What a beautiful morning we spent together with the Lord this week!  We had a great discussion in Sunday School -- which meant that I only got through literally half of the material that I’d planned to cover.  But as I’ve said so often over the years, I learn more through teaching than I ever do in my own personal study, and a large part of that is due to the wisdom that everyone else brings into our interactive discussions over the text…

First things first -- thank you to all of you who prayed for our “Back to School Bonanza” that we hosted on Saturday.  It was a solid kick-off to our new Kids Club ministry (focusing on younger, elementary-school children), and both the children and the parents that we ministered to this weekend were genuinely blessed…

There are times when life feels really, really nice.  Wendy and I helped introduce roughly 197 InterVarsity students to the Morton Pumpkin Festival when Megan and Alex brought them in on Friday night to experience the wonder, and that’s always fun (though I never did get to drive my bumper car this year).  Then we had more fun the next morning with the kids (and our godchildren Olivia and Philip) grabbing tons of candy and catching my annual Frisbee from Keith Sommer at the parade…

I love those weeks where unintended themes just run straight through everything that we do…

Well, we’re ramping up into the Fall here at First Covenant -- I even preached for the first time in over a month!

In the service this week, we announced the upcoming “Growing Older Well Retreat” coming up in September, and encouraged every FCCer over the age of 50 to sign up and take part.  In fact, I encourage anyone reading this to consider joining us for a refreshing time of personal reflection and healthy interaction about staying evergreen, even as life’s seasons carry on…

Let me begin with a heartfelt “Thank you!” for the nice vacation that we were able to spend as a family together over the past couple of weeks.  It was great to be able to come back and reconnect with the larger FCC family this weekend, but it was a refreshing and joyful blessing to be able to spend those two weeks with my wife and children…

Gweneth was charged to bring us the Worship through the Word, titled: God’s Second Wonderful Gift to Us. We pondered God’s heaping pile of gifts to us. The gift we focused on today, the Sabbath, can be thought of as unnatural and radical…

I’m getting this Sunday Morning Update out early this week, since Wendy and the kids and I will be taking our vacation starting on Monday.  Poor Wendy is starting her vacation with a nasty cold/flu and fever, so she didn’t join us this week for our worship service…

Before I forget, let me thank all of you who have been praying for our Vacation Bible School for the past few weeks and months…

I’m trying to get this Sunday Morning Update out early this week so that everyone can be praying for this year’s Vacation Bible School, running from Monday the 16th through Friday the 20th…

Well, I hope that you got to celebrate your freedom as an American this week by watching stuff blow up.  If not, I’m sure that life will go on.  But we had a nice (albeit very warm) evening with a couple of FCC families, sitting on comfy chairs and watching the East Peoria fireworks display together…

You’re probably receiving this a day later than you normally would in your week, since Americans were celebrating this week -- so, let me just say Happy Independence Day!

As of this month, we’ve been at First Covenant for 15 years!  That may not seem like a long time in geological terms, but I’ve been serving here for a longer stretch than any other pastor in the church’s 136-year history…