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Hi everyone! I trust that you’re all having a good week, and finding cozy places to relax when our days have been cool and damp. I’m glad to see that snow is falling and the snowpack is building up on top of the mountains. Not so sure I want it to snow down here on the streets, though. Hopefully, the roads will stay clear this year. We’ll see what happens!

Winter isn’t over yet, but the season has certainly changed in our house. As of this week, the Christmas tree is down and back in the closet until November. There’s more room to move around, but I must say that at first it all feels a little bare, and we miss the cheery lights when the sun goes down. The same is true at church. The sanctuary is lovely, as always, but it does feel a bit less cozy without the trees and other decorations to warm things up. Oh well - just 10.5 months and we can put them up again! (Thanks once more to Liz and team for all their work decorating for our Advent season and then undecorating for January.)

Our rhythms feel a little more normal here in the office, though in some significant ways it’s a “new normal” this month. It has been wonderful, and very exciting, to have Aldo in the office this past week. I know he (and his family) will be a blessing to us all, as they have to our Chinese community over the past year. I’m looking forward to the good things that will unfold in our church’s ministry as a result of the gifts and insights that come with our new Associate Pastor. Still, anytime we add a staff member, there are adjustments: another voice at the staff meeting table, another team member’s schedule to coordinate, another office to check before turning out the lights and locking the doors at the end of the day. They are good adjustments, of course. But adjustments, all the same.

This will be especially true for Aldo himself. I remember how many things I had to figure out when I started in January 2 years ago, and I can imagine he’ll feel a real mix of excitement and puzzlement for the first few weeks as he sorts out his schedule, makes plans, gets used to the peculiarities of his various coworkers, and figures out which keys open which doors. As you have the opportunity, please do greet him and make him feel welcome in this new role. (I know many of you have already—thanks so much for your welcoming spirit!)  And be praying for Aldo and his family as they take on this new role. It’s an exciting opportunity, but these times are frequently also mixed with various hiccups and even with some spiritual opposition. May they sense His presence, leading, gifting, and enabling in a special way these days.

You can be praying for the rest of our staff team as we make adjustments, too. We want to be a helpful, unified, collaborative and encouraging staff team for everyone, and especially for new members. For me personally, this is a journey into new territory. I’ve managed plenty of staff over the years, but this is my first experience as a Lead Pastor working with an expanding pastoral team. So, I’ll need the Lord’s wisdom and direction as well, to make sure that we create an environment where Aldo can be at his best.

Thanks for your prayers, and for all the words and gestures of encouragement that come our way so often. Our church staff really appreciate both. It’s a delight to serve such a wonderful church community.

On other fronts, this Sunday we’ll continue in Colossians chapter 3. Paul gets really practical in this part of the letter, so I know I’m going to be challenged and encouraged in some tangible ways as I study and prepare. I imagine (and hope!) we’ll all have that experience as we consider the upcoming section together.

This week we’re going to explore Colossians 3:1-11, mostly focusing on verses 5-11. In this section, we’re urged to “put off” the old way of living. This is paired with teaching about the qualities we should “put on” in the verses that follow, which we’ll dig into next week. As always, I encourage you to look through the passage in preparation for Sunday morning.

If you’d like to probe the context a little more fully, you might also want to read the parallel section in Ephesians, which comes at Eph 4:17-5:21. The Ephesians section is longer and goes into more detail on some things. It also mixes the “putting off” and “putting on” rather than separating them quite so neatly. But its overall emphasis is similar, and there are a number of specific parallels between the letters, so it adds an interesting dimension that we won’t have time to explore in detail on Sunday.

In the meantime, have a wonderful week. Stay safe if the snow does fall. May your 2026 get off to a great start! Richest blessings, and I hope to see you soon.

—Pastor Ken