Dear New Life in Christ Church Family,

Psalm 96:3 (NIV): "Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples."

It is easy for us to get wrapped up in our own lives, families, and workplaces—so wrapped up that we fail to see the bigger things that are happening in our world.

Going to church helps us remember that there is a bigger story that we are part of. In preaching and prayer, we gain a greater vision for what God is doing in our world, for our place in it, and our calling to serve the Lord, whatever we do. Through this, we can go back to our homes, communities, and workplaces with renewed purpose and energy.

Even as a church, it is easy to get wrapped up in our own issues and fail to see what God is doing in our nation or around our world. We need to remember that God is gathering people from all around our nation and the world to build His church for works of mission, love, and justice.

One of the ways that we as a whole can see the greater purposes and plans of God is to worship with believers from other congregations and to hear of the mighty works of God throughout the world.

As a communion church of the Presbyterian Church in America, New Life in Christ Church is part of a bigger body of churches who are in a partnership for our mission to be “Faithful to the Scriptures, True to the Reformed Faith, and Obedient to the Great Commission.” It is very encouraging to see what God is doing through the other congregations, as different churches bring different gifts, and as we set our mind to worldwide evangelism. (Ephesians 2:10)

In light of this, I would especially like to invite you to the annual meeting of the Presbyterian Church in America's General Assembly (GA). Churches from all over our nation gather for worship and business, together with missionaries from around the world. The worship services are full and powerful, there is an event hall full of missions and ministry opportunities, and the book tables are stocked with new and old offerings. I always come away from GA with some ideas for ministry.

The General Assembly is June 11-14 at the Richmond Convention Center. Garage Parking can be found at 351 N. 3rd St., Richmond, VA 23219.

If you would like a good time to come, I would recommend coming on June 11 to the 6:30 worship service. Come early and roam the event halls and see the various ministries, book tables, and missions opportunities that are available.

If you can volunteer, there are a number of spots where we need help (1 Peter 4:10). Here is a link to assist: [https://www.jrp-pca.org/ga-2024-host-committee/](https://www.jrp-pca.org/ga-2024-host-committee/). Anything you can do would be of great assistance.

It would be nice to have people sit together at the first worship service. Let me and others know, and we can see if we can arrange a spot to gather for the worship service.

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Also during June, we look forward to honoring our high school seniors who graduate (June 2 at 6 PM), having our musical for Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat on June 7-8, having a congregational meeting to vote on Caleb Reed as elder (June 9 at 6 PM), Father's Day (June 16), starting open houses (June 16), opening Vacation Bible School registration, a youth canoe trip (June 19), and Mission: Go on June 23. On June 29, we want to help our Hispanic Church plant do a simple outreach to the local community. We have a mid-week class on God's blueprint for marriage that will go through the month.

Please let us know if you have any questions about these things.

 

Faithfully yours,

Pastor Sean