What's New on the First Congo Website

2011-07-07T10:32:00.000-07:00

July 10, Pastor Jeanne preaching in worship. Matthew 13: 1-12.
Sermon Title: Secrets of the Kingdom.

July 10, Budget Meeting with Executive Committee, Finance and Ministry Council, 1:15 pm.

July 13, Deacons meeting 6:00 pm in the Covenant Room.

July 16, Ordination of Craig Breismeister, 4 pm in the Sanctuary

July 17, Joanne Braxton preaching in worship.

July 17, Board of Trustees Meeting after worship, 1:15 pm.

2011-06-25T12:47:00.001-07:00

PRIDE UPDATE:

We are marching in Contingent 93, starting in Section H Main on BEALE St. between Mission and Howard. Meet no later than 10:30 (earlier better)

2011-06-22T16:07:00.000-07:00

FIRST CONGO CELEBRATES PRIDE!

As many of you know, there will be no service at First Congo this Sunday, June 26, as the congregation will be supporting our Board moderator Rev. Roland Stringfellow, one of this year's SF Pride Grand Marshals, by marching with him in the San Francisco Pride Parade.

Here are a few logistical changes...

-Our assembly time has been moved back a little to 10:30 AM (at the latest), but still feel free to get there sooner.

-We now know that the order for our various contingents is: Rev. Roland (92); the CWC (93, which includes all the congregations joining us); OASIS (94); Lutherans Concerned (95); Bay Area UUs (95); and the main Sha'ar Zahav group (96).

-We are still looking for 5 more contingent monitors-please, please let us know if you can volunteer! The last two training sessions are tomorrow and Friday in San Francisco from 7:00 PM to 8:00 PM. The first one is at the SF LGBTQ Community Center, 1800 Market Street and the second one (Friday) is at Bill Graham, Larkin Hall, 99 Grove Street, SF. Contact: admin@firstoakland.org or call 510-444-1190, ext. 19.

For Congregants who are not marching in the Pride Parade, there are several welcoming congregations in the East Bay to visit this coming Sunday.
Rev. Lois Mueller of nearby Plymouth United Church of Christ on Monte Vista Ave at Oakland Ave (directions) has invited everyone from FCCO who isn't marching in the Pride Parade to attend their Sunday 11 a.m. Service.

Plymouth United Church of Christ

424 Monte Vista Avenue
Oakland, CA 94611-4570
(510) 654-5300

http://www.plymouthoakland.org/

2011-06-03T17:02:00.000-07:00

Our Prophetic Public Witness Ministry will be hosting our monthly fellowship potluck this coming Sunday, June 5. Please bring a dish to share. Come and break bread with your church family. Looking forward to seeing you there!

Blessings,

Prophetic Public Witness Ministry

Marcia Lovelace (chair)

2011-05-23T16:54:00.000-07:00

Coming up:

May 23- June 10: Pastor Jeanne on vacation.
Please Contact one of our deacons for urgent care needs by calling the church office or emailing deacons [at] firstoakland [dot] org

May 25: Lectionary Bible Study with Craig Breismeister. 6:00 PM.

May 29: Rev. Roland Stringfellow, FCCO Moderator, preaching in worship.

June 5: Rev. Thom Longino, of San Francisco Night Ministries, preaching in worship.

June 11: FCCO New Members Class in the Angel Room, 9 AM-12 PM.
email Roland Stringfellow to sign up: rstringfellow [at] clgs [dot] org

June 11: Jeff Johnson and the Jeff Johnson Band
FCCO Reggae Gospel Fundraiser and Bake Sale.
Doors open at 6:30; show at 7 pm
Call 510.712.2734 for more details

June 12: Pentecost-- Pastor Jeanne preaching in worship. Acts 2: 1-12,

Sermon Title: "Peter's journey"

June 12: Ministry Council Meeting in the Library 1:15 PM.

Sing For Your Life Tomorrow

2010-12-29T11:28:00.000-08:00

Sing for your life tomorrow from noon to midnight. Open to singers and non-singers alike.
More information at Circlesing.net

Christmas Eve at First Congo

2010-12-21T17:19:00.001-08:00

Greetings FCCO Community,

Soon the Advent season, this time of waiting and anticipation, will be coming to its end, and the birth of Christ is upon us. We plan to celebrate this joyous event here at First Congo with a Christmas Eve service. The service will be filled with music, celebration and testimony and will be followed by fellowship with refreshments.

If you are able, please bring a sweet or savory finger food dish to share for the fellowship hospitality following service. We are looking forward to singing and celebrating with you!

WHEN: Christmas Eve, Friday, December 24th, 2010
TIME: 7 p.m.

Have a blessed day,
Worship Planners

Update:

Our worship time together will be filled with seasonal singing, scripture, and prayers; along with music by FCCO Voices of Praise and guest soloist Tammi Brown, a funky jazz trio, a surprise guest pipe organist, and a dramatic reading of a fascinating, grace filled, story about politicians raising taxes, shepherds having a "delusional" experience, and a homeless refugee family with a newborn baby squatting in a barn.

Sweet & savory food, coffee, and fellowship (and chances to catch up with old friends and make new ones) will follow the service.

Please join us as we celebrate Jesus being born in Oakland, and in all of us on this special night!

With Blessings and Warmest Regards, Jeanne

Rev. Jeanne Loveless
Interim Senior Pastor
First Congregational Church of Oakland (United Church of Christ)
2501 Harrison St., Oakland, CA 94612

Poetry Feeds This Sunday, Dec. 12th

2010-12-07T17:19:00.000-08:00

Poetry Feeds

A Benefit for Share First Oakland
This Sunday, December 12, 2010,
(the Feast of our Lady of Guadalupe)
6-10 pm

"Feeding the Hungry,
Creating Cooperative Food Security Solutions for Oakland Now"

Readings by more than thirty eminent
Bay Area poets and writers
including special guests:

Francisco X. Alarcón
Lorna Dee Cervantes
Lucha Corpi
Sharon Doubiago
Jack & Adelle Foley
Rafael Jesús González
Cecile Pineda
Ishmael Reed
Ruth Schwartz

Plus food, books, crafts,
and a "poetry wall" for auction!

Admission: $5-$50

Advent Meditation Tomorrow Night, December 1

2010-11-30T11:22:00.000-08:00

Join us for quiet reflection and meditation this Wednesday evening [tomorrow!], December 1, from 7-8ish pm at the church as we prepare for Jesus to be born again among and within us.

We welcome you into the darkness and quiet. Feel free to pass this invitation along to others who might be interested.

Love and blessings,

Nichola Torbett
Spiritual Formation Core Team Chair and
Director, Seminary of the Street

2010-11-19T11:54:00.000-08:00

First Congregational Church of Oakland
So, you're coming to our 150th Anniversary Expressive Arts Worship at 7pm tonight for great music, dance, mime, a craft show, and great company, right?

Okay, good. Now that we've got that straight...let the bidding begin! Our online silent auction to benefit FCCO has officially launched! You can bid on great services, fine art, gourmet food, etc. for yourself or for those on your holiday gift list, and all the proceeds will go to support your favorite multicultural, social justice oriented, arts-positive church.

To view the items, go to this link and click on the items that interest you. To bid, you will need to create an account, but don't worry. It only takes a second and asks for very minimal contact information (so that we can let you know when you've won!).

Then have at it! And if you want to guarantee that no one outbids you, click on the "buy now" option to pay the price that will reserve the item for you.

Payment will be due (cash or check made out to FCCO only) after December 10.

Please forward this to everyone you know in the Bay area! The more bidders, the more money we raise. We've set a goal of raising at least $2000 from this auction.

If you have any problems or questions, please let me know, and I'll do my best to get them resolved.

Thanks!

Nichola Torbett

Celebrate 150 Years of First Congo!

2010-10-31T17:00:00.000-07:00

Update: advance tickets available at Brown Paper Tickets

Dear members and friends of FCCO,

We will be celebrating the 150th anniversary of First Congregational Church of Oakland with a powerful expressive arts worship, a craft fair and reception on Friday evening, November 19, starting at 7pm, and we really want you to join us in celebrating "150 Years Toward Justice." Worship will be led by some of the best choirs, singers, liturgical dancers, and mimes in the Bay area, including East Bay Anointed Voices and Sista Monica Parker. We will be reaching out to sister churches and organizations to invite them to worship with us.

For advance tickets contact Angel Starr at angeloftheeastbay@gmail.com, 510-938-4913, or Loren at lorenzini@juno.com , 510-625-1209.

Contact Angel if you want to place an ad for your business in our event program. We'll have informational packets available at the church that you can pick up with the sizes, cost, etc.

And join us for some holiday creativity on November 7th (this coming Sunday)after church in the Children, Youth and Families room. We'll be decorating salt-dough ornaments and creating other ornaments from old Christmas cards and other reused materials to sell as part of the craft fair. If you are interested in donating hand-made crafts to be sold at the craft fair, please get in touch with Dawn Raymond at (510)625-1209.

Have fun and help create community.

Blessing,
Carol Robison

2010-09-01T16:53:00.000-07:00

Still catching up on sermons: Last Sunday's sermon: Pastor Jeanne preaching Wrestling with God; and seminarian in care Michelle Freeman preached Trusting God is the Smartest Thing to Do the week before, on August 22.

2010-08-17T13:16:00.000-07:00

Some technical issues still being worked out getting the more recent sermons uploaded:

Pastor Jeanne's July 4th sermon: Are We There Yet? is here

Music Ministry survey

2010-07-26T10:43:00.000-07:00

Please take a few minutes to complete a Music Ministry survey. What blesses you about the music at First Congo? What do you want to see more of?

The Roundabout Way

2010-06-25T10:01:00.000-07:00

Our Interim Pastor, Rev. Jeanne Loveless preaches her first sermon at First Congo this Sunday (Pride Sunday), June 27. It's called The Roundabout Way. Don't miss it!

Update: Listen to it here

We have an Interim Pastor!

2010-05-25T10:12:00.000-07:00

Announcing our new Interim Pastor

As you all know, the Board, through an Interim Search Committee, has been looking for an Interim Pastor to help us through this transition time. The role of an Interim is very specific: they are to not only provide us with preaching, pastoral care, and management, but also help us as a congregation to learn who we are, and where we are going, and help us find the right permanent Senior Pastor to call. In addition, we have looked for someone who can help us find ways toward financial sustainability. For FCCO, an interim is likely to serve from 12 to 18 months.

Because of the specific nature of this position, and the short duration, the hiring decision for this was made by the Board. There was congregational input at varied points along the way - input at congregational meetings into what qualities we were looking for in an interim, 2 at-large congregational members on the search committee, as well as congregational members at the board meeting when the recommendation of the search committee was brought to the board. This is distinctly different than the process for the permanent Senior Pastor, which will be a longer, more drawn out process, with a final vote by the congregation.

The search committee interviewed two candidates. The board is pleased and excited to announce that we have chosen to hire Sara Jean Loveless (she goes as Jeanne) as our new Interim Pastor. Here are some things that the search committee found in its selection process, from her profile, interview and references:

Jeanne:

· Is authentic and spirit-led

· Has a warm, calm, grounded presence

· Laughs easily and gracefully

· Is articulate and candid

Jeanne is called to the special ministry that is being an Interim Pastor, and she has had special training for Interim Pastors. She is a strong, animated preacher, articulate and skillful. She is a strategic thinker who can help us implement effective systems. She has had experience in cultivating wise financial decisions that lead to a balanced budget. She will work collaboratively with lay leaders to promote a healthy church with effective boundaries, clear communication, minimal drama and manageable conflicts.

She is familiar with, and comfortable in intercultural settings. She understands issues of white privilege, and she actively engaged her communities (congregation, denomination) on Proposition 8, at some personal cost.

We are thankful that God has led her to us - the search committee felt that Jeanne was a great fit for First Congo, and the Board agreed. Her exact start date with us is still being determined.
Jeanne will worship with us on Sunday June 6th, and be present to meet the congregation after the service and at the potluck.

Peace,
Michelle Murrain, FCCO Moderator

Tomorrow after the Worship Service

2010-01-09T19:15:00.001-08:00

Sunday, January 10
1:15-3:15pm
Children, Youth, and Families Room for our first communal discernment event in the Visioning and Restructuring Process

What are our priorities as a faith community? Who are we called to be, as a part of the Body of Christ?

According to the Gospel of Mark, Jesus appears after his resurrection to the remaining eleven disciples and gives them a commission that is commonly understood to be the mission of the church: "Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation" (Mark 16: 15). The good news is that the "reign of God is at hand," that the long-anticipated, loving, compassionate, just rule of God has now broken through into human history. Although that reign has not yet come in its fullness (and we don't know when it will), it has begun to begin, so to speak, and the church is charged with making that known.

How do we at First Congregational Church of Oakland carry out this commission? How do we proclaim the good news of the in-breaking realm of God to Oakland and beyond?

Prior to her sabbatical, Pastor Lynice shared with the board of trustees her sense that we, as a congregation, have not yet gotten clear on our answer to that question. She also shared her longing for us to focus more intently on answering it.

In response to this urging, the board commissioned a Visioning and Restructuring Committee to design and initiate a congregational conversation and discernment process regarding our vision for ministry and the organizational structures that will best support that vision, including the role of the pastor.

The committee will also be charged with refining the ideas that emerge from that process and making suggestions for their implementation. During the course of this discernment process, the outcomes of the congregational processes and the Committee's refinement of them will go to the Board and Pastor for consideration of feasibility, fiscal and legal issues, etc. Any revisions by the Pastor and/or Board will be presented to the congregation to inform its continuing discernment.

The committee will develop a variety of mechanisms through which you can have input into this process. The first will take place in a congregational conversation on Sunday, January 10 from 1:15-3:15. Please mark your calendars now so that you'll be sure to be available for this conversation.

Members of the Visioning and Restructuring committee include the chairs of each ministry area (Grant Kinney in community care; Allison Kenny in Children, Youth, and Families; Nichola Torbett in spiritual formation; Kirsten Swenson in administration; Webb Mealy in worship; Monica Parker in music; and Marcia Lovelace in prophetic public witness); members of the Board of Trustees (Soo Hyun Han, Tony Lewis, and Lolita Ratchford), and three additional members of the congregation (Suzette Duncan, Carol Robison, and Roland Stringfellow).

Please direct any questions or concerns to the committee via its chair, Carol Robison. She can be reached at mango916@comcast.net.

Christmas Eve at First Congo!

2009-12-23T09:15:00.000-08:00

Dear FCCO Members and Friends,

Come join us for a wonderful musical Christmas Eve celebration for the whole family. We'll have lessons and carols and special music and childrens' poems and movement. Lasts from 7:00pm to 8:20pm. Invite your family, friends, and neighbors-or reach out to someone that you miss from church that you haven't seen in a while.

Everyone should invite someone.

Those of you who like to bake, bring cookies or a pie or cake to share after the service!

Peace and blessings,

FCCO Worship Leaders

2009-10-22T23:30:00.000-07:00

October 22, 2009

Dear Members and Friends of First Congregational Church of Oakland,

This message is to inform you of two extremely important meetings that the Board of Trustees urges you to attend.

The first meeting is this Sunday, October 25. Its purpose is to inform you of the year-to-date operating deficit we are incurring. This is an informational meeting to ensure you are fully informed to participate in a decision-making meeting on November 8th. Details follow.

On October 25, the meeting will begin at 12:10 (or earlier if worship time allows) in the sanctuary, and end at 12:50 so we can go to Lauren Haralson's birthday potluck.

On November 8, the meeting will also start immediately following worship in the sanctuary. Its purpose will be for the congregation to decide whether to authorize the Board to continue funding the ministries as budgeted for 2009. Such funding requires deficit spending, and drawing down our endowment to do so.

You will receive all necessary information on October 25 and have the opportunity to ask questions of the Board and our Treasurer, Tony Lewis. During the time between 10/25 and 11/8 you'll have time for reflection and to ask any further questions of Tony.

See the separate announcement concerning the November 8th meeting.

We earnestly hope you will attend these meeting and contribute your wisdom and voice to our deliberations concerning funding First Congo's ministries.

Peace be with you,

Pat Bruce-Lerrigo
Moderator

2009-10-22T22:45:00.000-07:00

To Members and Friends of First Congregational Church of Oakland

This is to inform you that there will be a

Congregational Meeting

November 8, 2009
Immediately following worship in the sanctuary
Time: 12:15 - 1:15

The desired outcome of the meeting is:

The congregation's decision whether to authorize continued deficit spending to fund our ministries as planned in the 2009 budget, and to cover the deficit from our endowment.

All are invited to attend the meeting. Only voting members may vote.

A word on being a Congregational church:

The voting members of the congregation comprise the governing body of our church. You are a voting member if you completed the Freedom Train class and made the commitments of membership during worship.

Our bylaws require that official congregational meetings be announced at least two weeks prior to the meeting. No agenda items requiring a vote may be added once the notification is made. Therefore the one vote to be taken at the November 8th meeting is stated in the above desired outcome.

It's essential to our congregational system that members have full understanding of all aspects of our ministry, including its financial realities. To help ensure your understanding, please attend the informational meeting immediately following worship on October 25. That meeting is to inform you of our current deficit and its implications, and to allow time between then and November 8th for you to ask any further questions.

On behalf of the Board of Trustees, I urge your attendance at both of these meetings.

God's peace be with you,

Pat Bruce-Lerrigo
Moderator

2009-10-19T10:11:00.000-07:00

Grant Kinney's sermon from yesterday begins after 10 seconds of silence.

Pastor Lynice's Last Sermon Before Her Upcoming Sabbatical this coming Sunday, Sept. 27:

2009-09-21T13:36:00.000-07:00

The last Board of Trustees meeting before Pastor's sabbatical will follow the service at 1:15 p.m.

Dearest Members and Friends of First Congregational Church of Oakland,

This email is to let you know that Pastor Lynice Pinkard will be on sabbatical beginning October 1, 2009. She will return in mid-January following 3 months of sabbatical time and having used the remainder of her 2009 vacation days.

As most of you know, Pastor Lynice was our Associate Pastor for seven years prior to being called last November as our Senior Pastor. She is more than due this time off.

The Board of Trustees and a newly-formed Sabbatical Committee will be directing full attention to ensuring that the life and ministry of First Congo will continue to flourish in the Pastor's absence. As a congregational church, this provides us with a great opportunity to allow God to empower our individual and collective gifts and graces for the good of our whole church.

You will hear more from the Pastor, Board and Sabbatical Committee in the service tomorrow [Aug. 23] and throughout the coming weeks and months..

I am profoundly grateful for your presence among us,

Pat Bruce-Lerrigo
Moderator, First Congregational Church of Oakland Board of Trustees
United Church of Christ

2009-09-03T09:53:00.001-07:00

Blessings, all!

Starting this Sunday, September 6, we will gather after worship on every first Sunday of the month for a potluck meal.

Please bring a dish to share, if you can, and plan to stay for food and fellowship.

Love,
Pastor Lynice

Join Us on Sun. Aug 30 for a Special Service where our Kids Will Lead the Way!

2009-08-28T08:49:00.000-07:00

I hope you all have had an incredible summer with your children and that all is well!
I'm writing because we are hosting a special service at First Congo on Sunday, August 30th where kids will be involved in all aspects of the ministry, leading the way for grown-ups to experience church the way we do in our Kids LIFE program. With play, exuberance, reverence, music and dance, we'll celebrate the children, youth, families and volunteers that make this ministry possible.

There will be performances, testimonies, a slideshow, and a blessing from Pastor Lynice

Allison

2009-08-03T16:23:00.000-07:00

Sermon Notes for The Cosmic Christ

Rough notes from Dr. J. Webb Mealy for the sermon preached on August 2, 2009. A printable PDF of these notes is here (Adobe Acrobat Reader required)

Live Worthy of Your Calling (Eph. 4:1)

Let’s start slowly. There are some beautiful reminders here—humility—that is, not always trying to make yourself more important and prominent than those around you—how much energy does that waste, how much needless aggravation does it stir up? But if we can each relax into our own beauty and simplicity, trusting that God has something to give the community through me and that I don’t have to promote myself. Gentleness—above all, to retain others’ humanity no matter how triggered we are. Screaming, “when you do that it drives me nuts” may be gentle—whereas whispering something that tears down the person’s self-esteem may be cruel. Patience requires faith and persistence. Accepting people as who they are where they are. Finally, speaking the truth in love. That’s the paradox—loving the person at this moment, while they are as they are at this moment, yet challenging them on level ground to be the best, and the most alive, that they can be.

Now to get to the harder stuff. Both of our readings refer to Christ as the one who comes down from heaven—and although the John passage doesn’t refer to it, John certainly believes, along with Paul, that Jesus has gone “back to heaven”. Where is heaven? Let’s just say that heaven is the realm where God’s full presence and life are openly expressed. (Four-story universe versus 200 billion galaxies with 200 billion stars. God’s realm impossible to conceive of. Requires child-like faith. We’re made with these limited minds, so we rejoice in what they can and can’t do. Condescension of God vs anthropocentrism.)

Bread of Life, Architect of the Universe (Jn 1:1-5; 6:32-35; 1 Jn 1:13)
John calls the Person he met in Jesus of Nazareth the Word of God and the Word of Life. This is the life pattern, the life source of the entire cosmos, God’s Wisdom expressing itself in the creation and communing with the creation. God is love, and the Love and the Wisdom of God are One. God’s love and wisdom, together, in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, are God touching us, the created ones—he is God’s presence with us, the created ones. God’s wisdom and love are utterly beyond the limitations of any created mind, but we can experience it as we experience the power of the Sun. In the same way, the Word, which we knew in Jesus Christ, is now investing all with life, “fills all things”, “feeds all things” with the Spirit’s sustenance that leads to eternal life.

What Stakes are we Playing for Here?
Are we involved in the universal life of God, manifested throughout the universe, and now shaking us out of the death-dream of human civilization? Or are we just enjoying one of a smorgasbord of pleasant religious customs that will make our brief life somewhat more tolerable? Which is it? Looking at your life, and the amount of change you have been willing to undergo thus far, which have you been assuming?
What does the life of Jesus Christ look like here in Oakland, in the United States, on this planet, in 2009? Do we care whether the world gets to see what the people of Israel got to see in 30–33AD? How much do we care? Because the lifestyle of Jesus was totally different from the peasants and from the religious leaders. His mandate was not to conform and to protect his own personal interests—it was to give out the life of God with every motion in his life. You may say, well—he was the Son of God. That’s what he was supposed to do. But children of God full of the life of the Holy spirit and the character of God is exactly what he came to challenge us to be. And you know, despite popular opinion, you can’t be a child of God, full of the Holy Spirit of God, and be a conformist. Take your pick.

Beyond Self-Serving Religion:
“You were looking for me because you ate the bread and got a good meal”
(Jn 6:26). In the story right before our reading, Jesus miraculously fed 5000 people. Right after that, it is said, “Jesus knew that they were about to come and kidnap him and make him king, so he went away again up the mountain by himself.” All those people thought hey knew what was what. They were ready to plug Jesus in to their shared scheme of how things are supposed to be and to turn out—and if they had to, they would have been prepared to force his round self into their square box. That’s democracy, you know. They wanted to use him to get an instant improvement in their circumstances, while keeping the paradigm they’d come to be familiar and comfortable with. What’s your paradigm? Have you got God in a box—Jesus in a box—or firmly kept out of your box? Are you looking for a way of taking the good stuff that you receive from God and staying pat at improving your life with it? Well, God’s plan through Christ is to take you, and not simply use you to improve the world, but to display, in the midst of a dying and deadly species called humanity, what community Life of God looks like. In person, on the ground. Suppose I were to tell you that it doesn’t look like a rather happier, more “together”, more prosperous, more hassle-free version of an ordinary citizen of the American empire.
Perhaps it looks a little more like the people I hung out with yesterday who were making experimental cold-press building bricks all day with different soils, trying to find a formula that is three times stronger than adobe bricks. Their work is going to benefit the poor around the world. Maybe it looks like Jackie Pullinger, who, at the age of 22 sold everything she had and traveled from London to Hong Kong, where she started a ministry for drug addicts and prostitutes in the Kowloon Walled City—one of the world’s centers for opium production. The only therapy she had for withdrawal was constant prayer and love.

Eternal Life—What Is It?
The short answer is, I don’t know for sure, but “I want to be in that number.” I have a story that reveals something of how I think and feel about it. One day I was praying out in nature and really enjoying the birds singing, and the fresh air and the trees and the sunlight, and I started to feel the sadness about my own mortality. For some reason I began to muse about Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of the dry bones (Ezek. 37:1-14). I thought about the fact that the vision of the dry bones really tells the basics of what happens to our bodies when we die. The elements go back into the ecosphere and disperse, totally disintegrating the form and structure we once had. The theory of morphic fields suggests that the universe remembers every structure that has taken form in it, and that parallels the idea in the bible that God has the life of every person in his hand—God is the “God of the living”, says Jesus, “because all live to him” (Lk. 20:38). I tried in my imagination to think of my molecules and atoms disintegrating and happily combining and moving around here and there, and I wondered, is it really possible that I can come back into being? How can this disintegration—and re-integration—be reversed? I felt very sad. Like Ezekiel, I said in my heart, “Living One, you know.” Then I heard, very quietly, “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.” I started to cry, because I yearn so much to go on loving this world and learning God’s ways and loving God. But my yearning cannot accomplish my resurrection. So I prayed, “Living One, you know my heart, how passionately I will to live with you!” And again I heard a very quiet voice. “Who gave you that will? And I thought there was an affectionate smile in that voice.

What Do we Need to Do to Have Eternal Life?
Jesus says, “believe in the One God has sent”. This reduces matters to something very simple. But the full version is, “believe in the One God has sent enough to obey him when he asks you to take a risk.” In other words, it’s not about forming correct opinions about Christ or about anything else. It’s about buying in with him, trusting that he has been sent by God to the point that you are willing to join him in what he is doing. Belief in Jesus has many styles, from the more devotional, you-and-me relationship to a more mystical relationship. What counts is not that you have the “correct” feelings or way of picturing Christ, but that you learn, from him, what humanity worthy of eternal life looks like, and that you open yourself to the Spirit of God to transform you into that kind of humanity. Christianity is not about trying to learn to regard yourself as totally unworthy. It’s about cooperating with Christ and the Holy Spirit whose desire is to make you worthy. And this is a community process, not an individual process. God’s life is designed for full expression in community.

Raising the Stakes—and Getting Heroic?
I’m not saying that God’s trying to make heroes, rather than heal people. God wants to heal people in every way—for their own sake and for the sake of the rest of creation. God is about building community that is full of life, forgiveness, and the creative and transformative life of Christ. That’s what our Ephesians reading is saying.
So we’re not talking about a nice, pleasant religion here, but about being drawn into a cosmic surge of life, brought about by life’s very author, and intruding into the death throes of a planetary life system. Want business as usual? You can have death as usual, but you can’t have life as usual.

Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. Lynice and I and some others have already claimed the easy roles of pastor/teacher. Who is going to let Christ train them up as an apostle, a prophet, an evangelist?

2009-07-27T14:43:00.000-07:00

Reverend Valerie Brown-Troutt's sermon isn't online this morning. Technical difficulties: I'm figuring out how to join together the mp3 files of the recording (the website configuration requires a single mp3)

2009-07-08T10:24:00.000-07:00

The Children, Youth and Families barbecue

Saturday, July 18, from noon to 3 pm.

Our First Down Home Church BBQ on the lawn at First Congo

Bring your kids! Bring your friends! Bring your appetite!

This BBQ picnic is a chance for us all to come together as a church family. Community happens when people eat together, play together and share their gifts to create beauty in the world. There is so much life and love at First Congo- hosting this party out front is a chance to show our Oakland community what love looks like. There will be good food, music, a jump house- fun for the whole family!

How You Can Help

Contact Allison, allison@firstoakland.org to share your gifts!

Join a BBQ Crew to help make it happen together:

· Set up Crew sets up from 11-noon

· Clean Up Crew cleans up from 3-4:00 pm

· Facepaint Crew-- no previous experience necessary

· Talent Crew performs music, stories or leads interactive games with families

· Potluck Crew bring a dish to share and/ or help grill

All volunteers are asked to join us on Sunday, July 12 from 1:30-2:30 for a planning meeting.

2009-07-07T10:24:00.000-07:00

Interested in learning more about FCCO?
Come to the Freedom Train class for prospective members!

The Freedom Train is a friendly two-hour conversation in which prospective members, current leaders, and those who are just curious get to know each other, discuss the theological and Biblical framework of the church, and go over the covenant of membership. After participating, you are free to decide whether or not you are ready to make the commitments of membership at this time.

There is no test of creed or belief required to become a member-just a willingness to commit to your own wholeness, to enter into deep, authentic, intercultural relationship with this community, and to share in the work of the church (both practically and spiritually). Associate membership is available for those who want to maintain their primary membership in another faith tradition, denomination, or church.

The next Freedom Train will be this Sunday morning, July 12, from 8-10am. To sign up, email nichola@firstoakland.org or call 510-444-8511, ext. 11.

Those who choose to join the church will have an opportunity to do so at the service that morning.

We hope to see you there!

Pastor Lynice Pinkard
Nichola Torbett, Chair of Spiritual Formation

2009-05-08T12:28:00.000-07:00

Music Minister Kelly Takunda Orphan Martinez announced her resignation last week after 7 amazing Spirit-filled years.

She's still going to be at First Congo, doing children, youth and families ministry and the Joyful Noise Youth Choir.

Join us for a farewell concert featuring Kelly and many amazing musicians on May 31!

2009-04-20T11:40:00.000-07:00

There are still room for 20 more at this weekend's retreat!
Email Nichola at Nichola@firstoakland.org

You are invited to join us for First Congo's annual spiritual retreat on April 24-25 at the Sequoia Retreat Center (formerly the Raindance Retreat) in the Santa Cruz mountains. Nestled among old growth redwoods, this facility has stunning views of the surrounding countryside. "The Sequoia land has been held sacred since 1949 - it is a place where love has been experienced, where pain has been transcended, and where hope has been born. The Sequoia Retreat Center is a place where the deepest meaning of life may be explored in an atmosphere of quiet and beauty."

The program will focus on deepening our spiritual lives and our connections to one another with an emphasis on deepening intercultural intimacy. There will be a separate program for children and youth as well as childcare for toddlers.

The cost to the church is $156 for adults, $89 for children (ages 3 to 14), and $21 for children under three. We encourage everyone who has the financial means to cover their own expenses and to contribute toward a scholarship fund for those who cannot. Payment is due by Sunday, April 12 and can be given to Tony Lewis or Nichola Torbett. (Make checks out to First Congregational Church of Oakland and put "retreat" on the memo line.)

To sign up, please email Nichola at Nichola@firstoakland.org, and tell her
*whether you will be bringing children
* whether you can pay the full cost
* if you can't pay the full cost, how much you can pay
* how much, if any, you can contribute to the scholarship fund for others to attend
*whether you are vegetarian, vegan, or omnivore
* any other special requests

Plan to arrive at the center between 4 and 6 PM on Friday afternoon so that you can join us for dinner. The program will end by 4 PM on Saturday. Wholesome meals will be provided; the California style menu is organic (using mostly locally grown produce) and there will be vegetarian and vegan options available.

We hope you'll be able to join us!

Pastor Lynice Pinkard
Tony Lewis
Nichola Torbett

2009-04-06T08:42:00.000-07:00

Holy Week is upon us! Join us as we enter this time of reflection and celebration.

Tonight in the sanctuary music minister Kelly Takunda Orphan Martinez will be in conversation with San Francisco Chronicle columnist Jon Carroll, beginning at 7 pm.

Admission is $20 and is a benefit for Park Day School in Oakland, where Kelly teaches.

And check out the current Seminary of the Street class schedule and online Holy Week discussion on Facebook

2009-03-27T20:12:00.000-07:00

Added a page for Holy week 2009

This Sunday, March 29th, there will be a short film about neighborhood recyclers as part of the service.

Bring your recyclable bottles and cans (not paper!) to give to the recyclers in attendance.

2009-03-19T21:47:00.001-07:00

Check out the new pages for the Children, Youth and Families ministry as well as the Toddlers ministry. Thanks to Allison, Craig and Dawn for the first in what will be an ongoing newsletter highlighting First Congo's committment to our children and families with children.

2009-02-23T12:13:00.000-08:00

Yes, I am aware Pastor's sermon from yesterday has a low recording level, especially at the beginning. I'll look at it tonight to see if I can fix it, but my audio editing abilities are not great.

2009-02-17T11:27:00.000-08:00

I fixed some navigation recently, particularly on the Staff Page.

Dr. Joanne M. Braxton's sermon, Dissident Disciples is online (you can get the feed here), but I have yet to get a photo and a bio for her.

2008-12-22T11:38:00.000-08:00

It took a while to do so, but I have re-established the links to the 2007 sermons on the Sermon Archive page. It will be another project to add them to the podcast feed.

2008-12-02T11:49:00.001-08:00

Dear Members and Friends of First Congo,

There will be a congregational meeting on this Sunday, December 7, 2008, from 1:15 - 3:15. The meeting room will be announced. The purpose of the meeting is for the congregation to:

Elect Board members.

The Nominating Committee's slate is as follows:

For election to an initial two-year term: Victor Lewis and Webb Mealy.
For re-election to a second two-year term: Charley Lerrigo and Karen Moore.

Receive updates on our infrastructure.

1. Pastoral Relations Committee membership.

2. Former CAP (i.e., capacity building) Team.

3. Infrastructure for ministry programs.

Provide input to the Board on allocation of the congregation's mission money.

Each year the church tithes 10% of its annual income from congregational giving and makes donations to other organizations whose missions are aligned with ours. The decision-making policy adopted by the congregation is for the Board to make recommendations, and the congregation to give further input to the Board for its final decision.

Approve in principle the proposed 2009 budget.

Final budget approval will be made at the Annual Meeting in February-March of 2009, after the 2008 financial books have closed.

Determining our leaders and the use of our financial resources are vitally important decisions in the life of our community. Please participate in learning and conversing about these topics. Everyone is welcome, and all members may vote.

I am profoundly thankful for your presence in this Body of Christ,

Pat Bruce-Lerrigo
Moderator
First Congregational Church of Oakland, United Church of Christ.

2008-11-26T08:53:00.000-08:00

Took longer than I'd hoped to get Tony Lewis' sermon, Every Blessing in Abundance, online because I missed church last Sunday.

Here it is!

And I see the feed is up and ready

2008-11-10T12:08:00.000-08:00

I haven't been updating as much in What's New largely because the updates were mostly announcements that the sermon is online. I've created the blog Sermons at First Congo to keep track of those changes and to provide a vehicle for the podcast feed

I did recently add the general church email address info@firstoakland.org to the front page after someone emailed me to let me know they search all over the website and couldn't find a general email. Which was true. Thank God for feedback!

Later today I will edit the audio file tags (The ID3 tag) of yesterday's sermon from Pastor Lynice so it will display better on your mp3 player. I'm assuming that Feedburner will grab the revised file later.

2008-10-21T09:10:00.000-07:00

Our resident theologian and newly published author Dr. J. Webb Mealy, preached Render Unto Caesar--Or Not last Sunday. I just uploaded the feed so it probably won't show up on iTunes until tomorrow.

2008-10-16T15:40:00.000-07:00

Oops: I incorrectly configured the Sermons at First Congo blog and Rev. Stringfellow's sermon Gay Black Man didn't apparently make it to Feedburner correctly. I'm hoping that now that I've fixed the link it will automatically update and make a feed available via iTunes.
Tomorrow?

Subscribers please let me know if it worked.

2008-10-14T13:05:00.000-07:00

An eagle-eyed reader pointed out recently that I hadn't updated Pastor Lynice's bio to reflect her formally call as Senior Pastor.

The podcasts seem to be working, so I've mostly been leaving the updates when I upload sermons to the stripped-down sister blog Sermons at First Congo, which I set up to supply the feeds to the podcasts.

And I updated the News at First section, as Kai Lavatai has assumed the newsletter duties. For now the newletter is by email only (announcements will be inserted into the weekly paper bulletin). Subscribe to the New at First here

2008-09-28T20:02:00.001-07:00

Learning more and more about this podcasting business.
Still not sure if it is working correctly.

This morning's sermon from Pastor Lynice, I See Dead People, is here.

2008-09-22T09:14:00.001-07:00

Fixed the problem with Nichola's photo on her page for her sermon from yesterday, Love's Labor. I still don't get why sometimes an image I save has a JPG extension instead of a jpg extension, but CMSimple (the content management system used on the website) doesn't like the uppercase extensions.

Last week Pastor Lynice preached Solitary Confinement.

2008-09-14T15:27:00.000-07:00

At around 2:30 pm this afternoon, at the end of a duly called congregational meeting, First Congregational Church of Oakland, United Church of Christ, Reverend Lynice Pinkard was called as Senior Pastor

The vote was unanimous, with 56 members voting.

2008-09-08T22:00:00.000-07:00

To voting members and friends of First Congo:

This is a reminder to attend the September 14 congregational meeting whose ultimate outcome is for voting members to vote whether to call Pastor Lynice Pinkard as the church’s Senior Pastor.

Our bylaws require having at least 30% of the voting membership present. We hope to exceed that requirement substantially. Please come!

Our bylaws also require that actions of the church such as calling a Senior Pastor are taken by voting members present at duly-noticed congregational meeting.

Our denomination advises that voting be done by confidential ballot in the case of calling a Pastor.

For those reasons you must be present at the meeting to cast your ballot.

We deeply regret that this means voting members who cannot attend the September 14 meeting will not be able to vote.

Please come! All of us want to know that the decision made on September 14 represents the will of a substantial portion of the congregation’s membership.

The meeting is on September 14, in the sanctuary, 1:15-3:30 pm.

With thanks and blessings,

Pat Bruce-Lerrigo, Moderator

Board of Trustees

2008-09-08T11:40:00.000-07:00

I just now noticed that the latest sermon, Family Feud preached by Pastor Lynice Pinkard, ends abruptly on the website.

Probably because the file became split in the recording and I didn't catch it when I uploaded it. I'll look into it tonight.

9:49 pm: Fixed!

2008-08-29T12:22:00.001-07:00

Dear Members and Friends of First Congregational Church of Oakland,

Since May of this year, the Rev. Lynice Pinkard has been our Acting Senior Pastor. After prayerfully and deliberately considering this congregation's hopes and needs and Pastor Lynice's gifts, the Pastoral Search Committee recommends that she be called as Senior Pastor of First Congregational Church of Oakland, United Church of Christ.

According to our bylaws, that decision must be made by a duly-noticed congregational meeting. This is your official notice of that meeting, which will be September 14, 2008, in the Sanctuary from 1:15 until 3:30.

At the meeting:
1. The Pastoral Search Committee will review the steps it has taken in its deliberations, and the reasons for its recommendation.
2. The congregation may share its questions and reflections with the Committee or Pastor Lynice.
3. Voting members will vote whether to call Lynice Pinkard as our Senior Pastor by secret ballot.
In the United Church of Christ, it is the congregation that calls the church's Pastor. Our bylaws require that at least 30% of the voting membership be present at a meeting to call a Senior Pastor. We hope many more than that will attend. The bylaws also specify that the candidate must be elected by a minimum two-thirds majority. Both Acting Senior Pastor Lynice and the Search Committee have agreed in this case that her call by the congregation will require an 80% favorable vote of the voting members present on September 14th.

Please participate in this profound decision in our congregation's life together!

With deep thanks to you and for you,
Pat Bruce-Lerrigo
Moderator

2008-08-24T21:17:00.000-07:00

Pastor Lynice preaching Stubbing Your Toe on the Rock. mp3

2008-08-24T20:47:00.000-07:00

I think I have the podcast feed set up. On the very bottom left of every page of the website is a link Subcribe to our podcast . This should take you to the First Congo page of Feedburner, where you can use iTunes or another application to have the sermons downloaded automatically onto your computer every time they are uploaded. We'll see if it works!

2008-08-20T09:59:00.000-07:00

Two very important messages from Pastor Lynice directly on the front or home page.

Printable versions of her statement on interculturalism in this church (that is, beyond multiculturalism) and her vision of ministry. These correspond to the Pastor's Letters for July and August 2008.

2008-08-18T11:59:00.000-07:00

An exciting event next Thursday at First Congo, 7-9 pm

2008-08-18T10:06:00.000-07:00

Angela Jernigan Farrell preaching Love in the Badlands
Pastor Lynice preaching The "I" of the Storm.

Angela's was the first I've uploaded without increasing the gain of the mp3 file, as the that process appeared to be distorting the audio quality of the files, even though it make it louder.

The direct links to the mp3s:
The "I" of the Storm;
Love in the Badlands

2008-07-28T14:06:00.001-07:00

Pastor Lynice preaching Weeds and Wheat. mp3

Seminarian and chaplain Grant Kinney preaching Bartering for Love. mp3

2008-07-18T10:28:00.000-07:00

Oops: forgot to say I uploaded Pastor Lynice's sermon from last week, The Prodigal God mp3 though until the day before yesterday it was on the home page.

And the First Congo community has our very own Facebook page and Facebook group.

2008-07-07T09:37:00.000-07:00

Pastor Lynice's sermon from yesterday Noose or Yoke?

Otherwise known as Sacred Rest (the title on the CD). mp3

And Dr. Webb Mealy is editing his sermon from the week before yesterday.
I'll let you know when the new version is online.

2008-07-03T15:56:00.000-07:00

Same church, different photo: This one taken (by Jenn Breismeister?) at the San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Celebration last week of the members of our contingent in the PRIDE parade.

Dr. Webb Mealy preached Pride Sunday in the special early 9 a.m. service. mp3

2008-06-24T10:38:00.001-07:00

Next Sunday, June 29, the Sunday service will start at 9 am. (instead of 10:30) and will last for just one hour. Dr. Webb Mealy will preach.

From the First Congo Calendar:

Put on your marching shoes or sparkly pumps and join the Open & Affirming Team Ministry as we march in the San Francisco LGBTQQIA Parade. We will be singing, walking, doing blessings, and handing out beads & fliers in an effort to let the world know that First Congo is truly a faith community where Love Is First. You can sign up and pick up a packet every Sunday beginning June 8th. Please note: there will be a mandatory parade safety and preparation meeting on Friday, June 27th at 7pm. Hope to see you there.

Contact Erica B. for more info or questions: (510)-331-4849

Note: The Calendar had said the service starts at 8, but it actually starts at 9 am.

Pastor Lynice's sermon from last Sunday--The Integrity Dilemma--
is here. mp3

2008-06-16T08:30:00.000-07:00

Ryan Dowell Baum preached his third sermon at First Congo yesterday: Contending with the Cross.

2008-06-11T15:01:00.000-07:00

Adapted from an email I just received from Kai Lavatai, our new Administrative Assistant.

This coming Sunday, June 15, the Danville United Church of Christ has asked to join us in engaging in the United Church of Christ's Sacred Conversation on Race.

They will leave their church after their service ends, arriving at First Congo at about 11:30. Then they will join us for lunch and a special program facilitated by Ron Buford, who so ably facilitated our retreat, Pastor Lynice and their pastors. The program will include scripture, discussion, and finding "next steps" to encourage an on-going relationship between our two congregations.

Please come and invite your friends for this important meeting and chance to fellowship, grow and grapple with this most challenging issue: personal, interpersonal and institutional racism.

2008-06-11T12:14:00.000-07:00

Well, this is interesting: the Sermon Archive is broken again. The sermons for 2007 are online, but the archive links are broken. You can still retrieve them from the links in this blog (for example, Ryan Dowell Baum's previous sermon, Something About Money, is here. And here. He will be preaching again this coming Sunday, June 15. mp3

I needed a little project, I suppose, so I'll use this time to rearrange the Archive and put the 2007 sermons on their own section.

Meanwhile, check out Pastor Lynice's latest sermon from last Sunday, Live Dog Religion.
mp3

2008-05-29T13:10:00.000-07:00

It's been up for a few weeks, but Pastor Lynice's office hours information is on her staff page.

2008-05-28T10:04:00.001-07:00

Reformatted the Pastoral Transition section a little, adding a printable version of the latest What's Happening.

2008-05-27T11:46:00.000-07:00

The biggest news is I'm adding a lot to the Pastoral Transition section about the newly created search committee.

Sermons online that I missed in my regular updates:

Pastor Lynice's Chaos Theory, Megan Bean Smith's And God Saw That it Was Good, and Reverend Donna E. Allen's Signs of the Times

Oh, and it's a small thing, but I changed the favicon to match the UCC Stillspeaking comma.

2008-05-04T23:01:00.000-07:00

Some exceeding important additions to the website tonight: a completely new section regarding the Pastoral Transition and our search for a new Senior Pastor. Please read all three documents (the Letter from the Board, Pastor Lynice's thoughts on the Search and the Charter of the Pastoral Search Committee).

Please plan to attend the special congregational meeting this Sunday, May 11, submitting your nominations (one or two) for the Pastoral Search Committee (to Pat Bruce-Lerrigo (pblerrigo (at) sbcglobal.net) beforehand.

The Board of Trustees have hired a new Church Administrator, Kirsten Swenson.
The new First Congo organization chart is here (PDF file, Adobe Acrobat Reader required to view)

And: Pastor Lynice's sermon, Holy Ghost Power to the People is online.

2008-04-28T10:58:00.000-07:00

Ron Buford's sermon from yesterday, Good News for Orphans is online. Also, I'm very aware that the "Audio Library" header in the sermon pages doesn't link to the Sermon Archive page. I've been trying to figure out exactly which bit of code include that text so I can make a link.

Oh, and check out the red comma on the front page (hint: it's clickable)

2008-04-24T14:47:00.001-07:00

Curious about what the next week's lectionary reading is? I always include a link to the S.A.M.U.E.L page on the UCC website on the front page of the website. Now thanks you Webb Mealy you can print out a copy of the 2008 Lectionary suitable for framing or magnetting to your refrigerator!

2008-04-22T11:36:00.000-07:00

Sunday morning a worker in Whole Foods Market across the street asked me if I worked at the church across the street. When I said yes, I'm a deacon there she said her co-workers were wondering about the marquee, which had Pastor Lynice's sermon Let's Go Get Stoned.

Coincidentally preached on 4/20!

Also, I put the details of the upcoming Retreat online here and as a printable pdf .

2008-04-14T12:44:00.000-07:00

Pastor Ama's final sermon at First Congo is here. I think this is complete, though since the entire service ran to 2 CDs I'm not completely certain. The audio ends just before the Litany of Leaving.

And I improved the Farewell to Pastor Ama section, adding the letter from the Board of Trustees laying out the UCC guidelines for departing pastors

2008-04-08T12:47:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I uploaded Pastor Ama's penultimate sermon at First Congo.

Her last sermon before she leaves is this coming Sunday, April 13.

Please Join Us for Pastor Ama's Final Sunday With Us This Sunday, April 13th, followed by a celebratory Goodbye Luncheon

(You are Welcome to Come As You Are or Dressed to the Nines!)

I've created on a page that includes her resignation letter as well as responses from the Board and the Deacons.

2008-03-31T09:43:00.000-07:00

Several changes: Pastor Ama's sermon In God's Hands and Pastor Lynice's sermon Plumbing the Ruins are online. And there's a link to the United Church of Christ website from the UCC Still Speaking logo on the main page

2008-03-20T15:40:00.000-07:00

The Maundy Service tonight starts at 7 p.m., not 6:30, as it says in the latest edition of News at First

2008-03-14T11:06:00.000-07:00

Check out the schedule for Holy Week!

The formatting is a little funky, yes, I know.

And Pastor Lynice's sermon from last week, Haunted by God, is online

2008-03-05T12:21:00.000-08:00

I'm getting more comfortable to tweaking the Settings of the website, as you can see. I've switched the font on the main page from Papyrus to Verdana, a font specifically designed to be readable on computer screens.

And I uploaded Pastor Ama's sermon from last Sunday, Blame and Other Options.

2008-02-25T15:27:00.000-08:00

Just before the end of the month I am finally updating the Calendar.

Andrew Schwiebert's sermon from yesterday: Come Rain or Come Shine, is online

2008-02-11T09:46:00.001-08:00

Guest preacher the Reverend Dr. Kenneth L. Samuel's sermon from yesterday, Giant Upsets, ends a few minutes before the end because that was the end of the recording from the CD burner. I'm not certain if the full sermon is on the recorder but didn't make it onto the CD because of lack of space. I'll check that this week.

2008-02-04T11:44:00.000-08:00

Several updates today!

Pastor Ama's sermon from yesterday, Fat Sunday is online.

Also, the February News at First, Pastors' Letter (written this month by Pastor Ama), and the Calendar for February.

I'm in the process of updating the Google calendar to more closely match the printable version

2008-01-22T13:11:00.000-08:00

I've done some updates to the Rent Space pages, adding photos and cleaning navigation.

Pastor Ama's Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday sermon is up.

As is the January 2008 News at First! Remember, this is a PDF file, about 2 megabytes.

2008-01-14T10:07:00.000-08:00

The January Newsletter is coming soon.

Meanwhile, check out Pastor Lynice's sermon from yesterday:
The Baptism of Christ.

2008-01-07T10:46:00.000-08:00

There was no December Newsletter and I haven't received this month's newsletter, but will upload it when I get it.

Pastor Ama's sermon from yesterday, Epiphany, is online.

2007-12-31T09:13:00.000-08:00

There is no sermon upload this week because there wasn't a sermon preached yesterday at the Kwanzaa celebration.

2007-12-23T17:10:00.000-08:00

Pastor Ama's sermon from this morning, Dreaming a New World, is online.

2007-12-17T09:40:00.000-08:00

No, Pastor Ama isn't repeating Pastor Lynice's sermon from yesterday. I had misread an email last week and incorrectly gave yesterday's sermon (God Comes to Save) the title from the coming Sunday (Dreaming a New World).

Discernment Time

2007-12-16T07:11:00.000-08:00

The schedule for the two weeks of our discernment (which started December 2) is online.

You can download a printable (Microsoft Word) version to post on your refrigerator or the inside of your door here

2007-12-10T02:03:00.000-08:00

Pastor Ama's sermon, The God of Hope, is online.

Later today I will add the more detailed schedule of the coming week of discernment

2007-12-06T11:26:00.000-08:00

Oops. I had forgotten to upload the November pastor's letter from Pastor Lynice and the December pastor's letter from Pastor Ama!

2007-12-03T23:33:00.000-08:00

Whew! Despite some technical difficulties (those of you listening to the CD may notice the recording is a bit out of order), Angela Jernigan's amazing sermon is online.

I hope to see everyone tomorrow night at church as we continue our time of discernment

2007-11-26T12:08:00.000-08:00

For the second time in three weeks, the sound board was taken apart and left in disarray by the people doing sound for an event the Saturday night before church. So most of the service yesterday wasn't recorded.

Clearly the event rental guidelines could use some re-examining.

Isaiah McCloud fortunately had brought his laptop and Diego was able to record Pastor Ama's sermon, Mystical Unity and Action.

I'm hoping to get the mp3 file from him to upload soon.

2007-11-16T08:53:00.000-08:00

Something new on the homepage: a link to a new search engine
called Goodsearch.

First Congo will get cash (one cent per search) every time you use Goodsearch (which is powered by the Yahoo! search engine) to search the web.
I've embedded code that takes you directly to First Congo's donation search page.

Use it frequently!

2007-11-13T14:08:00.000-08:00

The November News at First is up.

And Pastor Lynice's sermon is online. Older sermon pages may not have the working forward-to-a-friend feature or the podcast download.

Please email me if you catch one that isn't working properly.

2007-11-05T09:36:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately Pastor Ama's sermon yesterday, Grace and Peace, was not recorded and so will not be on the website.
When the sound technician arrived yesterday morning the system was in major dissarray and the CD recorder was broken (probably the previous night--before, during or after the event in the sanctuary). Hopefully it will be repaired or replaced in time for next Sunday's service.

2007-11-02T15:02:00.000-07:00

Whew! A number of changes recently. I uploaded Pastor Lynice's sermon from last week.

Also, I made the previous editions of the Parish Nurse newsletter easier to navigate.
And cleaned up some typos on the Rent Space section. I hope I caught them all, but if I didn't please email me.

2007-10-16T12:58:00.000-07:00

Updated the links to the Community Center section. Also added some content on the pages for the community center, thoughtfully borrowed from their respective websites.

2007-10-15T06:33:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend I updated the Calender of Events. You can view the calendar as a printable PDF file or as a Google Calendar to which you can subscribe. And I uploaded Peter Barbosa's sermon from yesterday, Healing From a Distance.

2007-10-09T08:57:00.000-07:00

For a few days I haven't been able to login to this blog. Turns out it's an Internet Explorer problem not a Google problem. Yet another reason to use the Firefox browser instead of the IE that came with your (Windows) computer.

Reverend Shiloh McCloud's incredible sermon from Sunday, Your Faith Has Made You Whole, is online.

The Calendar yes, needs updating. If someone would like to help update I can give you the access codes. You won't be logging into the First Congo website, no worries, but will be logging on to the Google Calendar for First Congo.

2007-09-30T18:33:00.001-07:00

Not quite live streaming, but at least same day uploading: Seminarian Ryan Dowell Baum's sermon from this morning, Something About Money

2007-09-24T08:41:00.001-07:00

Pastor Lynice's sermon There Is a Balm in Gilead, is online. Coming soon: the Sports-Serve First Oakland newsletter, written and edited by parish nurse Rebecca Faith and Paul Vollmer. See the September 2007 parish nurse Newsletter for more information.

2007-09-21T16:11:00.000-07:00

Small change, but Pastor Lynice has informed me yesterday that the title of her sermon this upcoming Sunday is now There Is a Balm in Gilead (formerly And We Are Not Yet Saved).

Taken from one of the lectionary reading, Jeremiah 8:22 (New International Version)

2007-09-17T08:36:00.000-07:00

This morning I uploaded Kira Allen's sermon from Pride Sunday yesterday. The "Recommend to a friend" feature broke again (again, I'm not sure why--I'm not even sure how I fixed it when it broke last time!). What I recommend is copying the URL in the address bar (which should look like http://www.firstoakland.org/audio/2007_09_16_kira_allen_wade/ ) and pasting it into the body of your email to a friend.

2007-09-12T11:18:00.000-07:00

The September News at First is now online . I've changed the archives pages a bit so the link to the latest issue is on top of the list