Dear First Pres,

Here are three important things I want you to remember.

  1. This Sunday, October 6, at 9:40 is our congregational meeting. The sole purpose of the meeting is to concur with Pastor Lana’s decision for retirement. Since she is called by the congregation as an Associate Pastor, the congregation has to officially release her from that call in order for her to retire. She’s not planning to retire until the end of the year, but the Presbytery (our denominational district of churches) would prefer we take this action sooner than later. I encourage all our members to attend (unless you’re serving with our kids). It should be a relatively short and simple meeting. We’ll also be making an announcement about an upcoming retirement celebration for Pastor Lana (fun). The meeting will be in the Sanctuary.
  2. This Sunday evening from 7 - 8pm in the Fellowship Hall is another FPC Prayer Gathering. I encourage you to come as we seek the Lord together in prayer and worship. One of the goals of this gathering is to help you grow in your prayer life. So, even if you can’t imagine how you could get through an hour of prayer, I encourage you to join me at the gathering. It will be a structured time with lots of freedom for you to participate as you feel led. Our prayer life fuels our mission life, because a healthy mission life comes out of a healthy relationship with God. Plus, we are absolutely dependent on the Holy Spirit to make anything we do worthwhile for God’s Kingdom. So, Beloved, I encourage you to join me on Sunday night. If you’re not available on Sunday night, I encourage you to join me on Friday morning from 6:30-7:15 in the Commons for our weekly morning prayer gathering.
  3. As we finished the “Introducing Jesus” sermon series on Sunday we were blessed to see the incredible heart of Jesus in Mark 1:40-45. Jesus didn’t have to touch the leper, but He did. Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. Now, as followers of Jesus, His heart is to become our own. So, I encourage you to be praying this week that the Holy Spirit would make your heart like Jesus’ heart. Ask the Spirit to give you a heart like the Lord’s for your family, your neighbors, your workmates. Ask the Spirit to reveal to you the ways your heart is not like Jesus'. If there are particular people that you’re struggling with, ask the Spirit to help you love those people like Jesus does. If you find that you don’t really care about people who are far from God, ask the Spirit to give you the compassion of Jesus for them. If you find that you are desensitized to the injustice in our city, ask the Lord to give you Jesus’ indignation against injustice. Let’s join in asking for the Spirit to make our collective heart like Jesus’ heart. And then imagine how powerful it would be for God’s redeeming transformation in our city and world, if each one of us was living each day with a heart like Jesus’. May it be so among us for God’s glory alone.

Blessings,
Jeremy
P.S. Dr. Brian Schultz and I will be leading a Biblical Tour of Israel in June 2021. If you’re interested in learning more about this life-changing trip, please join me on Sunday, October 13 at 6:30pm in the Fellowship Hall.