Who We Are
Our Welcome
We believe God loves every person without exception. All are welcome to join us in ministry and mission as we seek to experience the boundary-breaking love of Jesus Christ together!
Our Identity & Mission
First Presbyterian Asheville is a congregation of the Presbyterian Church (USA).
Our mission is to experience the boundary-breaking love of Jesus Christ by practicing radical hospitality, forming deep relationships, and joining in shared ministry.
Inclusion
As followers of Christ, we strive to be a holy community that reflects the diversity of God’s creation through the welcome and full participation of every age, ability, socioeconomic status, family background, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, skin color, and racial identity.
We lament the history of exclusion in the church. We rejoice in the wholeness that comes when we are all in relationship together.
Affiliations
Click below to learn more about the PC(USA) initiatives and organizations with which we are affiliated.
Earth Care
To become an Earth Care Congregation, our congregation affirmed an Earth Care Pledge to integrate environmental practices and thinking into their worship, education, facilities, and outreach.
More Light
By becoming a More Light congregation we are now a part of a national community of hope and equality for the inclusion of LGBTQIA+ persons.
Matthew 25
Being a Matthew 25 church means that FPCA is committed to working intentionally and strategically on dismantling structural racism, eradicating systemic poverty, and building congregational vitality.
Denomination & Beliefs
First Presbyterian Church is a congregation of the Presbyterian Church (USA), and we seek to be a community of welcome, love, and grace for all people.
You can learn more about the PC(USA) by visiting www.pcusa.org and www.presbyterianmission.org.
Our beliefs are rooted in God’s mission. At the deepest level, we do not believe that we have a mission. Rather, God has a mission and God has commissioned us to be part of it. God’s mission is told to us through scripture, ripples through the history of Israel and the church, and comes to full light in Jesus Christ.
Here is what our church believes about God’s mission in full, quoting from our denominational Form of Government:
The good news of the Gospel is that the triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit— creates, redeems, sustains, rules, and transforms all things and all people. This one living God, the Scriptures say, liberated the people of Israel from oppression and covenanted to be their God. By the power of the Spirit, this one living God is incarnate in Jesus Christ, who came to live in the world, die for the world, and be raised again to new life. The Gospel of Jesus Christ announces the nearness of God’s kingdom, bringing good news to all who are impoverished, sight to all who are blind, freedom to all who are oppressed, and proclaiming the Lord’s favor upon all creation.
The mission of God in Christ gives shape and substance to the life and work of the Church. In Christ, the Church participates in God’s mission for the transformation of creation and humanity by proclaiming to all people the good news of God’s love, offering to all people the grace of God at font and table, and calling all people to discipleship in Christ. Human beings have no higher goal in life than to glorify and enjoy God now and forever, living in covenant fellowship with God and participating in God’s mission.
Our History
FPC Asheville is now entering its 4ᵗʰ century, with a long and rich history in Western north Carolina.
Ora Blackmun, FPCA member and historian wrote A Spire in the Mountains: The Story of 176 Years of a Church and Town Growing Together (1794-1969) in 1970. Her words summarize the beginning of our ancestors’ faithfulness here in Appalachia:
Under the towering trees of the virgin forest, settlers listened to the old but ever new story of Christ’s love and sacrifice for man. In the little communities they responded to the messages they heard by banding themselves together, …into congregations. Renewed in faith through the sermons they had heard and strengthened by the knowledge that they were duly formed congregations, these organized groups of believers gave thanks for this visible evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit.