Hi Friends,

This past Thursday through Saturday I went away with the guys on our pastoral track (Steve Crowell, Matt Slingerland, Joe Catoe and Caleb McCurley) to spend extended time praying for our church, reviewing this past year and discussing preliminary plans for next year.  Then we all met on Saturday with the advisory team (Steve Gregory, Jeannine Lisitski, Bekah Nussbaum, Rebecca Julien and Phil Fehlinger) from 10am to 3pm to do even more year end review and a preliminary planning session.

Multiple times throughout these days I sat there amazed that God has blessed our church with such godly and wise people.  These teams truly help take us further in our mission than I ever could by myself. However, even more than their abilities, I was affected by their hearts.  These are all incredibly busy people and none of them are getting paid to participate in these meetings. Yet they gladly sacrifice their time in order to invest in the future of our church and mission.

I opened our time on Saturday by quoting Mark 10:45 that says, “the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”  I commended these people for their desire to follow our Savior by sharing in his example of laying down our lives for others.

Please keep both the pastoral track guys and the advisory team in your prayers.  And while none of them would want this, please also express to them your thanks. They are serving you far beyond what you are probably aware of and I don’t know where we’d be without them.

Praise God for the good gifts he gives, especially when they come in the form of people.

Grace and peace,

Pastor Jeff