Monday Memo

Hi Five Oakers, Lois and I vacationed last week in the Black Hills of South Dakota. What a beautiful place. And what a refreshing and restful experience filled with conversation, hikes, reading, bike rides and some fly fishing.

Guest Cards

Here is a comment received back on the card we send first-time guests:

// 6-30 We were wowed by the sermon!  Loved the meat, biblical focus & not “fluffy”.  This is very important to us.  Music was great although slightly too loud.  Communion was different than what we are used to, but ok.

Communication Cards

Here are the comments and questions from the weekend Communication Cards:

// Amy’s song gorgeous! Good to see you again Dan.

// Wonderful worshipful service.

// Thanks, praise and forever may our God be glorified!

// Bravo on bringing home the Jeff [Vanderstelt] video from Challenge. Great message.  [If you missed the weekend, we showed one of the talks that our youth experienced at the Challenge conference. I love that we were able to do this and that our students experienced this all week. I've never met Jeff Vanderstelt, but he was one of my biggest influences leading me to develop the Story of God book and course.]

// Good video message. Good timing from Challenge.

// Great to be back from vacation. Nice worship, loved the Challenge speaker. Glad you did “Story of God."

// Thanks for the old hymn. It made me cry, it was so beautiful!

// Amen.

// Would love to hear more hymns in the worship songs.

Blessings, Pastor Henry

10 Tweets

Here's the weekend sermon in 10 tweets: Galatians 5:16-26, "Walk, Fight, Grow" 1// The way to do what God wants you to do is to become who God wants you to be.

2// The Christian life is a walk with God. It’s about a relationship.

3// You alone can choose to walk with God, but you will not walk with God alone.

4// Your fight will determine your fruit.

5// The orange tree: The new detergent didn’t grow the fruit. It removed what was hindering growth.

6// When you become a Christian, you have a new standard—to reflect the image of God.

7// There are 3 different voices shouting at us to do the wrong thing—the world, the flesh & the devil.

8// It’s a fight. Don’t be surprised. Don’t give up. If you’re struggling it’s a sign of life.

9// John Owen: You must always be at it while you live; do no take a day off from this work; always be killing sin or it will be killing you.

10// Transformation trumps temperament. Keller: You are really only as spiritually mature as your weakest trait.