Last evening my wife reminded me that we only have three weeks of summer left. What she meant by that was that we only have three weeks until the kids are back in school, summer weather may stick around, but even that will eventually change. As summer winds down I want to look at our near future and start to project for the fall. Here are a few things to keep in mind.

1. We will continue to look at Proverbs for the next four weeks in our sermon series. This week we will look at how Proverbs shows us the benefits of integrity.

2. My normal mode of preaching is to preach through a book of the Bible, this summer is a bit of a different approach. However, in the Fall we will go back to preaching through the books of Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. Perhaps you’ve never read these books, or what scholars call, “Minor Prophets”, I would encourage you to start. These prophets are to set the table, to point toward expectation, of what God will do for His people. They serve a delicious aperitif to the gospel of Luke, which we will begin in Advent.

3. Our Sunday School will begin Sept. 7th at 9:00, more details on this to come.

4. This Sunday we have our Membership class directly following the worship service. If you would like to become a member or even have questions about what that looks like, please feel free to grab a snack and some coffee and head down stairs to classroom #2. We will have subsequent classes for the following two weeks.

With all these things happening or coming up soon, I would also ask that you keep our church in prayer. As Paul reminded the church in Ephesus, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Eph. 6:12) With all our surrounding natural beauty and sublime summer setting, we might have a tendency to forget that we have a spiritual enemy which would love for our church to slip into apathy and blend too much into our culture, or disengage with our world in disgust, both of which diminishes our witness to the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us remain faithful in prayer and in deed, to use every opportunity to remind ourselves and others of the reality of our resurrected Lord, our hope in life and death.

Rev. Ben Melli