I hope you read last week’s 5-part series on disciple-making in churches, starting with May 5’s “Finding New Ways.” I had three in mind when I started, but my friend Henry Brown, now living in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, commented:

I posted your last blog on “Finding New Ways” to my Planning and Research Committee (how Presbyterian is that name!) Hopefully it will engage us in some good discussion. Thanks for bring that to our attention. Our Pastor has already encouraged us to reexamine at our priorities.

My reaction was immediate: “Wow! Somebody actually reads this stuff, and it may help their church!” I told Henry to be on the lookout for the next two blogs, and I was so motivated I wrote two more after those two.

Thanks, Henry, and for us all: never underestimate the power of an encouraging word.

Encourage one another daily… (Hebrews 3.13, NIV)

Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. (1 Thessalonians 5.11, ESV)