One of the great blessings of working at Independent Presbyterian Church is that I get to be here most days, so I see and experience many of the wonderful things that we have to offer- ways to learn, serve, worship and connect with God and other people. There is a lot that happens here outside of what we do on Sundays! I want to highlight three opportunities that might be of interest.

Wednesday nights The delicious dinners prepared by Kim Martin and her staff are reason enough to come to church on Wednesday nights. Dinner is offered from 5:15 to 6:15 pm in the Great Hall. At $8 per adult and youth 12 and up, $6 per senior adult and $5 per child (with a family maximum of $25), it is the best dinner bargain in town.

But I also want to call your attention to the classes offered after dinner from 6:15 to 7:15 pm. The Focus on Faith Team has assembled an incredible array of speakers to present as part of our Highland Avenue Forum entitled, Love Thy Neighborhood. We have invited many of our neighbors to explain what they do and help us understand our community so that we might be better equipped to join God in the world. The speakers are journalists, artists and leaders of community groups. You won’t want to miss what they have to share with us. Additionally, we have Greek reading with Dr. Carl, a class on identity, poetry with Stanley Rich, Bible study with Bill Casey, and more! You can find more information about everything we are doing on Wednesday nights, including programs for children and youth and choir online at www.ipc-usa.org/learn.

This fall, Susan Clayton and I will be leading a Tapestries group on the first and third Tuesdays of the month. We’re reading short stories, mostly by Southern writers, from Susan Ketchin’s Christ Haunted Landscape: Faith and Doubt in Southern Fiction and the Listening for God series. We bring our lunch and gather for food and fellowship at 11:30 am; book discussion begins at noon.

Finally, I want to put in a plug for our weekly Wednesday Noonday Chapel Service. This is a short, traditional but fairly informal service with communion. This service has become an important touchstone for many of us, a re-centering time of worship in the middle of the week. There’s also coffee, tea and snacks in the parlor just before this service.

Hope to see you mid-week at IPC!
Rev. Elizabeth Cole Goodrich