Ah, summer is upon us.  And that means no school (well, except for those who have the “pleasure” of attending summer school), it means vacations to various destinations around the country and the world (aren’t you lucky!), and it means summer heat (ah, if only we were blessed with A/C). 

It also means that we are in the midst of our Summer Worship Experience.  That means that we are singing the songs you love to sing (or at least the person who submitted them loves to sing), we have no formal liturgy, and there is no official sermon (instead it has been replaced by the ever trendy (?) “Summer Sermon Series”).

This year, by popular demand, I’ve changed the format just a bit.  Gone is the Phil Donohue “ask the audience” segment. It has been replaced with semi-dramatic monologues.  I’ve taken characters from the Bible and tried to bring them to life as they talk about their experience, their life, and what it might imply for each of us.  The title of the series is: And Now You Know the Rest of the Story. And by the end of each service I hope you will know each Bible character a little better and have a sense of what his story means today. 

For those of you who have been to church the last couple of weeks in June, and experienced Jacob and Gideon – you know what to expect.  If you haven’t joined us yet, I hope you will.  I’ll be bringing to life Job, Daniel, Jonah, John the Baptist, Thomas, and Nicodemus among others. And on July 29^th we will have a special “mystery guest” who will present the only female character of the series.  Guess who that might be?  I can’t tell you – it’s a mystery!

In addition, during the first couple of weeks of July, we will be signing up folks for our ALL CHURCH RETREAT which will be held from Friday evening (October 26^th) through Sunday worship (October 28^th).  It is going to be held at Monte Toyon, a wonderful retreat center in Aptos, just a long walk from the beach.

This will be our first annual ALL CHURCH RETREAT.  We will have time to relax, play games, learn a thing or two, eat great food that we don’t have to prepare ourselves, worship on Sunday morning out in God’s paradise, and of course bond together as a church family.  EVERYONE who attends STHPC, member or friend, is invited.  You won’t want to miss this event.  Look for flyers and registration forms in the foyer after church or in the mail. 

Finally, you should know that we recently hired Daryl Hawkins of the architectural firm JHW Architects to design the church expansion I’m sure you have been hearing about.  We are running out of room.  We need more classrooms so that our children and youth have a place to meet and learn. We have long wished that we had a fellowship hall so that we could better serve the community and at the same time have a place to gather ourselves.  Our future expansion will be designed to do just that.

This is an exciting step to ensure the successful future of this church.  The Long Range Planning Committee spent many long hours finding just the right architect. I know you will be pleased with the results.  Daryl has designed such buildings as the Gilroy Presbyterian Church and Apostle’s Lutheran Church here in San Jose, to name just a few.  We are blessed to have him.  And he is an active Christian to boot!  This is just the beginning of a long, long process.  I promise to keep you updated.

Well that’s it for now. Have a great summer, my friends. Don’t forget to take time to relax, try to stay cool, and have fun.  And as always … I’ll see you on Sunday!

Pastor Tom