Dear First Pres,
I feel like I've been saying this for the last three weeks, but you can never complement someone too many times. I am so grateful for your flexibility and willingness to be a little uncomfortable during our worship services. Thanks to Torsten Grunberg and our Facilities team for working to make the Sanctuary as cool as possible. I know that some of you were melting, but many told me that they didn't think it was too bad. At the time I'm writing this, it is still unclear if we are going to have an operational Air Conditioning system for Sunday, so I encourage you to dress appropriately. Plus, if the AC isn't working, we'll have the Hub set up as an overflow room for those who really need the cool air. Thanks also for making room for others as we all squeeze into one service for the summer. I hope you will take advantage of the opportunity to meet some new folks or deepen relationships with people who normally worship at a different time that you.
This Sunday, we'll launch a new summer sermon series called God's Twitter. For those of you that don't know, Twitter is an online social networking service that allows users to post messages to be seen by their followers. One of the unique things about Twitter is that the messages have to be less than 140 characters (in other words, much shorter than this letter). Our summer sermon series will focus on the book of Proverbs, which reads a bit like God's Twitter account (I don't think He really has His own Twitter account, but if He did, I think it'd often look like Proverbs). They are often short individual statements clumped together in themes. And in those short individual statements is the wisdom of God that is absolutely relevant to our everyday life.
So, I have two invitations for you. First, please make worship attendance a priority this summer. We are worshiping at 9:30 for the next several weeks. Often there are other opportunities happening after worship, so check the web-site for upcoming events. Second, I'm inviting the whole church to read a chapter of Proverbs everyday this summer. As many of you already know, there are 31 chapters of Proverbs. So, whatever the date is, read that chapter of Proverbs. For example, Sunday will be June 28, so you'd read chapter 28 of Proverbs that day. The Holy Spirit works in powerful ways when we reflect on Scripture. Think of all the cool ways God could work among us as we read the Proverbs together. You can start anytime, just check the date and read a chapter.
On Sunday, I am off on our great summer adventure. As you may have noticed last week, my whole family is part of the Albania mission team. Our great hope is that God will use us to bring His encouragement to our Christian brothers and sisters in Ersekë, Albania. I can't wait to experience the incredible faithfulness of God with our long time mission partners. I can't wait to bring them a heartfelt greeting from First Presbyterian Church Fresno. Please be praying for our team (and all the teams that are going out this summer). I'll see you when I return (I'm back in worship on July 19). I'm going to miss you, but I am so grateful to be part of what God is doing in and through the Albania mission team.
Blessings,
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