I Was Just Thinking...

…about Sunday. I’m always thinking about Sunday, so I’m kind of cheating this week for this article.  But, here’s a few things you should know or may want to know or need to know.  Onwards! 

Thank You

Thank you for the absolutely marvelous turnout for my installation service. It’s official, no takebacks, and we’re moving forward. I encourage you to remember what Paul asked you to pledge—our best days are ahead of us, not behind us.  I hope it shook you up a little as it did me—let’s get going, there’s Reign work to be done! Thanks also to those of you who helped plan and pull off a marvelous reception, and for the stole. Youth—I loved the Anticipations packet.  Thanks. 

Seven Weeks of Prayer

As I preached this past Sunday, I would like us—every member and part of this congregation—to pray every day for God’s guidance over the next seven weeks. Seven weeks is a good period of time to purposefully look for how God is working and what we must do in that work.  Please spend a few minutes every day praying for the health of this congregation and the Church as a whole; for the guidance of the Holy Spirit as it glides through and in us; and for the Reign of God to be magnified in our work, church, and lives. 

Come and Eat

Sunday, November 18 is a very important date for Midway Hills, so please mark it on your calendars. First, it is the Day of Commitment for the 2012 Discipleship (Stewardship) Campaign, and we will be announcing the total pledged and major plans for the coming year at a dinner that night. That’s right—it’s a pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving dinner. We will be celebrating the year we’ve had, announcing a few plans for the future, and having a town hall discussion of where we are at. I hope you will mark off the day now so that we can all be together then. 

My Kind of Town

This coming Sunday, too, is a monumental one (as are they all). Amber will be preaching this week, “Questions, Curses and…” with texts from Job and Mark, and it is World Communion Sunday.  I will be with you in Spirit, and perhaps listening in over the phone, as I will be in Chicago for a celebration that has been in the works for ten years. I leave Friday. I will miss you all terribly, of course, but I will be back in the office Wednesday, ready to go, and maybe with a few stories. 

I cannot wait for Sunday, any Sunday, and I hope to see you on one soon. 

Shalom y’all,  Arthur