This Advent and Christmas season, First Church is using author and artist Scott Erickson’s work, Honest Advent, to help guide us as we seek “something honest, something real, something with some human grit and a little less green and red in it.” We have installed fifteen of Erickson’s thought-provoking and inspiring artworks around the perimeter of our Sanctuary building. As you navigate the busyiness of the holidays, take time and invite others to use art to open your eyes and hearts to new meaning and connections that may be revealed. Scan the QR code on each artwork for more information about it from the artist. Visit fumcaustin.org/advent to read our archived daily emails for Advent or follow along for other ways to connect to the Christmas story with honesty and heart.

Donate Books for December Pickle Book Sale

Through Sunday, December 10

Library or Sanctuary Foyer

Spread Christmas cheer by providing a high-quality selection of books at our next Pickle Elementary Book Sale on December 19. This bi-annual tradition works to get books into the hands of students, while empowering them to purchase new and gently used books for only a quarter. Before the sale begins, add books for Pickle to your own Black Friday shopping list; check your shelves for good reads you are ready to share; and ask your family and friends for popular titles, the Dog Man series, appropriate for preschool through 5th grade. We particularly need titles like these in Spanish. Drop donations in the Library or in the bin off of the Sanctuary Foyer between now and December 10 or email Heather Schuelke to arrange pick up/drop off or to volunteer at the book sale.

A Very Magi Christmas with Dr. Brent Landau

Sunday, December 10 | 10:00-10:45AM | SAN Wesley Hall

Take another look at our familiar Christmas traditions with Dr. Brent Landau, lecturer in the Department of Religious Studies at UT Austin. Landau will join us to talk about a fascinating text, The Revelation of the Magi, which tells the story of the Magi’s journey to Bethlehem—with some interesting and unexpected stops along the way! Join us for cookies, cocoa, and a chance to learn from a respected scholar whose surprising insights into the Magi may deepen your own journey toward Christmas. For more information, email Pastor Brad King.

LGBTQ+ Community Holiday Mixer

Sunday, December 10 | 12:15-1:45PM

FLC Garrison Chapel

At First Church, the full inclusion of our LGBTQ+ siblings is central to the life of the church, and at the same time, we recognize that there is great value in the chance to come together as a distinct community, especially in the context of faith. At this festive time of year, we are hosting a holiday gathering for the queer community to meet, mingle, and ring in the season together. Invite friends to share food, stories, and fellowship. Please RSVP so we have plenty of food for the whole party!

TOAST Young Adult

Happy Hour

Sunday, December 10

4:30-6:00PM | LaLa's Little Nugget

While our dinner FEAST events delve into the more difficult aspects of our faith lives, our happy hours are a chance for us to TOAST and celebrate one another.

Diaper Collection

Now-January 7 | Sanctuary and Family Life Center Foyers

Even though the baby Jesus in Christmas carols is so meek and mild that his parents can count on silent nights, we are celebrating the fully human baby that he was by collecting diapers for the Austin Diaper Bank from Advent through Epiphany. A clean diaper means a happy baby, and recent studies say that nearly fifty percent of families with young children struggle to afford this basic need. Bring diapers of any size (sizes 4-6 are most needed) throughout this season and help us ensure happy babies and more silent nights for families in Austin.

Bring Out Your Most Festive Holiday Wear

Sunday, December 17

Let’s spread the Christmas spirit! All are invited to wear fun and crazy holiday clothes with festive fabrics to church on this Sunday!

Children's Choir Christmas Musical

Sunday, December 17

10:00-10:45AM | SAN Wesley Hall

With traditional Christmas pageant hymns and costumes, audience members—young and old—will enjoy this interactive musical as the Children’s Choir presents the story of Christ’s birth in song. All children who attend will be invited to participate. Children may attend with their families or with their Sunday School classes.

Blue Christmas Service

Thursday, December 21

7:00PM | EDU Murchison Chapel

How come I don’t feel it? In the midst of an honest Advent, many of us feel out of step with the joy and excitement of Christmas. Some of us have lost loved ones or face the “happy” holidays feeling blue with grief or depression. Join us for this special worship service on the longest night to ask God to meet us in our grief and longing for hope.

Cookie Baking for the Christmas Eve Breakfast

Saturday, December 23

9:00AM-12:00PM

FLC Great Hall and Kitchen

Cookies, coloring, ribbon, and more! Bring your favorite holiday apron to help with drop-and-bake cookies, assembling bags of cookies and gift bags, making placemats, writing Christmas care notes, and more as we prepare to host our annual Christmas Eve Breakfast for our unhoused neighbors. For more information, contact Pastor Cathy Stone.

Christmas Eve Breakfast for Our Unhoused Neighbors

Sunday, December 24

6:30-8:30AM | Family Life Center

Start your Christmas celebrations with the gift of serving others. This Christmas Eve, we are hosting our unhoused neighbors for breakfast. Our guests will enjoy coffee and Christmas music beginning at 6:30AM, with breakfast served at 7:00AM. Volunteers are also needed to prepare food and decorate on Saturday, December 23. Many have made these volunteer opportunities a meaningful part of their Christmas traditions. Spaces fill fast, so sign up now!

Wonderfully Made: Preteen Human Sexuality Workshop

Event: February 2-3, 2024

Registration Deadline: January 10

Cost: $70/child

This highly regarded weekend workshop returns and uses Wonderfully Made, a curriculum designed to offer you and your young person opportunities to learn, grow, and celebrate the fact that we have each been wonderfully created by God, and are loved now and always, even as bodies grow and change. The expertly facilitated sessions cover physical development, sexual anatomy, and other age-appropriate aspects of puberty, while helping preteens (ages 10-12) learn to listen for God’s loving influence in their lives. The weekend includes two sessions, one on Friday evening and a full day on Saturday, with a parent meeting each day. All preteens must be able to attend each full session both days and at least one parent is required to attend both parent sessions. Full details about session times are available with registration at fumcaustin.org/wonderfully-made. The cost is $70, which includes meals and the participant workbook. Friends are welcome, so invite classmates or neighbors. Spaces are limited, so sign up today.

Generosity Update

This fall, we have explored together what it means to live with financial wisdom, courage, and peace that is rooted in God's abundant generosity toward us. Thank you to all who have already shared how you are reflecting that same generosity back to God by turning in your estimate of giving fro 2024. If you haven't had a chance to do so, you can turn in a "More Than Enough" card, found in the pewbacks and in the Sanctuary Foyer, in the offering plate or by mailing it to the church office. You can also submit an online estimate of giving online by using one of the buttons below.

Twice a week for over 20 years, First Church’s Great Hall has hummed to life in the early hours of the morning. Once volunteers arrive on Tuesday or Thursday mornings at 5:15AM, the smell of brewing coffee wafts down the staircase, greeting more than 100 unhoused neighbors who arrive for the Feed My People Breakfast, a program of the Foundation for the Homeless.

The Breakfast is more than just a meal. For our guests, it is a brief escape from dangers of unsheltered living and a chance for fellowship, coffee, and a hot meal of eggs, sausage, biscuits, and gravy. Showers, clothing, and AA meetings are currently available, and we hope haircuts will be offered again soon. For the church, the Breakfast has expanded our understanding and care for our unhoused neighbors and continues to anchor and ground our weekly rhythm as a community of faith. It is a key way we use our building in support of our downtown neighborhood and a constant reminder that Jesus gathered with people from the margins of society, ate with them, loved them, and asked us to do the same.

While we raised funds last month for the special Christmas Eve Breakfast, we also underwrite many costs associated with hosting the Breakfast each week and purchase the food for each fourth Tuesday of the month. Your generosity this Christmas will help to defray the cost of the twice weekly Feed My People Breakfast, as we offer respite and care for our friends living on the streets all year long.

Your gifts, marked “Christmas Eve Breakfast,” may be placed in the offering basket during worship, mailed to or brought by the church office, or made online at fumcaustin.org/giving and following the step-by-step instructions or using the button below. Please select “FMP/4th Tue Breakfast” from the drop-down menu.