First Presbyterian Church of Kirkwood

10/03/2026

🚗 The Jefferson Parking Lot is OPEN!

Paving is complete, and the lot is available for parking again. Thank you for your patience during the closure. We look forward to seeing you at First Pres this weekend!

10/01/2026

🐾 🎶 🌶️ Make a weekend of it at First Pres!

Join us Saturday and Sunday, October 3–4, for beloved pets, beautiful music, and delicious chili. There’s plenty to look forward to—and you’re invited!

🐾 SATURDAY, OCTOBER 3
Blessing of the Animals | 10 a.m. | Church parking lot

Bring your animal friends for a short service celebrating the animals who enrich our lives, followed by individual blessings from our pastors. Please keep pets leashed or in a crate. If your pet doesn’t travel well—or you’re remembering a pet who has died—you’re welcome to bring a photo. ❤️

🎶 SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4
Con Spirito Opening Concert | 3 p.m.

Enjoy Intimate Conversations, an afternoon of beautiful chamber music featuring mezzo soprano Debra Hillabrand and the Con Brio String Quartet.

🌶️ Chili Cook-Off | 5:45–6:45 p.m.

Bring your appetite! Sample the chili and support next summer’s Work Camp trip. Admission is $7 per person at the door, with no advance registration needed. Bring a little extra to vote for your favorite chili!

Come for one event or join us for all three. Invite a friend and make a weekend of it—we’d love to see you!

09/29/2026

When God Asks Us to Change Our Minds | Matthew 21:23–32

It’s possible to know the right answer and still resist what it asks of us. In Jesus’ parable of the two sons, one says no to working in the vineyard...but changes his mind and goes. The other says yes, but never shows up.

This week’s sermon asks where we might be holding back from a truth that calls us to act. It also offers a hopeful reminder: God hasn’t given up on us. We can learn, change course, and show up now.

Watch the sermon here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vBolRa3Lpw

What might God be inviting you to reconsider this week?

09/25/2026

Pastor Gary talks more about the importance of our upcoming Focus Groups in this video! They continue this Sunday, September 27 with sessions at 10:10 a.m. or 12:15 p.m.! We hope to see you there!

https://www.facebook.com/share/1KZMRA2hhV/

"Be part of the thinking, the voice, the process that looks forward...

09/21/2026

What happens when God’s generosity reaches someone we don’t believe has earned it?

In Sunday’s sermon, “When God Is Too Generous,” Rev’d Gary Noonan explored Jonah’s anger when God showed mercy to Nineveh—and the resentment of the vineyard workers who watched those arriving late receive the same wage. No one had been cheated. Yet generosity felt like injustice when it created equality.

As we honored members who have shared fifty years of life and ministry with First Pres, we were reminded that long faithfulness matters—not because it earns anyone more of God’s love, but because it helps make room for those still arriving.

“Perhaps generosity has not gone too far. Perhaps our imagination has remained too small for the wideness of God’s mercy.”

Watch the sermon and consider: Can we rejoice when God’s generosity reaches those we resent, overlook or assume have arrived too late?

🎥 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvtimwCPGDE

09/14/2026

In Sunday’s sermon, Rev'd Gary Noonan invited us to imagine a community where questions are welcomed, wounds are treated with care, and belonging is offered freely.

Joseph’s story reminds us that betrayal and hurt are real and that God can create a future even from what should never have happened. Forgiveness can happen from a distance, with necessary boundaries intact. Reconciliation requires truth, accountability, repentance, and safety.

As we celebrated baptisms and the beginning of fall ministries, we were reminded that grace comes first. We are loved before we understand everything. And we help make that love visible when we learn someone’s name, welcome their questions, share a meal, or make room for their gifts.

“A community where grace is not simply something we believe…It is the way we make room for one another.”

Where might you make room for someone this week?

▶️ Watch Sunday’s worship service and sermon, “A Community Built on Grace" here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGMiNU3nlsk