Well, I’m pumped…it’s starting to cool down and the leaves are starting to change! It may not do it for you, but for me that really jazzes me! Our annual meeting went very well last Sunday evening. Thank you to all of our members who came and helped us get our business done and ready for the year. There was a great spirit in the meeting and we have our new budget and officers for the year. So, now that we have gotten that all done early, we can focus on the special meetings this next with the Pettit evangelistic team.

Many of our church family know this team well, but we also have many new members since their last visit with us four years ago. This will be a new thing for many of them. Our “plan” is to have Steve preach to us as a church on Sunday morning and evening, as well as Monday through Wednesday nights. I know your lives are full, but this would be great time to give the preparing of your heart for evangelism a place of priority in your schedule. Then we’ll focus on special outreach events on Wednesday night for the teens, Thursday night for the ladies, Saturday afternoon for the men, and then Sunday morning worship and Sunday afternoon concert/picnic in the park for families, for everybody.

Sharing the gospel is something that is and should be going on all the time within the context of our day to day lives. Special meetings are designed to give us a time of renewed focus…sort of like expressing love to your husband/wife daily, but investing special time and effort in your relationship at a couple’s retreat or an anniversary get-away. So don’t miss this opportunity to focus on the hearts of your friends, neighbors, and co-workers in a specific and tangible way. Please pray specifically for your friends and neighbors and for all of the events of next week. Thanks!

In Him,

P. Tim I

I love the sound of falling leaves in the autumn wind. I don’t love the sound of falling balls that I have been trying to juggle, especially since a few more than normal have been dropping. Although all of the appropriate announcements and notifications for this year’s annual meeting have been made in the church bulletin, I have really dropped the ball on making the public announcements. For instance this past Sunday morning I really needed to announce the annual meeting for this coming Sunday evening (the 25^th) and encourage you all to pick up the annual reports which we prepared and are ready for you to pick up, but I didn’t remember until after the service. A number of you still picked them up, praise the Lord. Obviously, we need you to have the information. We need you to attend the annual meeting so that we can conduct our necessary business. So, even though I dropped the ball I was supposed to catch, please don’t drop yours! We do need our members to pick up the annual reports and come to the meeting with any questions you have, and get our business done. The annual meeting will begin at 6pm, Sunday 9/25, in the auditorium. Below is the introduction to the annual report that I would like you to read. Thanks!

“Besides the distinctive hairline that I inherited from my father, I also inherited an appreciation (borderline obsession) with being early. Early is good, normally. So imagine my surprise when Nick Yzzi approached me with the proposal that we have our annual meeting early. The fact is we have special evangelistic meetings scheduled with Evangelist Steve Pettit and his team October 2-9. This important focus in our ministry plans would have pushed the scheduling of our annual meeting until October 16^th…a little late, but I figured that was just what we would have to do.

When I was approached with the idea of a September 25^th meeting, I was open to it, but to be honest a bit skeptical about being able to get all the work done in time. Nick and his team worked energetically and effectively to prepare a budget in time for approval by the deacons and presentation to the congregation. I didn’t think they would make it, but they did. So, it strikes me as somewhat curious that we will be having our annual meeting “early” on September 25^th, my father’s birthday, a man who took “early” to an art form!

Alright, enough about the early thing! This past year has again been a clear demonstration of God’s faithfulness to us. For most of the year attendance has been steady and encouraging. Giving has been steady and encouraging as well. The “no air-conditioning” problem in July and hurricane and floods at the end of August threw us a curve ball, but clearly we are already bouncing back from those challenges to our giving and attendance. This Fall is starting out in a very encouraging manner.

We are continuing to enjoy a wonderful group of visitors each week to our services. The testimonies of the folks getting baptized and joining church this summer have also been a real blessing. Please pray for our upcoming evangelistic meetings as well as new outreaches with our teens, particularly reaching into the high school that sits right behind us. My plan at this time is to take the Sunday morning service, after the special meetings, to lay out both the great challenges and opportunities that are facing us a church. God is and will continue to do great things in us and through us, as He said He would”

Thanks for your patience!

In Him,

P. Tim I

I’m sure that all of us sometime during this week have had our hearts and minds fixed back on the events of 9/11. We all remember where we were, what we were doing, and how we felt, how we still feel. Many of us have taken the opportunity to visit ground zero and experienced the powerful and profound emotions of that place. Some of us have taken to opportunity to visit the crash site and memorial of Unite flight 93 in Shanksville, another very powerful place. Some have visited the memorial at the Pentagon. Now it’s 10 years later and these events still rock us to our core, and should. It’s been hard to watch, but even harder not to watch all of the reminders on television, all the stories, pictures, and video. It is moving. It remains unsettling.

Some passages of scripture that come to mind, that should bring certainty in our uncertainty, confidence in the craziness of our world…

Lamentations 3:19-24
¹⁹ I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. ²⁰ I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. ²¹ Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: ²² Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. ²³ They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ²⁴ I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”

Isaiah 40:28-31
²⁸ Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. ²⁹ He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. ³⁰ Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; ³¹ but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint

Isaiah 43:1-3 But now, this is what the LORD says– he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. ² When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. ³ For I am the LORD, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior;

Clearly, we are not Israel, but most certainly we are His children by grace through faith. The world is crazy. God is great. God is gracious. God is powerful and just. God is good. He will keep His word in His way, in His time.

See you Sunday, Lord willing.

P. Tim I