A few years ago, one of my best friends and her spouse bought a local small business in the Wisconsin town where we used to live. I met Erin, a Lutheran pastor, when the Lutheran colleagues in my town adopted me into their weekly Bible study and sermon preparation group. She lived and served in […]
In the early days of the spiritual movement that we now think of as the early church, the followers of Jesus were pretty much all people who share Jesus’ Jewish faith. The followers of Jesus, those who believe he had been resurrected from the dead for the salvation of the world, didn’t see themselves as […]
As a young child I participated in a few plays in our local young children’s theater. Saturday mornings my mom would take me to the Indian Harbor Beach Civic Center across from the library and, with other children, I would take on characters, learn lines, practice blocking and vocalization, and usually run around annoyingly when […]
Dear FPCA family, Many of us know the story of Jesus’ last supper with his disciples. It’s the meal we reference most directly when we celebrate the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper as we will this coming Sunday. But the Gospel according to John actually records the last breakfast Jesus had with his disciples as […]
Dear FPCA family, Happy Easter! Still! Easter is a season, not just one Sunday, and so we keep celebrating for a little while longer. I hope you had a blessed holiday wherever you were able to worship. We will keep observing the joy resurrection with Pastor Kathryn peaching this week. The doors are open for […]
The women had every good reason to go to the garden tomb early that morning on the first day of the week. They had a job to do; They couldn’t have gone any sooner, since it was inappropriate to go on the Sabbath to the place where a dead body was placed. They went as […]
Scholar and activist, Loretta J. Ross, starts her 2021 TED Talk with a purposely shocking declaration that she is present at the Monterey, CA TED conference because (and I quote), “Most black women don’t go to Ku Klux Klan rallies on purpose,” which is the work she does that caught the attention of the organization. […]
Dear FPCA family, Most of our Sundays this Lent have been centered around parables that Jesus told after he had set his face toward Jerusalem, that is after he began his journey toward the city where he would die at the hands of the powerful who feared his words, actions, and promise of transformation. I […]
Pastor, educator, and theologian Rodger Nishioka tells a story about studying the Parable of the Lost Sheep while participating in an ecumenical dialogue with members of the Russian Orthodox Church. He made reference to the parable by that name with his conversation partners and it derailed things for a little bit as the group tried […]
Dear FPCA family, I am excited to participate in my first baptism in this congregation this coming Sunday at the 11:00 am service. At both English-speaking services I’ll share a moment with the children of the church to talk about what it means to share this joyful sacrament in the Body of Christ. I love […]
I mentioned when I first preached here at First Presbyterian Church in Allentown, that I’m not one to let an introductory clause go when it kicks off a passage of scripture. That Sunday morning in January the text we read from Isaiah began, “But now thus says the Lord,” begging the question. “What did this […]
Dear FPCA family, As I’ve been discovering wonderful things about First Presbyterian Church of Allentown, I sometimes wonder, “Does everyone know this?!?” It’s always with great excitement about something that I hope isn’t a hidden blessing. I thought maybe I’d share some of these from time to time in case it might help more of […]
3231 West Tilghman Street
Allentown, PA 18104
610.395.3781
info@fpcallentown.org