In the spring of 2011, several hundred people in the Pinehurst, North Carolina, area, decided to form a new interdenominational congregation. They named this new church "Trinity Christian Fellowship." The church met first in the Village Hall, then a hotel ballroom and, finally, a private high school's theatre. Other spaces were rented around town for administrative offices, classrooms and a fellowship hall, and ministries of all kinds emerged from the inspiration and imagination of the congregation. A search was begun for an appropriate parcel of land to be purchased as the site for a new and permanent facility. After a year, the church decided to promote me to the position of Senior Pastor. This transition marked the beginning of the letters in this volume. Being a vibrant, healthy church is a high standard to maintain when a congregation is well-established and its facilities are adequate to meet its needs (and already paid for). Giving birth to, and nurturing, a new fellowship without a long, common history and essential resources is "another thing again." Thank God we didn't have to do it without His help During our time together, Trinity went from one worship service to two, and then to three--from one Sunday School program to two. After three years, God provided us an existing church facility in a wonderful location, which we purchased and refurbished to meet our needs. When the church invited me to become their first Senior Pastor, I decided to add a weekly pastoral (or "PastorAl") letter to my ministry efforts as a way to communicate with the members of the fellowship about our progress in our shared life of faith--to help them appreciate that, despite the many things we seemed to lack, we were actually among the most vibrant and healthiest of churches. And so, I wrote a letter a week for the better part of three and a half years, skipping a week or two between Christmas and New Year's--and several weeks during a vacation. Not all the letters I wrote are included in this collection. Most of the letters that "didn't make the cut" were devoted to practical matters of program promotion and volunteer recognition. I tried to look for things in the normal routine of life that could comfort or inspire or intrigue our people in a spiritual way. Those are the letters you will find in the pages that follow. And now I hope that you will find something in these letters that will comfort or inspire or intrigue you in a spiritual way. If our Lord could take scraps of food prepared for others and feed multitudes, perhaps He will take these scraps of writing, prepared for the folks who made up the Trinity family, and use them to feed you as well.
