Good morning, Lake Tapps!

Flock review.  That’s how we refer to the first part of our weekly elders’ meetings.  “Flock” as in “shepherd the flock of God that is among you” (1 Peter 5:2).  “Review” as in “pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers” (Acts 20:28).  We take the first 30 to 60 minutes of our meeting to update one another on members of our congregation we’ve connected with since we last met.  We talk about who we need to connect with in the future.  We share needs among our people.  We remind ourselves of the prayer requests that have come in through the prayer chain or the Sunday wave forms.  And then we pray for the flock.  (Sidebar: Please don’t wait for us to reach out to you if you are desiring or needing some pastoral connection.  Please contact any of us.  We’re all pretty good about e-mail.  Our e-mail addresses are nathan@laketappscc.org, brian@laketappscc.org, gary@laketappscc.org, and pete@laketappscc.org).

This week as we prayed, we thanked God for the continued evidence that He is working among us.  New people checking out the family on Sundays on a regular basis.  “New folks” who have been with us for a while getting jazzed about living for the Savior.  Many of our folks acting as conduits for the kingdom of God.  Planning for a baptism, Lord willing, in July.  And the list goes on.  For anyone engaged at LTCC, it’s not a stretch that seeing what’s happening in and around LTCC are strong indicators that God really is among us.

True when we see things happening, but equally true when we don’t.  While we’ve made a few connections with potential candidates for our open youth ministries leader position, as of Tuesday we are effectively where we were when we began working our networks and posting the job to ministry job boards.  If God is really among us, we asked ourselves, has He also answered our prayer about raising up a youth leader?  Yes.  And, it would seem, the answer is, “Not yet, not for September 1”?  We reminded ourselves to take the Head of the Church at His word when He says that “God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as He chose” (1 Corinthians 12:18).  We believe God equips the body and supplies the gifting to do the work He wants done in the way He wants it done. So, our current interim leaders, Nathan Betts, Justine Peterson, and Daniel Geske are developing a plan for the fall/upcoming school year as to how to best minister to our youth in the interim, until God raises up a full-time leader.  As details are determined, they will be shared at the June 26th youth parent meeting and at our members meeting on July 10th.  Please continue to pray for clarity as to God’s leading and timing in this vital area of family ministry.

Speaking of body parts, we have been kicking around bringing together ALL parts on Sunday mornings over the summer months.  After running it by our deacons’ and getting their buy-in, we’ve decided that for July and August, we will call us to worship on Sunday mornings in a single service at 10:00 a.m.  While it will give many of our Sunday morning servers a bit of respite for a few weeks, the primary driver and benefit is the opportunity it presents for folks to worship with those from the “other service”, reminding ourselves we are ONE family.  Our flock is more than just “first service.”  It’s not just “second service.”  We are all a family growing together.  So, commencing July 3rd through September 4th, let’s get together, together.  We’ll return to two morning services on Sunday, September 11th, Lord willing.

Finally, as for other opportunities to be together, heads up that almost 80% of the tickets we reserved for our annual Tacoma Rainiers game on July 1st have been bought.  If you were planning to attend, please order your tickets this weekend so we can try and increase the block of seats set aside for our group.

We count it a privilege and joy to shepherd the flock of God among us.  We enjoy even more the opportunities to fellowship among you.  See you Sunday, Lord willing.

On behalf of the elders,

Pete