Sign Up Today - Baptism
Mark your calendars for one of the biggest events at PTCC! Baptism will take place on October 1st, 5:00p.m. at the home of John and Jeri Taylor (6091 Rachel Drive - Starwood Subdivision). If you are interested in being baptized, join us for an informational meeting on Tuesday, September 26th at 7p.m. Place TBA. Sign up in the lobby today, or for more information, please email us at info@prestontrail.org.

Coming Soon! Discover Preston Trail Class
Discover Preston Trail is an informational meeting hosted by our seniorpastors where they share the mission and vision of PTCC, as well as what it means to participate fully as a partner. The next Discover Preston Trail is scheduled for Sunday, August 20 from 5:30 - 7:00 p.m. at the home of John & Jeri Taylor (6091 Rachel Drive). If you are interested in attending, either sign-up at the information center, contact us via email at info@prestontrail.org, or give us a call at 972-668-1244 and let us know you’re coming and how many children (if any) you’re bringing with you. We look forward to answering any questions you have about Preston Trail Community Church or what it means to find and follow Jesus Christ.

Women’s Fall Bible Study - Sign Up Today!
This Fall, Carla Moss, Director of Women’s Ministries, will be leading a new study called The Power of A Praying Woman. The session will run 11 weeks. Please signup today if you are interested. The number of groups, date and times will be finalized once signup is completed. The study will start in late August/early September. In January 2007, we will start our large group/small group expanded bible study program. The Spring Bible Study will be Beth Moore’s Daniel. For more information, visit our website or send an email to womens@prestontrail.org. MORE

CLASSIFIED: Get on board!!!
Are you looking to make a difference at PTCC? Enclosed in this week's program is a Classified Ad which highlights some of the best serving opportunities at PTCC. Use the gifts God has given you while developing new friendships by simply signing up for a team on the back of your welcome card or by sending an email to info@prestontrail.org. MORE

Online Giving
Make your life simpler by automating your giving. Follow the easy directions at www.prestontrail.org to setup for debit or credit card for regular giving and dream big donations. All transactions are secure and will appear on your regular statement.

Life Groups
Sign up at the Information Table or email info@prestontrail.org and get involved in a group!

Fantasy Football

It’s happening all over the country this week.  Fans of all ages are pumped.  They are studying, planning, strategizing.  What’s the big deal you ask?  It’s Fantasy Football draft days!  Fantasy Football has become a huge fall phenomenon.  Special sections are devoted to it in major sports magazines.  Just Google it and you will find everything you ever wanted to know about this year’s players and who you should draft.  At the heart of the whole exercise is discerning the potential of each player.  Who do you think will excel this year?  Who is coming off a lackluster year, but has trained exceptionally hard and is poised now for greatness?  Those who are deemed worthy will be drafted.  Those who don’t have the potential will stay on the board.

While this process is rather benign when it is undertaken in Fantasy Football, it can become quite harmful and devastating if we use it in the course of everyday relationships.  If we only relate to and value those people with high potential and shelve the rest we will become relational mercenaries.  Perhaps this approach to people is effective in the short run, the down side, though, is that most often mercenaries wind up alone.  Thankfully, God doesn’t look at us or others in this way.  He doesn’t look at us and say, “Sorry, you’re scout team material at best, take a hike!”  He sees each of us through the lens of what we can become in Him.

We often get in this mode when we think of sharing our faith.  We look at a neighbor or an office mate and think in our minds, “Wow, they are far away from God.”  Their moral character or their disinterest in spiritual things seems so evident to us.  Convinced that there is no hope for them spiritually, we just leave them on the shelf.  We write them off and never pray for them or think that God has a chance to break through into their hearts.

The Apostle Paul, however, encourages us not to look at people in this way.  In fact he says in 2 Corinthians 5:16 that we are to no longer look at people the way the world does.  We are to see them through the eyes of Christ.  We are to see everyone through the lens of what Christ can do in their hearts and lives.  With that in mind, I want to encourage you to start praying for the person you know who is least likely, at least in your mind, of ever darkening the door of a church.  Pray that God would start to soften their hearts.  Pray that God would give you a natural occasion to bring up spiritual things in a conversation.  Pray that he will give you the words to say that will plant a living seed of the good news in their hearts.

This is the way God and his message work best—from one life to another.  One of the things that is so encouraging to me is the way so many of you are practicing our values of investing and inviting.  We have had so many new people in worship in recent days.  We aren’t doing any marketing.  It’s just people like you telling others about the love of Christ and that they can experience it in tangible ways at PTCC.  Awesome!

This Sunday is going to be another powerful one.  Paul is going to be continuing our series entitled Trading Up!  We’ve been in the movie theater for four years now and we’ve got to get our heads and hearts around what it is going to be like doing ministry in our very own building.  Paul will be casting a vision of all that God can do in our hearts and the hearts of others in this new home that He has given us.

I look forward to seeing you and a friend this Sunday!

Jim

P.S. In order to help provide enough seating space for our expected crowd, would you consider sitting down front in what we affectionately call the “Mosh Pit.”  You will help us free up some seats for our new guests and we promise you won’t get moshed!   

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.

LISTEN! Preston Trail Podcast
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 subscribe here or press the iTunes image on the right to have them come to your computer automatically each time one is added - then play them on your computer or 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.