One of the great things about the Church is that we have the opportunity to walk through life with each other. We were never meant to do this life on our own, instead we get to do it with each other. Personally, I (Pastor Luke) have been so thankful that our church is walking through life with my family as we get ready to welcome triplets into this world sometime in April! We have felt so blessed by our church family from the comments of encouragement and support, the felt prayers, the baby shower and gifts, and more. We want to say thank you so much to all who have supported us in any way during this season.
I am thankful that our church board made the decision to give me eight weeks of paternity leave to help our family adjust to our new dynamics. The exact timing of my leave is a little bit unknown right now, since the babies could come any time in April. We wanted to update you on the plan that we are currently operating under for my paternity leave.
My plan is to preach on Easter Sunday, and that will be my last planned Sunday to preach before the babies come. The rest of April will be done by Andrew Williams and Brian Kendrick, both of whom are currently walking through the ordination process with our church. During the month of April I will be around on Sunday mornings, and working as much as possible during the week, until the babies. During May we will have guest preachers come in to speak. The current plan is for me to start preaching again in June, but we do have back up plans of internal and external people if that doesn’t feel possible.
If anything is needed during the week by our people you can contact Sheila Richerson at the church, and she will help figure out who to contact from there. We do have a team of five people who will assist in any pastoral care needs during this season.
This is definitely a different season for my family and our church, but I am so thankful to be walking through this with you! If you have any questions about how this season will function for myself or our church please do not hesitate to reach out to myself or one of our board members.