Dear First Pres,
I wish you could have seen it. They started filing in while Pastor Greg Ehlert was standing before our Presbytery on Friday afternoon. By 4 pm there must have been about 40 extra folks in the room. Why? They were there to support Meagan Bergem, our Junior High Ministry Director, while she came under care of our Presbtery as a Candidate for Ordination. There were staff folks, youth group kids and parents, seminary friends and professors ... it was truly inspiring. And I was beaming the whole time. What a blessing to be part of a church that rallies like FPC Fresno! What a blessing for the presbytery to see such a vivid example of the way that the presbytery and the local church work together to raise up candidates for ordination! And, on top of that, there were FPC volunteers working behind the scenes throughout the entire meeting (Thursday afternoon - Saturday noon) ... plus, folks who came before the meeting and those who stayed after the meeting. It was something to behold. Thank you, Church, for the way you showed up for Meagan, for the way you served our presbytery, for the way you led the presbytery in Friday night worship, and for the joy in the Lord that was made manifest through your service. I was so grateful to be a part of it.
This coming Sunday will be another one of those days when I think you'll be grateful to be part of what God is doing in our church. In addition to honoring those who gave their lives in service to our country on this Memorial Day weekend, we will be celebrating those who are graduating from high school, college, and graduate school. In particular we'll have a chance to hear from some of our high school seniors as they give testimony of God's work in their lives and help to lead us in worship. I know it's a three day weekend for many of you, but I do encourage you to prioritize being here for Sunday worship. It's going to be a wonderful morning.
Finally, I mentioned a few weeks ago a very special announcement I wanted to make about the future of our college ministry. Here it is (with lots more information coming the next few weeks): the Session has decided to enter into a partnership with a college ministry called the Coalition for Christian Outreach that will start in August. That means that we will have Coalition for Christian Outreach staff embedding themselves in our congregation and working with our college ministry team to call more and more college students to wholly serve Jesus Christ with their lives. This is a significant and faith filled step to grow our college ministry deep and wide. Coalition for Christian Outreach has been partnering with churches for the sake of college students since 1971, and it's an organization whose values integrate deeply with our own. I can't wait to share the story in the coming weeks about how the Lord brought this together for us. To say the least, I am very excited about the potential of this new partnership in the Gospel as we seek to engage together in Christ's work of making disciples for the redeeming transformation of our city and world.
Blessings,
Jeremy
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