Hello all.

This Sunday Rev. Tim Lanham will be ministering to our congregation from the pulpit while my family and I are attending a soccer tournament in Idaho. Rev. Lanham is connected with Glacier Presbyterian Camp which is a ministry of the Glacier Presbytery. There will be no Adult Sunday School at the nine o’clock hour, but we will resume next week.

I want to use this time to remind those of us who live in the area year around that we will be welcoming those who live in Whitefish for the summer season in the next few weeks. Please reach out to them and make sure they feel welcomed at our church. Also, there have been a number of new people attending our worship services in the last few weeks. Please keep an eye out for new people and perhaps use your Sunday afternoon as time to get to know them.

When Kristin and I were in Philadelphia for our graduate school, we visited a church and unprompted, the pastor invited us to his house for lunch after the service. There was no previous relationship or planned meeting. Coming from the Bay Area of California where everyone was so “busy” that we rushed off after church to get on with life, this gesture seemed totally foreign. While it seemed spontaneous to us, it spoke to their expectation that Sunday’s were used to spend time in worship with their church and in fellowship with any visitors. I have always admired that approach to church, and it was not just their pastor who acted like this, it was part of their church culture. What a vision for life, spending the Lords day in service of His people. How does that sound to you? Too bold, too costly, too sacrificial, too cumbersome? Or does it speak to a vision of the church that believes worship on the Lords day is not just attendance at a Sunday service, but acts of charity, community, and self sacrifice. I am reminded about the missionary Leslie Newbigin who believed that how the community of the local church acted was the greatest witness to the reality of the gospel. Let us be not only welcoming in word but also in deed.

Ben Melli