Dear Redeemer Men,
One of the things I appreciate most about our fellowship together is our ability to both laugh with each other and also lean into the serious things of life. These are both good for the soul! We need to be both lighthearted and gravely serious.
I’d like to ask you to mark off Saturday evening, October 2, from 6:00-8:00 p.m. so that we can enjoy both of these together. Please RSVP here.
THE LIGHTHEARTED
It’s high time we did a Chili Cookoff! Whether you’ve got a 100 year old secret family recipe or you’ve never cooked a meal in your life, bring a pot of your best stuff! Please indicate in your registration that you’ll be bringing a pot of chili. (Of course, if you don’t enjoy cooking, all you really need to bring in order to attend is your appetite.) We’ll provide the drinks and chips. You bring the chili and favorite dragon-lava-habanero hot sauce.
THE GRAVELY SERIOUS
After we sample the chilis and a victor is declared, we will settle in to listen to a very wise and gentle friend of mine talk to us about the way God has worked in his life. Skip Ryan is something of a spiritual father to me. He helped lead my own Dad to Christ through the ministry of Young Life at Yorktown High School in Arlington, VA. He planted Trinity Presbyterian Church in Charlottesville (where I grew up) and baptized me (at age 1). Years later, he went on to plant Park Cities Presbyterian Church in Dallas Texas, a church that grew quite large under his leadership - 5,500. During his time there, Skip also oversaw a church planting network that planted over 60+ new churches and he served as the Chancellor of Redeemer Theological Seminary in Dallas (now called Reformed Theological Seminary).
All of this work came to an abrupt halt when Skip revealed an addiction to prescription pain medication and resigned from all his many leadership positions. Since then, he and his wife Barbara have made a miraculous recovery and now spend much of their time serving and ministering to those who struggle with addiction, in all its many forms.
You can watch a brief, 14 minute, video about Skip & Barb Ryan’s story here.
Skip is now a part of our Diocese here in the Anglican Church and helps out at The Falls Church Anglican. I’ve been blessed to reconnect with him after many decades apart and continue to learn from him.
Gents, I hope you’ll make a priority to be present for this. I guarantee it will be both a fun and deeply transformative night for all of us. See you there!
In the Father’s love,
