Weekly Update 5/24

Dear Friends and Family,

This has been an enjoyable week of ministry with you.  I enjoyed honoring our veterans and worshipping with you this morning.  What a great message!  Our lives should be uncompromisingly Christ-centered.  I was happy to be able to direct the Fine Arts Choir at DCS for their graduation ceremony this week, and I am so proud of our graduates.  I also enjoyed working with the kids at Summer Spirit.  This past week we looked at some hard things that are a result of following Jesus and how God is faithful through them.  This upcoming week we are going to take a look into the story of Ananias and Sapphira.  We’re going to see what we can do about the sin that we commit that only God can see.

This upcoming week will be a busy one as I prepare for my upcoming Sunday School class and ministry tasks.  Tuesday night at 7 is the first Bible and Book study of Why God Created the World by Ben Stevens.  I hope that many of you will be able to make it out to that.  Remember, it will be held in room 103 at the church.  Also, I will be leading Summer Spirit again this week.  Please pray for my team (Nicole, Hannah, Robby, and Chelsea).  Specifically pray for Chelsea’s mom as she has surgery this week.  Please keep me in your prayers that I might be a light as I return to work at Dunham’s.

This week’s songwriter is Keith Getty.  Getty has written many hymns that we sing in our church including “In Christ Alone,” a song we sang this morning.  Born in 1974, he has been involved in music since he was very young.  In 1992 he studied at Durham University.  Although born in Ireland, he now writes and orchestrates music along with his wife, Kristyn, in the United States. His music philosophy, as I discovered at Hymnary.org, is as follows, "There are two reasons we write modern hymns.  First, it's to help teach the faith. What we sing affects how we think, how we feel and ultimately how we live, so it's so important that we sing the whole scope of truth the Bible has given us. The second reason is to try to create a more timeless musical style that every generation can sing, a style that relates to the past and the future."

Here is a link to Hymnary.org’s page about Keith Getty: http://www.hymnary.org/person/Getty_K

Here is a link to an interview with the Getty’s about “In Christ Alone”:        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-1IMyyBjdY

I hope to minister well to you all, both tonight as I preach as well as throughout the rest of the week.  May God bless your week with His uniquely good gifts.