tbc Worship & Fellowship

Good News! New Sound System will soon be installed in the Sanctuary

Did you know that we have a brand new sound system on the way? 

Did you know that a generous donor has helped us to purchase of a brand new sound system? The soon-to-be installed system will help us to enhance sound quality for those physical present in the Sanctuary and also to share the service neighbors in every corner of the world! We are looking for a handful of folks to help learn the new system and work in a rotation on Sunday mornings at either the sound board, podcast station and/or livestream station.

The new soundboard will give us a tremendous amount of flexibility and the new speakers will greatly enhance the listening experience for worship participants in the Sanctuary. The new system also features hearing assistance devices!

Our Live Stream  ministry continues to gain momentum.  While on average live attendance is under six viewers, our regular attendees are able to keep a vivid digital connection to the family. Where Live Stream clearly has seen an increase is the number of views post live Worship. There has been an increase from 20 average views to 40 average views per week in the 30 days that follow the service.

The Podcast Ministry enables our church family, immediate and extended alike, to listen to the services. Unlike the LiveStream, we are able to archive all of our worship services. The search feature on the website makes the entire library of Worship Services, and Wednesday Night Bible Studies, accessible. Listeners can also subscribe via their portable devices for automatic downloads.

Currently, we are looking for volunteers to come upstairs in the balcony to observe our current system and begin to learn the basics. Ideally, we would like a rotation of volunteers so that everyone has ample opportunity to worship downstairs, alongside the majority of the congregation.

Interested in learning more? Just swing by the sound board the next time your present on a Sunday morning. TBC Worship 201612

 

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Blog entry featuring our Pastor’s advice for churches pursuing sabbatical for their staff members

Home Again

This blog post is part of a series that features guest posts from pastors who have participated in Lilly Endowment Clergy Renewal grants. We wish to highlight some helpful approaches to the process which have allowed these grants to be blessings to both the pastors who go on renewal leaves and to the congregations themselves.

The impact upon the congregation was positive and focused. The church offered the sabbatical as a gift to myself and my family. The vast majority of congregants were genuinely rooting for me in the long waiting period between submission of the application and confirmation of selection. The congregation burst into spontaneous applause when they learned that we had been selected by the Clergy Renewal Program. Some worried about the longevity of absence and others were a bit skeptical about the theme. However, the church did a magnificent job preparing for the absence, and the leadership stepped up in all the right ways. To my knowledge, Tabernacle Baptist Church has never offered a three-month sabbatical to a pastor in its 125+ years of existence. However, I now believe the church would not hesitate to offer an extended sabbatical for myself, or future pastoral staff members, because of this positive first experience.
Here are some practical thoughts for pastors and congregations that are considering applying for the renewal grant:

  • The clergy renewal team was formed and began their work several months prior to the submission of the application. We worked collaboratively on a shared google document as the actual grant submission required multiple drafts.
  • We made a concerted effort to include multiple voices from various church leaders throughout the grant. The task was less intimidating and also reflected the congregation’s voice as a whole.
  • The clergy renewal team hosted a town hall meeting and a series of brief articles to keep the congregation informed. They also released a Sabbatical Q&A booklet just before the beginning of the sabbatical to help answer questions about my absence. Clergy Renewal: The Alban Guide to Sabbatical Planning provided a wonderful template.
  • I resisted the urge to check Facebook throughout the majority of the sabbatical and avoided reading church newsletters. That said, I spent some time reading through the church Facebook entries, newsletters, and bulletins the week leading up to re-entry. It provided a good snapshot of activities that took place and also the evolving prayer list.
  • I suggest you set up an auto-reply on your e-mail stating that your account won’t be checked. Ask folks to wait to e-mail you upon your return so that you aren’t looking at a full e-mail box on the first week you are back. Same goes for voicemails.
  • Your colleagues with previous sabbatical experience are telling the truth: it takes some time to get back into the rhythm. The post-sabbatical fog is real, but it won’t last forever. Most of us don’t realize how tired we are until we finally get a chance to break away and rest. Sabbatical provides deep rest and re-entry can be jarring. I suggest you create a “start here” folder and place it atop your desk for the first day you enter back into the office. Some of the folder’s contents may include: upcoming sermon passages for the next season, a calendar of events for the upcoming season, advice on bad habits you promised to put down on the other side of sabbatical important issues you left behind before you left, etc.
  • Pay it forward – identify five colleagues that could use sabbaticals but aren’t serving in congregations that have experience with sabbaticals. Offer to bring some of your lay leaders to their church to speak to the benefit of offering a sabbatical to their pastor.

This piece has been adapted from the reflections of Pastor Sterling Severns from Tabernacle Baptist Church of Richmond, Virginia, who says that, “The sabbatical was life-changing.”

The Lilly Endowment Clergy Renewal Programs at Christian Theological Seminary(CTS) seek to strengthen Christian congregations by providing opportunities for pastors to step away briefly from the persistent obligations of daily parish life and to engage in a period of renewal and reflection. To request permission to repost this content, please contact clergyrenewal@cts.edu.

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Realizing Our God-Sized Vision:  April 2016 Update

Thanks to all of you who were able to attend our recent TBC Quarterly Business Meeting to hear about the Construction & Renovation Committee’s recommendations for next steps in realizing our God-Sized Vision.  For those of you who were unable to attend this meeting, the Committee will continue to make every effort to keep you updated in the weeks ahead regarding plans to move forward with prioritized renovations to our existing space.  Once we obtain updated drawings, announcements for small group meetings will be sent out.  We hope that most of the congregation will be engaged in those sessions to stay informed and to have questions you may have answered.

The committee has purposefully taken thoughtful and purposeful steps in evaluating the current needs of our church ministries and maximizing use of our current space.  Work completed over the past several months includes:

  • An updated analysis of space utilization for both current needs and continued growth was completed and reviewed.
  • The Committee obtained costs for several concepts that would help reduce the overall costs of our construction and renovation efforts.
  • An evaluation of total funds expected to be raised based on current campaign commitments was completed.
  • Based on anticipated available funds and use of existing space, a prioritization of functional changes that support our Vision is in process.

Based on that work and your input, the Construction & Renovation Committee is recommending the following changes begin in 2016, beginning soon with the replacement of the church’s air conditioning system for the sanctuary, the replacement of the roof of the Williams Building, and the demolition of the two row houses.  (Note:  Using the God-Sized Vision funds to replace the church’s air conditioning system for the sanctuary assumes a positive approval vote by the congregation on 5/8/16.)

While these efforts are completed, the Committee will finalize details for additional items on the list of recommended changes, including:

  • Create a Gathering Area on the Sanctuary Level
  • Build a New Elevator Tower, Including New Step Tower
  • Create a New Childcare/Church Entrance (After Demolition of the Row Houses)
  • Make Physical Appearance Improvements to the Williams Building 1st & 2nd Floor
  • Make Physical Appearance Improvements to the Williams Building 3rd Floor for Youth Summer Mission Teams
  • Remodel our Food Preparation Kitchen
  • Make Physical Appearance Improvements for the Main Church Room Floor Areas
  • Return of Green Space on Grove Avenue

With our anticipated collection of $914,322 by the end of 2016 for the God-Sized Vision campaign, we expect a shortfall of between $50,000 and $75,000 as a result of completing these renovations.  We ask for your ongoing fulfillment of your campaign commitments, your consideration of additional donations to the campaign to overcome the expected shortfall, and your ongoing prayers.  Your caring and engagement are key to our success!  Thank you in advance for your kind and generous support.

tbc Worship & Fellowship

Tabernacle Stories

Tabernacle Stories: A Wednesday Evening Series

A number of us have been meeting on Wednesday evenings in the fellowship hall after the weekly fellowship dinner for our “Tabernacle Stories” series. This is a seven-week series centered around the theme of “testimony.” Each week, we invite one or two people from our congregation to share stories about their spiritual journeys and where they have seen God at work in their lives. We ask questions and explore together how God is moving among us at Tabernacle and in the world.

I have to admit—this series has been more meaningful and richer than I ever anticipate. Each week, the stories we’ve heard have made us laugh, cry, and reflect in profound ways on God’s presence in our lives and in the life of our congregation.

The idea for this series started with a quote that my wife Beth shared with me. She had interviewed dozens of people for a history book she wrote about Camp Alkulana, and she was sharing something that a former camp director had told her about the power of stories. She said: “The story is told … as a testimony to what God has done and is doing. If we do not share the story, we believe, its power and truth is diluted, and its impact forgotten.”

I thought—how profound! It seems simple, and even obvious, on the one hand. We read in worship each week about the stories of God at work in the lives of our ancestors of faith: Abraham and Sarah, Ruth and Naomi, Isaiah, Jesus, Paul, Priscilla and Aquilla. But how often do we feel like we have permission to share with others what we think God has been—and is—up to in our own lives?

For me, the question became this:

How else do we know what God is up to in the world and in our lives unless we talk about it and share our stories?

So each week our guests have been sharing stories of their spiritual journeys. The first week, Jay Hartman shared very meaningfully about how he senses God’s presence at work in his life through his carpentry business. He isn’t on staff at a church, but he shared how he has come to see his day-to-day job is indeed a ministry. During our second week, Gail and Bill Welstead shared rich stories about their lives and their involvement in the life of Tabernacle Baptist Church for decades now. Bill, now a retired chemist and prescription drug maker, shared a poignant memory of a particular experience he had when wrestling with the ways in which he was gifted to serve God aside from his vocational calling:

“I was on my way home, and I remember…. I was at Brookland Park Boulevard and Brook Road…. And a voice came to me—not audible. But a voice came to my mind and it simply said, ‘Bill if you could make a drug that could cure the world of every disease, do you think it would be a better place?’ And I had to think about that. I thought about that all the way home, and the next day and the next day. And I was thinking, ‘You know, there would still be greed, and there would still be murder, and there would still be war, and there would still be all of these other things. Yeah, maybe people would feel better doing it. [laughter] But I began to realize that there has never been a drug made—nor will there be—that will change a man’s heart. That will transform a man—or person. … And so then I got the idea that, ‘God, you must be speaking to me.'”

You’ll have to listen to the podcast to see how Bill’s story continues!

Just this past week we got to hear from Kathy and Larry Allen, who recently became members of our church on Easter. They traced their journeys from Virginia all over the country and world. They shared their sense that God had called them back home to Richmond, and to Tabernacle Baptist Church in particular, to serve and use their gifts for ministry among us and in our community.

I share these snippets just to whet your appetite. They are just a glimpse of the amazing stories we’ve heard each week. I can only imagine that the stories we’ll hear in the coming weeks will be just as amazing. Through these stories we sense God at work in profound ways in our lives and in the life of our congregation. I hope you’ll join us.

Here is the remainder of our schedule of speakers:

April 27 – Naomi Reddish
May 4 – Vincent Sallie
May 11 – Bya Wann
May 18 – Samuel Lian

Grace and Peace,

Art Wright

Minister of Spiritual Formation

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Marriage Enrichment Retreat 2016 Update

On April 15 and 16, we held an in-town Marriage Enrichment Retreat. Seven couples gathered together at the church and discussed John Gottman’s book The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work. Couples spent time discussing how to deepen their relationships with each other, discussing how to handle different types of marital conflict, and shared their own experiences in their marriages and how they have gotten through difficult times and celebrated times when their marriage is thriving. The retreat provided the space for couples to gather together and be open and honest with each other, to know that they aren’t alone in this journey called “marriage,” and to have some tools and resources on hand for when they need them in their marriage’s future.
“We had a great time at the marriage retreat/workshop sponsored by Tabernacle Baptist Church this weekend. It’s always helpful to have some time to think, talk and pray about our marriage…and besides that, we loved having the chance to spend some “hanging-out” time with folks from church with whom we’ve only had a Sunday-morning-hello relationship.” – Beth McMahon

We hope to offer a marriage enrichment retreat at least once a year, in addition to having our Marriage Enrichment group that meets weekly on Wednesday nights at 6:30. If you would like to be involved in some of the planning for these events, or have interest in joining our Marriage Enrichment events, please contact Art Wright.

tbc Worship & Fellowship

TBC at CBFVA MISSION MADNESS, “Neighbours”

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This past weekend, our youth went to CBFVA Mission Madness retreat with a theme, “neighbours” hosted by Walnut Grove Baptist Church in Mechanicsville, VA. The retreat was coordinated by Mark Snipes. The youth learned about exploring ways to go beyond emotional and physical fences that hinder us from becoming a good neighbor to others. On Saturday, the youth went to different mission sites with their new group and did mission work the whole day like cleaning yards, raking leaves, gardening, fixing roofs and roads as well as helping Habitat for Humanity. Also, a few of our youth helped led worship service along with the worship leader, Rachel Scott. We are very proud of the work they did for others.

Also, we are very grateful and thankful for our chaperones, Sean and Chasity Dotson for spending time with our youth for the weekend. We could never thank enough our chaperones for looking after the youth. We also would like to say thank you to Wah Lo and Sah Hay Moo, and Jim and Ginny Meisner for welcoming us and letting the youth shower at their house. We give thanks for all your support, guidance and love for our youth.

tbc Worship & Fellowship

Tabernacle Child Care Center News: Pre-K Teachers to Teach ESL in China This Summer

TCCC’s Pre-K Teachers, Brittany Kaufman and Catherine Chop, are realizing a dream by going to China this summer to teach English as a Second Language (ESL).  We are so very excited for them!  Not only is this a blessing for the children in China who will benefit from their teaching gifts, it is also a blessing as they return and enrich their teaching to our TCCC children.

Please take a moment to pray for their safe travel to Beijing and success in their English camp with Chinese students.  If you would like to offer financial support, please make a check payable to TCCC and place it in Frances Mathews’ box in the church office.  The TCCC will then provide a total check to the teachers when fundraising has been completed.

Below is the letter from Brittany and Catherine with more information about their trip.  We thank you in advance for your prayers in support of this wonderful opportunity!

We are excited to announce that we have recently been honored with the opportunity to teach English as a second language at a school in Beijing, China this coming summer. 

The students we will be teaching range in age from preschool through middle school. After developing an innovative 2-week curriculum, we will be working with 15 children with the assistance of a local Chinese teacher. This day camp creates a fun learning environment in which children will learn more about our world while hearing and learning English from native speaking teachers.

Because Chinese families value their children learning English from native speakers, the day camp draws children from many other cities surrounding Beijing, and serves as outreach for the school during the summer. Our teaching team will leave the U.S. on July 6 and return on July 24. 

In order to make this journey possible, we need your help in raising $2200 to pay for housing and meals and school supplies while we are in China.

If you would like to contribute to an experience that will not only be life changing for us, but also help the students we will be teaching, it would be greatly appreciated. If you would like more details about our trip before you contribute, please feel free to contact us!  

This opportunity is something that until now, we have only dreamt of doing and can’t wait to begin our journey! Thank you so much for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,
Brittany & Catherine

 

DSCN1074 Catherine Chop Pre K DSCN1072 Rosemary Kaufman Pre K

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Live Stream Ministry

The 2015 Live Stream has experienced great success! While on average live attendance is under six viewers, our regular attendees are able to keep a vivid digital connection to the family. Where Live Stream clearly has seen an increase is the number of views post live Worship. There has been an increase from 20 average views to 40 average views per week in the 30 days that follow the service. While we are only able to store online 30 days we have see several weeks with ~70 views and up to 92 views before the video expires.  This expiration is due to the Live Stream Free account we use auto-removes the videos after 30 days.

We have received positive feedback as folks have been able to join in worship when ill, after a long week who participate in their PJs, are at work, and have been away with family but catch up in the afternoon prior to meeting with their small group to discuss the service and sermon together. During the Christmas Eve service the Live Stream allowed families with children to participate in the service in the fellowship hall below the service overhead.

The platform was build to last 3-5 years without upgrade, and we are on track without requiring any capital costs. However there is no regular video archiving as it is currently and ad hoc manual process, also the system is not on a back schedule so if there is a failure all archived data is lost and a the system must be rebuilt from scratch.

With the successes in 2015 we have seen a drop in volunteers on Sunday morning. Two of the students have stepped up to assist however there is a need for a few more committed volunteers to join the team in 2016.  The ask is for one operator per week to create the event, start the stream, operate the camera during the service, and end the event. We covet your prayers and support for 2016.

David Wolf

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Youth Ministry at TBC

The past year has been a tremendous year of growth and relationship building for our youth! Here are a few of the highlights from the 2015 year:

  • We continued with our Wednesday Night D Groups as our middle and high school students gathered to discuss the passage for the upcoming Sunday. Leadership was provided by Mark Snipes, Kate Ayers, Emily White, and Samuel Lian.
  • Sunday School continues to be a time of fellowship and discussion with leadership from David Wolf and Samuel Lian.
  • We also began a Youth Worship Arts program on Sunday afternoons. Youth gather together, learn music, and explore ways that they can use their gifts and talents in worship on a regular basis. They spent a good chunk of the fall writing the Christmas Pageant, which was shared in worship on December 13th.
  • We gathered together for a mission weekend at Chester Baptist Church called Mission Madness, sponsored by CBFVA. We spent the weekend being the hands and feet of Christ to the community of Chester.
  • We gathered several times as a group for various social events- Halloween party, movie nights- and supporting our youth in various sporting and extra-curriculuar activities. Our Christmas party was a combination “dinner and a show” as we supported Kekoa and Shinji in their high school production of Beauty and the Beast.

Our summer was very busy with 4 different camps available for our students:

  • We attended UniDiversity Youth Camp again this summer, and focused on the theme of “It’s Complicated.” We explored how relationships of all kinds can be complicated, and how we should be the love of Christ in all we do.
  • We attended Animate for the first time, which is a worship and arts conference at Samford University. We explored ways youth can lead in the Church universal; this was the beginning of the creation of the youth worship arts team.
  • We also sent a number of youth to the VA Baptist All State-Choir and VA Baptist Music and Worship Arts Camp. We are blessed to have many musically talented youth in our midst!
  • Finally, we finished our summer at Metro Baptist Church leading a week of CLUE Camp, alongside Buena Vista Baptist Church. We spent the week teaching children that they are made in God’s image.

We look forward to seeing how our youth continue to learn about themselves and grow into the people God has formed them to be. We are thrilled to have Samuel Lian serving as our Youth Pastoral Intern. We have already seen a revived energy in the youth ministry because of Samuel’s good leadership, and we look forward to continuing to support him as he supports our students.

Youth Team

Emily White, David Wolf, Samuel Lian, Sara Anne Burgess, Sandi Lowery

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Children’s Ministry Report (2015)

The children’s ministry has continued to experience tremendous growth during the 2015 year. We had a full year of ministry and events with picnics, trick-or-treating, ice skating, and movie nights. We continued to have some of our “annual” events, like the Halloween Party at the Denzler’s, and the Easter Egg Hunt at the Fiske’s, but we also tried some new things this year.

We had several successful events throughout the year.

  • Vacation Bible School: This year’s theme was “G-Force: God’s Love in Action.” Children learned to move, act, care, follow, and share with God’s love. We learned stories about Moses, Solomon, Bartimaeus, and the women at the tomb. It was a fun and full week as we welcomed 65+ children into the building. We are grateful for the leadership of Bryon LePere and the youth of Buena Vista Baptist church, as well as all the volunteers from Tabernacle who helped make the week possible.
  • We held our first ever “Family Advent Workshop” on November 22. About 10 families gathered together and spent time thinking through Advent and ways that they could observe the season together as a family.
  • This year’s Christmas pageant was a tremendous success! While the youth wrote the actual script, the older children sang during the pageant, and the younger children help us create the nativity scene by dressing up as the different characters. Thank you to Judy Fiske, Jessica Corbitt, Terry Witt, and Graham Grinnell for leading our children through the pageant.

We also oversee the week-to-week ministries of the church: Sunday School, Nursery, Godly Play, Worship  Explorers, and Children’s Choir.

  • Sunday School continues to be divided into three classrooms on Sunday morning, and our numbers continue to grow! We have a wonderfully dedicated team of teachers and assistants the lead our children in Sunday School each week. In June, we said goodbye to Way Doh, Brynne, and Peter as they moved up to the youth group.
  • The number of children in the nursery continues to grow, and we are grateful for those of you who serve as volunteers on a regular basis. We are grateful for the leadership of Hope Nycum, Megan Strollo, Courtney Jackson, Heather Rose, Kelley McClellan, and Eh Klu Paw, who serve as our nursery mentors each week. With our new curriculum, we are able to provide children with a more structured environment that incorporates play and learning with our Bible Story for the day.
  • Worship Explorers is another ministry of the children that continues to steadily grow each week. It is always a joy to see the steady stream of children lining up in worship to go to Worship Explorers each week.
  • Our Wednesday night activities looked a little different this fall than they have in the past. We continued to have Godly Play for our preschool children (led by Anna Tuckwiler, Ryan Corbitt, Christen Schumacher, Sara Anne Burgess, and Jenny Jones) and our K-2 children (led by Joe Perdue, Megan Strollo, Ryan Corbitt, and Kelley McCllelan). We made the decision to provide our 3rd-5th grade chidren with a more intense music time (led by Judy Fiske, Jessica Corbitt, Graham Grinnell, and Terry Witt). This fall, these children have learned to play bells and read music, and have led us well in worship several times.

It has been a wonderful and growing year in children’s ministry at Tabernacle Baptist Church. We have enjoyed welcoming several families from the Northminster Community into our midst, and welcoming some families who have returned to the Richmond area after spending some time in other places.

We welcomed a record number of babies into the congregation in 2015- there were 10 babies born into our church family! What an amazing year filled with life.

We also want to extend a special thank you to Heather and Andy Rose. Heather and Andy have been faithfully serving in the children’s ministry for thirteen years, serving in various capacities as Sunday School teachers, volunteering in the nursery, helping with Vacation Bible School and serving on the Children’s Team- and countless other things. They have decided to take a step back from children’s ministry to have the opportunity to be “filled back up” after graciously and generously pouring out their time, energy and love on the children of Tabernacle. Heather and Andy, we are grateful for you both as you have held the line for over a decade. You have seen the highs and lows of children’s ministry at Tabernacle, and you stuck with it! Thank you for the ways that you have loved and cared for dozens of children who have come through the doors of our church building. You have touched the lives of countless children and families, and for your leadership and devotion, we are grateful.

The future of children’s ministry is bright at Tabernacle Baptist, and we are excited for another year of continued growth and meaningful ministry.

The Children’s Team

Andy Rose, Heather Rose, Jessica Corbitt, Kelley McClellan, Kristen Koger, and Megan Strollo