The apostle Paul’s letter to the church in Philippi is one of the most encouraging, joyful, and best-loved of all the New Testament epistles, and indeed, in the whole of scripture. Differing from the rigorous theological precision of Romans or the pastoral rebuke of 1 Corinthians, the letter to the Philippians is marked by affection, gratitude, exhortation, and encouragement.
Here in the month of August, I can feel the pressure of the fall schedule closing in. With it comes a familiar feeling of being intimidated by the challenges of keeping up with it all — maybe more honestly worded, the challenge of performing well. In a culture that puts immense pressure on us and our children to be extraordinary, the greater challenge might be to instead resist that impulse. In this aptly named season of Ordinary Time, the longest and most uneventful portion of the Christian calendar, we find the invitation to lean into our limitations and subsequently the grace it takes to sustain us in our work.
May I confess something to you? I have a love/hate relationship with Redeemer’s Foundations Class. Now, this class is my baby so let me explain! I have poured so much of my heart, energy, time, and love into this class over the past 8 years. I’ve edited and re-edited the content dozens of times and yet, every time I conclude another round of Foundations Class, I feel very mixed emotions. There are two things I absolutely love about the class…
As our parish leadership has been preparing for the fall semester, we have been doing some serious thinking and praying about how to best answer a perennial challenge: “How can we make it possible for every adult man and woman at Redeemer to be a part of a Small Group?”
Small Groups are not Redeemer’s invention (lots of churches do them), nor are they a recent innovation (Christians have intentionally met together to help each other grow in their faith since the earliest days of the Church).
Redeemer Family, I am writing to inform you that our church is officially under contract to purchase a property. This is good news! However, it’s not a done deal yet, and so I am adopting a posture of “cautious excitement and prayerful discernment” and I invite you to join me in this. Now, there are a lot of nuanced details to communicate, so please read the following carefully!
I’m excited to announce two programming changes we are making this fall to our Youth Fellowship. Parents of rising 6th graders - rising 12th graders, please pull out those family calendars and make note!
Summer brings many welcome changes to our rhythms of life and I’m looking forward to them just as much as you are. The season of Eastertide is behind us. The school semester is complete. Many of you are anticipating a slower pace of work, more time with family and friends, and perhaps some travel away from Richmond - all good and lovely things.
At the end of this ministry year, I am remembering how much there is to be grateful for and celebrate. As I step aside from my role leading the Youth Fellowship, I continue to appreciate the milestones and memories of this year and give thanks to Jesus who made all of it possible.
One of the greatest joys over the past eight years has been the role our parish has played in helping to plant new churches. Every time we send out a new church plant, it reminds us that the Kingdom of God is so much bigger than merely what is happening here within our local congregation. It also reminds us that the work of the church is never solely for itself; we exist for the sake of others who do not yet know and love the Lord Jesus.
At Redeemer, we believe prayer is not just a ministry—it is central to our life together. Prayer is where we meet people in their deepest places of joy, grief, longing, and hope, and stand together before the Lord who hears, knows, and acts. Through prayer, we participate in God’s ongoing work of healing, freedom, and redemption in the lives of his people, including those who find themselves in places of pain, despair, or brokenness.
The Search Team meets monthly to evaluate potential long-term home options for our parish. Our criteria are based on preferences and needs shared by both the staff and the congregation, including:
Desired location
Aesthetic considerations
Programmatic needs
Cost of purchase and potential renovations
Every Sunday about ten minutes after the hour, a wave of parishioners (mainly under 4 ft tall) swells through the sanctuary and into the classrooms, where they stay until they come flooding back in before Holy Communion begins. For many sitting in a service at Redeemer, this sweet movement begins and ends as they pass through the doors of the sanctuary. But what happens on the other side of those doors?
It’s almost that time of year again! We have learned from older, more established ministries that the summer months provide two unique opportunities for our parish. The first is to allow our hard-working Redeemer Kids volunteers a much-needed chance to slow down. The other is the chance to embrace more participation from children during the worship service for the summer season for the sake of both our children themselves and the adults around them! As our parish moves into the season of Ordinary Time and we find ways to practice our faith in, well, ordinary ways, this is a wonderful time to shift the way we teach our children as well.
The author of Ecclesiastes reminds us that “for everything there is a season,” and this is certainly true in every space of life, including the life of a parish like ours. Seasons begin, seasons end, and new seasons begin. There are ebbs and flows to parish life.
May is pledge month at Redeemer. During this time we encourage all members to make Membership Commitments which involve giving Time, Talent, and Treasure to the Lord Jesus through his body, the Church. Whether you are becoming a new member this month or are a returning member, this is an important action item for all of us. Pledging provides important information to our Vestry and Ministry Leaders to make wise and strategic plans for our parish.
On Sunday, May 18th, we have the joyful opportunity for you to be Confirmed by The Rev. John Guernsey and welcomed as new Members into the Parish. This is a wonderful event that takes place only twice a year, and is available to all who have been baptized and attended our Foundations class! I thought I’d take a moment to share a few details about what it means to take this important step in your faith.
Holy Week is nearly upon us. I want to take a few minutes to explain what it will be like to participate in the most important days of the year together. Please, if you can, read the following in its entirety.
Over the years, I have found confession, in all its forms, to be a deeply helpful and encouraging practice. I find that, once I get over my fears, God is more tender than I expected, my friends are more understanding than I anticipated, and the priest to whom I confess is utterly without judgement or condemnation.
As I greet our students each week on their walk into our homes, I witness a quiet miracle as they move from the dark silence of the street and settle into the bright noise of fellowship. This miracle is the assembly of a spiritual house, as one by one the stones are gathered and find their place among the others.
Today, as an 8-year-old parish, we are blessed with more babies than ever before. Looking back on our childcare staff, I’m thankful for the leadership team that made the early decision to address the needs of our nursery. What started as a practical solution to an overcrowded nursery has become a beautiful partnership that supports our mission of creating a space where families with young children can find belonging in our church community.
Over the past few years of ministry, I’ve heard a common refrain from adults in our congregation who are new to the practices of our church, either Anglicanism or Christianity altogether, that they feel a reluctance to fully engage in what Redeemer is up to that season. They want to spend some time observing before they try out a new practice or attend a new kind of service. Perhaps more honestly worded, they want to gain more information before they run the risk of not being good at something new. What naturally flows downstream of this hesitation is that they wait to bring kids into a spiritual practice until they are able to articulate their decision well.
This year, instead of throwing one big Shrove Tuesday party in the basement of 2715 Grove Ave. like we have done in past years, we are going to celebrate this feast in homes with our Redeemer Small Groups.
Redeemer Family,
We are in still in Epiphany, but Lent is coming soon (March 5th), and it is such an important season that it warrants some forethought and preparation. For those of you unfamiliar with Lent or in need of a refresher, keep reading!
Every March Redeemer members elect two members to join the vestry—our parish's governing body—for a three-year term. Any member in good standing can be nominated to serve on the vestry. If you are a member of Redeemer, we encourage you to prayerfully consider whom you might nominate for these important roles.
The first bit of underlying logic motivating our Epiphany series is the conviction that we human beings live out of our imaginations. Many of you have heard me say this before and I have written elsewhere, “From the imagination springs desires; from desires flow actions, which over time wear grooves into habits; from habits develop beliefs that justify; and from beliefs come doctrine.”
We are homo imaginari.
The second bit of underlying logic is the conviction that our imaginations can be molded, shaped, and changed by our practices. The human imagination is dynamic, not static.
Therefore, our practices (especially the ones we take for granted) are of profoundly deep importance to the spiritual wellbeing of our souls.
Now, what does all this have to do with Redeemer’s search for a building?
Jesus often withdrew to quiet places and prayed (Luke 5:16), even amidst the busiest moments of his life. He didn’t allow the stress — or success! — of his work to outweigh his need to break from his regular rhythms and get away to spend time with his Heavenly Father. We’d like to invite all of our Redeemer family to attend our Men’s or Women’s Fellowship retreats this spring. Each will have some good biblical teaching, conversations for connection and encouragement as we listen for God’s direction, and plenty of time for rest and play.
The answer to this question has undergone a dramatic shift in the past few decades. For hundreds of years the answer was a quick and easy “church holiday.” What else could celebrating the birth of our Savior be? Of course, there were family celebrations that often accompanied Christmas church celebrations, but these were understood to be secondary.
During the seasons of Advent and Christmastide, we will begin our worship services on a more contemplative note to help our hearts, minds, and bodies prepare.
