News

I’m writing this note to update you on my summer Sabbatical from May 1 through July 31.  This July will mark my seventh year at First Churches. Seven years is often a significant psychological time marker.  (Think 7 days of creation, the 7 Years War, 7 Year Itch!) A wise person told me long-term pastors need to reinvent themselves every seven years.  Otherwise either the pastor or the congregation get bored with the other. While I don’t yet think of myself as a long-term pastor at First Churches, since Solomon Stoddard served here for 55 years, seven years does mark longer term commitment in the modern era.   After spending some time thinking about what would benefit my growth as a pastor, I concluded what I really need is a pilgrimage.  Pilgrimages are a way of physically and spiritually being [...]

by JACK SUNTRUP @JackSuntrup NORTHAMPTON — Religious leaders across the state on Tuesday called on President Donald Trump to reconsider his executive order that freezes refugee resettlement in the United States for four months. In an open letter, the Massachusetts Council of Churches called the executive order “injurious.” “We grieve this decision to limit refugees, as it will cause further suffering, not just to our fellow Christians escaping persecution, but all refugees fleeing violence,” the letter reads. It quotes from scripture, specifically Deuteronomy 10:19: “You shall also love the foreigner, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.” “Our savior was a migrant,” the letter continues. “We hear Jesus Christ declare in Matthew 25 that His followers will be judged if we do not welcome the stranger. We stand under that judgment today.” The letter ends with a call [...]

Hear Pastor Sarah talk about how we are trying to respond to the heroin crisis, and our staff training to use Narcan in case of a drug overdoes: Listen to Sarah on NEPR

By JACK SUNTRUP @JackSuntrup Daily Hampshire Gazette, Sunday, December 18, 2016 NORTHAMPTON — A world away from Aleppo, Syria, Zaid AlNassar stood behind a microphone Sunday and in Arabic tried to convey an unimaginable feeling: the pain of a relentless war that has ripped apart his homeland. Wind swept in and clouds churned overhead as about 100 people huddled in front of First Churches of Northampton, endeavoring to do what they could to help put an end to Syria’s civil war. “The pain and the bloodshed is unimaginable in Syria and in Aleppo,” AlNassar said through a translator. “Every day hundreds and hundreds of people die.” AlNassar, 37, who now lives in Westfield with his wife and five children, said he and his family were resettled in Massachusetts two years ago from Daraa, Syria, a city credited with helping spark [...]