Dear First Presbyterian Family,
Ground Hog Day is upon us! February 2 is the day where we “learn” if Spring is on the way or if we have six more weeks of Winter. Though February can be a brutal month for us (remember Snow-mageddon?), this month does mark a turn to spring. I could tell a real difference in the morning light during my running days in Virginia. Come February 2 “O Dark 30” was not as dark as it had been. In fact, in some cultures, February 2 marked Spring. For such times and places, February 2 was the day to put away the old of winter and fully embrace the new year.
However, we all know that February is known for the big day in the middle: Valentine’s Day. That leads me every year to the famous “Love Chapter”-I Corinthians 13. I have copied it below this paragraph. I heard a speaker share a great insight about this chapter. The chapter describes love in its ideal state. This chapter also describes God’s love for us. You can read through this passage and insert the phrase “God’s love for me is” when you see the word “love”. “God’s love for me is patient.” “God’s love for us is kind.” “God’s love for First Presbyterian Mesquite bears all things and endures all things”. I encourage you to read through this chapter again with that understanding. Give yourself time to reflect on that truth.
“If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9 For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; 10 but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.
12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.”
January is behind us it is time to move forward into 2022 full on and full out!
Keep in mind these developments for February and the first weeks of March. For Worship, we will continue our look at Revelation. March 6 will be our First Sunday in Lent. Ash Wednesday will take place on March 2. There will be a Special Service in the Sanctuary at 6:30 p.m. Christian Education: Sunday School continues in its current format. Faith Builders will meet at 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, February 27. They will have an adult-led photo scavenger hunt around the square in downtown Mesquite. We have set the dates for Vacation Bible School: June 26-June 30. The next Fellowship event will be a dinner on Sunday, February 27. Mission includes the Souper Bowl of Caring on February 13. On that day, please bring a can of food or a dollar (or any amount of money). All proceeds will go to Sharing Life. We have good news on the Mission Support front. It looks like we will have full use of Wilbanks Hall by the end of the month. For other updates-please see my Annual Report in this newsletter.
Thank you for your continued prayers and support.
Jones Doughton
PASTOR’S REPORT FROM THE 2021 ANNUAL REPORTS
Dear First Presbyterian Family,
Greetings, I first spoke at an Annual Dinner on January 28, 2018. I stood perched on a new chapter in the Great State of Texas. That year I had it easy. We simply looked at the 2017 report written by Harry. I also shared a few thoughts for the coming year. Now I stand before you all on January 30, 2022, for my fourth “State of the Church” presentation as we begin our fifth year together.
Two biblical images come to mind as I look back on 2021. First, there is the call of Abraham. The story has a prologue. First, his father Terah heard the call to leave the great city of Ur and move upriver to Harran. The family faithfully moved to that place. Later, Abraham heard the call to leave Harran, and his familiar culture, to go to The Promised Land.
Second, I think of the Return from Exile. The Return took place over 90 years and as our different groups came to the Promised Land from the Place of Exile in Babylon. Two major projects took place during the Return. They are recorded in the Bible as first, the Rebuilding of the Wall by Nehemiah. That project took place fairly quickly and neatly. The second recorded project was the Building of the Second Temple. We read of the start of the project in Ezra. It took twenty years to complete the project. It took place in fits and starts and for some years nothing took place. The prophet Haggai encouraged the people to finish the work.
What does this mean for us?
Like Abraham, we have spent time in a Harran, maybe even two or three “Harrans”, over the past two years. We went to shelter in place in 2020. We began to cautiously re-engage in a different setting later that year. That model developed to a new pattern in the middle of 2021. As we enter 2022-we are making some deliberate efforts to move to a new place. In each instance, we were in a faithful place. Then, at the appointed time we made a move. Abraham lived faithfully in Harran. Then, he followed Divine Direction and he went to the Promised Land.
Like the Second Temple, our return to the Promised Land is coming in fits and starts. The ongoing repair work in Wilbanks Hall has taken time. Fellowship events took place in Wilbanks Hall. Then we realized we needed to back off until more work is done. We have begun to make plans for other gatherings-and then we have had to pivot and turn in light of developments. Below are other examples of what we have done and what we hope to accomplish.
Worship: We have transitioned from three services to two in July. We held our traditional Lent/Holy Week series of services. Through technology, we heard the choir sing the Hallelujah Chorus on Easter. Over this fall the choir returned. We had a Christmas Cantata. Handbells will rise again. The younger disciples have presented special music in January. They will do so again in the late Spring. We plan to have special music at Easter.
Christian Education: The Youth and Faith Builders met during the year. We held a modified Vacation Bible School in August. The youth volunteered each morning at Sharing Life. This July Sunday School returned. As I write these words the Christian Education Committee is making plans for the New Year, among other things.
Mission: We met our Benevolence Goals for the third year in a row. We had exceeded our 100 Can Challenge every month. We continue to sponsor Blood Mobiles. We supported the WARM initiative of Sharing Life. This emergency cold weather shelter housed eighty people during “Snow-mageddon”. The Garage Sale supplemented our benevolences again. We hosted a successful daytime Fall Festival. The Mission Committee has set some impressive goals for the new year.
Fellowship: We fellowshipped again in October at the park in Sunnyvale. We had a wonderful time. The church gathered again in November, under the leadership of the Men’s Council. The Fellowship Committee hosted a gathering after the Christmas Program in December. We plan to have a full slate of gatherings when Wilbanks Hall is finished. The Women’s Retreat will return in March. The Men’s Retreat at Mo-Ranch is on schedule in May.
Mission Support: We had a good response to our Fall Stewardship Campaign. We are poised for a strategic advance in 2023. My vision is to see us re-enter Wilbanks Hall in the next few months. We should close on the sale of the two acres behind the former manse. We will put that money to work. The Property Committee will develop a list of repair and upgrade projects for the year ahead. We will continue to strengthen the support system for this outpost of Mission and Hope on this corner in Mesquite.
The Conclusion: The Temple project continues as we journey to a new Harran. We will establish new or tweak existing patterns. For example, the Session and Deacons returned to meeting separately in January. For eighteen months they had met together in a Joint Officers Meeting. Now they are learning how to meet as single bodies again. In many ways, we at First Presbyterian will learn, yet again, how to respond to our new environment.
Thank you all for your continued support.
Rev. Dr. E. Jones Doughton
