TODAY IS SPECIAL for a few reasons.
First, this is our Congregational Singing Emphasis Month. Each year we take a month off of choir and special music to highlight the best part of our music ministry: you! Our congregational singing is one of the only activities that everyone can participate in. It is the one thing that takes up the most time in our weekly schedule (second only to preaching), and if we are lazy about our praise, we are missing a big part of our Christian lives.
Second, our Pastor Emeritus is starting a sermon series. It will be a little broken up, because I will preach next week for Father’s Day, but then my family heads out on vacation and Dad will preach June 28th and July 5. If you are new around here, we just celebrated 39 years in Temecula. Dad was 34 when he started the church, the same age I was when I became pastor, and today we get to enjoy the blessings of those decades of service.
Third, we get to welcome our newest staff: Bro. Alex Del Cid! In 2023, Bro. Alex interned here right after his Freshman year, and I loved his spirit. He returned last summer, and I knew then that I wanted God to bring him here long term to be our youth pastor. He has such a heart for teens and for California, and I know God will use him.
Bro. Alex will start as our summer intern, working full time at the church with Bro. Marcus. We will pay him the amount we would have put on his school bill, but since he has graduated Bible college, he is staying! After the summer, he will transition to part time, working only a few days per week and getting a side job.
We have committed to one year with Bro. Alex as our staff intern. After that year, if God continues to lead, we will move him to a more permanent staff position, but we remain open to wherever God might lead once that one-year mark hits. This just gives us a date on the calendar to mutually decide which doors God is opening or closing.
We already love Bro. Alex, and we’re so excited he’s here. I talked to someone last week in Phoenix who knew him and said, “It’s nice when the staff and faculty like someone, but it’s different when their peers think highly of them. We love Alex Del Cid—he’s crazy!—and it says a lot when he’s loved by fellow students.”
I totally agree. –Pastor Ryan