken Samuel observes, "he had already grown deeper than the superficial sources [of greatness and glory]."

 

What about you? What temptations in your life have already been overcome by increased insight? What fears have been shed through the development of your faith?

 

The Stillspeaking Writers invite you into the discipline of Lent, a season in which life's trials do not relent but neither does our growth in the Spirit.

 

For those that didn't get a hard copy of the book, you are also able to purchase a PDF for $3.00 here. If purchasing the PDF version, please purchase one PDF per reader. Upon purchase, a link will be emailed to you for downloading the PDF.

Coffee Hour

 

The Fellowship Committee is asking for volunteers to host coffee hour after church. Don’t worry if you are not sure how to make the coffee. Training can be provided. There is a sign up sheet in Fellowship Hall hallway. If you have any questions please talk with Sandy Matthews.

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.

Rental Rates

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!

RECURRING EVENTS:

  • 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

Faith Formation News!

 

  • Children's Church: 10:15 AM during the School year
  • Summer Storytime in the Summer! Children are invited to join us on Sundays at 10:15 AM for a story

 

As always, call Jen or the office to get a link for any and all of these events!

CALENDAR OF EVENTS