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Weekly Update from the Senior Pastor
May 5, 2006 
Dear Family and Friends,
DA VINCI : Last Sunday Bob laid a strong groundwork for our two-part Da Vinci Code series by clarifying how our New Testament came into existence (what books were chosen, why and when); and why the Gnostic Gospels were not chosen (i.e., they were not contemporary eye-witness accounts of Jesus’ life and ministry, they have very strange theology and reasoning; they were rejected as authentic by the church as a whole as they appeared).
This Sunday I’ll take us into an analysis of Dan Brown’s own spiritual perspective , in terms of the real message within his exciting murder-mystery, fictional story line. In other words, using the words and thoughts of their fictional characters, we’ll focus on what do Dan and Blythe Brown want us to believe as fact about history, art, God and the church? With 50 million copies sold and climbing; and the blockbuster movie out in a week, this message is HIGH PRIORITY pertinent for your coming summer conversations. Bob was definitely correct in saying this is an opportunity, since the facts of history paint such a radically different reality. See you Sunday.
HEROES : Next let’s honor three Damascus Road-Warrior heroes . Those three are Woody Pangborn, Cara Day and Ryan Smith. This intrepid trio has spent days on the large portion of our land where someday our new church-facility and parking lots will be, disking old corn stalks, flattening the land, planting field grass seed and then grinding up straw and spreading it over the seed (one very dusty, hard job), so we can better enjoy our celebration on Sunday, May 21 .
You should have seen them—it was beautiful to behold: Cara driving the truck, Woody hefting the hay into the grinder and Ryan carrying a huge connecting hose from the hay-grinder on his shoulders as he walked behind the truck, spraying the straw-chips over the landscape. It was a scene of dedication lived out in dusty, sweaty determination. I just learned from Debbie that earlier Lindy Blain and her son, Justin , were also in the thick of things, pouring out energy for hours.
This Sunday we will hand out a detailed explanation of our May 21 celebration, what to plan for and bring, and how we’ll handle the very real potential of a rain-out—thus returning to our regular setting.
HEARTS : Now a note on the heartof this congregation as a whole , through an interesting perspective on our annual budget. First, you are a faithful gang of believers: we are right-on-the-money in terms of our total faithful returning of tithes and offerings to God—total giving is right where we prayerfully planned we’d be. But the interesting heart-perspective is this: through the first three quarters of this fiscal year (July 05 to June 06) we are almost to the penny exactly $60,000 under -budget in unrestricted giving to our local church’s ministries and likewise almost exactly $60,000 over -budget in giving to our Damascus Road missions (local and U.S. missions, Copan, Calcutta and South Africa).
Two quick comments from my perspective: first, every pastor prays for an unselfish congregation that cares about all of Acts 1:8, but I can simply pray “ Thanks Lord .” And second: our missions are rocking, doing well and expanding! So, hey gang, for May and June could we finish strong in terms of taking care of home base? April just finished and it was a great month again--$125,000 in local giving (above budget) and over $50,000 more to missions! Honduras Mission is hosting two yard sales this Saturday at the corner of Gue Road and Route 27 and the other behind Tom and Ray’s on Main Street, both in Damascus, trying to close in on the final $10,000 to reach their total budget of $163,048; backing our team of 67 missionaries going in two waves this summer. Please accept this gratitude from me to you: you are doing so much for so many—and the staff and volunteer leaders on the trustees and other groups are doing our best to leverage your faithfulness for high impact and God’s glory.
I love your hearts,
Richard
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