Goodbye Summer, Hello Fall

It is official… the summer has come to an end and great sadness has fallen on many.  Let me just say this has been an incredible summer on so many levels and I want to thank all of you who had a part in making it so.  I truly saw God work in so many ways and Im excited for the platform it has set up to lead us into the fall semester.  Ive just got two items of importance that will both help us close out our summertime and shift gears for the next few months together.

Farewell Bash for the Interns
This Sunday night we will meet in the teen room at 6:00pm to eat together and spend some time saying goodbye to Caleb Snider and Kristen Smith.  Both have been a tremendous asset this summer and its only appropriate that we take a moment to say thank you.  We will be going with the standard “bring a finger food item” set up.  If you guys can plan on doing that, I will take care of drinks and other items needed to successfully have such a gathering.  Please do not feel obligated in any way, but if you have a desire in your heart to get them a gift or donate to a money/gift card tree, then by all means Im sure they will not object.  Hope to see you all there… parents and teens invited.

Small Groups this Fall
For this year’s small group system we are going to stick with what we attempted last year, with a few tweaks to help improve.  I feel the need to reiterate this: If you are already in a small group you love, and have no desire to change, please stay there and do not feel any obligation to what Im about to lay out.  In fact, you can just stop reading and have a good day.  For those of you who were a part of the UY small group system or were not involved at all last year, here is the proposal.  This Sunday begins the small group sign-up process.  One of the options you will be presented with is the UY Family Small Group.  This will be a small group that is designed to have your families together participating half of the time while also allowing the parents and teens to meet separately to grow in different ways. I see small groups within a church as maybe the largest tool to carry out God’s kingdom work here as the body.  It’s more than just the second tier thing you do at church.  It’s an environment that allows deeper relationships to grow, more specific and powerful prayers for each other to be had, and a platform to actively serve the city we live in.  I could go on, but just know that I hope you will consider jumping into a small group somewhere and if it happens to be this one… well Im excited to have you on board.  If you need more information about how this will work, please feel free to ask me.