BIG ANNOUNCEMENT THIS SUNDAY! from Pastor Harry Long

The Pastor Search Committee announced last week that they have chosen their candidate and will announce his name this Sunday. They have prepared a substantial introduction that you will not want to miss! It will be included in the online service available Sunday morning as well as the live outdoor service at 10:00 AM.

I have had the privilege of Facetiming with him and could not be more delighted and excited for Sycamore! God’s hand is so evident in leading us as a church through this process, and the fruit of his leading in our church and in the candidate’s life and family could not be more evident.

He will be preaching the following week, both in the recorded service and the outdoor service, and we will have a congregational meeting the next week for the congregation to vote on his call. (Details will follow as to how we will conduct the congregational meeting in these viral times.) Then I will preach on June 28 as my last before retirement, with one additional time on September 20, the new retirement celebration weekend, when I hope things will be back to normal. I keep having to think how to avoid saying, “My last sermon will be Sunday morning, September 20, and the congregation will celebrate Sunday evening.”

Pray that we do not have a severe thunderstorm this Sunday morning that would prevent our outdoor service. We will brave a light rain as long as it is safe, and you can listen in your cars or under an umbrella. The recorded service is our fallback if we cannot meet at all, or if you cannot make it.

Also, we will celebrate the Lord’s Supper Sunday morning in the outdoor service. We have individual packets specially made for communion that our elders will serve with tongs. It will be the first time since March that we have been able to be together to have communion with Christ and with each other. We still have a longing accompanying this celebration, as many are not able to participate in the outdoor service yet. We long for the fuller fellowship yet to come on earth, as we long for the fullest fellowship to come in heaven!

With all this involved in the service, rest assured that the sermon will be shorter, no doubt! And come to find out why “no doubt” is such an appropriate comment for the service!

Your Pastor for now and your friend and brother in Christ forever,

Harry Long