Category: Worship & Fellowship

This year in music ministry began in a relaxed mood.  Easter was later this year, April 20th, there was time to learn lots of music as well as the music for Holy Week and Easter.  Then it SNOWED every other Wednesday in February!!!  We rose to the occasion and survived in a grand fashion.   Several anthems were taken off the table, literally taken off the table and returned to the file cabinet, but the necessary music was rehearsed and presented in a beautiful manner.  The Sanctuary Choir is amazing.

In January for Epiphany we presented many different settings of “The Cupboard’s Full”  by Tim Coons.  The song was presented by Ron and Terry, the Older Children and Youth Group and by the entire Sanctuary Choir in an arrangement by Ryan Corbitt.  The worship service included communion each Sunday so that each service also included communion songs.  The Karen, Chin, Lisu and Kachin choirs also contributed to the music of worship.

The Sanctuary Choir welcomed several new members during this year.  We were excited to have Paul and Lugene Fernald and Renee Grinnell singing with us in January, Faith John, Charity Roberson and Renee’s brother Graham Grinell joined us later in the year..  They are great additions to our group.  The Sanctuary Choir is almost out of robes, but there is room still for anyone who wants to join us!

The Lenten season was centered on the theme of the cross. The décor included a large cross that was covered with newsprint and two 20 Ft. banners that were covered with pictures of crosses found in unexpected places and backed with newsprint.  Hymns and anthems about the cross of Jesus were sung throughout the season.  The emphasis was on looking for where Jesus could be found in the world as we moved into new places in our lives. Entering Holy Week the Older Children’s Choir, the Youth Choir and the Sanctuary Choir sang the anthem for Palm Sunday and the Younger Children’s Choir also presented two selections.   The Maundy Thursday Service was held in the Sanctuary around tables and included food, questions and foot and hand washing.   Nathan Hatfield, Megan Strollo and Denise Walters sang for the service.  The Good Friday Service consisted of a performance of “Remember Me” by Taylor Davis.  Alan Miller and Ryan Corbitt accompanied the Sanctuary Choir.   Sanctuary Choir and the Ladies of the Choir provided the music for Easter Sunday.  The Easter Service ended with the singing of “Low in the Grave He Lay” by the different communities that worship together here at Tabernacle.

In the month of May the Children’s Choir became a bell choir.  The children’s singing choir became a Bell Choir.  We met though the month of May and shared our music with the congregation on June 1.  The children learned a great deal about bells and playing bells in a short period of time.  Special thanks are due Lugene Fernald, Laura Jones and Laura Severns for their excellent teaching and patience.  Several people continued to ring into the month of June.

The Sanctuary Choir sang though the 8th of June to cover Pentecost Sunday.  This year several of them wanted to continue singing into the summer and formed the “We Sing What We Want” Ensemble!!  They collected several anthems that are favorites of members of the group and rehearsed them and shared these favorites with the congregation.   We had a great time singing and sharing some of the old favorites from the past. .  Sharing the stories of how we came to love the anthems we chose to share allowed the choir members to get to know one another on a deeper level.  Many thanks are due to Ron Simmons and Terry Witt for encouraging this choir—all I had to do was play! It was good fun.  In June we also had a brief sighting of a Hand Bell group, but summer travels soon got in the way.   We did manage to play for church once.

Pentecost was particularly exciting this year as we filled the sanctuary with red, yellow and orange 12” balloons and origami doves.  The children released helium filled balloons into the sanctuary during the processional.  There was a celebration in our wonderful sanctuary.

On June 17th we held the first of what we hope will be many Open Mic Nights in the Tabernacle Fellowship Hall.  About 12 people performed their songs and then the Meadow Street Band closed out the evening.  It was a great time of fellowship and celebration of talents!  The second of these events was on August 18 at 7:00-9:00 PM in the Fellowship Hall.  We shared original songs, magic tricks, stories, poems, piano solos and lots of Broadway songs.  It was great fun to discover people’s talents.  Do you know we have a member who is a dulcimer player?  Ron, Terry and Susan Braden were responsible for these highly successful  “Open Mike” night events.

July 14-18 Kristen Koger and I took Waysnah, Monica, Christina, Ja Sang Mai, Sang Lung, Doi Bu, Way Doh, K’Paw, Kekoa and Kanoa to Music and Worship Arts Camp at Eagle Eryie.  The Virginia Baptist Mission Board sponsors this camp.  Activities at Camp include singing, drama, art, orchestra and a lot of swimming!  We all had a great time and are looking forward to next summer!  Chrstina Sung, Monica Iang, Waysnah Htoo,  Brynne Severns, Dylan, Kaeo, Kanoa and Kekoa Burgess auditioned for Virginia Baptist All-State Choir in September and all of them were accepted into the choir.  We love participating in Virginia Baptist music activities!

September brought Sterling’s return and the return of regular church activities.  Sanctuary Choir got back to their normal schedule and the Wednesday evening children’s activities include choir.  We are busy preparing for the weekly worship services and for Christmas concerts and programs.  The Sanctuary Choir began working on “Gloria” by Antonio Vivaldi and several other anthems that are based on the “Gloria” text.     The children sang several songs based around the Narrative Lectionary passages and then began to work on their Christmas Pageant.  This year Marty Watkin wrote the pageant.

The pageant was presented on December 14th in the 11:00 AM worship service.  The children were responsible for the dramatic portions of the pageant and the youth group provided the music for the program.   The Sanctuary Choir and friends sang at Bruton Parish Church in Williamsburg, Va. on Dec. 20.   The program included “Gloria in D” by Antonio Vivaldi and “Gloria” by Craig Courtney.   We were accompanied by a string Quartet.  We then presented several of those pieces during worship on Dec. 21 and at Christmas in the Fan with the Richmond Concert Band on the same day.  The Christmas Eve service was a wonderful mix of solos, duet and ensembles.  Tabernacle is blessed with an amazing amount of musical talent.

We are grateful for the talents and dedication of our music staff, Ryan Corbitt, Ron Simmons and Terry Witt.  Their talent and versatility is amazing.  This Christmas season Ryan Corbitt recorded a solo album of Christmas and Advent pieces, Ron conducted the Vivaldi and Terry sang several of the solos.  The music program would not be the same without them.  Serving in the music ministry at Tabernacle is a wonderful opportunity.

Judy Fiske

As we reflect on 2014, we are in awe of the many ways God has moved through our congregation this year. What an amazing year of renewal! We have served beside one another, prayed for one another, and celebrated with one another.

God Sized Vision

In the spring, the Deacons walked alongside the congregation while the God-Sized Vision Team launched a major campaign to raise funds for our Renovation Projects.

Ten Year Anniversary for Sterling

Also in the spring, we celebrated Rev. Sterling Severns 10th Anniversary as pastor of the church. The Deacons led a fundraising initiative to purchase 300 new bibles for the sanctuary that were presented to the congregation in honor of Sterling’s 10-Year Anniversary.

Summer Sabbatical

Beginning in May, we prepared for Sterling’s Sabbatical through a deliberate weekend led by Bo Prosser. Mr. Prosser led the church staff and deacons in an Exit Gathering on Saturday, May 31st, and then spoke with the congregation during worship the following Sunday. Sterling and his family were sent with Bread for the Journey for a summer Sabbatical, which officially began on June 1, 2014. While Sterling was away this summer, the church planned several renewal activities of our own. We attended picnics, baseball games, and movie nights together, while embracing the theme of Coming Home. It was a meaningful time of fellowship. Upon Sterling’s return, the Deacons attended a Re-entry Retreat led again by Bo Prosser at the Baptist Theological Seminary of Richmond. This was a valuable experience for reflection and helped us to prepare the deacons for how to welcome Sterling back into the fold. The Deacons would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to the amazing pastoral staff that worked diligently all summer to keep things moving smoothly: Rev. Dan Schumacher (Associate Pastor), Dr. Judy Fiske (Minister of Music and Worship), and Kristen Koger (Full Time Summer Intern).

Ordination

Tabernacle was honored to ordain several gifted ministers in 2014. Julie Gaines Walton and Jeff Walton both had ordination services in the fall of 2014. We are thankful for their ministry every day and grateful to be a part of the ordination process with them.

Deacon-led Initiatives

• The Deacons created a team that revised our Church Constitution and Church Manual this year. This was a major undertaking and we are grateful to those individuals that served on that team: Gerry Strong, Nathan Hatfield, William Strollo, and Jessica Corbitt.

• The Deacons also created several subgroups that meet prior to Deacon Meetings to discuss key areas of ministry within the church. Those groups are: Team Based Ministry Subgroup, Homebound/Extended Family Care, Visitation Encouragement Group, and the Church Business Group. These new groups have focused our meetings and allowed them to run smoothly and effectively.

• In the fall of 2014, we created an additional temporary group that would look into the function and focus of the Tabernacle Child Care Committee. The temporary group is discerning how that standing committee can be utilized to fulfill the ministry of the center and to focus on relations between the church and child care center.

• On September 3, the Deacons led a Summer Highlight Night and Ministry Fair showcasing the work of our ministry teams and how God has used the Teams over the past year. We welcomed the Conversational English Group as a new team in 2014.

• In December, we created a transition team that would assist the congregation in preparing for Rev. Schumacher’s departure. The church supported Dan as he began the search for a senior pastor position. We prayed for Christen and Dan as they sought out the location to which God was calling them and celebrated with them in their decision. On January 4, 2015 we offered Dan and Christen bread for the journey and offered our gratitude for their ministry at Tabernacle. We wish them both well as they prepare to move and serve at the First Baptist Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

It has been our honor to serve our Church family in this amazing year of renewal. Thank you for your prayers and words of encouragement.

We are so very grateful for your participation in our God-Sized Vision campaign and for God’s guidance as we launch the Construction phase of this momentous project.  Nelson Melton, Chairman of the Construction & Renovation Committee, is currently working to finalize the last components of the drawings needed to secure the Building Permit from the City of Richmond for our first phase of construction.

As we have noted in several communications about our God-Sized Vision campaign, the Construction & Renovation Committee will agree on several phases of implementation of the changes to be made to our physical structure.  Phase 1 includes modifications to our Basement Area/Fellowship Hall.  Planned improvements include:

• A new and more accessible Ladies’ bathroom that will have three stalls.
• A new mechanical room for the Fellowship Hall air conditioning and heating unit.
• A new, larger storage room for the church’s kitchen activities
• A small storage room for the musical instruments used in Worship Services meeting in the Fellowship Hall. Currently the equipment is being stored behind the coat rack in the Fellowship Hall.
• A small office area for the church’s sexton.

This is an exciting time for all of us!  We are beginning to realize a culmination of years of effort on behalf of many of our church members.  Look forward to frequent updates regarding construction progress and any explanation of impact on our location of activities during the time frame of the construction work.  And please do not hesitate to use our God-Sized Vision mailbox located on the table in our Meadow Street entrance foyer to ask any questions that you might have.  Our committee will respond to you in a timely manner.

Please continue your prayers for our Construction & Renovation Committee leaders, as well as for work safety during construction.   Your prayers are an important component of the overall success of our endeavors!

With your money and prayers in 2014, God allowed us to do these things, mostly in Hungary:

• Pay our bills: rent, utilities, food, medical care, insurance, and taxes.
• Hire an immigration lawyer to get residency permits through June, 2016.
• Host our local church’s (Karen’s) youth group every Friday for 2.5 years—until they outgrew our living room in March.
• Travel to America for several weeks in July and August.

• Help Karen to complete successfully her Hungarian phase of life, including:—
  • Finishing high school (and paying lots of special senior-year expenses).
  • Singing in a praise band with the associated travel expenses.
  • Filling in applications to five American universities—and the financial aid forms.
  • Being admitted to William & Mary, a great school thats fits her well.
  • Sending her to a two-week conference for foreign-grown missionary kids who were headed to America for college.
  • Moving her in to the dorm and attending orientation for students and parents.

• Stay connected through technology.
• Deepen relationships with fellow teachers, friends, neighbors, other missionaries, students, baseball kids, believers, non-believers, Deaf people, hearing people…
• Finish the essential elements of the Little League baseball field.
• Maintain the baseball field throughout the year.
• Look for a future full-sized baseball field.
• Enter a baseball team in the 2014 Hungarian Little League.
• Hold a weekend baseball-softball camp in September.
• Have two Baseball Fun Days for adults.
• Attend a sports missions conference.

• Attend and help lead a Deaf camp.
• Teach Hungarian Deaf kids English.
• Help and encourage the Deaf church in Budapest, where our two non-believing sign-language teachers from 2002 have begun to attend.
• Help resolve a conflict between a Deaf missionary couple and the Hungarian Baptist Union.

• Develop curriculum (about life more than English), teach high-schoolers, and grade their surprisingly interesting essays.
• Worship and serve with a missions-minded church in Vác.
• Help support a Hungarian missionary family in Budapest.
• Participate in retreats for spiritual and emotional renewal.
• Travel to Croatia for Fall Break, where we visited two families for mutual encouragement.
• Talk about life with our private English students.
• Support our English-teaching company when we don’t have enough students.
• Host many guests in our home.

• Learn to manage time and priorities better.
• Worry less.
• Give thanks more.
• Pray for others.
• Grow nearer to God and see where he’s working.

We can’t thank you enough!!!

Our Vision campaign officially started in February 2014, and your commitments to date have made it possible for us to move forward with our construction plans.  Beginning in the first quarter of 2015 you will see construction begin in our basement area.  Our Construction & Renovation team members are working currently to secure the building permits needed to get the work started that will address some air conditioning needs and slight space changes.

As a reminder, meeting the financial commitments that you have made is key to realizing our Vision.  If your commitment was over a period of time, please honor the commitment time frame that you indicated.   If you need to change the time line or want to change the amount of your commitment, you may do so at any time by contacting the Financial Secretary.

For anyone who is new to Tabernacle and/or wants to make a new commitment, you can obtain a commitment card by contacting our Financial Secretary.  We do not disclose individual contribution amounts for any commitments that you make.  Only the Financial Secretary is aware of amounts that are given for this campaign.

Anyone can make a special contribution to the campaign to recognize a special person or special event in your life.  Donations remain anonymous unless you prefer that the special recognition donation be announced to the congregation.

Methods of Payment

Please submit all Vision payments in the unique Vision Envelopes provided.  Vision envelopes are located in our ministry foyer if you do not have these special envelopes available at home.  Vision envelopes may be placed in the offering plate or mailed to the church to the attention of the Financial Secretary.  Please do not use the Vision Campaign mailbox for your payments.

If you have made a financial commitment and have not received your Vision envelopes, please contact the church office.  Our special Vision envelopes were mailed by the Financial Secretary to those who made a financial commitment as part of our campaign, with the number of envelopes based on the frequency of payment indicated on your commitment card.

Dear Church Family,

It was on Pentecost Sunday in 2010 that Christen and I joined you for worship for the first time. As we wandered into the sanctuary that first time, doves suspended throughout the sanctuary came into view. When we looked closer, we found on each dove the testimony of a church member. Samuel Lian’s was the first one we read. I turned my head and in the center of the sanctuary, suspended and cascading down, was a great column of orange and red fabric. I stopped in my tracks and remember whispering to myself, “Wow. These people know how to worship!”

When we gather in the sanctuary and lead each other in word and song, we offer up our very best to God. We do these things, because in worship we find our being in God so that we might find our doing in the world. It is the center of all that we do as God’s people. We gather and we lift up, because God is eager to gather with us and to pull us together into a diverse, beautiful, and sometimes messy community.

For nearly five years now, I have been taking part in these sacred acts with you. I have been with you in worship and in ministry. I have been with you in clothes closets and in house blessings. I have been allowed to hold your newborn children and also your own hands in prayer before turning you over to your surgeon’s care. I have broken bread with you and shared your dining room tables with you. I have found myself up into the waking dawn with you on my mind and I have slept like a carefree child, knowing that sunrise brought with it the opportunity to be with you in worship. I have been with you.

You have let me tread the sacred ground of your lives, but what you may not hear often enough is that you have tread the sacred ground of my life, too. No life follows even the best well-laid plans or happens according to expectation, and that has been doubly true for Christen and I these past few years. We have become acutely acquainted with loss and grief. But no matter how dark it became in the noontime of our lives, you were present with us and your presence has been a balm in the tender places of our lives.

No word lives up to what we feel about the time we’ve shared with you or how we feel about you, our lovely and deeply-loved church family. We have been with you. And from my first internship on, you have raised me right, Tabernacle Baptist Church. You have provided more than mere opportunity. You have given me your trust and your guiding hand, and, in so doing, you have equipped me with the skills needed to make the next step.

Now it is time.

I have officially accepted the call to serve as Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church, Colorado Springs, and while my time as your Associate Pastor officially concludes on December 31, I will be with you in worship one last time as we gather to celebrate Epiphany on January 4.

While I am eager to get there and to get busy with this new thing God has placed on my horizon, it is with difficulty that I leave you. I will miss you, and deeply so. But I also cannot help but believe that God is up to something grand here in our midst. The story of the Church has always been one of raising up the Saints and then sending them out to continue the work. Today, you are once again playing your part in that grand story of God’s love and faithfulness. You have raised me up. You have equipped me. Now, it is time that you send me.

So I go, gratefully bearing the strong imprint of Tabernacle Baptist Church in both my life and ministry.

As always — I leave you with all my best,

Rev. Dan Schumacher

 

Sterling Severns and Nelson Melton have been working with members of the Tabernacle Child Care Center team throughout this year to engage them in our God-Sized Vision campaign.  Those efforts continued on Monday, December 1st when some Child Care Center students’ parents met with Sterling in the Fellowship Hall.  The Question and Answer Session offered an introduction to the renovation, as it specifically relates to improvements in our Child Care Center Ministry.  The session provided information and elicited suggestions to meet the specific needs of families in our Child Care Center Ministry.

Sterling explained that the Tabernacle Child Care Center started at a time in the church’s history when more and more women were joining the workforce, as with many churches across the country.  Our Child Care Center has grown to be one of the best in our city, utilizing space that was originally constructed for the church’s Family Ministry.  This use of our space enabled activity focused on children every day of the week, not just on weekends.  Now is the time for an uplift to that space.

The highest percentage of the renovation planned in our Vision campaign will create positive changes to the Williams Building, where our Child Care Center is located.  Those changes include:

• New Entrances
• Enhanced Access, both from a security perspective and increased ramp accessibility for wheelchairs and strollers
• Electrical Upgrades
• Plumbing Upgrades
• New Dining/Gathering Area and Kitchen on the 2nd Floor
• New Elevator, providing wheelchair access to the 2nd Floor of the Child Care Center (as well as the 3rd Floor)
• A conscious decision to place the pastoral staff offices in the heart of the church, close to the Child Care Center and offices.   We will work with the architects for supporting quiet in offices and areas where appropriate.

It is also important to note that one of the requirements in the selection of our General Contractor was to ensure that ongoing childcare operations would be addressed during construction.  Examples of considerations of our children while we make renovations are:

• No class gets moved during renovation activities.
• Quiet and safety are important, so false walls are planned.
• The contractor is aware of this and is planning for weekend and night hours in their cost estimates.
• Our campaign assumes growth of the church in our future, but not growth in size of our Child Care Center Ministry.  We have agreed that the current size of the center helps drive the high quality of the care that we provide there.

Attendees at the session made several suggestions for consideration as we move forward in work with our architects:

• Make sure that there are gates leading into the open space in front of the Child Care Center and Church Office entrances.  That open space can be used for an outdoor gathering spot for adults and children.
• Address how we control access to the “side” entrance to the Child Care Center and the play area/blacktop on that same side of the building.  A covered entrance might be helpful for that side doorway.
• Large bike racks are important to parents, staff and neighbors.
• Provide storage for strollers for our children in proximity to the ramp areas where children will be loaded and rolled outside.  Also make sure that the ramp access does not create a long “walk” to get to the entrances/exits.

Our Child Care Center will be initiating fund-raising in the near future.  We will continue to keep everyone up-to-date with our progress in reaching our $2 million dollar goal for construction that is planned to be completed by the end of 2015.  Your prayers for our success and your help in meeting our goals are greatly appreciated.

After church services on Sunday, November 2^nd, Sterling Severns led the last of three information and comment exchange sessions sponsored by the Construction & Renovation Committee.   These sessions give everyone a chance to understand how specific spaces will be affected in the future, to have questions answered about planned renovation changes, as well as to offer comments to be considered as we begin working with the architects for detailed drawings.

This third session focused on changes to be made on the third floor of the Williams Building:

• Creation of Parsonage Residences to Support TBC Growth/Staffing Needs
• Enlarged Bunk Room Space for Various Mission Teams,  and
• Return Missionary Lodging

The tour began with an explanation of the new elevator planned in the construction project.  This elevator will take members with a key for access to the third floor of the Williams building.  Privacy to this area is an important element of the design, understanding that this space is intended for pastoral apartments and lodging areas for mission team members.  Mission teams include those who support mission work alongside Tabernacle in the summers.

As the tour moved to the third floor of the Williams Building, participants were able to gain insight into how significant the planned residences are to the future of our church.  Our nature of training, serving internally as well as externally, and sending over the years has helped to create a number of opportunities for this space.   Options include:

• Understanding that Tabernacle is growing, we are in need of finding creative ways of addressing how we also grow our staff to best meet the needs of our diverse congregation. Our experience over the years with pastoral interns and residents has been incredibly beneficial for both Tabernacle and the students, and therefore continuing to fully support those programs is important.  Having a parsonage apartment potentially available for an intern or resident is a key consideration in the floor plan design.

• Our multi-cultural nature presents a need for Burmese-rooted pastoral support.  Having the option of providing housing for an individual who is completing pastoral studies and simultaneously serving as part-time pastoral support to our Burmese-born congregation creates a mutually advantageous situation for Tabernacle.

• Having the apartment space will also present us with the option of providing lodging space for missionaries on furlough.

• We have had at least 20 interns over the past 10 years.  Those interns are now serving in a number of locations all over the country, adding to the many possible sources of mission teams that are willing to serve our church and our community.  The planned bunk room space will accommodate at least 20 mission team members at a time, and will be built with the flexibility to be used for smaller numbers when appropriate.   We have every reason to believe that the frequency and variety of types of mission support will increase over time, and therefore the potential for use of this space will also expand.  The small kitchen space and availability of bathrooms/showers adjacent to the bunk room space will make use of the area comfortable for the occupants.

One of the questions asked during this tour was related to the privacy of those who would be living on the third floor, as well as security for the church while there are occupants on that floor.  The specific stairwell that leads only to the Williams Building and not to the rest of the church, as well as the elevator requirement for a key to unlock access to the third floor are all means of ensuring privacy.  The design team plans to take these needs into consideration as they finalize the design drawings.

Preserving artifacts of our church history and finding ways to ensure easier access to the many items that tell our story have also been mentioned in all sessions held.  The Construction & Renovation Committee is working to address those desires as we work with the architects in the design stage.

Thanks to all of you who participated in these informative sessions!

I have almost completed my second month of my internship as a part-time pastoral intern. I will admit that making the shift from a full-time intern to a part-time one was harder than I was expecting. I take this hard, difficult transition as a positive, though- to me it is an affirmation that I am where I am supposed to be, doing what I am called by God to do. I enjoy being a minister, and look forward to continuing my journey along this path over the rest of this school year.

These days, my life is a balance between work at Tabernacle and school. My duties right now as an intern look much different than they did 2 months ago. This was expected, as I transitioned from full-time to part-time. Dan is serving as my supervisor since at this point in my ministry calling I am thinking about Associate Pastor ministry. Dan and I worked together to create my job description and to find things that speak to my passions and things that stretch me in new ways. For example, one thing that I have not done before is to create and lead a Sunday School series for adults. This fall I will be doing that as we transition from Ordinary Time into the Advent season. I will also be working on ways to provide resources for family-based spiritual formation in the home. The point of this internship is for me to find ways to become a minister not just in the eyes of the church, but in my own eyes as well. The goals that I have set for this internship are a mixture of spiritual, relational, and personal goals, but ones that are important for me as I continue to form and assume my ministerial identity.

I would also like to introduce you to my site team: Heather Rose (chair), Bill and Jean Finley, Kathryn Hall (secretary), Nathan Hatfield, and Laura Jones. These six people meet with me once a month to discuss the progress on my goals, provide both constructive and affirmative feedback, and serve as guides and mentors through my internship. They are a wonderful mixture of individuals with varying roles in the church. I am grateful to them for their commitment as we work together through the rest of this school year.

I am excited to continue to minister in this wonderful place I call home. While finding the balance between work and school has its challenges at times, I consider myself very lucky to be in a congregation that loves to equip students for ministry. It’s going to be a wonderful year, and I cannot wait to see what it brings.

Grace and peace,

Kristen Koger

Pastoral Intern, Fall 2014