Unite-Worship-Serve-Thrive

Unite.  Worship.  Serve.  Thrive.

Cultivating Faith, Community, and Diversity Together.

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Looking to Grow Your Faith?

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Do you have a spiritual longing for a deeper connection, meaning, and purpose in life?

Our congregation offers a variety of opportunities to deepen your faith and strengthen your spiritual journey. From Sunday worship to Bible studies to fellowship events, we provide a space for you to connect with others and with God.

WE HOPE YOU JOIN US ON YOUR JOURNEY

Looking to Join a Community?

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Do you feel a need for belonging, support, and shared values?

We are a faithful, diverse, inclusive and relevant congregation that honors and celebrates each individual. We believe that diversity strengthens our community, and we are committed to creating a space that welcomes people from all walks of life. Our congregation is made up of people with different backgrounds, cultures, and experiences.

Whether you identify as LGBTQIA+, a person with disabilities, someone who has experienced racial injustice, or simply feel like you don’t fit in elsewhere, we welcome you with open arms.

YOU ARE ALWAYS WELCOME HERE

Easter Sunday Services

Worship This Week

April 20, 2025 at 9 a.m. & 11 a.m. ~

Easter Sunday Celebration

We welcome Glenn Priest, organist; our amazing choir with Brass Quintet and Percussion

9 a.m.  ~ In the sanctuary~ We sing our prayers and praise to God with a thousand Alleluias on this Easter Sunday.  Our choir, brass, and percussion will participate in the service.  All are welcome!

 

Hands holding glass globe

11 a.m. ~ In the Sanctuary and Online ~Join us for a joyful Easter celebration of God’s liberating love that is still rolling away stones today.  Our choir, brass, and percussion will all help us raise a holy Hallelujah to God.  All are welcome!

Fellowship time follows the 11 a.m. worship service.

All are welcome

Click here to read Pastor Wes’ blog.

Easter Love Offering

Easter Love Offering 2025

The Mission Team has turned its attention to Easter and the upcoming Easter Love Offering. Mindful of our Covenants and Core Values, we carefully research each organization to select the best for our world. This year 12 groups were selected, 6 from within the UCC and 6 others that align with our Core Values.

Supporting Our UCC Missions:

  • One Great Hour of Sharing whose Lenten offering supports disasters and refugees, is one of our UCC missions.
  • Neighbors In Need gives grants to churches for environmental justice, online ministry, and advocacy initiatives.
  • Strengthen the Church supports leadership development and establishment of new churches.
  • “Join the Movement” UCC Racial Justice, chosen by our Racial Justice Team, is working to raise $8 million over the next three years. Half the money will support racial justice efforts today, and half will create an endowment fund for future work.
  • Racial Justice also wants to continue with our support for the Joesph Henry Evans Scholarship Fund to honor Joseph Evans, the first black president of the UCC.
  • COLLAGE chose the Open and Affirming Coalition for the UCC, which supports churches to become open and affirming and churches like ours with existing commitments.
  • The Joseph Henry Evans Scholarship Fund is to honor Joseph Evans, the first black president of the UCC, and gives scholarships to black students.

Missions Supporting Our Nation/World:

  • Back Bay Mission works tirelessly to strengthen neighborhoods and seek justice on Mississippi’s coast
  • The Coalition of Immokalee Workers advocates for farm workers and has expanded its role in Fair Trade and human rights. They are struggling with immigration issues.
  • Partners in Health works tirelessly to provide high-quality health care globally to those in It received a 99% rating from Charity Navigator this year.
  • Bread for the World Institute’s mission is to educate and equip people to advocate for policies and programs to end hunger in the United States and the world.
  • Church World Service is a faith-based organization that works on sustainable responses to hunger, poverty, displacement, and disaster. They have lost most of their government funding and need our help this year. It received a 100% rating from Charity Navigator this year.
  • Water Engineers for the Americas and Africa honors our Creation Justice Covenant. Engineers are sent around the world to bring clean water to those in need.

We have researched these organizations to ensure your dollars are spent wisely. Please give generously.

Envelopes for your donations are available in the Narthex and the pews, or you may send a check to our church with Easter Love in the memo line, or you may use the link below to donate online.  Thank you so much for your generosity.

Your Mission Team,

Jan Andersen, Terri Crawford, Carol Fredrich, Heather Spear, Toska Strong, Nancy Taylor, Laura Taylor

2025 Scholarship

Scholarship Applications Now Open!

First Congregational UCC is pleased to offer scholarships to young people in our church through the generosity of our members and friends. Eligible students pursuing undergraduate, graduate, or vocational studies in Fall 2025 are encouraged to apply. Applications are due by April 15, 2025.

Local Faith Leaders Call for Justice, Equity, and Inclusion in Sarasota

Local Faith Leaders Call for Justice, Equity, and Inclusion in Sarasota

“Our destinies are bound together, and the path to true peace is paved with justice and the recognition of our shared humanity.”
A Call to Solidarity, Sarasota Faith Leaders

Standing Together for Justice, Inclusion, and Positive Peace

Rev. Dr. Wes Bixby, Pastor of First Congregational UCC, along with leaders from diverse faith communities, has co-authored two powerful opinion columns published in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, calling for justice, equity, and solidarity.

📖 A Call to Solidarity: Towards Positive Peace (January 30) (Read as PDF) – This column challenges harmful policies targeting LGBTQIA+ individuals, immigrant communities, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives. It calls on Sarasota to reject exclusion and embrace true peace—one built on justice, dignity, and compassion.

📖 Black History Month Message (February 19) (Read as PDF)– This piece honors Black history as an essential part of American history and includes a call to action. It highlights the ongoing struggles for racial justice, the importance of acknowledging the past, and the moral imperative to build a more equitable future.

Together, these statements affirm that peace is not the absence of tension but the presence of justice. We invite the Sarasota community to stand in solidarity with those who are marginalized and work toward a future rooted in inclusion and compassion.

Discover Our Culture

First Congregational United Church of Christ, rooted in Sarasota with a passion for God, all God’s people, and God’s planet, prayerfully seeks to be a light to the world. We covenant with God and each other to honor racial justice and people of color in all we do.  We are open, affirming and allies of LBGTQ+ people.  We seek creation justice, learning to actively care for our planet.  We commit to study, learn and live these values.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit.” John 15:5

vine drawing with transparent background

UCC Sarasota values – click here for the pdf

Caring

Justice

Worship

Belonging

Faithfulness

Welcome

Our Covenants

Creation Justice

It is our duty to conserve natural resources, protect the existing natural environment and repair damage.

Open and Affirming

We work faithfully and prayerfully to end discrimination against our LGBTQIA+ siblings.

Racial Justice at First Congregational UCC, Sarasota
Racial Justice

We are intent to discuss America’s original sin of racism and that everyone is made in God’s image.

Slide 1

Meet Our Pastor

Rev. Dr. Wes Bixby
Senior Pastor
Rev. Dr. Wes Bixby
Wes Bixby

“Maybe you’re new to our church, new to Sarasota, or new to church altogether. Whatever brings you here, I’d love the chance to get to know you better. Please know I am available to talk with you and help you connect in meaningful ways with our community of faith.
 
“During times such as these, we are aware that many in our community are facing challenges. If you are in need of prayer or care, please let me know.”
🙏

Wes Bixby
“Blessed Borrowing”
Latest Sermon

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View This Sermon
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“Blessed Borrowing”
DATE:
April 13, 2025
SPEAKER:
Rev. Dr. Wes Bixby
SERIES:
RELATED SCRIPTURE:

In Blessed Borrowing, Pastor Wes reflects on the way Holy Week begins—with a borrowed donkey—and how that theme of borrowing flows through the days ahead: a borrowed room for the Last Supper, a borrowed tomb after the crucifixion. He connects this sacred pattern with personal stories and the everyday reality that much of what we have and experience is borrowed—from palm branches steeped in cultural symbolism to the very moments we share in worship.

Rather than a parade of power, Jesus enters Jerusalem humbly, through the back gate, as the crowd cries “Hosanna”—a word that means “Save us.” Pastor Wes invites us to step into that crowd with sacred imagination, to reflect on why we show up and what we seek. Palm Sunday, he reminds us, isn’t just a celebration—it’s a prayerful entry into a story of love, sacrifice, and grace that we are all borrowing for a time, and called to live into fully.

Before the Cross

Morning Meditation

Coffee cup with church logo
Before the Cross
DATE:
April 18, 2025
AUTHOR:
Rev. Dr. Wes Bixby

 The Spiritual we will sing at
noon today mournfully asks, “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?”  And I answer, Yes.  Not literally or historically speaking, but I
am here right now the morning after another shooting at a school where my
children attend, causing my heart to break and frustration at our collective
normalizing of gun violence.  I am here
right now as we constantly critique each other on social media with keyboard
courage and venom dripping from words that belittle others.  I am here right now as racism, sexism,
homophobia continue to be used by those in power to separate...

Latest Sermon

Morning Meditation

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Giving
Thank you.
Everything we do here at First Congregational United Church of Christ Sarasota is made possible by the faithful generosity of our incredible community.