Ryan Hairston Recovery Updates
Ryan, our youth minister, was severely injured in an auto accident. To keep everyone informed on the latest news of his healing process we are posting updates to the website.MORE

Chainsaw Saturday
Construction help needed. This Saturday, Feb. 25, we continue preparing our new church building! Workers of any skill level are welcome to help remove trees, tile, carpet, etc. Donuts and a tour of the building begin at 8:30 a.m. with work starting at 9:00 a.m. Other Saturday workdays will follow if you can't make this one. To join in, contact John Taylor at 972 668-3899 or jdtay77777@aol.com

PARENTING CONFERENCE 2006
Preston Trail Community Church is partnering with Watermark Community Church for an exciting Parenting Conference. Please join us for the Watermark Parenting Workshop, Saturday, April 1 from 9 am - 4 pm at the Watermark Building (7540 LBJ Frwy). The Workshop will help you develop a blueprint for raising your kids in a way that builds a strong identity and sets them up to be effective in the world. Childcare is available for a small free.A dinner for PTCC guests will immediately follow the event at a local restaurant. Please register in the lobby or send an email to info@prestontrail.org.

Men’s CLC Groups
If you want to be in a men’s CLC group, there are still a few openings. Currently, we have three CLC groups with 33 men involved. We would like to start three more groups of 10-12 men each. CLC stands for Christian Leadership Concepts and is designed to challenge men to be leaders at home, in the church, and in the community. Sign up at the Life Group Table.MORE

Discover Preston Trail Class
New to PTCC? Join Pastors Jim and Paul on Sundays at 11:00 AM as we take a look at our church and where it is going. This is an opportunity for all guests who are new to PTCC to learn more. Session will meet at the AMC Theatre. Please signup at the Life Group table. A 5 week Partnership Class will follow for all those interested in becoming a PTCC partner.MORE

JOB OPPORTUNITIES:
RESOURCE SERVING TEAM LEADER
Are you looking for a critical team to lead? We are seeking a leader for the resource team. This team records the weekly sermon, saves and copies it to CDs and provides them for sale in our lobby. The leader will oversee the sales team and work with our webmaster in getting the sermon on our site. Sign up on the offering card today or contact info@prestontrail.org for more information.

GUEST SERVICES DIRECTOR
Customer Service at its finest. We are looking for a customer driven, guest services leader to come on our staff at PTCC. This person will be responsible for overseeing the entire new guest process; from welcoming, registration, followup and more. Job is about 10 hours a week. We are seeking candidates who have former customer service experience. Please contact info@prestontrail.org for more information on the application process...and get that resume ready!

Calling All Men Softball Players!
Sign up in the lobby to join this year's team. Games are played Monday evenings starting 3/06 through 5/8. $30 registration fee. Contact Andy Tuggey for more details at jtuggey@comcast.net.

Life Groups
Now’s the time! In January, many of our Life Groups will be starting new studies. Stop by the Life Group table today and find a group that works for you.MORE

Chapter 2
Join us WEEKLY on Wednesday evenings at 7:00 PM, for a deeper service of biblical teaching, looking into the Life of Jesus. Led by our senior pastors, this will be a meaningful time of prayer, worship and teaching. 7:00 PM AMC Theatre.

Answered Prayer and a Heads Up!

In case you missed it, Ryan Hairston was back at church last Sunday.  After two months of hospitalization, recuperation, and rehab he was back in his place of service with our Students.  What a joyful day of celebration!  Paul and I want to thank you again for the astounding ways you rallied around him and Laura—praying for them, being with them, caring for their personal needs, bringing them tons of food.  You have been the comforting presence of God to them.  Way to go PTCC!

In many ways Ryan’s experience is a powerful metaphor for the way the church is to function.  Sometimes life crashes in on us, we soon find ourselves in need of intensive care, a period of recuperation, or some serious rehab before we get back in the game of fulfilling God’s purposes for our lives.  At any given moment various people are in one of those stages.  A healthy church is able to meet the needs of people wherever they are in this “life cycle” and help them take the next step toward wholeness.  In essence a fully functioning church has to be a spiritual hospital, a mission outpost, and training and equipping center all at the same time!  What a challenge it is to build that kind of church for God and his kingdom.

Speaking of building . . . things are truly hopping!  We’ve got almost fifty people signed up to work this Saturday at the new building.  We’ll be clearing a small grove of scrub trees in order to provide additional overflow parking and tearing up old flooring in the building.  Should be a fun way to spend a Saturday!

Here’s an important heads up on how we are going to be financing the building.  Our Dream Big commitments made it possible for us to get a bridge loan from a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) in order to close on the building.  In order to pay for the remodeling and provide permanent financing we are going to be doing a Bond Issue.

Some of you may have been in churches that sold bonds in order to finance a new building.  If you are unfamiliar with church bonds, let me give you a basic introduction to the whole process.  Church bonds are very similar to bonds that are sold to finance new schools, city improvements, and hospitals.  If you’ve been keeping up with Frisco ISD, you’ve heard that they are proposing a record Bond Issue.  Don’t worry we won’t be trying to keep up with FISD!

When you buy a bond you are basically loaning money to an enterprise and they in turn promise to pay you back at some predetermined time with interest.  Bonds are a stable and conservative investment strategy that many people use in their investment or retirement portfolios.

Through Share Financial we are going to issue 3.2 million dollars of bonds to the general market.  People outside our church can buy them for various terms (6 months, 1 year, 5 years, etc) and earn somewhere in the neighborhood of 5-7%, which in today’s market is a strong fixed rate.  The bonds we are offering are called “mortgage backed bonds” because they are guaranteed by the value of our property, and thus are a lower risk investment. 

Before we offer them to the general public, however, we are going to offer them to attenders and friends of PTCC for several important reasons:

In order to help everyone understand this outstanding opportunity we are hosting two Building Tour/Information Meetings at the new building at 10501 FM 720:

Sunday, March 26th: Tour at 4:00, Information Meeting at 5:00, IRA Seminar at 6:00
Monday, March 27th: Tour at 6:30, Information Meeting at 7:00, IRA Seminar at 8:00

We hope you will come and get in on the excitement. God is doing a powerful work in and through PTCC!

I can’t wait to see you this Sunday at the AMC!  Paul is continuing our challenging new series Why Men Hate Going to Church.  He’ll help us understand what true masculinity really is!

All blessings!

Read previous Trail Notes here

Click here for more information on Dream Big!