It’s nice to have a little breeze in the morning and evening. In Florida, unlike other states,
people become more active from October onward. By mid to late November, the snowbirds
are back, and December and January are great for outdoor activities. In our church, the snowbirds will be back as well. So, October through March of next year is a time when we
can be more active and plan events and get more members involved and do something.
On October 28, we are having our Fall Festival. We hope that through this event more people from the community will come to the church. Even if it’s not a worship service,
but just fun and games, experiencing the church will be a starting point for them to experience God’s love and grace. So it’s important that when people come on the day of the event, they experience the church and God more. This requires the attention of more church members. We need more volunteers to organize the event, and we need donations so that the church can provide many things for the participants. Evangelism can be as big as going overseas on a mission, but it can also be as small as increasing our contact points with people through local festivals. I would like to ask for your prayers for this event and encourage you to join us.
After the Charge Conference on October 1, we will take what was decided there and begin to move forward with plans for the church for the coming year. The leaders of each committee and ministry will be recruiting members to work alongside them. I’ve included a form in last week’s bulletin that introduces each ministry and allows you to sign up. You can also find the form on the last page of this newsletter. It’s important for the church to work together to move forward, so please make up your mind and sign up for a ministry you would like to serve in. And if the leaders of the ministries ask you to join them, I also hope that you will see it as a call from God and respond.
I, also, will be taking a couple of days in October to plan the sermons and major events for the coming year. For God’s plan for our church to be fulfilled, it’s not just the commitment of one or two people, it’s the commitment of all of us working together. I’ll be looking forward to it, and I hope you’ll be praying for it as well.
The time is flying by. Moses said in Psalm 90:10 (NRSV), “The days of our life are seventy years, or perhaps eighty if we are strong; even then their span is only toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.” That’s how fast life goes. And where does it go? Death. We say we’re living life, but in reality, we’re dying every day. If that causes you to worry and fear, you should remember the Apostle Paul’s exhortation in 2 Corinthians: “So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.” (2 Corinthians 4:16) Outwardly, our physical bodies seem to be getting older and weaker, but as long as we walk with God and live a life of faith in Him, our inner nature is being renewed. We don’t live forever in finite bodies, and our bodies, whether they have ailments now or not, will one day decay, so it gives us hope that the Bible says our inner nature is strengthened when we are in Jesus. As you go about your life during the month of October, I hope you will be more mindful of whether or not you are abiding in Jesus. If we are in Jesus, regardless of our fleshly weaknesses, we can experience the daily renewal and eternal strength that Jesus offers.
In the Lord,
Pastor Lee