Yesterday was somewhat of an ending and a beginning. Yesterday was my last Sunday pastoring just one church. Beginning today I am the pastor of 2 churches. With that in mind let’s get on with the musings …

-Yesterday I witnessed a couple of people begin their journey of following Christ. It doesn’t get any better than that.

-I had a couple of men share with me how they are connecting with some of the other men in our mid-week discipleship study. That gets me really pumped because that is one of the results I have been praying for from this group.

-Once again we had a very good spirit in our worship service and people sang out well. It was great having our children’s church kids in the service for the music time. They sang out, they clapped some and added a lot of energy. I loved it!

-Two of the families who visited last Sunday returned to worship with us yesterday and we had two more families visit. I love seeing people invite others and welcome the new people to our church. Only good things can come from those activities.

-The church board announced to the congregation that my 2 year pastoral review took place. It went very well and they extended a 4 year call to us which we accepted. Accepted isn’t a strong enough word, enthusiastically embraced would be a better description. We received a wonderful card with a gift card inside.

-Our attendance was good.

-It was odd to consider that this coming Sunday I will not be in this building during the breakfast time or during Sunday School/Small group time. Instead I will be worshiping and preaching at the other church. Today marks my first day as the pastor of 2 churches. Never thought I would be saying that.

-I am really excited to begin preaching a new series entitled “I Will …” this coming Sunday. We are looking at declarations we need to make in following Christ. The first will be from an examination of the call of Moses when he was watching sheep in the desert. Have you ever had a “desert time” in your life?

-In less than 6 months my kids and grandkids who are serving in Kenya will be back in the states for a little while.

-I really felt like I didn’t communicate very well yesterday. That always annoys me. God still came through and as I stated earlier there were a couple of people who made the decision to begin following Christ as their Savior. I love that God comes through even when I don’t.

-We are beginning to have people from the congregation share their faith journey and testimony during our worship service. Yesterday my wife shared part of her story as a part of my message. It went very well.

-I had my first board meeting with my other church on Saturday. It went well. That’s right, I will be having 2 board meeting every month.

-We are doing a Marriage Retreat at the end of this month. Pray for my wife and I as we share during this very important event.

-We had 37 adults in our mid-week Bible study and discipleship groups this past week. How cool is that?

-My prayer list is really getting long. I am so grateful that I can pray for others, I am encouraged to know that there are people praying for me.

-In two weeks we are having a “Give it all away” offering. Everything given that day will go to other ministries. Half will go to local ministries outside of our church and half will go to international ministries. I am really excited for our people to be a part of this because I know they are going to love being able to bless other people and their ministries.

Here’s hoping you will choose to encourage someone today. You won’t have to look very long to find someone who needs some encouragement. If you want to go ahead and encourage 2 people.

Dennis