Dear SRPC Family,

Hope you had a sweet Christmas – we did. Our seven children (3 by marriage) were all home. We enjoyed going to a Tampa Bay Bucs game, roaring fires in the wood burning stove, Christmas Eve worship, stone crab claws on Christmas Eve and seafood gumbo on New Year’s Eve, Seven Rivers Warriors basketball, eating at the Front Porch in Dunnellon, a family trip to ITEC ministry at Dunnellon airport, golf on a beautiful Tom Fazio course in Bluffton, S.C., watching oyster boats unload on the docks along the May River, saw The Fighter (Christian Bale will win the academy award!), officiated at my niece’s wedding in my in-laws’ living room, and ate enough rum cake and other delectable sweets to sink the Lusitania!

· Way to go SRPC – Christmas Eve services were jammed. We had 2589 people present to hear the gospel!

· Our new director of worship, Chad Robison, arrived yesterday! Chad is a native of Knoxville, TN and comes to us from Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, AL. Chad is a graduate of Samford University. Chad is currently single but is “serious” with Alexandra Case, who is finishing her Master’s degree at Samford.

· Special thanks to Guy Peshek and Jeff Eekhoff for leading us while we were absent a worship director. You guys were tonally awesome!

· Pastor’s Class begins next Wednesday, January 12. Is there someone you can encourage to come?

· On January 16 at 5:00p.m., we will be hosting the annual MLK, Jr. Community worship service. Dr. Robert Smith – who has preached here twice before and is masterful – will be preaching and Daniel Cason will be leading the worship. This worship service is very important to our community and as far as I’m concerned – a “can’t miss” event!

· SRPC plans to begin the year by reading the gospel of Mark together. We’ll read one chapter a week starting next week and reading through Easter. Beginning on Ash Wednesday (March 9) the pastors will be blogging regularly with devotional insights and applications on that week’s reading. One of the most basic tenets of Christianity is that we are the people of the book. Christians read their Bibles. SRPC is doing Mark together in 2011!

· This week in worship we’ll conclude our series in Acts with chapter 15:1-35. We’ll celebrate the Lord’s Supper together. It will be rich! See you this weekend on Saturday night or Sunday at 9:00a.m. or 10:50a.m.!

Love,

Ray