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July 2008 Pastoral Letter

 
Dear Members and Friends of First Church,

This electronic greeting comes to you from your southern church home in Bonita Springs. I trust that you and those you love are enjoying your summertime wherever you may be. I want to take this opportunity to share with you a few news items and developments from First Presbyterian.

The first thing to tell you about is our excitement at a whole new medium of sharing God’s Word with others: we now offer an audio version (as well as print) of our Sunday morning messages. To listen to a recent sermon given here—either through your computer or by downloading it to an “iPod”—all you need to do is visit Podcasts on our website. Simply select the sermon you’d like to hear and click the "play" [right-arrow] symbol underneath the title, or download it for listening later [note that from the Podcast page you may also link directly to the sermon manuscript, if one is available, and vice versa, from the Sermons page]. You can now hear our pastors wherever you are, whenever it’s convenient, and you can easily share these messages with others. We hope you’ll enjoy this added feature.

Renovation planning is progressing for portions of our church building and the Thrift Shop. The zoning variance required to get the necessary permits for the Thrift Shop was approved by Lee County and now simply awaits ratification by the Bonita City Council. One part of the church renovation that will be an exciting addition to our ministry is the enlargement of our current library. Most significantly, we will create entrances from the current narthex into that space, making it much easier to find and access. It will be renamed “The Book Center,” and serve not only as a lending library but also as a retail store for selling high-quality Christian books (and audio and video resources, as well). The inventory will be much more limited than a typical retail book store, but it will be very convenient for our congregation on Sunday mornings. We will be hiring a Book Center Coordinator to manage the inventory and coordinate volunteer staffing. By the time you return to southwest Florida we hope that our Book Center will be open for business!

And now some news about my ministry colleagues on the pastoral staff:

• Dr. Paul Fahnestock is currently exploring the possibility of developing a “clearing house” for community needs that would be a cooperative effort of our local churches. Paul is visiting cities in Michigan and Illinois that have successfully done this, and by late this fall we hope to have some plans for how to develop this in the Bonita Springs area.
• Pastor Steven Grant has expressed a willingness to increase his hours and commitment to our church, and a newly-elected “Associate Pastor Nominating Committee” is beginning the process that should allow us by year’s end to extend a call to him as a full-time Associate Pastor.
• Dan Oedy is continuing his half-time studies for a Master of Divinity degree (the requirement for becoming an ordained Presbyterian minister). If Dan continues at this pace, he may be able to complete his seminary training by December 2009.

Finally, for those who are participating long-distance in our Summer Reading Challenge (reading the John Ortberg book, When the Game Is Over, It All Goes Back in the Box), we have made available the discussion questions used for our gathering here in mid-June.

As always, I would love to hear from you about your summer activities, and especially about any prayer needs or concerns that arise for yourself or your family. I trust you to the Lord’s care until we see each other again.

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Doug Pratt