Family Christmas Eve Worship Service
2025-12-24 15:00 - 16:00 (America/New_York) | Lewis Hall, West Innes St, Parking Lot, Salisbury, NC, 28144, United States
Join us this Christmas Eve for our Family Worship Service in Lewis Hall. We welcome Pastor Randy who will lead our service one last time before his retirement begins. Our First Kids group will delight us with their Christmas Pageant including the manger scene, costumes, singing, and speaking parts. After worship, we will gather for cocoa and cookies around the Fountain (weather permitting).

Traditional Christmas Eve Communion & Candlelight Service
2025-12-24 20:00 - 21:00 | Sanctuary
Join us for a traditional candlelit worship service in our Sanctuary at 8pm. We welcome Pastor Randy who will lead our service one last time before his retirement begins. This service is so beautiful as we reflect on the Christ child and God’s gift to our world. Holy Communion will be served. Prelude music begins at 7:30pm. Don’t miss!

Epiphany Sunday & Stars
2026-01-04 | First Presbyterian Church
Please join us @8:30am or 11am Worship! From Pastor Lara…
“Shine Bright! Shine Far! Don’t be shy…be a star!”
I have had these lines from a Disney/Tyra Banks song burned into my brain for the last 25 years. I love a poppy, overly girly moment from the 2000s. Fortunately, in the church, we know better than to believe these adorable lyrics. We are not the stars of our own shows, Christ is. We don’t have to “do it for the plot” because God is the main character of our life-stories and we, blessedly, get to follow Christ’s lead.
In the church calendar, Christmas lasts 12 days, hence the song. After Christmastide comes Epiphany. This is the day we remember the star that guided the Magi to Jesus at his birth. God is the one who guides us all. No time of year is this more clear than in the new year. As you look out into 2026, make a plan to come to worship where you will receive a star with a biblical word that God will use to guide you through 2026. On the back, you’ll find the name of a family at First Pres for whom you can lift up in prayer and encouragement as they embark on this new journey guided by the light of Christ shining bright and far!

The Five Senses of Worship
2026-01-04 08:30 - 09:30 | Lewis Hall, West Innes St, Parking Lot, Salisbury, NC, 28144, United States
The Five Senses of Worship
Beginning in January, our contemporary worship service will explore The Five Senses of Worship, a special once-a-month series led by Rev. Daniel Heath, our LCW accompanist. Each service will invite worshippers to experience God through sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch—deepening our connection with God and one another through creative, sensory-rich expressions of faith.
Join us for these unique worship services at our 8:30am Contemporary Worship Service in Lewis Hall on Sundays – January 4, February 8, and March 1. Come ready to encounter God with all your senses!

Blood Drive @ First Pres
2026-01-20 14:00 - 18:30 | Fellowship Hall In Educ Bldg, 308 W Fisher St, Salisbury, NC, 28144, United States
Donate Blood & Save a Life! First Pres is hosting an American Red Cross Blood Drive on Tuesday, January 20 from 2-6:30pm in ourFellowship Hall. Be sure to make an appointment online for a quick “in & out.” If you have any questions, please call our church office (704) 636-1321. Thanks
www.redcrossblood.org

Congregational Meeting
2026-01-25 10:40 - 10:50 | Lewis Hall, West Innes St, Parking Lot, Salisbury, NC, 28144, United States
Please join us for this important congregational meeting.. We will be approving our 2026 budget and also electing new officers to Session and our Nominating Team. Use this link to view our nominations brochure.
https://firstpressalisbury.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Nominee-Brochure-for-2026-3-min.pdf

Lewis Preaching Series 2026
2026-02-01 | First Presbyterian Church
Let it snow!!!! Here are our SNOW PLANS FOR LEWIS PREACHING SERIES 2026
Sunday, Feb 1 at 9:45am: Pre-recorded Sunday School with Rev. Amos Disasa on our YouTube channel.
https://www.youtube.com/@FPCSalisburyNC
Sunday, Feb 1 at 11:00am: Pre-recorded worship service with Rev. Amos Disasa on our YouTube channel.
https://www.youtube.com/@FPCSalisburyNC
Sunday, Feb 1 at 5:00pm: Lewis Preaching Series program with Rev. Amos Disasa on Zoom.
(Passcode for Zoom: 330618)
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84731666597?pwd=[REDACTED]
Stay home, be safe, be warm!
Depending on who you ask and what mood they are in, the book of Esther has been called historical fiction, revenge fantasy, political comedy, or diasporic saga. It manages to be horrifying, hopeful, and humorous at the same time. To read this ancient and enigmatic narrative without wondering why it’s in the Bible at all is impossible. And still, the contemporary resonance of the Esther story is unmistakable: state power bears down to settle personal scores; non-native residents are acutely vulnerable; God is silent throughout–hiding among coincidences, (or not?). The weirdest book of the Bible is a noisy, rambunctious response to all our prayers for God’s will to be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
Sermon Text: Esther 1:1–5, 10–19
Sermon Title: Vashti
Sunday School Title: Esther in Persia
Sunday Night Title: Esther in America
Rev. Amos Disasa is the Senior Pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Dallas, TX, a historic congregation in the heart of the city. Previously, he served as the co-pastor of Downtown Church, in Columbia, SC.
Amos’ family immigrated from Ethiopia when he was a young child. Amos earned degrees from Presbyterian College and the Wake Forest University School of Divinity. He serves on the Board of Governors for Downtown Dallas Inc., the Board of Directors for PubCore, the Board of Directors for Montreat Conference Center, and is a Trustee of Austin College. Amos and his wife Sarah, along with their two children, reside in Dallas.

Youth Sunday 2026
2026-02-08 11:00 - 12:00 | Lewis Hall, West Innes St, Parking Lot, Salisbury, NC, 28144, United States
Our Youth Sunday Worship Service is always an incredible worship hour of inspiration, beautiful music, thoughtful reflections from our youth, and hope for tomorrow! Please join us for this Unified Worship Service at 11am in Lewis Hall. This year, our Youth Sunday is based on the following scripture…
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
1 Peter 1:3

Yoga at First Pres
2026-02-11 09:00 - 10:15 | Fellowship Hall In Educ Bldg, 308 W Fisher St, Salisbury, NC, 28144, United States
Are you looking for a way to incorporate stretching, flexibility and perhaps even YOGA into your life? Join us on Wednesdays. We meet from 9:00-10:15 am in Fellowship Hall. This is an all-level yoga class, led by certified teacher, Felicia Hoyle. A $10 donation per class is encouraged. Contact Felicia Hoyle @ fshoyle@gmail for more info.

Ash Wednesday is Feb 18
2026-02-18 | First Presbyterian Church
Please join us as we begin together our journey into Lent. We have two opportunities on Wed, Feb 18.
7:00am – Lenten Prayer Breakfasts in Lewis Hall – A brief worship service following breakfast will including the imposition of ashes. Breakfast: Adults $7, Children/Youth $3, and 4 years & under Free
6:00pm – Traditional worship with the Imposition of Ashes in our Sanctuary. Youth, First Kids, families & friends are invited to gather for supper @5:15pm in Fellowship Hall before worship at 6pm.

Lenten Prayer Breakfast
2026-02-18 - 2026-04-01 | NC
Lenten Prayer Breakfasts on Wednesday @7:00am in Lewis Hall during Lent.
We have the Best Country Breakfast in Town! Great programs planned with community leaders!
Feb 18: Ash Wednesday – Pastors Lara, Josh & Hannah
Feb 25: Pastor Hannah Ostlund, First Pres Salisbury
Mar 4: Frank Strong, RISE, Youth mentor, ROTC
Mar 11: Pastor Derrick Hawkins, Promise City Church
Mar 18: Rev. Rickey Johnson, Antioch Missionary Baptist
Mar 25: Dr. Sidney Davis, Zion Olivet Presbyterian, retired
Apr 1: Monica Green and the Jubilee Community Choir
Suggested Cost: Adults: $7, Children/Youth: $3, 4 yrs and under: free

Lent 2026 Sermon Series
2026-02-22 - 2026-03-29 | First Presbyterian Church
From Pastor Lara…In Chicago’s Millennium Park, there is a world-famous sculpture called the Cloud Gate. I grew up knowing it by its common name: the Bean. It looks like an alien dropped a soft silver-plated kidney bean out of the sky and into the hard vertical lines of the Chicago skyline. While it was designed to stretch the clouds over its 60-foot-long top as if like a gate, it has become famous as a fantastic place to take selfies. I must have visited the Bean twice in its first year, and I still have the selfies to prove it. The Bean is compelling to modern audiences because it is smooth, edgeless, and reflective. It has no character of its own but instead amusingly distorts the reflections of its surroundings. It’s neutral. It has no hard lines. It makes no claims of truth and demands nothing of those who encounter it.
The God of the Bible is nothing like the Bean. Jesus is not every man; he is the Son of Man. He was born in Bethlehem to Mary and Joseph. He was raised in a specific community, the people of Israel, with all their particular rituals, practices, and scriptures. They worship a unique God who gives very particular commands for how to live. He dies under Caiaphas, Herod, Pilate, and Caesar. The Bean-Gods of Babylon, Rome, and the far East do not care much for the details of mortals’ lives, but dies for the details of our sins and impending death. Our God is particular.
This particular God was busy saving the world long before Jesus of Nazareth was born in a Galilean backwater barn. The story of our salvation starts in the Old Testament with people like Adam, Noah, Abraham, Hagar, Moses, Shipra, David, Tamar, and Ezekiel. During Lent, we will be exploring God’s saving work through the life-and-death stories of Old Testament characters. Through the Word of God proclaimed, we will be encountered by this detailed and distinct God.
I’ve had this experience multiple times. You walk up to The Bean and discover that it doesn’t feel like much. In art museums, you find portraits with unique faces. Eyes greet you with warmth or stare at you in judgment. Lips smile or sneer. Details tell the story of feast or famine, friends and foes. Most art is an encounter with a peculiar stranger that can make you feel confused, joyful, awed, humbled, afraid. Strangely, there is no feeling of encounter when you walk up to the Bean. It’s cool. But it always left me feeling like I missed something. The encounter was elusive. The meaning wasn’t empty, it was absent.
But walk into the stories of Scripture and be called and claimed by not just a particular God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but by The God. Come have an encounter you couldn’t possibly capture in a selfie, but that instead captures yourself in a grand story of life-and-death and salvation.
Lent Series: Life and Death
February 22 – Adam, Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7
March 1 – Abraham, Genesis 12:1-5a
March 8 – Moses, Exodus 17:1-7
March 15 – David, 1 Samuel 16:1-13
March 22 – Ezekiel, Ezekiel 37:1-14
March 29 – Palm Sunday, Philippians 2:5-11

Feed the Fish 2026
2026-02-22 - 2026-03-30 | First Presbyterian Church
We hope you’ve been saving your loose change all year and maybe a few paper bills too…to get ready for our Annual Feed the Fish campaign for PCUSA’s Great One Hour of Sharing. Love is at the heart of our Presbyterian tradition and this special Lenten offering.
Received during the season of Lent (Feb. 18–April 5), each gift to OGHS helps to improve the lives of people in challenging situations – disaster, hunger, poverty, climate change, and immigration/migration and refugees. This work provides people with safety, sustenance, and hope. In fact, OGHS is the single, largest way Presbyterians come together every year to work for a better world. God’s immense love for us is the reason for our very existence. As Christians, we are called by Jesus to show and share that love.
You may donate through our Sunday School classes, First Kids, Day School, or at worship services. You can also drop off your donations at the church office.
We will be collecting from February 22 through March 30. Donation totals and our Feed the Fish 2026 Winners will be announced on Easter Sunday, April 5.

HELP US HELP OUR NEIGHBORS!!

New Men's Bible Study
2026-03-03 06:30 - 07:30 | First Presbyterian Church
Every once in a while, you come across a book that really digs into you. One of the books that got a hold of me in the last few years was Richard Reeves’ “Of Boys and Men.” The book asks a simple yet penetrating question: “How are men in the United States doing?” The answer was not surprising to me. In short, men aren’t doing well…for a host of reasons. Men are less religious, have fewer friends, are more likely to die deaths of despair (suicide, overdose, alcoholism), are more likely to be incarcerated, and are far less educated than women, and all this at increasingly alarming rates. Men are also less likely than ever to become teachers, which means outside of fathers and coaches, young men are being mentored less and less by other men. Men in their 30’s and 40’s look back fondly at the childhood friendships of their youth. The days of fake swords, plastic Nerf guns, endless fort-building escapades, and yet as they grow older wonder where all their friends have gone.
To top it all off, we live in a culture where men are expected to be either stoic or violent, and at times, are even made fun of for being vulnerable about their struggles. They say, real men don’t cry. They say, pain is just weakness leaving the body. But the state of manhood is revealing that these old adages just don’t work anymore.
How can we celebrate and advocate for the flourishing of women while equally desiring the well-being of men? That’s the question that’s been gnawing at me these last few years. If you’ve heard anything about our flourishing spirit-led MomCo ministry, you know that we are providing a place for women to be women together. I wonder, how can we do more of this for men? To put this all more personally, how do I, as a Christian, be a good and kind father, spouse, colleague, and friend?
The political landscape these days offers little help, and as usual, provides only ill-fitting stereotypes and polarizing comparisons. On the far right, we’re given visions of masculinity that feel, frankly, excessively anti-woman, and unrealistically “manly” in ways that just don’t fit all kinds of men out there. And yet on the far left, we’re given no vision of what a man is at all. Some young men have even expressed to me that they feel the far left has shamed them for being men altogether.
So what does this have to do with the church? Well, we can’t solve all of these issues at once. But what we can do, what we must do, is offer a place where men can gather together. We’ve already got one of those in our lovely Everyman’s Bible class. And so I feel it’s time to offer yet another place for men to gather.
Starting Tuesday, March 3, I invite men of all ages to gather together at 6:30am for Men’s Group Bible study at First Pres. What will we do? Well, it’s quite simple. We will drink coffee, eat donuts, tell jokes, read the Scriptures, share life, and pray for one another. My earnest hope for this Bible Study is that it will be a place for men of different generations to find brothers in Christ who will encourage them in the life of faith. Frankly, I know that this is something I need, and I’m betting that other men feel the same.

TWAM HS Mountain Retreat
2026-03-27 - 2026-03-29 | First Presbyterian Church
March 27-29
TWAM HS Mountain Retreat:
Our TWAM HS Youth are heading to the mountains to stay in two beautiful mountain cabins for the weekend. Plan for an incredible weekend of fun, food and great fellowship!
This retreat is recommended for all HS students hoping to go on the TWAM mission trip. But it is also a retreat for any High school student, regardless of whether they’re attending the mission trip or not.
