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October 27, 2022

Hi <<First Name>>,

Ten things on my mind

1. Some birthdays you don’t forget. My dad’s on 10/25 is one of them. He’s been gone from this realm for 23 years now. See you again, Dad, because of Jesus.

2. What Jesus had to teach about life and death makes all the difference in the world with how we cope with both.

3. I’m looking forward to our next couple of weekends. We’ll ordain new elders to shepherd our Farmers Branch campus this coming Sunday, October 30. We’ll do the same the following weekend at our Vista Ridge campus on Sunday, November 6. We’ll also wrap up our series on hearing God.

4. This coming Sunday, I’ll have the privilege of baptizing three people who were invited to church this summer and came. Now they’re responding to the One who came for them.

5. When you invite someone to come to church with you, you never know where it may lead. Pray and invite.

6. We’re going to have a great night this coming Sunday night, October 30, from 6-8:00 pm with Trunk or Treat at both of our campuses! Come for the giggles of the kids, food, fellowship, and fun. We’ll have guests from the community around both of our campuses. We’re still collecting bags of candy (no nuts of any kind, please). You can drop them off this Sunday morning.

7. This past weekend, we shared the news that Ryan Rainey will be transitioning to a new role as Pastoral Care Minister at the Vista Ridge campus. This will be the third different role for Ryan among us after serving so well as our Student Minister for more than nine years, and then Campus Pastor for almost ten years. Ryan has also returned to school to pursue a counseling degree. I’m so very grateful to continue to partner with this brother in ministry. We will begin a search for a Campus Pastor at the Vista Ridge campus shortly. In the interim, Josh Brake will be handling some of the Campus Pastor responsibilities.

8. I was visiting with a man in his early 20s this past week. He was talking about how he makes decisions these days as he’s learning what it means to be a man of God. He told me a question he asks when faced with choices: “Is this what the boy wants?” It’s his way of cueing himself to think more like a man of God than a boy.

9. That question hit me between the eyes. There are 50-70-year-olds that could profit from asking the same question when faced with choices.

10. Speaking of choices, I’ll take smoked turkey over deep-fried.

See you tonight or Sunday!

Grace and peace,

Chris