Over the last two years, First Lutheran Church has been
making an intentional effort to reach out into their surrounding neighborhood
by using their parish house, “First House” as a place for community gathering
and outreach. Since January, First House has been open to the public every
Friday afternoon for a time dubbed “Friday’s with Friends”. “Friday’s with Friends” is a free coffee
house that offers youth and adults coffee, cookies, and comfortable-supervised
space for conversation, reading and playing board games.
(Janet Wahlberg, Kairie Williams, and Jim Wahlberg)
Every Friday is run with a team of volunteers from the
church and community. The summer time hours will be from 1-3pm each Friday or
when our open sign is placed outside by the sidewalk to the front and kitchen
entrances of the building on 116 Chandler Street.
Earlier this year, First Lutheran Church was awarded the Karl Peterson Field of Interest Fund by theCommunity Region Community Foundation to help the “First House Outreach”
meet its goals to offer greater community connection and offer educational
opportunities. With this grant, “First House Outreach” will be able to better
serve our neighbors and meet our needs.
The Friday outreach has grown to also host a once a month
neighborhood dinner and music/art/program night. So far this year we have had
chili, soup, and cook-out dinners with entertainment by local and regional
musicians/artists: Adam McKillip, Ade Adu, Tara Eastman, Debra Eck as well as
naturalist Katie Finch. The next cook
out dinner is scheduled for July 24th from 5-8 pm.
It is with much gratitude to our team of church and community volunteers as for the Chautauqua Region Community Foundation that First Lutheran Church and “First House Outreach” can continue to reach out to our neighbors as a place of rest, care and friendship. For more information on “First House Outreach” please call the church office at 716-664-4601.
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