This Sunday, Pastor Joel Wood will be preaching in the morning service, continuing his message, “The Script for Believers – Part 2,” from Psalm 23:1–6. Then join us again Sunday evening as our pastoral intern, Morgan Loughlean, preaches “Roots That Run Deep” from Ephesians 3:14–21.

This Sunday is also the last Sunday before Pastor Jim Megchelsen and his family join us from Illinois. We are excited for all that the Lord has in store as he begins serving as our Assistant Pastor. Be sure to take a few moments to read the letter from Jim Dossett below as he reflects on God’s faithfulness and the remarkable way he has brought everything full circle over the past years. Please continue praying for the Megchelsen family as they complete their move and prepare for this transition.

Don’t forget to sign up for our upcoming Marriage Retreat! If you are planning to attend, be sure to register soon. We are looking forward to a wonderful time of fellowship, encouragement, and biblical teaching for married couples.

Looking forward to worshiping with you all tomorrow!

Erika Stormoen 
Communications Coordinator

----

Completing the Circle:

God is good, God is great. God is faithful. God is hysterical...wait, what was that? God is hysterical? Yes, God can certainly be hysterical (ie: Causing unrestrained laughter; very funny). Only our God, in His faithfulness, could bring about the circumstances (so much so as to be funny/hysterical) that I find myself (with joy) to be in the midst of.

Twenty-nine years ago I had the opportunity to sit with Jim Megchelsen in a U-Haul moving truck, sharing the drive from La Mesa to the Chicago area. Jim (with his wife Trish and two young children at the time) was moving from La Mesa (where he was serving as our Associate Pastor, in what was then New Life OPC) to Batavia, IL (where he had received a call to serve as Senior Pastor in an OPC church there). I (and many others) did not want to see him go, but knew he was following God's direction. Now, after those twenty-nine years serving that congregation, Jim (with his wife Trish) are moving back to serve with us again, now as Assistant Pastor. And I have again been given the opportunity to help with that move. It won't be sharing a U-Haul truck drive, but rather, each of us driving a personal car from Illinois to here. Twenty-nine years ago we towed a vehicle behind the U-Haul. I had driven a vehicle out on my own a week before the U-Haul move. I frankly had forgotten about the drive the week before the U-Haul move, until Jim reminded me recently.

What makes this unique and hysterical, is just thinking about how faithful and gracious God is, to have a congregation here that has so many people who are still members of our church family after all this time. New Life is not a small town community church that naturally maintains it's long time family memberships and community. We are a mid sized commuter church in a large city that has a good amount of residents who move to and from. It's just so amazing that we have a large number of members, and now many young adults who were children at the time of Jim's first stay with us, still here and ready to be blessed by Jim's return. While in Illinois Jim and Trish had two more children, all four of whom are adults, out of the home and leading lives of their own. A lifetime has passed and now God has given me this opportunity to help complete the circle of the Megchelsen's life serving here, serving away for twenty-nine years, and now returning. Just hysterical.

As you're reading this on Saturday evening or Sunday morning, please pray for Jim and me as we will be on the road somewhere between Illinois and here. I flew out Thursday afternoon and we will be driving Friday thru Sunday, or into Monday depending on how long we can drive each day. We're both 30 years older than when we did this before, so we'll see...pray.

Blessings,
Jim Dosset

Downloads