Let's Get Caught! - A Letter from Pastor Todd

Dear PoC Family,

Every time I think of this past Sunday’s Vision Sunday, I smile.  God is with us in a big way.  It’s always fun when we have to bring in more chairs to accommodate a SRO crowd.  Celebrating new life is just the best.  It was wonderful to see the smiles of recognition as God’s Vision for the next season of our ministry together was shared.  He’s up to something big!!

This week we will start our exciting new sermon series called, “Red-Handed:  Love. Our. City.”  The big idea for the sermon series is, “The daily goal of the missional life is to be caught RED-HANDED, right in the middle of God’s plans.”  The question could be asked, “Is PoC ready to live missionally, to be caught in the middle of God’s plans?”

Well, I believe we are getting more and more ready and that it really is a matter of starting somewhere, doing something, and basically, just diving in.  It’s also largely dependent on intimacy with God.  The more and more intimate our relationship (personally and collectively) grows with Jesus, the more ready we will be.  The closer we get with Him, the more we are filled with Him.  That creates the noticeable change that I believe we are seeing and will continue to see.  Paul spotted this as he wrote to the Romans, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.  I myself am convinced, my brothers and sisters, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with knowledge and competent to instruct one another.  Therefore I glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God . . . through the power of the Spirit of God.”  (Romans 15: 13-14)

During this sermon series we will meet several Bible heroes who cried out to God for mercy and deliverance for their city.  The common link that connects these city-hearted heroes isn’t their compassion or their city-mindfulness as you would expect.  No, the common link is their very close intimate relationship with God.  They are not having to bend God’s heart to theirs, they are aligning their hearts to God’s already merciful heart.  The more “one” we are with God, the more we will get caught red-handed in the middle of His plans.  We will be wonderfully and blessedly guilty by association.

This Friday my incredible, beautiful, and God-hearted wife, Kim and I will be married 22 years.  Now, for some of you folks, 22 years isn’t that long.  In a lot of ways, we’re still young pups, but during those 22 years, Kim and I have enjoyed being led by Jesus through our very own intimate journey.  We aren’t quite at the point where we finish each other’s sentences, and we will likely never will be, but we are enjoying a Spirit-led one-heartedness that comes when passions align.  The things that are important to Kim have also become things that are important to me.  In the same way, our individual dreams are becoming shared dreams.  Ha, I knew she’d come around!  J

And, this is what I believe we are seeing at PoC.  The more and more intimate we are getting with God, personally and corporately, the more we are being associated with Him . . . and His always good work.  I think we are ready, now more than ever, to get caught!!

Your Pastors Are Praying For You,

Pastor Todd

P.S. – Man, PoC, you invited like crazy last week.  Join us in reaching out again to those same friends and family members.  We want to see them back this week and every week.  Let’s get “caught” together.