Fall
Here it is Labor Day weekend, the official end of Summer, but it feels like Fall started a week ago. Many Portland area kids started school last Monday and the weather today is autumn—ish. I hope you had a chance to get some down time this summer or at least a slower pace of life for a while. But brace yourself, the pace is about to pick up, so let me get my bid in now for your participation in a couple of things.
For several months Vincent Hollingsworth, Richard McElroy, Blake Wilkes, David Smith, and I have been meeting in what we are calling a Preacher’s Guild. The purpose of this is to learn and/or improve our preaching skills in the hopes of creating a preaching team for our church. I am excited to tell you that this fledgling preaching team will debut in a series of 8 sermons on the “I AM’s” of Jesus in the Gospel of John beginning Sunday, September 11.
If you’re already attending church every Sunday, this will not increase your activity level in the Fall. But if you’re not in the habit of being with us every Sunday, I would encourage you to give it a try for the next two months and then give us your feedback on the preachers.
The second thing I want to invite you to be a part of is our intensive discipleship course, CORE 2. If you took CORE 1 in the past, maybe it’s about time for a refresher in your walk with Jesus. You already know the spiritual disciplines you will be encouraged to practice in CORE 2. The content is different though and includes the unshakable, unstoppable, covenant love of God for you, the role of the Bible, and the role of the Holy Spirit in your life with Jesus. CORE 2 will meet every Sunday afternoon in October at 12:30. The cost is $10 and you can register in the lobby of the church this month or by email to . Our CORE courses are a foundational piece of our strategy to help people follow Jesus so I would love to see everyone in our church family take them when they can. The next CORE 1 course will be offered in February.
I’m looking forward to engaging with you in these activities and so many more that are offered through our church over the next few months.