Category: Worship & Fellowship

 The years seem to just tumble one over the other.  So much is familiar, occurring in the same way at the same time in each season of the church year, but each year also brings new insights, fresh ideas, new songs and most important new friends to share in the worship and music life of the church.

As the calendar New Year rolls over the Church year continues on its story telling path.  The story of Jesus’ birth has been told and we continue into stories of his early childhood, baptism and the beginning of his ministry.  The season of Epiphany is always a particularly rich time in the worship life of Tabernacle.  The sanctuary was decorated with stars and lights for Epiphany Sunday, Jan 6. The following Sunday was Remember Your Baptism Sunday as we walked with Jesus and John through the baptism of Jesus while we remembered our own baptisms with a cross of water.   We sang “By Our Love” by Christy Nockels each week in Epiphany as a theme song.

Ash Wednesday was February 13.  This service ushered in our Lenten theme and decorations based on the Biblical Stations of the Cross.  We were surrounded by an amazing set of paintings by Grieg Leach that were hung in the Sanctuary around the balcony.  The sermons for Lent were based on selected Stations. The Older Children’s Choir sang “Nets of Love” by Thomas Simpson each Sunday as the children were weaving on a large loom constructed by John Gass.  There was a large palm parade on Palm Sunday and the Older Children’s Choir sang with the Sanctuary Choir in the Choir Loft.  The Sanctuary Choir presented “Return to Me” a large choral work for voice, piano and cello based on the Stations of the Cross by Taylor Davis on Good Friday.   Easter finally came with glorious happiness.  The service concluded with a choir representing each ethnic group within the congregation singing together “Up From the Grave He Arose.”  It was a great beginning to the Easter Season.

After the busy time of Epiphany, Lent and Holy Week April brought some welcome relaxation as we settled into the Easter season and prepared for Pentecost.  The children wrapped up their Wednesday evening musical activities in April.  The Younger Children sang in worship on April 21 and the Older Children sang in worship on May 5.  The leadership of Helen Davidson with the Younger Children and Julie Gaines and Joel Ingram with the Older Children has been a great gift for the 2012-2013 choir season.  The Sanctuary Choir also ended its rehearsals for spring of 2013 in April.  They continued to sing into May and early June, but Wednesday evening rehearsals ended on April 24.

The month of May brought a new rhythm to Wednesday evenings.  Instead of dinner, rehearsals and Bible study at the church building we met at various homes for picnics and some deliberate fellowship.  The first two of these dinners were a cookout at the church and a Burmese Food Festival that was also held at the church because of rain.  The follow weeks we were at the homes of Erin and Patrick Braford, Bobby and Kathy McGraw and Teddy McClure.  The evenings were a fun mixture of good food and fellowship.  Activities included lawn games, basket ball, soccer, horseback riding(at the McGraws) and just hanging out.   Regular Wednesday evening activities ended May 29.

Worship music and leadership during the summer was provided by a number of different soloists and ensembles.  We have enjoyed all of the selections as members of the congregation shared their musical skills in the worship service.  On July 7 we had Sally Irwin, a flutist, as a part of our worship music.  Bill and Gail Welstead are her flute students.

In June the children and youth held a Burmese Food Festival and tag sale to benefit the Camp Scholarship Fund.  Six young people and two adults attended Music and Worship Arts camp in July.

The month of July was all about planning and camp!  Much time was spent in planning and listening to anthems and children’s music for use in the fall, Advent and Christmas worship services.  July is also the month that includes Music and Worship Arts Camp at Eagle Eyrie.  This camp is sponsored by the Virginia Baptist Mission Board and includes about three hours of singing, three hours of various classes on music and worship oriented topics and age appropriate worship services.  There is also time for swimming in the wonderful Eagle Eyrie pool!  Jeff Walton and Julie Gaines chaperoned our children this summer.  Participants included Paul Lian, Monica Iang, Way Snah, K’Pa Moo, Kekoa Burgess and Liam Tomlin.  They had a wonderful week exploring their gifts.

August was busy with preparations and planning.  Music was pulled out and assigned to the correct Sundays.  New anthems were ordered and catalogued.  The never-ending task of cleaning and organizing the choir room was attacked with renewed vigor.  Singers were placed on notice that the end of “vacation” is approaching.  This summer was made more interesting by our decision to follow the Narrative Lectionary instead of the Revised Common Lectionary for the 2013-2014 worship cycle.

The music program at Tabernacle moves into high gear in September.  The Sanctuary Choir began rehearsal on Sept. 4^th.   The children’s choirs began rehearsals the following Wednesday evening.  Judy Fiske led the Older Children’s group.  Helen Davidson and Judy Fiske led the Pre-school Choir.   The Older Children learned songs that parallel the teaching in Godly Play each week.  These lessons also parallel the readings that are being used each Sunday in the Worship service following Year 4 of the Narrative Lectionary.  In October the children in grades 3-5 joined the middle school students rehearsing for the Christmas program that was a part of worship on Dec. 15.   Jessica Corbitt directed this group of singers.

The Sanctuary Choir had a busy fall.  The decision to follow the Narrative Lectionary meant beginning the fall season with Old Testament Scriptures that required a new look at anthems for worship.  Ryan Corbitt even wrote an anthem to fit one of the scriptures.  Christmas quickly became the focus of the fall season.  The hard work of rehearsals paid off with great performances for both Christmas in the Fan and the concert at Bruton Parish as well as meaningful music in the worship servie.

The Meadow Street Band has been very busy this year singing and playing all over the state of Virginia.  They have been playing at the St. Stephen’s Farmer’s Market and at Lulu’s Creamery in Hanover County on a fairly regular basis.  The band also played a gig at the State Fair and in coffee houses in Norfolk and Roanoke.  They are preparing to record several of Meade Skelton’s new songs.

We are fortunate to be joined by a BTSR Intern this year.  Julie Gaines joined us in September as a Music and Worship Intern.  She is conducting the Sanctuary Choir about once a month, helping to plan worship and participating in many other pastoral duties.  This is a wonderful addition to our music program.

The Advent and Christmas seasons —actually the beginning of the church year, close out our calendar year.  This year held the familiar rhythm of past years as we lit Advent Candles, presented concerts with Richmond Concert Band and at Bruton Parish Church in Williamsburg, Va., enjoyed a lovely Christmas program/pageant presented by the children and younger youth and ended the season with a beautiful Christmas Eve Service.  In 2013 we added for the first time a Christmas Celebration with our International community that included food, a worship service, music and dancing! It was a very good Advent and Christmas season.

Worship at Tabernacle would not be as interesting and engaging without the hard work of the people who join me on the music staff.  Ron Simmons, Terry Witt and Ryan Corbitt bring many talents to the table as they work with the other members of the staff to make worship meaningful and engaging.  This can involve anything from working with sound, organizing choir parties, trouble-shooting logistics to sharing beautiful music as a part of worship.  Their work becomes more valuable each year.

Many people must work together to make the worship experience at Tabernacle a seamless experience.  It requires trust in one another and in the vision for the worship service—sometimes without a total understanding of what the end result is going to look like—people willingly do their part to the best of their ability and then stand back to see the end result.  Good training for living a Christian life!  Thank you to everyone for your trust and careful, dedicated work.

Judy Fiske

 

As we put 2013 to rest, I find myself pondering the nature of life. Of course, we understand that not all of life is good and not all of life is hard. We know that truth, but 2013 seemed to drive the point home, didn’t it?

For instance, in 2013 the church sent six of its members to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for several days. It was a life-giving trip for those of us who went, in which we were given the opportunity to reconnect with family and friends, learn about refugee resettlement from the other side of things, and offer encouragement to those who have fled Burma in search of safety for themselves and their families.

Of course, refugee resettlement is a story with which we have become quite familiar, but it took on flesh and became incarnate for me in new ways while in Malaysia. The divide that resettlement creates between families became much more real to me as I watched Wint Wint Zaw slide her arm into her father’s for the first time since she left Malaysia for Richmond those several years ago. God’s kind of hospitality was made tangible when Samuel Lian’s family filled much more than our stomachs before worship one Sunday morning. The towel and basin — the symbols of that day when Jesus washed his disciples’ feet — were made visible in the person of Say Wah Htoo when she gave up her opportunity to visit some of tallest towers in the world, so that she could spend her morning teaching the children songs about God. And, finally, when Bawkja Mahka and Harrison Lahpai approached me after worship one Sunday to introduce themselves and to tell me that they would soon be arriving in Richmond as permanent residents, I was reminded that there is no place we can go where God is not already there waiting to meet us.

Such experiences and memories are treasures, and the six of us remain grateful for your trust and your generosity. We believe we better understand the heart of God because of our journey to Malaysia

This year also marked an evolution in the way we approach discipleship and spiritual formation as a church body. Not only have we continued to do Sunday school and Wednesday evening programming well, but have taken it a step further.

As we moved into a season with the Narrative Lectionary (narrativelectionary.org), we also moved deliberately toward a more unified approach in regards to Bible study and reflection. It began with a simple question: “What if in any given week, everyone, from our youngest to our eldest, focused on the same passage? How might our conversations around dinner tables and in church hallways be different?”

Out of that question stemmed a full-fledged effort to tie all of us to the same Bible passage each week. Beginning this past fall and with that desire in mind, our three small groups, the Tuesday Brown Bag Bible study group, Worship Explorers, Godly Play, both of our middle and high school youth D-teams, our Wednesday evening adult program, and our Sunday morning worship services all focused on the same passage of scripture each week. Our hope has been that it has helped you not only engage each passage at a deeper and more meaningful level, but that it has also helped you see the arch of Israel’s story on a more comprehensive level.

We have had numerous guides throughout that journey, and I would be at fault if I didn’t pause to offer a word of gratitude to  all of those who have played such a vital role in this effort. My most sincere thanks to the following for how wonderfully you have cared for this congregation by being good and faithful teachers:

Small group hosts and facilitators: Chris and Kate Ayers, Tim and Naomi Reddish, Christen Schumacher, Joel Ingram, Megan Johnson, Kathryn Hall, and Lauren Weaver

Brown Bag Bible study facilitator: Sterling Severns

Worship Explorers coordinator (Megan Strollo) and  the numerous volunteers that make that ministry possible

Godly Play facilitators: Anna Tuckwiller, Christen Schumacher, Ryan Corbitt, Kristen Koger, Joe Perdue, and Megan Strollo

Youth D-Team facilitators: Julie Sisson, Khan Naw, Kate Ayers, David Wolf, and Julie Gaines

Wednesday evening facilitators: Dr. Mark Biddle (BTSR), Dr. Melissa Jackson (BTSR), Dr. Sam Adams (UPS), Joshua T. Andrzejewski (VCU Patient Counseling), Joseph Perdue, and Megan Strollo

On top of all of this, we have found new and exciting ways to have the Burmese-born among us serve as leaders, teaching us about their own culture in both a “Burma 101” series and once a month during our Sunday school hour. So, when I look back at how committed this church has been to scripture study and the hard work of discipleship, I find myself filled with a deep sense of gratitude.

Life this year, however, hasn’t been solely been good. At times, it has just been hard.

Over the past twelve months, many of us have found ourselves shouldering more responsibility than is fair to be asked of any individual. Many of us have been diagnosed and poked and prodded and quarantined until we felt more like a lab experiment than a human being bearing the very image of God. And many of us have found ourselves grieving the loss of significant loved ones. Expected or tragic, death is no respecter of human emotions.

There are, perhaps, many ways to look at what 2013 had to offer and to come to some conclusions about the nature of life. I have heard more than one of you say, “I can’t wait for 2013 to be over. It’s just been too rough.” But what I have witnessed and experienced firsthand from you this past year is that we do not walk those hard, lonely roads alone.

Tabernacle Baptist Church family, there is something worse than grief, and it is feeling abandoned in the midst of grief. You may not fully realize it, but you have walked some treacherous lengths of road with your fellow church members these past months and you may very well be the reason some did not find themselves feeling stranded in the wilderness places of life. I offer thanks on behalf of all of us who found ourselves in those hard seasons. You have loved us, and that has been enough.

Now, as we cast our eyes ahead, I am confident that whatever 2014 brings, it will be full — full of goodness and happiness and opportunities to seize life in all its glory. And it will be full of hardship and struggle and probably some pain. But the love that we share for one another will be enough to get us through. I know this to be true, because it has been what has kept us thus far.

The Deacon Board wants to thank the congregation for their prayers and support throughout 2013.  We have been prayerfully asking God’s guidance and wisdom to assure we are serving the Tabernacle family according to his will.

We have prayed for healing of many of our faithful brothers and sisters and prayed for peace and support in times of loss.  We have prayed thankfully for the many blessing we have received, new life from new birth and new life from new individuals from around the corner and all the way on the other side of the world.  Our walls echo with the beautiful sounds of children laughing, new babies crying and cooing and people from all walks of life and all around the world getting to know each other and creating a bond that will unite us and keep us a force moving in God’s direction.

The Deacons enjoyed a retreat at the beautiful facilities of Westminster Canterbury planning for ways to engage, support and minister to each other and to our brothers and sisters at TBC.

We have been involved in developing a process for the team based ministry, approved to replace our committee structure, by assuring that practices were in place for team and leader approval by the church and to assure all budgeting and auditing requirements were in place.  Our second annual Town Hall meeting on behalf of the Team ministry was a huge success. Thank you, Jessica Corbitt, for your leadership in this effort.

The Board is in the middle of a discussion about the right timing for Deacon nomination and term.  Currently the Deacon Board serves based on the calendar year, with each nominated Deacon serving a 3-year term.  Consideration for changing the term from a calendar year to a 3-year term beginning April 1 to March 31 is being discussed.  More on that later.

We assisted in working through the seed of an idea for our Pastor to take a sabbatical through our grant request and approval.  We are thankful to the Sabbatical team in their hard work and are bless that we are able to offer this to our well-deserving pastor, Sterling.

A new format for our Judson Class has taken root in the form of a worship service during the Sunday School hour for our Burmese born members offered in their native language.  We also enjoyed a Multi-Cultural Christmas Celebration hosted by our Burmese born members.

We were blessed with the opportunity to send members of the congregation on a Singapore/Malaysia trip.  Families were joined.  New friends and relationships started and strengthened.  We feel we worship daily with our family in Burma.  Thank you congregation for making this happen.

In our effort to assure adequate staffing and adequate help for our staff, we have offered Dan Schumacher a position as Associate Pastor for one year beginning immediately after his residency term is completed.  We are blessed to be able to keep Dan in a position to lead us.  We are thankful for the talent and leadership of many individuals including Leigh Anne Zylstra, Rachel Spencer, Joseph Perdue, Emily Kuezak, Julie Gaines, Rebecca Suter and Kah Naw.  Their work with and among us is phenomenal.

We were honored to host two ordinations in 2013.  Art Wright and Joe Perdue, individuals that are much loved in this House were ordained at Tabernacle.  Their work among us has made us stronger and better equipped to do God’s will.  We are blessed they serve with us and can’t wait to see how God will use them here or “out there somewhere”.

We are humbled to have been chosen to serve the Tabernacle Baptist Church family.  Thanks for your prayers and words of encouragement.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Kathy McGraw, Chair

 

There are few things I love to participate in more than baby dedications. The primary responsibility for the care of a child rests upon his/her parents’ shoulders. Parents and extended family, on the day they bring a child before us for dedication, are asked if they will embrace their responsibilities with joy and peace. We ask them if they will give thanks to God daily for the love the child brings into their home. We encourage them to make a verbal commitment, in front of the entire church family, to earnestly strive to spend adequate time with their child, developing in the child a strong foundation for life and an awareness of God’s abiding presence.  Parents, will you do these these things? Will you raise your child in faith?

Modeling Christ-like love can not be done alone. It requires the help of others. For this reason, the dedication ceremony continues as the parents turn to face the congregation. We, the child’s church family, are also asked to make a commitment to nurture and disciple. Church, do you promise to walk beside this precious child on her journey? And as she grows, will you earnestly strive to spend adequate time with her, developing in her a strong foundation for life and an awareness of God’s abiding presence? Will you help this child to discover and grow into the person God has called her to be? It is nothing short of sacred to look a child in the eyes and make a promise of this magnitude.

One hundred and twenty-seven years ago, a small little church school was planted in the middle of a grove of trees in the quiet countryside of Richmond, Virginia. The premise was quite simple and the motive was God-inspired. We should, by the grace of God, plant our roots amidst the trees, invite children to live into faith beside us, and see what grows. Our forbearers responded to the question, “Will you…..?”, with enthusiasm and all of these years later we are still blooming where we were first planted. The roots have grown deeper and the branches now span the globe. The pages of this annual book of reports offers a glimpse of how our generation has responded to the same question that was first asked all of those years ago.

The chapter entitled “2013” will tell the story of a group of disciples embracing a culture of call with integrity. The chapter will inform and inspire future generations as it testifies to a group of believers joyfully living out their covenant to Christ with faithfulness. 2013 was a very good year in the life of the church. Some of the highlights include:

• A cover story was written in Style Weekly about the transformation taking place at the corner of Grove and Meadow. Brothers and sisters from opposite corners of the world have found themselves making a home together.

 

• The congregation successfully raised over $20,000 to send a mission team to Malaysia. Samuel UC Lian’s testimony was shared, by way of video, with thousands of youth from around the world at the Baptist World Youth Congress.

 

• Rev. Joseph Perdue and Rev. Arthur Wright were ordained into vocational ministry. Both of these gifted young biblical scholars have done, and will continue to do, great things in service to Christ. We were blessed to bring the Church-at-large together to validate their unique callings.

 

• Tabernacle was selected as one of only eighty-seven congregations in the United States to receive the National Clergy Renewal Grant for the upcoming church year.

 

• Our church family made a significant shift from the Revised Common Lectionary to the Narrative Lectionary in 2013. The change enabled the congregation to take biblical study in some wonderful new directions and has served as a catalyst for a more cohesive approach to spiritual formation.

 

• Relationships went deeper and we grew closer together in 2013. Small Group Ministry continued to thrive as more adults are now engaged in Bible Study in the evenings than on Sunday mornings. That said, our Sunday morning program received the blessing of renewed energy and growth over the last year as well.  The Wednesday evening program, for all ages, was stronger in 2013 than it has been in well over 30+ years. Spiritual formation is at the heart of our unique identity as a congregation. The momentum has been embraced and points to a bright future.

 

• Strong leadership has emerged from among our Burmese born congregants and we find ourselves witnessing the beginnings of something new. Last December, we hosted the first annual “Joy to the World” celebration. Each of the unique ethnic groups in the church came together to lead a five hour celebration featuring food, fellowship, worship, dance, and gift exchange. It was an amazing day! We started a monthly orientation program with each of the ethnic groups taking turns teaching the american-born members about their unique culture and heritage. Tabernacle also welcomed Khan Naw onto the church staff for the 2013-2014 school year. This exceptionally gifted burmese-born leader is inevitably the first of many seminary and/or doctoral students to serve in an equipping role at Tabernacle.  We are embracing the blessing of our diversity and God is blessing us through it.

 

• The deliberateness of our practice of ordinations, baptisms, and baby dedications was evident as we placed these ceremonies in prominent moments in worship and in remembrance of these major faith events on the other side.

 

• The church said goodbye to Rev. Cecil Gholston, our beloved Pastor Emeritus. Cecil will be remembered by future generations as one of the every-day saints that helped bring health to Tabernacle again. His quiet and humble service to the church was Christ-like in every way and his presence is missed beyond measure.

 

• 2013 will be remembered as an especially creative season in the life of the church.  Lego Sunday School, a program that will be continued into future years, was introduced during the summer of ‘13.  It is also the year we decorated the sanctuary with cinderblocks and tea lights and hung paintings of the “Stations of the Cross” in the balcony of the Sanctuary. Future generations will look back at the photos with smiles on their faces.

 

•  The podcast ministry has been active for years now. However, 2013 will be remembered as the year it grew into maturity.  The addition of webcasting during the worship hour enhanced our understanding that the branches of Tabernacle truly span the globe. It has been wonderful to hear from so many family members actively participating in study and worship through the gift of technology.

 

• A wealth of energy and time has been spent in the last twelve months preparing for the beginnings of the renovation of the physical plant. Not much of a description will be shared in this report as most of the effort will surface in the year ahead. That said, I believe we will look back to 2013 as the beginning of the shift. The restructuring of the way we organize and mobilize is already happening. Now, it is time to adapt our physical space to facilitate the ministry vision God has given us for the future.

 

•  The church staff thrived in 2013. I am indebted to each of you for the use of your God-given gifts, committed service, and friendship.  The entire congregation thanks each of you for your ministry among us and also to the mentors that have guided our student-staff members in their leadership development.

 

• Lastly, I am indebted to my Laura, Wade, Brynne, and Cole.  Your love and support has been nothing short of amazing. Your grace surprises me daily and your energy keeps me on my toes. Wade, your baptism is a day I will never forget. Your mother and I are so proud of each of you.

 

These highlights offer only a small overview of the extraordinary things God did in the life of our church over the course of these last twelve months. Indeed, we are blooming where we were first planted.  The next chapter has yet to be written but, looking backwards, we have every reason to believe that God has great plans for our future. We, like every generation that has come before us, have responded to the question of willingness with faithful action.

These are good days. Thank you for your willingness to lead by example.

Yours in Christ, 

Rev. Sterling W. Severns, Pastor

 

A WORD FROM OUR PASTORAL INTERN, JULIE GAINES:

I’ve been asking myself this question for the last month as we’ve journeyed through the season of Advent together.  Each week in worship, we learned a new way of speaking and expressing hope through the different languages of our brothers and sisters from Burma.  We watched as our sanctuary gradually grew brighter with each candle that we lit in the Advent wreath.  We sang hymns and read scripture passages that spoke to hope’s presence in the midst of a fiery furnace and a valley of dry, brittle bones.  We watched as our children led us in discovering that hope “is like a candle burning bright…a love song…a flower in the snow.”  We listened yesterday as our choirs shared songs about the hope that Christ’s coming to earth will bring.  We have spent the entire season focused on hope…

…but do you know what hope looks like?

I found myself wondering if I could answer that question with a resounding “Yes!” and at the beginning of the season, I couldn’t.  Hope is a word we hear daily.  We say we hope for a lot of things: for our team to win the big game, for nice weather, for good news to be true, for freedom from frustrating and difficult tasks, for our loved ones to be safe, for order in chaotic situations.  We can hope as a defense, as a form of prevention, born out of fear, mistrust, and anxiety.  We can use the word “hope” interchangeably with the words “want” or “would like.”

Is this the “hope” that we refer to when we speak of God’s coming to dwell among us? Over the last four weeks, we have spent time together decorating, cooking, preparing, feeding, making music, giving gifts, and celebrating the coming of Christ into our chaotic and difficult lives.  We filled the fellowship hall and sanctuary with dancing, laughter, smiles, food, and worship.  Our youth and Northside small group met last Wednesday night to fellowship and share in the joy Christ is bringing to our lives.  Our sanctuary choir shared the good news through singing and the gift of music last week in Williamsburg and in our sanctuary with instrumentalists, the Meadow Street Band, and the Richmond Concert Band.  Yesterday, choirs from our church sang, played, and led us in worship using the universal language of music, a language that crosses all barriers like Christ’s love.  We have met in homes to share meals and stories with one another.  Saturday, we gathered for our food basket ministry and shared love through the gift of meals with our neighbors.  Whether we realized it at the time or not, our actions were pointing to a greater story than our difficulties and our shortcomings.  God has been actively at work through all of these acts of worship and many more during our Advent season, creating and providing the space for us to experience the love, peace, joy, and-yes-hope that God desires for us to experience daily throughout our journeys.

I know this to be true because I experienced hope through these holy moments with you.  I experienced God’s presence and hope through a conversation with one of our youth about his strong desire to serve God and to thank God for the many gifts in his life, a conversation that reminded me of my own calling and the calling that God has given each of us.  My passion was renewed for listening for God’s still, small voice through listening to his.  I experienced hope while dancing with people from all over the world in the fellowship hall during our Christmas celebration as I looked around and realized that I was seeing God’s kingdom come to earth as it is in heaven.  I experienced hope in listening to the laughter and delight of our neighbors in the sanctuary while it housed our Christmas in the Fan concert.  I experienced hope in the giggles of some of our youth as I attempted to say “How are you?” and “Thank you!” in Jingpaw, the Kachin language, and in their grace as they corrected my pronunciation and asked me to try again.

God is actively creating something renewed and good among us as we gather, share, pray, give, and love one another in Christ’s name.  My hope (see what I did there?) is that each of us will enter the final days of this season of preparation and waiting with eyes wide open and ears perked for the ways God is at work among us, and the ways God desires for each of us to experience hope in a deep, powerful, life-changing way, and that we’d carry what we’ve learned into Christmas, Epiphany, and the new year.  I’d love to hear what you’ve learned hope looks like during this season.  Come share a story with me sometime.

Peace (and joy, love, and hope!),

Julie

Last weekend fifty-six of us gathered in the magnificent Alleghenies for our second annual Fall Retreat. Traveling 2.5 hours away to Millboro Springs, Va. provided a wonderful opportunity for our busy flock to slow down and spend some much appreciated quality time together. As I look back at the photographs I can’t help but to be struck by the new norm that God is establishing among us. Not all that long ago, we would have not considered a multi-generational retreat as a viable option.

The Church-at-large, for many years now, has established a practice of separating the flock by age bracket. Each group would be given a different corner of the building and it would be quite rare for any of those groups to leave their corners and/or integrate. We moved in this direction, into the corners, under the assumption that we can better educate and equip by customizing our church education programs with age appropriate lessons and events. The same was true of worship. Children, once old enough to leave the nursery corner, would be brought into the sanctuary so that they could sit quietly in worship and watch the adults lead by example. The model makes sense in many ways. In theory, we start in shallow water with the littlest among us and swim into deeper water with each passing year. For many decades this approach to church organization made sense.  However, at some point along the way, the “next” generation found themselves without a corner to call home. Our teenagers grew up, as they often do, and graduated themselves out of the church. The Church-at-large found herself in a state of crisis as once bustling corners of their buildings began to empty out. First it was the youth corner, then the children’s wing, and so on and so on. To this day there are many churches that don’t bother to turn the lights on in those quiet corners.

When I look at the group photo we took at last weekend’s retreat, I see a church family establishing a new norm. When I look into the Sanctuary, on any given Sunday, I see a  a malleable, organic, living/breathing organization embracing her new identity. Lately, when I try to articulate this new norm, I find myself repeatedly using words like inter-generational and inter-cultural. We are still spending time in the corners and that’s o.k. However, God is clearly calling each generation to the center…..together.  God is using each of us, young and old alike,  to re-create the church and I am grateful to each of you for your willingness to participate in the inspiring process.

Hope to see you on Sunday.

Yours in Christ,

Sterling W. Severns

Pastor

 

I smiled as the words parted, “Would you have ever imagined that the fellowship hall would be full of this much noise and laughter on a Wednesday evening?” Teddy smiled back and agreed. Sometimes I have this mental image of God, represented by a giant arm reaching down from the heavens, removing the roof off of our old building, to get a better view of his children delighting in one another’s company. I believe that God delights in our vitality and cooperation.

Two weeks from now, on October 20th, we will gather again in the fellowship hall for our quarterly meeting and ministry fair. We will spend the better part of 1-2 hours looking back to see what God has done among us and casting our eyes forward to catch a glimpse of what God has in store for our not-so-distant future.  I think it is safe to assume that we can expect a healthy amount of reverent laughter. And whereas I love the mental image of God removing the roof to look down upon us, I know better. The God we worship refuses to stand at a distance. The Savior we serve chooses to come down, crossing the threshold into his house so that he might join his children around the family table. He walks among us. He draws us together, each and every one of us, in the beautiful complexity of our theological and cultural diversity. He will remain by our side to help us come into an awareness of the gifts/resources we’ve been blessed with and then he will guide us to bring those gifts and resources together to usher in a kingdom of grace.

Some of us will leave the small table at Tabernacle that very afternoon to attend another family gathering. Our brothers and sisters at Chamberlayne Baptist Church will host an important meeting of the Richmond Baptist Association. There, we will sit around a larger table, and not unlike Tabernacle’s meeting, we will look back to see what God has done among us and we will cast our eyes forward to catch a glimpse of the not-so-distant future. Our wonderfully diverse family will be asked to take an assessment of our gifts, resources, and level of commitment.  Admittedly, I worry that fear will set the tone. Some around the table are trying to decide whether they will remove themselves or even forcibly remove others from fellowship. I do not anticipate much reverent laughter at this particular gathering. I hope I’m wrong.

Regardless, we take comfort in knowing that God refuses to remain at a distance. Jesus  will be, as he always has and will be, actively present…around the table…..with each and every one us. He delights in our vitality and cooperation. He comes directly to us to remind us of our purpose, to set the tone, and cast the vision. It is my prayer that we will all show up on October 20th ready with our eyes, ears, and hearts wide open to his presence among us.

Yours in Christ,

Sterling W. Severns

Pastor

If you ask me what I did during my summer internship, I couldn’t give you any flashy stories. I didn’t take a life-changing mission trip, leave the country, or start a new program. This summer, my fourth as an intern in a church and my second at Tabernacle, felt very different than the first three. The first three summers, I felt like I was doing all of the things a minister should be doing—planning, taking children to camp, VBS, visiting—but I didn’t always feel that I was actually being a minister. This summer, I did those things, but instead of structuring my summer around them, I began to ask the question, “What would it look like for me to be a minister in this moment?” As a result, something surprising happened. Instead of two or three large trips defining my summer, the smaller, everyday ministry that took place grew to be equally as meaningful as the larger events, and for the first time, I felt like I was actually serving as a minister.

• Moments like driving the van and suddenly finding myself engaged in a conversation with some of our students about the nature of heaven and God’s love,
• encouraging our children and youth as they discovered gifts at camp and expressed a desire to use them back home, and sharing pie with a church member
• and listening as she described the ways that God is igniting a passion in her for ministering to our homeless brothers and sisters are the ones where I felt God’s hand guiding us forward.
• I’ll carry with me the visits I’ve made with a 93 year-old church member and the precious moments we shared talking about her love of gardening and vine-ripe tomatoes, her enduring faith, and her love of Tabernacle.
• Each time I remember Judy and four of our youth discovering that the fruit they purchased for the Mini Burmese Food Festival was actually the durian, also known as the “stinky fruit,” I will smile and think of the many ways God surprised us all this summer and the ways our willingness to say “Yes!” even when the outcome is uncertain has become a wonderful witness to faith and trust in God’s provision.

This summer, when I was unsure or confused, your courage and steadfast commitment to Christ and to one another reminded me that God would see me and us through this season and strengthened me on my journey.

So, if you ask me what I did this summer, don’t be surprised if I start telling you a seemingly random story about the time a child’s sidewalk chalk drawing helped me see the Gospel in a whole new light or the ways Legos have enriched our children’s understanding of Jesus’ teachings recorded in Luke. The Spirit moved while we were at camp in miraculous ways, but the Spirit equally stirred up my own passions in the comings and goings each day in the church office, in our conversations Sunday mornings, and in your words of encouragement along the way. Thank you all for your trust and for your willingness to let me serve you this summer. I’m looking forward to a great year with you beginning in September!

Peace,

Julie Gaines

What would it look like for you to be a minister…?: A CCI reflection

MISSION: We affirm that our local church, as part of the universal Church, has been given the task of living out the life-giving and life-changing message of Christ’s ministry on earth: to minister to the spiritual, physical, emotional and social needs of all those we encounter. We pledge to use all our resources and lives to share in God’s Mission to the world.

In 2008, just a few short years ago, we spent the summer months focusing on a theme entitled It’s Time: The Missional Church. Some of the questions floating around the sanctuary and hallways included:

What is our role with the Coppage Family on the other side of our mission team traveling to Hungary?
How can we help to make a home for these new refugees from Burma?
How can we partner with the Hyaets Community in Charlotte?
Do we have a role in the Richmond Baptist Association?
Are we still connected with Virginia Baptists and the various national bodies we have related with over the years?
Will we find a voice in the ecumenical and interfaith communities in Richmond?
All of these questions, and so many more, centered on our willingness to move beyond ourselves and embrace our identity as a missional/cooperative church.

When I consider the significant milestones we’ve reached between the two bookends, It’s Time theme (summer 2008) and Building the Church Together theme (summer 2013), I can’t help but to be overwhelmed with gratitude. This summer we find ourselves sending well over 40+ individuals to the ends of our state, country, and world. Next week alone, we will have active members serving in:

• Wingate, NC
• Millboro Springs, Va.
• New York, NY
• Lynchburg, Va.
• Malaysia
• Zimbabwe
• Poland

On Sunday we will welcome the Coppage Family back to Tabernacle and a well deserved furlough before they return to Hungary. We will have just completed a week of Vacation Bible School where the love of Christ was shared with 75+ children. The bulletin on Sunday will feature two upcoming mission trips to Metro Baptist (NY, NY) and Charlotte (NC). Our children will bring forward a special offering to help support ReEstablish Richmond,  a new non-profit created by Patrick Braford and several of our church family members. The story goes on and on……

It strikes me as significant that each one of these individuals and endeavors is deliberately connected to the larger Church family. The promise we made in 2008 to embrace our missional identity points to the call the Spirit gave us at Pentecost (Acts 2:1-21) and the faithful reality we are living into points to a church coming into it’s own. God bless each and every one of you as we live out our faith together and do so with open arms.

Hope to see you on Sunday.

Yours in Christ,

Sterling W Severns
Pastor