Attention Serving Team Leaders!!!
A new building brings change...especially for serving teams. We have a great team of people ready to help you plan, recruit and train you and your teams for all the exciting changes ahead. Join us on Saturday, April 8th from 8:30-10:30 at the PTCC Building to kick off the process. A hot breakfast will be served. Future meetings will be on Saturday, May 6th and Saturday, June 17th.MORE

Chainsaw Saturday
This Saturday 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

Calling all PTCC parents! Our next baby/child dedication will be on Mother’s Day, Sunday May 14th. To participate, simply sign up at the Information Table or drop your Welcome card in the offering bucket. For additional questions, please contact Allison Harrell at info@prestontrail.org.

Mark Your Calendar - Adventure Camp
It’s time to start planning that summer calendar. Before it gets too busy, make sure to add Adventure Camp, which will be June 5-9 for children 2nd-5th grade. For more information, contact Jeri Taylor at jeritaylor323@msn.com.

Coming Soon - Youth Camp
Also, plan ahead for Youth Camp, which will happen July 17-21 in Corpus Christi, TX. Cost of the camp will be $365 which includes a 4 night 5 day stay in the Holiday Inn - Emerald Beach, meals, as well as a great speaker and band. You don’t want to miss out. Contact Ryan Hairston at ryan@prestontrail.org for more information.

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

LISTEN!
Sermons now available online! In keeping up with the times, all PTCC Worship Sermons are available for downloading on our website. So, if you missed a service, go here and take a listen.
You will have the option of downloading and listening to them on your computer or even downloading them to your iPod. CDs will no longer be sold at our Resource Table, however entire sermon series will be available for purchase once our new building is complete.

Life Groups
Now’s the time! Many of our Life Groups are starting new studies. Stop by the Life Group table today and find a group that works for you.MORE

Getting Tweaked

Ever have someone “tweak” your nose?  It is not an especially pleasant feeling to have someone grab your nose between the knuckles of their index and middle fingers and then twist and pull.  As far as I’m concerned there’s nothing much that is redemptive about having your nose tweaked!  This week, though, God tweaked my heart.  It felt like he grabbed it between his knuckles and gave it a pretty good twist and pull.  Fortunately, there are some mighty good things that can come from having your heart tweaked!

It happened as I was doing preparation for my CLC group.  We are currently learning some powerful Bible Study techniques and I was practicing them on Revelation 2:1-7.  Revelation 2 is a sobering chapter in this hope-filled book.  In it Jesus offers words of encouragement and “tweakage” to a group of the earliest churches.  Verses 1-7 contain his affirmation and challenge to the church at Ephesus.  In a nutshell, Jesus commends them for all their good deeds, their hard work, and perseverance in the face of great trials.  In spite of this he has one grave concern.  They have forsaken their “first love.”  He then challenges them to remember the things that they did when they first met him and were captivated by his love and grace. 

What could those “first things” be?  I remember the first time I was struck by love.  Do you? I wanted three things—to know more about her, to be with her as much as I could, and to tell everyone I knew about this incredible girl.  When you think about your response to being struck by Christ’s love, there are some striking similarities—a desire to know him better, to spend time with him in prayer and worship, and to tell everyone how he has made a difference in your life. 

Somehow in the busyness of doing church stuff, the believers in Ephesus had gotten away from these fundamental relational responses which would keep their hearts open to the transforming presence of Christ.  As a result, He tells them that if they don’t get back to these first things he won’t be hanging around much anymore.  After all, who needs Jesus when you’ve got all that church stuff to do?

Here’s the application for us.  At PTCC we’ve been through a successful season of raising money, buying a building, and preparing to move into that building.  While all of these things are necessary and good, it is quite easy to lose our focus on “the first things.”  That’s why I’m excited about the Easter season.  It has an uncanny ability to pull our hearts back to our first love.

This Sunday, the Worship Service has been especially designed to allow God to recapture our hearts and renew our focus on the main thing—Christ’s saving love and sacrifice and our calling to invite others to experience it, too.  Our Creative Arts Team has woven clips of The Passion of the Christ in with a dramatic presentation of Scripture to retell the story of Christ’s sacrifice.  Don’t miss it.  It will rekindle the passion of your heart for Christ!

Expectantly,

Jim 

Read previous Trail Notes here

Click here for more information on Dream Big!

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.