Several pastors from Grace are attending the Bi-Annual Council for 2,000+ Alliance churches in the USA.  This year, the gathering is in Louisville, KY, and it's been a great week of inspiring messages, vision renewal, and peer encouragement.

At the Alliance website, cmalliance.org, you'll see these core values, plus a ton of information about ways that we are reaching out in countries around the world. 

• Lost people matter to God. He wants them found.  Luke 19:10
• Prayer is the primary work of the people of God.   Philippians 4:6-7
• Everything we have belongs to God. We are only stewards.                         I Chronicles 29:14
• Knowing and obeying God's Word is fundamental to all true success.  Joshua 1:8
• Completing the Great Commission will require the mobilization of every fully devoted disciple.  Matthew 28:19
• Without the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, we can accomplish nothing.  I Cor. 2:4-5
• Achieving God's purposes involves taking faith-filled risks. This always involves change.  Hebrews 11:6

Our heart is to live out these values, individually and as a church.  Which ones would you say are being well-developed in your life?  In what areas would you like to grow? 

On a different subject, quite a few folks at Grace have asked about my graduation from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Chicago, IL, on Saturday, May 16^th.  It was great to reach the finish line in receiving my doctorate, and I was glad that Mary and my parents could be there to join the celebration!

I've been slowly chipping away at my studies over the past decade, culminating in my dissertation on the development of preaching teams in large churches.  The project was instructive for me in that I was able to visit several other churches over the course of a year and interact with senior pastors in similar leadership situations.  I am grateful to the Elder Board for granting me this opportunity, and trust that my leadership skills have been sharpened as a result.  And, thanks for your prayers.  Sure appreciate you!

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