First Cup Informal Worship and Fellowship

You are cordially invited to join us at First Cup, held every Sunday morning at 9:00 am in our Fellowship Hall.  Come dressed casually.  As you enter, grab a muffin and a cup of fair-trade coffee, tea, or juice and mingle a bit.  Feel free to bring your refreshments into our worship space as you’ll be seated at tables.

The service follows the flow of traditional worship practiced since the earliest years of Christendom (Praise, Confession/Pardon, Hearing the Word, Responding to the Word), but with a contemporary feel.  The music is provided by our Praise Band.  The music ranges from popular songs you might hear on a Christian radio station, to ones with a decidedly black gospel beat, to folk, to the band's original compositions.   Feel free to clap along with the music, if you feel so moved, as the words are projected onto a screen for a bulletin-and-songbook-free worship experience.  Our preachers endeavor (as Barbara Brown Taylor puts it) “to speak in their own voices, out of their own experience, addressing God on the congregation’s behalf and—with great care and humility—the congregation on God’s behalf.”  The service lasts 45 minutes.  Afterwards, stay for a second cup and more mingling or visit one of our many Sunday school classes.

On the first Sunday of the month, we celebrate the Eucharist, aka the Lord’s Supper or Communion.  We do this in an intimate fashion--standing around the Table, with a common loaf and cup, communing by intinction.  All believers are invited to participate.  Sometimes we frozen-chosen Presbyterians even join hands for the final song!

We welcome persons of all ages.  For those families who desire it, childcare is available downstairs in the North Wing of the sanctuary building for infants through first graders.  We welcome people from all backgrounds—Christians of all denominations, people of faith from throughout the world, people who profess no faith, and those who are searching for religious and spiritual meaning.  We would love to welcome you!

P.S. Please note, we also offer a traditional worship service at 11:00 am in the sanctuary.  Also, we hold special services in the sanctuary on Ash Wednesday at the beginning of Lent, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Christmas Eve, as well as other occasions.  We join with other congregations (Christian and Jewish) for an inter-faith Thanksgiving service that rotates around the Sandy Springs community.