The state of the church in North Palm Beach is generally good. The congregation is now approximately 1500 members and attendance at three services on Sunday morning varies from 600 to 700 in the summer to 850 to 1000 in the season. We have sought to organize our common life around the Great Commission of Matthew 28:19,20. Seeking to be disciples of Jesus we also seek to make disciples as well. It is our hope that every member may experience a cross-cultural mission experience believing that in these experiences our members see God at work in powerful ways in their life and find a joy in Christian service that outshines anything this world can offer.

We are preparing a sermon series to review our vision and commitment to the Great Commission and seeking to explore what a disciple’s life is about. We have followed the Book of Order in seeing this life as composed of Worship, Nurture and Service. We have further explored those components and described them in terms of Worship both personal and corporate, Community, and Education in our knowledge and application of the Word, Evangelism, and Service. This series will lead us into our stewardship season and hopefully inspire our best efforts and generosity to the fulfillment of our mission.

This has been a busy summer. Our Children and Youth Ministries have held a variety of camps and mission experiences. The Children’s Ministry program has held Vacation Bible School, a Music Camp, and a Fun Arts camp. The Youth Program has sent a group of our high schoolers to Tennessee this summer to work in teams with other high schoolers from around the country to fix up homes in Appalachia. Our Junior Highers went to camp at Southwind in North Florida and we sent a group of high school students to Windy Gap, a Young Life Camp in North Carolina. On Youth Sunday we heard testimonies of our young people sharing what God had been doing in their lives throughout the summer. It was a special day because one of the preachers that morning was our own Garrett Arnold, Rev. and Mrs. Arnold’s oldest son.

Our adults also took a mission trip to Guatemala, where we have been involved for many years and recently completed a project of building and establishing a Christian School in Chichicastenango, in partnership with the local Primitive Methodist congregation. This past year we also celebrated the completion of two other projects dear to our hearts. We rejoiced with the All Villages congregation as they dedicated their beautiful new sanctuary and we dedicated our new Youth Facility, probably the last building to be constructed on our site.

Currently we in the planning stages of a joint mission trip with two other congregations to the Bahamas. We have been blessed to have two close relationships with African American congregations in our local area. One of our local mission partners is JAY Ministries of Riviera Beach, originally a ministry to drug and alcohol addicted men. It has expanded its work to impact the poor and the children of Riviera Beach. Many of our members have become actively involved in the various ministries at JAY. In the last year a church has developed at JAY and we are seeking to partner with them in a work on Andros Island. We have also been blessed to have a growing friendship with St. Joseph A.M.E. congregation of Riviera Beach. We have shared Ash Wednesday services for last several years and we hope that all three congregations will be able to participate in a project together.

There is a growing group of volunteers engaging in prison ministry at four prisons in our area through the Kairos Prison Ministry. Our volunteers have partnered with volunteers from many churches in our area to impact the lives of men and women in Glades, Martin, South Bay and Broward Correctional Institutions. It has been our experience that these volunteers once they start often get hooked and deeply committed to this work.

We still have many challenges before us but God has been very kind to us and our hope and confidence are in the faithfulness of Christ and His unfailing love for His church. May He forgives our many failures and may He bless beyond all reason or expectation, our small obediences.

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