So Excited!

I am truly excited about something that is gonna happen on the last day of this month and will most likely blog about it again. My colleague of 2 different congregations in 2 different states is coming home to preach! Jim Gardner, the Preaching Minister at the Woodward Park Church of Christ in Fresno, CA, is going to honor us with his presence on March 30th as part of our series of 5th Sunday speakers focusing on the theme of "Growing in Grace in 2008!" I am so ready for this!!

And I am not the only one pumped about it. Not only have many members here at Northside expressed their joy, but many others from sister congregations in the vicinity have let me and Jim's family know that they will be in attendance that day!

It doesn't end there, though. Apparently the community has put in the good word that he will be coming back to speak.

I do believe that it will be Standing Room Only. An event to be remembered.

Jim has expressed his feelings about this reunion 12 years in the making in his blog from last Thursday. Here it is:

"I'm going home.

For the first time in twelve years, I have been invited to speak at the congregation where I was raised. Every Sunday of my formative years, save vacations, was spent in the Northside Church of Christ building in Benton, Arkansas. It was there both of my grandfathers, and later my dad, served as elders. It was there I learned memory work in Bible Hour. It was there my faith was grounded. It was there I preached my first sermon. It was there I was mentored by Youth Ministers like Dale Mannon and Tom Perkins and Doug Yates.

And now, the current elders at Northside have afforded me the wonderful opportunity to go home and speak at Friends Day on Sunday, March 30th. The Northside church has themed 2008 "Growing in Grace" and that is the focus of the first Sunday following Easter in an effort to reach out with the good news of God's grace.

I can't wait to go home; to be back in the building where so many good faith memories were birthed. I can't wait to go home to the place where so much godly teaching was imparted to me.

And I can't wait to go home so that my grandfather, if his strength is sufficient, can hear me preach one more time.

To the Northside elders, thank you. Thank you for the most privileged speaking invitation of my preaching career. The opportunity to speak at Northside, on Friends Day, with the hope of my grandfather hearing me speak one more time is just almost too much to absorb. Thank you for demonstrating in living color the theme you are shepherding the church in Benton to live and understand."