January 26, 2024
This Sunday's congregational meeting is a significant moment in the life of our church, and I encourage you to read over the material that we've mailed out the last several weeks (if you've thrown away or misplaced your letters, you can read them here and here!). I know we've been sending you a lot of information recently, with the congregational meeting and Missions Festival happening in quick succession, but we want to make sure you're informed of all that is happening.
We'll meet at 10:00 in the Sanctuary to elect new officers, vote on three motions, and receive a budget presentation from Bill Alvis (our Treasurer) and Tom Young (our World Missions Committee chairman).
The officer candidates approved by the Session as eligible for election are John Neiswinger and Andy Rowan (for Elder) and Garrett McMullen and Steve Tackitt (for Deacon). For each man, you will be able to vote YES or NO or abstain from voting. Our Book of Church Order states, "a majority of all the votes cast (excluding blanks and abstentions) shall be required to elect."
We will vote on the two recommendations regarding Pastor Carl's retirement:
1. To accept the resignation of Carl Kalberkamp as Associate Pastor of Pear Orchard Presbyterian Church with great sorrow and with great joy for his thirty years of ministry among us, and to concur with his request that the Presbytery of the Mississippi Valley dissolve the pastoral relation between him and the church.
2. To elect Carl Kalberkamp as Pastor Emeritus of Pear Orchard Presbyterian Church, effective April 1, 2024, pending his being designated as honorably retired by the Presbytery of the Mississippi Valley in February.
We will vote on the recommendation regarding 419 Northpark Drive: To approve the purchase of 419 Northpark Drive for a staff office building.
More information about these motions and the 2024 budgets can be found in the links above.
Next Sunday (February 4), we will have a joint worship service in the Gym at 10:30 a.m., so that we might all be present for the ordination and installation of our new officers. The Lord has been faithful and merciful to give us elders and deacons to shepherd and serve His flock. He has also been kind to give every believer in Jesus gifts to use for His glory and the good of the body, and the sermon next Sunday on the stewardship of those gifts will be the last in our stewardship series. Make every effort to be with us the next two Lord's Days!
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As you'll see below, on February 11-18, we will hold our annual Missions Festival. Our preachers will be our own Pastor Carl Kalberkamp on the morning of February 11, Pastor Jeff Jordan (RUF Campus Minister at Mississippi College) on the evening of February 11, Pastor Esaie Etienne (a missionary in Haiti and the Dominican Republic) on Wednesday evening, and Dr. Michael Allen (Systematic Theology professor at RTS-Orlando) on both morning and evening of February 18. And of course, we'll have various missionaries with us in worship services and in Sunday School classes on February 18. Other activities are planned, so please review the brochure you'll be receiving in the mail or visit our website. Please be praying for the Lord to continue stirring our hearts to labor to fulfill His great commission from Matthew 28, so that all the nations might follow Him and be glad in Him!
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I recently came across the first issue of Notes From the Orchard, an online journal of sorts that we published at POPC from 2016-2018. (You can see all the issues here.) In that first issue I wrote about John Newton's wonderful reflections on the benefits of affliction -- a topic that is always relevant, but particularly it seems during this season in which so many have been walking through cancer treatments, deaths of family members, and other losses, griefs, and heartaches. I encourage you to read that article (as well as John Kwasny's article on marriage!). Our Lord promises never to leave us or forsake us, and to cause all our suffering to work together for good - as we sing together in the hymn How Firm a Foundation, "When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie, My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply; the flame shall not hurt thee; I only design Thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine." May the Lord comfort and strengthen you as you meditate upon His word in the midst of the fiery trials He has ordained for your growth in grace!