This summer our Lead Pastor, Ricky Alcantar, will be on Sabbatical from May through July. Our church has put into place a sabbatical policy for our staff pastors that they take a sabbatical like this every 7 years and Ricky is hitting his 7 year milestone as a pastor this summer. This is something we’ve been encouraged to have in place by other pastors and something that is becoming a “best practice” for staff pastors and especially Lead Pastors.

How to Pray for Ricky
During his sabbatical Ricky will pursue a focused program of rest, spiritual renewal, and personal study. He’ll be supported and coached through this by Crosspoint, an outside counseling ministry that specializes in coaching pastoral sabbatical. He’ll be back to regular ministry duties August 1st and back preaching on August 6th.

Here are some specific ways to pray for him and his family:

• Pray that Ricky would grow as he focuses on his relationship with the Lord
• Pray that Ricky, Jenn, and the family would have a refreshing time away together
• Pray for Todd and Joe and the staff that they’d fruitfully manage the church’s activities while Ricky is gone
• Pray for our Leadership Team that they’d faithfully shepherd the church over the summer

Summer Preaching
Over the summer we’ll be going through the Psalms. Our preaching team will consist of pastor Tom Wilkins, Jonathan Mathews, and Vince Corpus. They’ll be teaching through the highs and lows of walking with God.

We’ll also have a number of guest speakers from our Sovereign Grace family of churches:

• 5/28/17: Craig Cabaniss, Lead Pastor of Grace Church in Frisco, TX
• 6/11/17: Tony Walsh, Lead Pastor of Grace Community Church in Westminster, CO -- Former Senior Pastor of Cross of Grace Church
• 6/25/17: Jon Payne, Lead Pastor of Redemption Hill Church in Round Rock, TX -- Chairman of the Board, Sovereign Grace Churches
• 7/16/17: Carlos Contreras, Lead Pastor at Gracia Soberana in Juarez, Mexico -- Regional Leader, Gracia Soberana Mexico
• 7/23/17: Mike Seaver, Lead Pastor of Sovereign Grace Church of the Lowcountry in Charleston, SC -- Sovereign Grace National Church Planting Group

If you have any questions about the sabbatical or our summer schedule please reach out to our church office at office@crossofgrace.net