“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.
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