Welcome, Lucas!

Keith and Brooke Crowley had a baby boy yesterday, Lucas James, weighing in at 8lbs. 7oz.

Disaster Relief

MNA (Mission to North America) is holding a Disaster Relief Conference March 10 at Tenth. For information and registration click here.

Welcome, Davis!

Davis Marischal was born last night at 8:30 to Trey and Becky Holloway in Scotland. Evidently he was too impatient to wait for Grandmother Fletcher who is scheduled to leave today.

Comment?

There are six comments about the Messners recorded on the DMC Forum blog. Add yours by clicking the link on the right. If you prefer not to go through the sign-up procedure needed, you can simply email your comment to me and I will post it for you.

To Do

I made it in first today, bearing the icy cold. I have a lot to do to get ready for Sunday. I'll be moderating a Session meeting during the 9:00 hour to hear the testimonies of about 30 persons in the New Members' Class.

At 1:00 I will give the message at the monthly Bridge-Builders' class on the subject of love. (I am a product of my time. My mind immediately produces the Beatles' song "All You Need is Love." It will probably be in my mind all day!)

Then I preach Sunday evening for the communion service: "Spiritual Idolatry": 1 Corinthians 10:1-7.

The Trinity Symposium Presents

Business as a Calling: A Justification for Training Christians to be Business Leaders

Ron Ferner
Former Vice President of Campbell Soup
Dean of Business, PBU

Thursday, February 22, 7:30pm

Please join us Thursday, February 22 at 7:30pm at Trinity OP Church in the Social Hall. All are welcome. Light refreshments provided. Discussion to follow. Nursery available for young children.See our website, linked below, for a fuller description of the evening and our speaker.

Contact:Trinity Orthodox Presbyterian Church
151 West County Line Rd.
Hatboro PA 19040-1807
215-675-1811
http://www.trinityopchurch.org/

New Secretary

Let me introduce my new secretary. Her name is Ginger and she is coming in three half-days a week. She has a cheerful disposition and is very organized. I am hoping she will get me better organized. The only thing is that she often talks to me like my wife, making sure I eat properly and asking if I remembered items and events. On the other hand, she's not asking for pay, so Pat lets me keep her.

Cold

We may now establish that it is cold in Philadelphia. No more talk about how amazingly warm the weather has been. We are in the third week of below freezing temperatures. CCA is open today. Nancy is at the desk braving the frosty temperatures of the Delancey lobby.

Goodness, Truth, and Beauty Blog

Joe Sinagra and Luke Herche have started an arts blog. Here is their intro to the site:

This is a forum for discussion of the arts. We believe this is important, and particularly relevant, in our day when confusion about the definition and purpose of the arts is pervasive in and out of the art world.

On this site you will also find information about art events in and around Philadelphia as well as information concerning various Bible studies we lead on art school campuses in the city.

Please feel free to enter into the discussion, whoever you are, and join us for our regular events as we seek to enjoy the art of man as it reflects the art and wisdom of God.

-Goodness, Truth, and Beauty

The Plane! The Plane!

Wild guy Matt White sent me this footage of sitting on a St. Maarten's beach and watching the planes come in.

Holding the Fort

Christiana, Phil, and I are holding down the fort here. We'll when the other stragglers come in. Jonathan McCarthy has already come and gone, having cleared the walks. I struggled through snow and slush for four blocks until I came to Tenth and the nice clear sidewalk.

Staff Report

We had staff meetings today. Here some news from the meetings.

Jennifer Maddox brought candy, nuts, and fruit for the staff as a Valentine present. She is always taking these kinds of occasions to give to the staff.

David Apple reported on a good Mercy Conference in NC where he was the featured speaker. To hear his Sunday message, click here.

Cora reports that the next quarter Adult Bible School class schedule is almost complete. By the way parents, there will be a parenting class.

Carroll reported a good Maranatha retreat. There were 75 students. Jeb Bland spoke from Hebrews 11, focusing on Moses. John Canavan wrote hilarious skits which will be shown Sunday night at Maranatha. The boys revealed their romantic side with "Post-It" notes. We also learned that David Wynne is a mean (like really good) karaoke singer.

Maranatha mission trips dates: 6/15-30 (not confirmed) to N. Ireland; 7/30-8/4 to Chester and 8/4-8/6 to Camden.

Paul Jones and Sam Hsu will play duo pianos for the worship preludes this coming Sunday as a preview to their concert February 23. Phil Ryken says you do not want to miss that concert. I will also attest to that, as I had them come down to my church in Florida a few years ago.

The Boice Memorial Plaque is scheduled to be installed and revealed April 15. Details still to come.

Of Churches and Missions

The following church plants were approved by the Philadelphia Presbytery and given official church mission status:

Grace Covenant Fellowship (formerly the English-speaking ministry of Korean United Church) under the supervision of the presbytery Church Planting Team. It is led by Robert Kim.

City Church under the supervision of a Provisional Session made up of TE Tuck Bartholomew, TE Bill Edgar, RE Mike Kelly, and RE Dan Cason. Tuck Bartholomew leads this work.

Cresheim Valley Presbyterian Church under the supervision of the Session of Tenth Presbyterian Church. John Leonard leads this work.

Here then is the list of presbytery church plants:
All Nations
Bridge Community
Christ Liberation Fellowship
City Church
City Line Church
Cresheim Valley Presbyterian Church
Grace Covenant Fellowship
Rock of Israel

Our churches are:
Crossroads Community Church
Korean United Church
liberti (3 worshipping communities)
New Life Glenside
New Life Northeast
New Life Philadelphia
Pilgrim Church
Renewal Church
Tenth Presbyterian Church
Third Reformed Presbyterian Church

Sexual Temptation in the Ministry

Philadelphia Presbytery met last Saturday at the location of our daughter church plant - Cresheim Valley Presbyterian Church up in Chestnut Hill. The education portion of the meeting was on the subject of pornography and sexual temptation. This is a growing problem for us ministers, not only for how we help other men in our congregations deal with this, but as a personal struggle for ourselves. David White of Harvest USA spoke, as did John Freeman. If you have not checked out Harvest's website yet, click here.

Help Needed

I am still looking for someone to help me out with running the ACTS Community Dinners. The commitment is only on the second Sunday of each month, and it doesn't even have to be every second Sunday; only the ones where I am not able to be there (this coming May is most likely one of those Sundays; baby #2 is due then). I'd like someone to come for the next few second Sunday dinners to get their feet wet and see how things are run so that they're not just feeling thrown into anything.The responsibilities mostly take place before the guests arrive; prepare the table hosts and servers in terms of their responsibilities; coordinate the setup crew with what needs to go where; act as a point of contact.

Serving is typically in a "background" capacity, where there isn't much direct interaction with the guests we serve. Anyone with admin/organizational gifts and leadership gifts is desired. Anyone interested should contact me at gmp2cor520@comcast.net for more information.

Thanks!Gwen Plut

Welcome, Naomi!

From Roger and Ruth Hoover:

We have just been matched with a beautiful Chinese baby girl! We are in a delightful state of shock! We will be traveling in 3-5 months. She is a special needs child due to her cleft palate. We applied to adopt her when we received the list of special needs children last week. Thanks to our gracious God who has chosen us to be the family for this little one! And thank you for your prayers and support! Her name is Naomi Chunxiang (pronounced roughly like Shoonsheng, we think) and she is almost 1 year old. We pray she will someday know Jesus as her kinsman-redeemer.

How is the TenthWomen Conference like the Liberty Bell?

Jessie Bible sent this in:

In the Philly region we have great treasures – like the Liberty Bell – that people come from all over to see. But often the locals don’t come. I, for one, have never been to many of our cities treasures. Sometimes I feel bad about this, and I resolve to go – but I never find the time.

The TenthWomen Conference, “Living the Gospel in Relationships” is somewhat like that. Our speaker, Tara Barthel, is nationally recognized for the deep and practical biblical teaching she gives – particularly in the area of biblical peacemaking and conflict resolution.

I’ve had contacts from far and wide about this event. Today I was contacted by a woman from Connecticut who wants to bring a group of women. Last week we received registrations from Mechanicsburg PA. But, to date, over 50% of the registrations we’ve received are from women outside the Tenth community. It would truly be a shame if women at Tenth missed out on this great opportunity.

Do you have conflict? Do you ever feel overwhelmed? Does your life feel anything but peaceful? Do you want to see change, but have no idea how to do it? Or perhaps you know how, but do you find that you just can’t live out what you know to be true?

If you could receive biblical teaching that could transform your life in these areas, wouldn’t you make every effort to go? I know that our Saturdays are often chock-full of things to do. But I encourage you to do whatever you need to do in order to attend this event. I promise you’ll be glad you did.

For more information, and to hear a 15 minute interview with our speaker, go to http://www.tenth.org/index.php?id=127

The registration deadline is 2/18 if you want to eat a catered lunch (from Marathon Grill!) on site. You can also register at the door on 2/24. If you register at the door, you must either bring your own lunch or else eat at an area restaurant. (Note that our lunch period is only 1 hour this year rather than 1 ½ hours as in prior years).