Upcoming Fall Opportunties

Good afternoon, church,

And happy Friday to you! As you may have noticed, we have quite a few opportunities coming up soon, and there are some significant changes to our Wednesday fellowship meal (starts 8/14), so I wanted to take a moment to highlight the opportunities, explain the changes for Wednesday meals, and provide the registration links for everything that is coming up all in one place.

First, our Wednesday meals will be catered this fall. So far, our caterers include Sunnybrook Plantation, Mission BBQ, Chick-Fil-A, and Franks Pizza. Others will likely include Firehouse Subs and possibly Bojangles. If you've been to Wednesday meals at North Roanoke for any time during the past 22 years, you know that Wendy Ramsuer has graciously prepared meals for us -- as many as 200 of us on Wednesdays and 300+ for our Thanksgiving meal. Wendy will still prepare the Thanksgiving meal, but the other meals will be catered. Because these meals are catered, the deadline for registering for a meal must be earlier. The deadline is now Sunday at 11:59PM. You have two options for registering for a meal. You may register each week, or you may register for the permanent list by Sunday, August 11. To be on the permanent list, there is a discount/week and an even larger discount if you are registering more than two people, but you will need to pre-pay in advance for all meals in the fall semester online or by bringing your check to the first meal. If you want to be on the permanent list, you may sign up online and pay with a card online, or you may signup online and select "invoice" and give a check to the church for the amount indicated when you checkout. The other way to signup and pay is to simply sign up each week. You will find a separate link for each meal this semester on the website. You may also pay online when you register, or you may select "invoice" and bring a check/cash when you come to the meal on Wednesday. There will not be "kids meals," but we do still have kids pricing. We also no longer have a salad option. I want to encourage you to go to the app under "featured events" and click on Wednesday meals or to visit the website and look under events to familiarize yourself with the menus and the registration system. If you have any questions, please call the office, and we will help you!

I'm also excited about the lineup of discipleship opportunities we have available this coming semester on Wednesdays at 6:30PM. As always, our preschoolers and kids are going to have a great Bible lesson, along with opportunities to memorize God's Word and sing God's truth. Our students will continue meeting, having some fun, and growing in their knowledge and understanding of God's Word. The women's ministry will be facilitating a study of Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth's book, Adorned. The men's ministry will be facilitating a walk through a book called Betterman produced by the organization by the same name -- an organization committed to helping men reclaim Biblical manhood. Our own Jon Matlock, a certified financial planner, will be leading a walk through a study called Eight Money Milestones. This study is more than just about getting out of debt (it certainly includes that); it is about developing a truly biblical view of our finances and will be beneficial to people in all sorts of life's stages who want to glorify Christ with their finances. We also have a faithful group who prays over our church prayer list every Wednesday evening. Finally, I will lead a time to discuss and apply the sermon from Sunday. And, in addition to all of these opportunities, we also have ESL classes from beginner to more advanced, so if you know someone who would benefit from that opportunity, please invite them.

In addition to these opportunities and changes, the men's ministry team is hosting an overnight men's retreat on Aug 23-24 at Camp Bethel. Further details and the registration link are available on our website under events.

The women's ministry will host a prayer conference with Leslie Bennett on October 19. The early bird pricing ends September 1. This is an incredible opportunity, and I hope many of our women will come and get this blessing. Additional details and the registration link are available on the website under events.

In addition to all these things, you will also see on the events page that there is a free registration link for anyone interested in a fall golf outing. If you're interested in a North Roanoke golf event later this fall, we need you to sign up by the end of July so we know what our numbers are looking like as we talk to area courses.

The women's ministry will re-launch their ROOTS program on August 23, and a registration link is available on the website under events (we are aware of and apologize for the conflict with the men's retreat).

Finally (thank you for hanging with me!), we will have our church (and guests) picnic on Sunday, Sept 8. You do not need to sign up, but please bring make plans to join us and to invite guests. Please also plan to bring a side dish and/or dessert, and we will take care of drinks, paper products, and the meat.

I praise God for all the opportunities ahead and look forward to seeing what He does in us this fall. May you know the presence and peace of Christ in abundance as you serve Him today.

In the abounding love of Christ,
Pastor Daniel