First Christian Church Chattanooga

06/17/2026

This week, children and adults from First Christian and Northminster are gathering for Compassion Camp, a week dedicated to practicing lovingkindness. Along the way, they’re also building new friendships and learning that the world is changed not only by big heroes, but by ordinary people who choose compassion action. 💚🏕️🌈

06/13/2026

Last Sunday we began our summer worship series with the story of Moses, beginning in Exodus 2.

Before Moses ever delivered a people, a people delivered him. Midwives who refused to cooperate with injustice. A mother who trusted. A sister who spoke up. A Pharaoh’s daughter who chose compassion over fear.

As Vacation Bible School begins this week, our children and adults will practice three simple phrases:
💙 I see your hurt.
💙 I feel your hurt.
💙 I help ease your hurt.

May we become the kind of community that chooses compassion in the face of fear and helps make a different future possible.

06/10/2026

Our Youth Fellowship took faith to new heights today. 🧗

We spent the afternoon cheering each other on, growing in our resilience, and building the kind of community that helps each other climb a little higher than we could alone.

06/03/2026

What does it mean to make disciples?

This week, Rev. Daniel reminded us that Jesus’ commission was never about building power, winning arguments, or counting conversions. It was about participating in God’s work of healing the world. To make disciples is to help create communities that are more welcoming, compassionate, merciful, and loving.

As we begin the long season of Ordinary Time, we are invited to put love into action, stand in solidarity with our neighbors, and become a presence of God’s love wherever we go.

06/01/2026

🌈 We were grateful to spend part of our Sunday at the Seed Theatre’s Youth Pride event!

This photo captures just some of volunteers from First Christian Church who helped welcome young people and families to our table throughout the day. We shared resources, answered questions, offered encouragement, and reminded folks that they are deeply loved.

We also brought supplies for Kandi-making, which quickly became one of the favorite activities! Kids (and more than a few adults!) stopped by to create colorful bracelets, share stories, and enjoy a little creativity and community.

Thank you to Seed Theatre for creating spaces where young people can be themselves, ask questions, make connections, and know they belong.

Because every young person deserves to know they are beloved, exactly as they are. 💜🏳️‍🌈

05/30/2026

Get ready for summer at FCC! Read all about it in the June Bridge!

05/27/2026

The Spirit doesn’t ask people to conform in order to belong. At Pentecost, people heard the good news in the language of home. This is the kind of community we’re working to become: one where questions are welcomed, young voices are taken seriously, elders still dream dreams, and people can encounter God just as they are.

This Sunday, we celebrated baptisms and renewed our promise to keep nurturing that kind of life together. Which is a way of saying that the Spirit is still moving among us. Maybe it smells like pancakes on a Saturday morning, maybe it looks like wet footprints by the baptistry, maybe it sounds like joy echoing through the sanctuary. 🔥💧

05/26/2026

On Sunday, we stepped into the waters of baptism with children and teenagers we have loved for a very long time. Long before they could speak for themselves, this church was already telling them the truth. At baby dedications, in Sunday school rooms, at communion tables, in hospital visits, at church camp, in hallways and pews and classrooms, we kept trying to make the voice of God the loudest voice in their lives.

The voice that says:
You are beloved.
You belong to God.
Nothing can separate you from love.

Rachel Held Evans once wrote that baptism is both a naming and a claiming. In baptism, nothing magical suddenly happens to make someone good, worthy, or whole. These young people were already beloved before they ever stepped into the water.

We framed baptism as the moment they begin claiming that truth for themselves.
The moment they say:
Yes. I believe this love belongs to me too.
Yes. I want to live my life from this truth.

And we, as a church, make promises too.
To keep reminding them who they are when the world gets loud.
To keep surrounding them with mercy, courage, justice, tenderness, and hope.
To keep helping the voice of Love ring louder than shame, fear, or despair ever will.

Thanks be to God for sacred waters, sacred promises, and the voice of God who claims all of us. 💧🔥

05/20/2026

We’re grateful to see Rev. Daniel Lyvers featured in a recent article from the Chattanooga Times Free Press

In the piece, Rev. Daniel reflects on the kind of community we are called to become: one rooted in connection, dignity, and care for one another in a world that so often pulls people apart.

At First Christian Church Chattanooga, we believe faith is something we practice together around open tables, through honest conversations, and in the ongoing work of wholeness in a fragmented world. We’re thankful for opportunities to share that witness beyond our walls. ❤️

Chattanooga Times Free Press