This Sunday is a big one at First Christian Church. It’s the last Sunday of our October worship series, Find Heaven, and the first Sunday when you’ll be asked to return a Commitment Card to First Christian Church for intentional financial support in 2026.
It’s also All Saints Sunday, that one Sunday a year to remember all the saints who came before us… especially, but not only, those who we have lost in the last year. If you’d like me to announce a name during our litany of names (no matter when your saint died) please let me know. (Please note – we typically host All Saints on the first Sunday in November, BUT we have an exceptional celebration planned for November 2 – please let us know if you’ll be attending Cynthia Jensen’s 40th Anniversary & Retirement Celebration!)
And finally, but by no means least, Sunday will include the baptism of McPherson Jo “JoJo” Johnson into the body of Christ.
This Sunday has it all!. The only thing we might be missing is… you! We can’t do it alone… not if we want it to be as heavenly as fresh baked bread. We all need a little help from our friends. We all need others to be a “pinch of yeast” for us. I hope you’ll be in worship, in the sanctuary or by church online.
Every good thing,
Pastor Colton
Worship at FCC El Reno
Sunday Mornings at 10:45am
Visiting a new church community can be an overwhelming experience. To help put you at ease, we’ve provided some general information below about what you can expect on any given Sunday.
Church Online
Since 2014, we have streamed our services live through YouTube. While we love gathering in-person, we also affirm that worshipping online is another way to make the body of Christ real, felt, and Known.
If you are worshipping via live-stream, you may wish to gather a few items to make that experience feel more like worship. Those items might be a candle to welcome the light of Christ, a Bible (book-bound or app), and elements to participate in the Lord’s Supper.
What to Expect:
Welcome
We welcome you! We don’t pretend to be perfect, but we try hard to be faithful followers of Jesus. We’re a friendly bunch and we offer you the same welcome that God has extended to every one of us.
Duration
Our worship services tend to last 75 minutes.
Baptism
The beginning of Christian life is baptism, where it “represents the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, it symbolizes the death and burial of the old self of the repentant believer, and the joyous birth of a brand new being in Christ.” (from Word to the Church on Baptism.)
Dress
We do not care what you wear! We have it all every Sunday, and we love it all. Really!
Music
There aren’t many places where you’ll hear a pipe organ and drums in the same service, but we like being eclectic. We sing old Gospel favorites, standard hymns, contemporary Christian music, and even a few mainstream songs with extraordinary meanings. Our music is led by our equally talented Chancel Choir and Praise Band.
The Lord’s Supper
As is the case in most Disciples of Christ churches, we participate in the Lord’s Supper each week. Every individual has a different understanding of what happens at the table, but at the very least we remember Jesus together. One of our distinctives is that we have an “open table”: all are welcome to participate. “As part of the one body of Christ, we welcome all to the Lord’s Table as God has welcomed us.” (from The Identity Statement of the Disciples of Christ.)
Preaching
The preaching is mostly done by Pastor Colton Lott. His sermons can be found on our podcast to hear anytime. In his words, “I try to incorporate storytelling, a deep love for the scriptural text, and an awareness of how the tradition we have received still speaks to our daily lives and to current events so that we can pursue God’s love and justice in the world today.” Colton’s sermons are of varying lengths, but generally last 15-20 minutes.
Liturgy
We typically design our Sunday worship around series that last for several weeks. These series help guide the songs we sing, sermon content, and even the way the sanctuary looks. We observe the “liturgical year” - the cycle that takes us from Advent, to Christmas, to Epiphany, to Lent, to Easter, to Pentecost, to Ordinary Time and repeat - and use traditional colors to mark the changing of these seasons. Our pastors wear “preaching robes” from Advent (four Sundays before Christmas) through Pentecost (seven weeks after Easter). This is to remove the distraction of our pastors’ fashion choices and focus worship on the story of Jesus.