I Want You Both to Meet Each Other!

I Want You Both to Meet Each Other!

I am rushing to put these words on my screen. Just this moment I returned from a Pastor’s Retreat over on the coast. This week, we are hosting the gathering of pastors and elders from our presbytery, a geographical area that comprises—brace yourself—all of the west coast, parts of Idaho, Hawaii and Alaska! (We do not yet have an Hawaiian EPC church but our presbytery gets first dibs!). Anyhow, for the last 36 hours we gathered with colleagues who have become friends during our 18 month membership in this new denomination. The fellowship was sweet, the worship holy and the teasing barbaric! And I was reminded, again, of the kindness of God that he would draw us into a relationship with this new denominational home that aligns so well with our passions and our convictions.
 
You have a chance to get a taste of this sweet partnership, too. Beginning today, we will be doing our presbytery business together. A good part of that will include the examination of pastoral candidates and seminarians. In fact, our very own Ellis White will be examined tonight at 7:30 in order to be received under the care of the Presbytery of the Pacific as a candidate for ministry. Your presence there would be a great encouragement to him, I’m sure. And if you want to hear singing like you’ve never heard before, come tomorrow night (Friday) to share in our presbytery worship service at 7:00pm.
 
But perhaps the supreme honor will be this: the moderator of our entire denomination, Dr. Bill Dudley, will be with us this weekend and will be our Sunday morning preacher. Bill is one of my honored and esteemed friends, the first former PC USA pastor to be elected to this position. He also happens to have been Megan and Larry Hackman’s boss! It’ll be your chance to get all the dirt on them!
 
Chapel Hill friends… as much as I want to show off our denomination to all of you, I also want to show off my “sweetheart church” to our presbytery. You are a remarkable body of believers, and I do hope that you will make an appearance over the next few days and contribute your part in a show of hospitality that will keep our presbytery buzzing for weeks.  

Pastor Mark