A CHANCE TO SERVE
END OF THE SUMMER OR BEGINNING OF THE FALL?
3 JOHN 14
ADDENDUM: POOR PLUTO

I often hear Park People (who aren’t among the 100+ who’ve already been) say they’d really like to go to First Food and Friends some Saturday to help put the arms and legs on our ministry with “the least of these our brothers and sisters.” Meet at the church tomorrow morning at 8. Back by 2 or so.

The temperature is climbing back into the upper 80’s – it’s still summer. The kids are back in school on Monday – must be fall! Forget the autumnal equinox and all that – we’re just on the cusp; the season is changing. End of the summer or beginning of the fall, this weekend will see a couple of events that have come to mark the cusp here at the church.

Tomorrow morning Missy and a great group of youth and their leaders will head off to Sandcastle, the enormous water park in Pittsburgh. This has come to be on of the most popular events of the year for the youth. Pray for the kids and their safety, but pray especially for those kids who will be exposed to our youth ministry for the first time that they will want to return week after week for all the great things that have been planned for the ’06-’07 school year.

Then on Sunday, it’s the Annual Church Picnic. Please wear casual clothes to worship and then plan on joining us in the Pavilion immediately afterwards for a wonderful time of food and fellowship – a time to reach across the generations and meet some older or younger friends. The perfect way to celebrate the end of the summer. Or is it the beginning of the fall? See you at the picnic!

And remember, we do not return to 10:55 worship until September 10. Plus! Family of God Retreat registration continues this Sunday.

3 John 14: I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face. Peace to you. The friends here send their greetings. Greet the friends there by name. So what does this have to do with church on Sunday? Come and find out. And be prepared to experience worship from a whole new perspective.

Last week I mentioned the fact that the fate of the planet Pluto was about to be decided. Is it or is it not a planet. Well, the news is in: Pluto Gets the Boot (read all about it!) 2,500 astronomers meeting in Prague have just voted Pluto off the list of planets.

The vote is also in on you and me: See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are! (John 3:1)

Sunday’s Sermon will be from Ruth 3. Here’s part of what I’ll say: Risk and danger fill chapter 3, but not the kind of risk and danger Noah faced in building an ark or Moses faced when he challenged Pharaoh. It’s riskier and more dangerous than that. Riskier and more dangerous than Goliath who mocked David when the shepherd boy headed across the brook with a sling and five smooth stones. Ruth, chapter 3, is about something much more dangerous than floods and pharaohs and giants. Ruth, chapter 3, is about sex. The rest on Sunday.

See you in church.