“Church time is sacred time with a story. And in sacred time, memory, imagination, and meaning work together so we can celebrate the shared stories of God’s activity in human history by remembering them as though they were happening to us. Memory enables us to remember and recall the story; imagination enables us to relive it, make it new again; and meaning interprets and applies it to our actions.” – Young Children & Worship, Steward & Berryman
During the Q&A portion of our Parish Town Hall last year, one of you asked me, very kindly, what sort of challenges our parish is facing. I answered that, amongst other things, a lack of ordained clergy to serve our parish was (and still is) one of the most difficult handicaps that Redeemer faces. While we have a fantastic team of people in leadership, both on staff and Vestry, we have very few ordained deacons and priests for a parish of our size.
On Sunday, November 10th, we have the joyful opportunity for you to be Confirmed by our Bishop 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.
As we prepare to gather this fall, I want to share how we approach ministering to our youth and invite you to take another step forward into the life of our Youth Fellowship.
At Redeemer, we describe our life together with the phrase "Gospel Formation for Missional Presence," and because our Youth Fellowship is an integral part of the whole of Redeemer, this is true for us as well.
The nursery at Redeemer is growing! Over the summer, we have had 40 babies in regular attendance between the ages of 6 months-3 years old. With that growth, we are making changes to extend the spiritual formation we practice in Redeemer Kids to our tiniest parishioners. From the moment they are born, we want to build their sense of belonging in the context of the church and God’s story and help them develop a sense of wonder in the beauty of their identity in Christ.
We are creatures who live by our stories…Narrative is the ‘central function of the human mind.’ We turn everything into a story in order to make sense of life. We dream in narrative, day-dream in narrative, remember, anticipate, hope, despair, believe, doubt, plan, revise, criticize, construct, gossip, learn, hate, and love by narrative. In fact we cannot avoid it.
In the same way art appreciation was superseded by the demand for easy entertainment, so now our entertainment culture is being devoured by a cultural addiction to distraction. While the algorithms at work behind our content consumption may technically be amoral, their effects are anything but; the human imagination is actively being hijacked and suffocated in pursuit of financial profit. How can we reflect the selfless love of Christ when the predominant forces shaping our imaginations are gaming, pornography, clickbait, newsreels meant to invoke political outrage, and 15-second video clips?
Modern culture’s rejection of a dominant meta-narrative results in the tragic loss of a shared understanding of the purpose of life. Individuals are subsequently left to generate their own personal sense of purpose. Where is that purpose to be found? Work? Pleasure? Health? Wealth? Positive impact on the world? Social justice causes? Concurrent with the loss of a shared purpose is the increase in meaningless work - work that serves no greater purpose than to generate profit and pay salaries. Such flimsy purposes can rarely withstand the rigors of life’s disappointments, trials, and pains.
The transience of modern life is one of the variables that actively works against our best efforts to practice the missional presence of Jesus in Richmond. Many of us have the option to leave our current context whenever a new job opportunity presents itself or the dream of a better life begins to materialize in a new locale. The Christian commitment to incarnation is a radical response to this impulse. When we choose to stay and live more deeply into the communities we are a part of, we experience the unique fruit that can only be produced through love over lengthy amounts of time.
Modern life is disorienting. We feel the need to organize our time around life-giving practices like life-hacking, habit-stacking, mindfulness, diet, exercise, and technological limits. We live in the age of “Project Self”, and while these self-edits can be a tremendous help in moving us toward greater health, many of us come to see that they require a significant amount of self-discipline.
In May 2023, the U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy released a report declaring that the United States is suffering from an “epidemic of loneliness and isolation.” In his report it was stated that “half of Americans (49%) in 2021 reported having three or fewer close friends,” an increase from 27% in 1990. Twelve percent of respondents said they had no close friends at all. Suffice it to say, community is something that almost everyone is hungry for, yet many have overly romanticized views of. It often doesn’t take long for us to realize that the church is full of people that are just as flawed and difficult to be in relationship with as we are. Churches can some times be places that offer community, but fail to deliver on their promise. This is where we must begin to reimagine what it looks like to practice belonging in the community of the church.
Traditional identities are rooted in an over-identification with the family to the detriment of the individual. Modern identities are rooted in the self and demand that all expressions of human community subordinate themselves to the rights and desires of the individual. Both the traditional and modern expressions of identity attempt to provide a stability and security that will endure. And yet both are deeply fragile. Neither can ultimately deliver on their promises. Both demand your constant best efforts in order to receive their benefits. Over time this proves to be exhausting.
Human beings are “story creatures”. We are invariably attracted to, shaped inside of, and animated by the stories we hear and internalize and those that we tell. We cannot help but live out of the stories we find most deeply compelling, even if we are not consciously aware of this compulsion. It follows, then, that the story of life inside God’s Kingdom naturally conflicts with many of the alternate stories that we believe about ourselves, others, and the world.
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 wrapping up. 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.
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.
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.
I am writing to you today to share with you a very important letter from our Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Christopher Warner and to inform you of an investigation that has recently been released regarding sexual abuse that took place between 1990-2002 at The Falls Church Anglican (TFCA) in Northern Virginia.
On Sunday, May 12th, we have the joyful opportunity for you to be Confirmed by our Bishop 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.
Good afternoon! A blessed Holy Week to you. I want to take a moment to ask you to consider attending the 7AM Sunrise Worship Service on Easter Morning. Now, of course not everyone is able to do this and we understand! However, if you are able to flex your schedule, here are three good reasons to attend the 7AM:
Two weeks ago, we contemplated the Practice of Fasting and together we explored how this spiritual discipline has cultivated virtue in the lives of God’s people from Old Testament times through to the present. If you missed the sermon, you can listen to it here. While most of us are likely familiar with the concept of a private, personal fast, we may be less familiar with the concept of a corporate fast. Here are just a few (of the many) examples of corporate fasting in scripture:
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.
A small group gives you the chance to practice belonging. Humans are made to belong to each other! Think of what a gift it is to walk into a room and have someone’s face light up because they’re so glad you’ve come. To return from a trip and have someone say they’ve missed your presence because life is not the same when you’re gone. It is a profoundly human thing to want to know who your people are and to spend time with them.
The middle of January might seem like an odd time to start talking about Holy Week (this year it’s March 24-31), but both public and private school systems have scheduled Spring Break to start immediately after Easter Sunday. This poses a temptation. If you are a family with kids that hopes to travel for Spring Break, it will be convenient to leave town on Friday (Good Friday) March 29th to get in some extra days of vacation.
From time to time, it is healthy to step away from our daily responsibilities in order to gain perspective, learn, rest, and grow. We do this so that we might return to our work refreshed by the Holy Spirit and re-engage our work with a renewed sense of purpose and energy. To that end, I would like to invite every single one of you (6th grade and up) to participate in one retreat (or conference) this Spring. College students, you are invited to the CCO Jubilee Conference in Pittsburgh and you are invited to the Women’s and Men’s Retreats. Middle and High school students, you are invited to the Youth Fellowship Retreat. Adults, you are invited to attend either the Women’s or Men’s Retreats at Roslyn (on 20 minutes from Redeemer).
I wanted to keep everyone in the loop as our children’s ministry shifts a little while I am away on maternity leave. I, Sam, and our two boys, Clark and Miles, are welcoming a third boy into our family very soon! The Lord has provided richly for our family during this season of change and we are so grateful to be part of this particular church community as our little family shifts, grows, and encounters the challenges that come along with it all.
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.
One of my favorite traditions here at Redeemer is our J-Term. Every January, we close down our Small Group gatherings and encourage everyone to take a class taught by a staff member or lay parishioner. I absolutely love seeing the diversity of gifts and variety of passions that our people have! So many of you have fascinating areas of expertise and it is a wonderful expression of generosity within the body of Christ for you to share your gift with others.
If you're tripped up by the apparent false start of Advent you're in good company. Christians do New Years weird. We don't start with fanfare and champagne; we kick off with minor keys and cries from "lowly exile." Tish Harrison Warren notes that part of the usefulness of Advent is to "make Christmas weird again, to allow the shock of the incarnation to take us aback once more." I like this because the Incarnation of the Son of God is nothing less than an earthquake, and it should strike us as such.
One of the key features of city life (as compared to suburban or country life) is close, physical proximity to neighbors. We are all up in each other’s space all the time! Proximity has the potential to create either friction or blessing. Sometimes it is a gift to be close to others, but sometimes it’s a real pain! One place of potential friction or blessing is Redeemer’s proximity to the VMFA. Every Sunday we host our coffee hour on their lawn and we experience the blessing of the beautiful space they have cultivated. However, there are moments when we wonder if our proximity is a blessing to the VMFA.
A blessed All Saints' Week to you! We are in a special week of the year in our Liturgical Calendar. Tuesday was All Hallows Eve, yesterday was All Saints Day, and today is All Souls Day. This week, we remember the saints, martyrs, and all the faithful departed who have gone before us and whose lives serve as signs, pointing and inviting us toward become more like Jesus..
Every Tuesday morning, at 9:00 a.m., our staff meets for prayer, coffee, breakfast, and discussion. Often, what you read about in Parish Newsletters is coming from the discussion that is happening around the staff table. So today I’d like to invite you to pull up a chair and listen in to what our staff is talking about.
On Sunday, November 12th, we have the joyful opportunity for many of you to be Confirmed by our Bishop and welcomed as new Members into the Parish. This is a wonderful event that takes place only twice a year! Since this process is new to many of you, I thought I’d take a moment this afternoon to share a few details about what it means to take this important step in your faith.
Today I’d like to press in just a bit more into that word “mission.” It’s a word that nearly all Christians use, but that is often used to mean very different things. Often when followers of Jesus hear or use the word mission, they mistakenly assume that everyone agrees and means the same thing. This wouldn’t be a big deal if “mission” was something small and peripheral, like using the correct brand of shampoo. But it is enormous and central - it is the way in which we participate in what God is doing in the world. God Himself has a mission and we, His children, are invited to be a part of it. For a Christian, therefore, mission is not a side dish, it’s the whole meal. It’s not one aspect of life, it’s what your life is about.
Today I’d like to move forward to a different, but intimately related question, “What is missional presence?” One of the ways we talk about our life together is that the Church of Jesus is called to be a missional presence in the world. But what does that mean? “Missional Presence” sounds somewhat lofty, abstract, and vague. How can I tell if I’m doing it? How can I tell if it’s working?
Over the past few weeks I’ve found myself in numerous conversations about the first phrase in Redeemer’s Vision, “Gospel Formation.” As I’ve listened, I’ve heard some confusion on what exactly Gospel Formation is and is not. Is it something God does? Is it something we do? How can you tell if it’s happening?
What a joy to be back in the parish and to worship together this past Sunday! From the whole Marotta family to all of you - thank you! Thank you for the gift of Sabbatical rest and for the privilege of returning to shepherd such a wonderful parish. Our hearts are full with gratitude. What follows is a brief report of our time away:
Every summer we ask our Small Groups to take a break from meeting to create space for what we call “Redeemer Summer Book Clubs.” These gatherings are (hopefully) exactly what they sound like - groups of people who all agree to read a book together and gather a few times over the course of the Summer to discuss what they are learning from the book. If you would like to lead one this Summer, here are your next steps
From time to time it’s appropriate for us to pause and remember that our young little parish here in Richmond is part of a much larger, much older network of churches called the Anglican Communion. This history of this larger body stretches back 500+ years to the Protestant Reformation and presently includes more than 85 million members.
Every year or so, as our parish grows and changes, there is some reorganizing that happens at the staff level. Some leaders conclude seasons of ministry and new opportunities and roles emerge. This Summer, two of our staff are transitioning off the team and there are two new positions on staff that are opening up.
This Summer, after fifteen years of full-time ministry (6 in Charlottesville, 2 in Falls Church, and 7 in Richmond), I will be taking my first Sabbatical. This is something that we originally planned back in 2016, before our family had yet moved to Richmond to plant Redeemer. We told ourselves, back then, that at the seven year mark, we would take a three month Sabbatical. And now the time is here! I can hardly believe it…
Good afternoon! A blessed Holy Week to you. I want to take a moment to ask you to consider attending the 7AM Sunrise Worship Service on Easter Morning. Now, of course not everyone is able to do this and we understand! However, if you are able to flex your schedule, here are three good reasons to attend the 7AM:
This past Saturday was a significant day for us, our diocese, and the Anglican Church in North America. Our beloved Bishop, John Guernsey, officially handed over his spiritual authority and retired from the role of Bishop of the Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic. At the very same time, a new Bishop was consecrated and the Rt. Rev. Chris Warner will now serve as our Bishop. We look forward to welcoming him and his wife Catherine when they come visit us on Sunday, May 14th.
Next week you are invited to participate in one of the most important days of the year in the life of our church. February 22nd is Ash Wednesday and we will all gather to receive the sign of the cross in ashes on our foreheads. Strange as it may sound, we won’t wash off the ashes right away, we'll bear the dirty smudge right there on our faces the rest of the day.
On Sunday, we introduced Practice #5: Context in our Gospel Formation for Missional Presence series. If you missed the sermon, here’s the link. I would encourage you to find some time to listen this week so we can continue to track together as a parish.
Last weekend, our Youth Fellowship ministry took 15 students to Smith Mountain Lake for our first ever Fall Retreat. To give you a glimpse into our weekend, it was filled with laughter, games (including an egg toss), food, singing, swimming, hiking, and studying scripture together. Smith Mountain Lake is one of the most beautiful places I have been, and it was fitting to be able to enjoy such a beautiful part of God’s creation together on our retreat.
On Sunday November 6, All Saints Sunday, we will celebrate the sacrament of baptism and joyfully welcome new people into the resurrection family of Jesus. These are always some of my very favorite days of the year. Whether we are baptizing an adult convert, a teenage or college student professing faith for the first time, or a young child born into a Christian family - it is a transcendent joy to witness a soul united with Christ through water.
A vocational deacon is a “deacon for life.” In other words, someone who is ordained to serve out the remainder of their days in the church as a deacon, and who does not sense a call to move on towards the priesthood. A vocational deacon is typically a man or woman who is not on paid church staff, but rather works in the marketplace full or part-time while serving the church in an unpaid capacity.
We all feel it. The Summer is winding down and the Fall semester is nearly upon us. For many of us, there are so many things that will begin to clamor for our attention as we head into September. Our calendars will fill up and before we know it, we’ll be saying things like, “I don’t know how I got so busy!”
Over the past few months, a number of you have reached out with questions about our Church Planter-in-Residence program. I’ve spoken on this a number of times and have written a few things here and there, but I thought it might be helpful to put it all down in one, concise document. So, here goes folks - this is everything you need to know about Redeemer’s Church Planter-in-Residence Program!
If you have attended a Sunday service at Redeemer at all, you will know that the Lord has blessed us with many many young children. There are currently around 170 children 12 years old and under at Redeemer (and more on the way!). To love and serve our parish is to love and serve the youngest among us as well. So what does it look like to care for such a large percentage of our church body here? Here are four suggestions on where to start:
Unless you’re even more disconnected from the News than I am, you’ve no doubt heard that the Supreme Court recently reversed its decision on Roe v. Wade. This effectively removes a constitutional right to abortion and places abortion laws in the hands of the States, with some states quickly seeking to pass legislation banning abortions and other states seeking to secure abortion rights with the same urgency. As of now, to my knowledge, there has been no change to abortion laws in Virginia.
I have a friend who once took a college course in which the professor assigned a very short book (a pamphlet really) to the entire class on the first day of each semester. The book’s title is A Message to Garcia (You can read it for free here, it takes less than 5 minutes.)
The book contains piercing insight into our human tendency to abdicate responsibility and how vitally important it is for every society to have men and women who can get the job done, no questions asked. Whenever the professor was away from his office, he would leave a note on the door that simply read, “Go find Garcia.” It was his way of encouraging and challenging his students to figure out the answers to their questions without his help.
Summer is nearly here! And with it comes a return to our annual practice of preaching through the Psalms through June, July and August. During this time, it is my practice to take a step back from preaching in order to focus my attention on prayer, study, and preparation for leading our parish in the coming year. I will still be present here through the Summer and plan to return to preaching in Mid-August.
As many of you know, one of the traditions we have sought to develop is that of intentionally and prayerfully cultivating generosity through the practice of annual Pledging. I’m writing to you today to share with you that our Vestry and Finance Team have requested that all members and regular attenders make a pledge before the end of May. Now, this may be unfamiliar to some of us, so here are some quick need-to-know details:
Dear Redeemer Family,
I have exciting news! Our search team has unanimously voted to extend an invitation to a very wise and talented woman, Lane Cowin, to join our staff as Senior Director of Ministries. (Click to view a video interview with Lane.)
Lane holds an M.Div. from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and comes to us from Charlottesville where she has served for years as Director of Spiritual Formation at Trinity Presbyterian Church and before that as Director of Undergraduate Ministries for Women at the Center for Christian Study at UVA.
Lane is a gifted Bible teacher, counselor, spiritual director, and leader. One of the things that I have had the opportunity to observe about her ministry over the years is that people tend to thrive under her care.
If you are wondering, “What exactly is a Senior Director of Ministries? I thought we were searching for an Associate Rector.” Then you’re not crazy! Here’s what the position is and here’s how we got there.
When we began this search process, I thought an Associate Rector (pastor) was the next staff position our parish most needed. Our little church is not so little anymore and there is more pastoral care and leadership needed than I alone can offer. However, as we began the search process, two things became clear:
Most of the things we would be asking this new staff person to do did not necessarily require the person to already be ordained. Therefore, they could be a ministry leader and perhaps not be clergy. We decided that ordination would help the person do the job more effectively, but was not essential to the job.
Most of our top candidates were not already ordained in the Anglican Communion; therefore, no matter who we hired, it would be at least 2+ years before they would be ordained.
So, our search team decided that ordination was not a prerequisite for this role and we switched the job title to Senior Director of Ministries.
What does a Senior Director of Ministries do? Think of this position as having two primary “buckets” or areas of responsibility.
Responsibility #1: Assist me (Dan) in leading our staff. This means overseeing both individual staff and ministry teams. Many of our staff will now report directly to Lane instead of to me. This will, undoubtedly, be a positive change for many of our staff!
Responsibility #2: Provide care and spiritual direction for parishioners. A significant part of Lane’s job will be to meet with anyone in the church who is in need of counsel, care, direction, or simply a listening ear. As you have likely already guessed, there are many folks in our parish and in our city that will find Lane more approachable than they find me! Our hope is that, in hiring Lane, we are expanding our shepherding care for people both inside and outside the parish.
Of course, along the way, Lane will do a host of other things as well. She will lead us in the Sunday liturgy from up front, she will teach classes, lead discussions, organize events, preach the occasional sermon, and much more.
Lane plans to move to Richmond this summer and her official start date is September 1.
Welcome Lane!
We are grateful for your willingness to join our parish and share our mission.
In the Father’s love,
Dan & the Search Team
Andrew Smith — Personnel Committee Member
Rose Estes — Personnel Committee Member
Matt Morgan — Senior Warden
Jim Reynolds — Junior Warden
Hallel Basco — Vestry Member
Bethany Lansing — Vestry Member
Holy Week, April 10-17, is the most important week of the year for followers of Jesus. Through it, we remember Christ’s entry into Jerusalem (Palm Sunday), His washing of the disciple’s feet and last supper (Maundy Thursday), His crucifixion and death on the cross (Good Friday), and His glorious resurrection from the dead on Sunday (Easter). It is also the time during the year when we receive the most visitors to our services and, therefore, the time when we have the greatest opportunity to show hospitality to strangers and outsiders.
Next week you are invited to do a strange and yet important thing. On Wednesday, March 2, you are invited to come and receive the sign of the cross in ashes on your forehead. Stranger still, you won’t wash off the ashes right away, rather - you’ll bear the dirty smudge right there on your face the rest of the day.
Now, why do this? Why participate in an Ash Wednesday service?
Have you noticed that our Sunday worship and weekly parish life contain both traditionally high church and low church elements? Have you ever wondered why? Are we a mish-mash of competing philosophies of ministry? Are we trying to “split the difference” between different styles of church? Today I’d like to invite our whole church family in on a conversation that your Staff and Vestry have been having for a number of years now.
As you might remember, back in December we purchased 3328 Hanover Ave. as Redeemer’s Parish House! Our staff is hard at work getting the house ready to open to welcome you and for use by the many ministries of our church. If you missed hearing about how the Parish House will be used, check out this vision doc.
During the season of Epiphany, the church around the world and throughout history gives her attention to the way in which Jesus is revealed to be the light of the world. Therefore, during this time, it is customary for us to read from the Gospel accounts and see how, in the ministry of Jesus, He uncovers His identity as the long-awaited Messiah.
As the year winds to a close, we are all being bombarded with solicitations for End-of-Year Giving from non-profits, schools, ministries, and other organizations. In the midst of our collective request-fatigue, I would like to offer us a few fresh things to consider regarding financial giving to the ministry of our parish.
Advent is not only a backwards look to the first coming of Christ, it is a forward look towards the second coming of our Lord to judge and renew all things. This means that the discipleship purpose of Advent is not to turn us backwards in reflection and nostalgia, but rather to lift our gaze to the horizon and turn our attention to the future with fearful anticipation - calling us to wake up, to be attentive, to keep watch for Christ the King.
On Sunday October 31, All Saints Sunday, we will celebrate the sacrament of baptism and joyfully welcome new people into the resurrection family of Jesus. These are always some of my very favorite days of the year. Whether we are baptizing an adult convert, a teenage or college student professing faith for the first time, or a young child born into a Christian family - it is a transcendent joy to witness a soul united with Christ through water.
One of the things I appreciate most about our fellowship together is our ability to both laugh with each other and also lean into the serious things of life. These are both good for the soul! We need to be both lighthearted and gravely serious.
I’d like to ask you to mark off Saturday evening, Oct. 2nd 6:00-8:00pm so that we can enjoy both of these together. Please RSVP here.
Last week I wrote about how essential it is for us to be consistent in our presence to the Lord and to each other. Today, I’d like to balance out the equation. Actually, balance isn’t quite the right word, is it? We don’t need a little bit of effort and a little bit of grace in order to thrive, we need 100% of both.
This coming Sunday, July 18th, I’d like to invite you to attend a brief conversation about a decision our parish leadership needs to make in the coming months. If you are interested, we will gather in the upstairs library of the church building for 30 minutes in between the services (10:20-10:50am).
As of today, Governor Northam has lifted COVID social distancing and capacity restrictions. Therefore, we are no longer asking folks to register for worship services in advance and we will be removing the tape for designated seating from the sanctuary before the services this Sunday.
Struggle. Who has escaped it over the last twelve months? While I hope each of us can name some benefits and bright spots through this season, we have all undoubtedly weathered some amount of confusion, fear, discord, and loss. Our Struggle and Hope series has explored our paradoxical relationship to struggle. We resist it, yet we must reckon with it, because struggle always invites us to name something true about our reality, our need, and our hope.
Have you ever felt God speaking directly into your life through a seemingly random verse? Have you ever stumbled into a passage that brought you to tears?
I had that experience a few weeks ago when I turned to this Psalm during a morning reading. You might remember from my previous post, that early mornings are a regular occurrence in our household and not for the sole purpose of reading the Bible.
As we are moving through the season of Lent together, our eyes are on Jesus’ last days on earth and his coming death and suffering. It is a very serious season to walk through with our children as we all fast and contemplate our mortality together as a church family. But as we know, this makes the coming Easter celebration all the more glorious and anticipated, and our children can feel that excitement build even as we mourn and fast in the coming weeks!
One afternoon, I was sitting in a counseling session with a woman who was discontent in her marriage. They’d been married for fifteen years and have had several children together. “He doesn’t listen. He left me years ago to have an affair with his job,” she said metaphorically but with the sharp edge of truth. I asked her, “when was the last time you felt intimate with your husband?” “Ages,” she replied.
In the last year, the various places of our lives have been swept away or altered entirely: schools, workplaces, gyms, team sports, Sunday worship. Like the rest of us, teenagers have spent nearly a year being more deeply formed in a world that is impersonal, digital, mediated by screens or, at best, by masks. The depth of isolation is something many of us have never known. The patterns of life that have come with the pandemic have worked unconsciously to conform all of us, but especially young people, to the belief that our lives are essentially private, that what we feel, think, and do is mostly unseen, and therefore of no consequence or meaning to others.
In a healthy, vibrant, growing young church, there are so many different ways to serve. Some of these roles are highly visible (leading music on a Sunday), some are seen only by a few (leading a fellowship group), while others are almost entirely unseen (sanitizing the sanctuary between services).
Serving on the Vestry occupies a kind of unique in-between ground between public and private service. In one sense, Vestry members have very public and visible roles. Serving as a Vestry member is the greatest responsibility that a lay person can exercise in a Parish. Yet, at the same time, almost everything a Vestry does occurs in secret, behind the scenes. Nobody ever got famous serving on a Vestry!
If you are anything like me, you have aspirations to be a healthy person. You envision the kind of person you’d like to be (perhaps even the kind of person you’re called to be) and you imagine yourself as disciplined, self-controlled, growing, learning, and maturing. Perhaps one aspect of this vision of this “future you” involves rising early to read scripture and pray? The morning devotion is an old standby of the people of God - dating back to the Hebew people of the Old Testament and the early church in the New. For millennia, followers of the one, true God have risen early, shaking off slumber, to keep watch in prayer and meditation on God’s word.
At first glance we might think of self-care as little more than self-indulgence—spa treatments, iced coffees, shopping sprees, elaborate vacations, Netflix binges, alcoholic beverages, and consuming pretty much anything that is being advertised. But effective self-care is bound up in recognizing our needs and limitations. As a mental health professional, I appreciate the ways in which self-care practices are essential to health. Sleep habits, diet, exercise, and meaningful hobbies, along with nurturing expressions of community and spiritual practices are important components of our well being. Yet somehow this didn’t connect to my trials of parenting, marriage, COVID-isolation and my own mental health.
Over the past years, and especially in recent months, I have heard a consistent theme of lament from friends in ministry. When asked the question, “What’s the greatest challenge you’re facing when it comes to discipleship in your church?” The answer has been, almost universally, “the News.” When pressed for an explanation, I hear some version of an all-too-common story: “A congregation member’s preferred news source seems to be the most powerful voice in their lives. It tells them what to believe about who they are, the problems of the world, who is at fault, and what to do about it. The news has become a lens through which the Bible, the Christian faith, and (most especially) their local church is interpreted.”
It might be easy to assume that the source of my anger was primarily rooted in undesirable circumstances. My children were awake earlier than I preferred so I was annoyed, though perhaps inordinately. But when I took an honest look at my anger, I could see it was much deeper than that. I was angry at the loss of control that I felt.
This is the beginning of a biweekly blog series in which we seek to address struggle, our tenuous relationship with it, and our hope in the midst of it. As we enter into some of the coldest and darkest months of an already tumultuous season in our nation's history, may we take heart that the struggles we face are no surprise to our Lord and in Him we have reason to hope.
Wherever you are my friends, know that you are loved and greatly valued by your church family. It’s been an especially hard year to feel that love and value. You might be tempted to wonder, “Do these people even miss me?” “Are these relationships still real?”
The answer is simply and unequivocally, YES.
Join us for a Pre-Election PRAYER VIGIL - Monday evening, November 2 from 7:00-8:00PM as we remind each other of our shared hope which transcends partisanship, and pray for the peace and unity of our city and country.All are welcome. Please invite friends, neighbors and Christians from other churches who may be encouraged by our time together.
I’m sure that many of you have been hoping (as have I) that we will be able to meet together, in person, soon. There seems to be an awful lot of chatter this week about “reopening” - with a pretty wide variety of opinions about what we should all do next. Rest assured, I am in regular conversation about this with our Bishop, pastors of other churches, knowledgeable health care providers, our Staff, and our Vestry.
I know you’ve experienced this.
In a moment of well-intentioned extroversion you ask someone, “Is there anything I can do for you?” They kindly and predictably reply, “Please just pray about ________.” To which you instinctively feel the desire to respond, “But, is there anything I can ACTUALLY do for you?”
Me too. It happens all the time. We don’t feel as if we are truly doing someone for each other unless it involves using our hands and feet.
Now - this instinct is both right and wrong - or rather, right and insufficient.
What a strange and trying time this is for all of us. So much has changed so quickly. Just a couple weeks ago, very few of us were taking the threat of coronavirus seriously; and now here we are - social distancing, quarantine, watching countries close their borders, and wondering how long it will be before things return to normal. It’s that last sentiment that I want to address today, “how long will it be before things return to normal?”
As concerns Dear regarding the coronavirus have escalated around the world and in our own country, I have spent much time over the past two weeks talking with our Bishop, other Rectors in our Diocese, many other lead pastors of Richmond churches, as well as our church Wardens and staff about how we as a church can respond wisely and courageously. While we do not yet have a comprehensive strategic plan for the coming weeks and months, here is the temporary plan for the next week.
The global spread of COVID-19, the coronavirus, has become a focus of attention and concern for many of us. I have been reading extensively about it. I have consulted with diocesan leaders, including doctors and scientists with advanced degrees and expertise in virology, immunology and infectious diseases. Drawing on their wisdom, I offer these points:
We are about to enter a special, albeit, mysterious season of the year - the Season of Lent. For some of us, we are already anticipating certain rhythms of fasting and discipline that we will take up. For others of us, we’ve heard people talk about Lent, but the meaning and purpose of this season remain strange and confusing to us. So, to help us as a church family all get on the same page, here is some information that I hope you find helpful…
For Christians today, the practice of observing the season of Advent can feel just as odd. In Advent we are told that we were made for life in God’s Kingdom, and that we are merely sojourners in this present world. Advent tells us that our hearts are, deep down, filled with longings which will only be satisfied in the New Creation. In this way, Advent points us forward towards the second coming (second Advent) of Christ - at which time this world will be renewed and restored.
If you want to learn from proverbs, you must think yourself a usual man. If you want proverbs to have anything to do with you, you cannot think yourself atypical. You must think yourself ordinary, the kind of fellow that warning labels and parables were written for. If you want to learn from the wisdom of the ages, you have to give up thinking yourself special. If you’re special, proverbs don’t have anything to do with you.
In Christian baptism, a person is united with Jesus in His death and resurrection. We call baptism a sacrament because is a physical, tangible, material ritual that is filled with a spiritual, intangible, immaterial grace. Something physical is happening - The person is either being immersed in water or having water poured over their head. Something spiritual is happening - That person is, mysteriously (in a way that we can only barely begin to comprehend), being joined together with the Lord Jesus and, therefore, becomes a part of the church - the body of Christ.
Forgetting comes naturally, remembering requires intentionality. We have to make an effort, and keep making an effort in order to remember - don’t we? This is one of the reasons why we create traditions. Traditions are (usually) heart-warming and meaningful ways of remembering, of marking time, of taking us back to the most important moments in life and in history.
In the tension between a sacramental world (with it’s contoured landscape of both sacred and common spaces), and an increasingly secularized world (with a flat landscape of only common spaces) - we are raising a new generation of Christian children. What a marvelously difficult and complex task! We long for our kids to experience the beauty and love of Christ for them and we worry that too many rules, and too much behavior correction will squash their enjoyment of church worship and community. Many of us parents are terrified of hearing our kids say those four dreaded words, “Church is not fun.”
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