Greetings in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ!

Many many thanks to all of you who worked hard to bless the church through our Holy Week services and events. Many of you had a chance to meet my mother when she visited last week, and one of her first observations was "So many different people help in your church!" There are far too many names to list individually, but I wanted to especially thank the teenagers. Several people mentioned to me how powerful it was to watch four of the youth carry the cross at the end of the Maundy Thursday service. They also did a wonderful job leading worship for the Sunrise Service. Aiden Charron and Caden Smith (yes, I have to name two of them) spent as much time at church than we pastors did as they helped set and reset for all five of our worship services. May God bless all of you as you have blessed us!

As the disciples had to discover God's call on their lives after that first Easter Sunday, it is now time for us to look at what God's call is for our church. Far more than programs or busy-ness, God wants our hearts. He wants relationship with us. He wants to see renewal and revival in the Church. When the Lord renews a right spirit within us, then we can flourish in the work that He has planned for us to do.

This Sunday, we start our new sermon/small group series called the Renewal Journey. This series will focus on inviting the Lord to transform us so that we can transform our community. We will look at different stories in both the Old and New Testaments every week, and we will also hear about how God touched the lives of men and women in modern history. The 10 weeks will look at the topics of discipleship, scripture, confession, hope, prayer, guidance, surrender, empowerment, faithfulness, and developing an action plan. The 10 ^th week will be right before Vacation Bible School, the kick-off to our outreach activities all summer long. We hope that this series will lay down a strong foundation for the work God is doing in and through us during this season of ministry.

If you want to dig deeper into the Renewal Journey, we have new Sunday small groups and mid-week small groups starting this coming week. Check the bulletin for more information or talk to Kay Atman about signing up: [email protected].

Our God IS able to do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine. And we can't wait to see what He has in store!

Many blessings,
Pastor Carolyn