Unbelievably, Summer is here! The days are getting longer and the weather is turning warmer. The smell of BBQs are filling the air more often and the end of school itch is setting in as kids are counting the final days of this academic year.

I hope you're anticipating some good rest and relaxation this Summer. May these months of long days find you re-creating and re-filling your soul in many ways ... your love for the Savior ... the gift of life physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually ... your relationships with family and friends ... even renewal in your commitment and love for one another in your Church family.

I hope you'll take advantage of some time off this Summer. May I encourage you to guard your heart from the temptation to just fill those days with activity, and instead be sure that real rest takes place? You know as well as I do the mantra, "I need a vacation from my vacation!"

How true it is that we too often fill our vacations with so many "things to do, places to go, people to see" that by the time we return, we're exhausted! Well, it doesn't have to be that way! Make some different choices about your Summer vacation this year.

By way of building relationships this year, particularly with your Church family, Colleen and I again want to invite you to join us for one of our Pastor's BBQs. We are hosting three dates at our home that you can choose from. They are all Thursday dates, June 30, July 28 and August 25, all at 6:30-8:30 pm.

In the next few weeks, we'll have sign up sheets out for you to sign up for your desired date. Or you can call the Church Office and sign up that way. We'll ask everyone to bring a salad, side dish or dessert to share. Bring the kids too! We'll have some fun and s'mores set up for them.

Being the consummate BBQ fanatic that I am (I love to BBQ!), it's another fun way for me to serve you for an evening. And, it's a great way for us to get to know you, you to get to know us, and you to get to know a few others as well. Mark your calendar and join us!

As your Summer schedule fills up, I also want to encourage you to be sure to be with us on the weekends you're in town. "Living In Community Without Driving Each Other Crazy" (our series on conflict) has been rich, and continues into the next several weeks. It's my anticipation that we may conclude somewhere around mid-July or so.

Slowly but surely, the Holy Spirit is transforming us as a congregation. It's always a Pastor's hope and dream that this take place on an on-going basis. Yet at the same time, there is only so much a Pastor can do to allow room for this to happen. The rest, the response, is up to you. And the response right now is pretty powerful.

Constantly through this series, many share with me week by week how the Lord is healing relationships and averting potentially disastrous consequences by the changes you are allowing Him to bring to your life in the ways you handle conflict.

Ultimately, the only way any of us can effect change in our congregational life is for each of us to transform, one-by-one, into the person God wants us to be; BUILDING BIGGER HEARTS AND BETTER LIVES, reflections of His image.

I am excited to move this series toward discovering how we can be a Peacemaking people. Not just "peacekeepers", but "peacemakers". Whatever you do, don't miss out!