January 2021 GOOD NEWS BANNER The Newsletter of Farragut Presbyterian Church Knoxville, Tennessee Praising God Serving Others FPC Growing in Faith WORSHIP JANUARY 2021 Session has decided not to hold in-person indoor worship through the month of January due to the rising coronavirus cases in our area. The sanctuary service at 9:00 am will be livestream only, as well as available for viewing at a later time. The livestream is also available on fpctn.org along with a link to the service bulletin. Weather permitting, there will be an outdoor service at 11:00 am. Please bring a chair and Pastor Reverend Matt Nieman socially distance. The worship bulletin for the [email protected] outdoor service is located on the FPC website as 402-660-2451 (call or text) well as a link to register your attendance. If we are unable to hold the 11 am service an email will be Administrative Staff sent no later than 30 minutes before the service. Dawn Zilles Office Administrator [email protected] My Sunday morning Bible Study over Zoom will 865-966-9547 resume on January 10 at 10 am. Be well, and may God's healing and sustaining spirit be with our Lori Corbett community, nation, and the world. Bookkeeper [email protected] Sincerely, Mason Warren Rev. Matt Nieman Director of Family Ministry [email protected] Children’s Enrichment Program Beth Hallman Director We are a diverse and welcoming [email protected] community of believers, called by God, 865-671-4616 graced by Jesus Christ, and Music Ministry empowered by the Holy Spirit to serve Dr. Angela Batey God through worship in the Reformed Director of Music tradition, compassionate service to all, [email protected] and the nurturing of each other so as to Tami Newsom grow in faith together. Associate Director of Music [email protected] page 2 Welcome New Members We welcome Kathryn (Kathy) Emmerson who, with her husband of 47 years, Dale, moved to Lenoir City last April from Lisle, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. Kathy retired after 42 years as an insurance brokerage executive in Chicago specializing in corporate insurance. She ended her career as CEO of a start up company which she and three others formed, grew, and sold to Willis Group. During her career she was on multiple boards of directors, including being the first woman member and chairman of the Association of Lloyds Brokers. She was also a board member of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce and Queen of Peace High School. Kathy enjoys golf, cooking, reading and service work. Kathy is grateful to MaryAnne and Wayne Walls for introducing her to, and involving her in, FPC family worship and activities. She appreciates the worship alternatives, proactive service opportunities, and the friendly, family atmosphere of FPC. Because they downsized houses while moving from Bearden to Farragut, new members Jim and Jane Brannon are moving their letter from Erin Presbyterian to FPC after years of service there. They’ve been retired for five years now, and look back on years of traveling the country with Jim’s sales career (Baltimore, Washington DC, Nashville, Tampa and Denver) before coming to Knoxville to join Whittle Communications. Jim enjoys a weekly golf game with other ex-salesmen…that is, if the temperature is over 50 degrees! Jane’s career has included banking, human resource management, meeting planning, consumer/wholesale show production and non-profit management. She has continued volunteering by staying busy with community fundraising and event production and serves on the Board of Directors of Dogwood Arts. She has served as Elder at Erin. Their son Drew lives in Greenville, SC with his wife and three children. page 3 Reverend Matt Nieman A Message from our pastor What’s New? As 2021 begins, the excitement for a new year has maybe never been greater. I do not have to recap for you the difficulties of 2020. No sense rehashing the challenges presented to us all. They are still fresh in our memories—the pain, disruption, and isolation. While these challenges remain, of course, the turn of the calendar brings optimism and hope. God told the people of Judah in Isaiah 43 to “remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” Amid their exile in Babylon, God exhorts them to put out of their memories the misery of their exile and not dwell on it. Instead, God proclaims that he is doing something new, “making a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” For us, it seems 2020 was a year of wandering in the wilderness. We were separated from everything that seems normal. God is making our way in 2021, though, making a river in the driest of deserts. What this new thing will be we are not certain. We pray it will be a healing of our world —from the virus, from the vitriol in our public discourse, from the strangeness of our isolated living. In the church, God is also doing something new. Much like God called us to a new way of worshiping and connecting in 2020, God is on the move again, leading us to more new ways of being God’s people as we (hopefully) come out of this pandemic. In your life, what new thing will God do in 2021? Be on guard for how the Holy Spirit is calling you to a new way of living in the new year: A new hobby, a new way of serving, a new way of living in the blessing of God’s grace on your life. We were wandered in the wilderness and were thirsty in the desert in 2020. God is leading us to the river in 2021. Let’s follow. page 4 BUILDING COMMUNITY THROUGH GIVING page 5 OUTREACH YEAR IN REVIEW 2020 page 6 page 7 Here is hoping 2021 is a better year! I look forward to when we are able to begin in-person gatherings again with friends, family, and church folk. Our guest families have been sheltering in place since March, though there have been several families that found housing, and several new ones entered the program. Hopefully, we will soon be able to be with our families. Oh how I have missed that interaction. Our dates for this year are: January 24-31 August 29-September 5 December 19-26 Look for the signup for drop-off meals and gas/grocery cards in January. Please keep the people who are homeless or about to be homeless in your prayers, and thank you again for your volunteer efforts and donations this past year. For more information about Family Promise, contact [email protected], or 865-657-9644. A big thank you to all who participated in our annual Christmas sponsoring for Sunset Gap. We sponsored 30 children this year. Your gifts will truly make for a special Christmas for these families. Sunset Gap is sponsoring about 200 children this year; requests were still coming in when we made our delivery . Thank you to everyone who contributed to the mitten tree for Sunset Gap. The outpouring of mittens, hats, gloves and scarves was amazing. There will be many warmer folks up in Cocke/Sevier County this winter because of your generosity. Again, thank you for your contributions. page 8 Tintinabulation page 9 If the sound of tintinnabulation rings a bell, that may be because it traces to a Latin interpretation of the sound a ringing bell makes. Our English word derives from tintinnabulum, the Latin word for "bell." That Latin word, in turn, comes from the verb tintinnare, which means "to ring, clang, or jingle." So, when you hear those familiar bells, know you are connected with at least seventeen centuries of Christian worship practice! From this familiarity outside the church, we turn now to a familiar practice within our own worship service. I have written previously about our singing of psalms in worship - one of the richest treasures of both Jewish and Christian worship. The singing of psalms was included in the synagogue service at the time of Jesus. Yes, we are still participating in a worship element that would have been actively practiced by Jesus Christ himself! Just as we observe the liturgical practice (the pandemic restrictions notwithstanding) with the singing of psalms, in Jesus’ time the whole congregation may have sung or there could be a cantor who would sing each verse with the congregation singing a response. Christians appropriated this tradition from Jewish worship, as well as other elements of synagogue worship. In the early Christian church, psalmody took a preferred position in the worship of the church and used almost exclusively until the end of the fourth century. Fast forward now to one of the founders of our ‘branch’ of Christianity, the French theologian John Calvin (1509-1564). Presbyterianism was especially influenced by Calvin, who is credited with the development of Reformed theology. Calvin, who famously broke with the Catholic church as a theological reformer, insisted on exclusive psalmody in worship. Exclusive psalmody is the practice of singing only the Psalms in worship. Exclusive psalmody is still practiced today by several Protestant, especially Reformed Presbyterian denominations. In 1557 John Calvin wrote his preface to the commentary he had produced on the Psalms. In the preface, Calvin gives an important perspective on his belief in the importance of their use in worship. He writes: “I have been accustomed to call this book, I think not inappropriately, “An Anatomy of all the Parts of the Soul;” for there is not an emotion of which any one can be conscious that is not here represented as in a mirror.