This can't be London in the UK, can it? Otherwise I'd be very surprised at some of the phrases employed in his email: 'Bro Craig', 'saving you a hell lot of trouble', 'new church branch we just opened next week', 'time devoted on planning', 'hope to read from you soonest', none of which I expect would be in common usage by 'pastors' in the UK.
(Please don't take the above as any sort of criticism of US idioms of speech, it's just a fact that people talk differently in different countries...)
James.