Category: Church

3/4/2021 0 Comments

Community is essential...

Beloved of God,

I’m spending a good bit of time in Exodus this week since that’s what I’m preaching from on Sunday. I’m always intrigued by the way that early on in the story Moses relies so heavily on Aaron. You’ll notice that through so much of the first several chapters, it is Aaron who does the talking, who even will perform the signs God gave to Moses. None of this seems to be because Aaron had great ambition, but simply because he was being faithful to God and to Moses.
The whole Exodus story carries the assumption of a deep interdependence marked by caring for each other, forgiving each other, and holding each other to account. It’s not hard to imagine that there may have been some lone Israelite who got sick of doing circles in the desert for 40 years and wandered off on their own, but you and I have never heard of them. They didn’t have any effect on their community, or for that matter the story of God’s work in the world. It would seem that God’s interest was in shaping that community no matter what.
I’m thinking about some of this because I want us to remember that Christianity is not an independent experience. The movement of Christian hermits who wandered out into the desert in the 5th century to grow in prayer and holiness died out because there was something essential missing. Jesus didn’t leave behind a book, or simply pick one guy to carry on the Christian movement when he had died, risen, and ascended. Instead he chose 12 people. Jesus left behind a community. Community is native and essential to everything we are seeking to do as a church.
It will be important for us to bear this in mind over the next several months as we continue to negotiate (hopefully) the reopening of many of our regular ministries, the conduct of our congregational business, and whatever unexpected challenges await us beyond these things. I think it would be a wonderful thing if we all commit to doing these things graciously and wisely, and I expect that we will.

Please join me this week in praying for:

An end to this pandemic.
Doctors, nurses, PA’s and paramedics as they work to keep us all well.
Those in positions of public trust at the federal, state, and local level.
Those who are seeking medical treatment, and for those who are looking after them.
Those for whom 28 days wasn’t enough time to make the money needed to pay the bills.
Students, teachers, administrators and others who are trying to pursue the worthy work of education in these strange days.
Folks who are lonely, or frustrated, or worried about the future.
Wisdom, as we seek to meet the challenges this moment presents to this congregation.
Each other (please email [email protected] if you’d like to be added to our prayer list).

You are the salt of the earth; you are the light of the world,

Marshall

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2/4/2021 0 Comments

There is so much you can learn by listening...

Beloved of God,

I cannot remember a time when a month went by as quickly as January of 2021.
In just a few weeks’ time we will be beginning our Lenten study of N.T. Wright’s Lent for Everyone. There will be daily readings mainly from the gospel of Mark. We’ll check in together once a week to see what new things we have learned and where we are hearing God’s voice. If you’d like to sign up for that study a link is available here.

I also want you to be thinking about ways that you might use your gifts to lead our congregation in worship. One thing we have learned as this pandemic has dragged on is that coordinating a worship service with fewer people able to serve conforming to the prescribed restrictions can prove very difficult. We began to wonder if there might be space for folks to offer testimony, to tell a story, to write a responsive reading, or to record worship music played and sung at home. If you are reading this and feel like you’re hearing your name called, I hope you’ll email me so we can talk further about it.

One of our alternate readings for this week is from 1 Corinthians 9 where Paul talks about being “all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.” I have to admit that I spend a good bit of time thinking about this as it pertains to our community. Many of you will have a deeper sense of the secularity in our little community than I have, but it is significant. I often wonder what obstacles exist in coming to faith for these folks. Is it their own past experience? Is it a Christian co-worker who they just can’t manage to get along with? Is it politics? Is it a deep sense of shame, or unbelonging, real or imagined?

I have to tell you that I have always found talking about faith with non-religious folks to be something deeply challenging, and interesting. There is so much you can learn by listening. Someday this pandemic will be over, and we will have an opportunity to hash it out as a broader community. I wonder if some of those folks will have questions where we have answers. I wonder if they will have learned things about themselves that lead them to you, their Christian friends. I hope that when that moment arrives we’ll be ready to speak kindly, and truthfully, but above all that we’ll be ready to listen. I’m certain that if we can, it will be worth it, and we might just save some.

Please join me this week in praying for:

An end to this pandemic.
Doctors, nurses, paramedics, PA’s and other healthcare professionals working to keep us all well.
Wisdom for those in positions of public trust at the federal, state and local level.
Those seeking various kinds of medical treatment in these difficult days.
Families, that moments of joy will be present even amidst and among moments of stress and strain.
Students, teachers, administrators and others trying to do the good work of education .
Those who are grieving, or lonely, or hurting at a time when it’s difficult to as “together” as we would wish.
Open eyes and ears to see and hear those around us who need our care, comfort and help.
Each other ( please email [email protected] if you’d like to be added to our prayer ministry).

You are the salt of the Earth; you are the light of the world,

Marshall

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12/17/2020 0 Comments

Ember Days and a Spiritual Checkup

Beloved of God,

A few housekeeping things you will want to take note of:

Currently, there have been no additional COVID positive tests in our congregation. Praise God that we have been defended from further sickness!
A final decision about what Sunday morning service will look like will be made by the council Friday evening.
Our Christmas Eve service will have a cap on how many of us can attend in compliance with state law regarding COVID safe practices for houses of worship. Please take a moment to fill out this survey to help us plan a service that meets those expectations as we gather for worship next Thursday.

I bought a copy of The Old Farmer’s Almanac. I couldn’t even begin to explain exactly why. I was just looking at wall calendars online, and the next thing I knew I had spent 5 bucks on a digital edition of a farmers almanac. I don’t even garden! There’s something of a running joke around the office that every once in while I’ll do or say something that makes more sense if I was born in 1896 rather than 1986. Perhaps it was that impulse. Who can say?
But I spent time with it and really have enjoyed it. There are seasonal weather predictions and fun little anecdotes. I really got enamored of the monthly calendar page. The calendar page in an almanac keeps track of things I’ve never heard of. For instance, there are three Ember Days this week.
I’d never heard of Ember Days, but on a little bit of investigation, it turns out they are a very old, mostly forgotten practice of prayer and fasting at the change of seasons. Their purpose has a few facets:

To praise God for the gift of a new season, and whatever goodness it may bring.
To give yourself three days for a spiritual checkup.
To pray for folks who are starting something new in this season, especially if it's a new ministry.

I have to tell you, I kind of like this idea. I think we might all do well to mark some time for a spiritual checkup. Have we been keeping up with the practice of our discipleship? Has our sense of God’s presence and calling grown, or diminished since the fall? Where have we been complacent? Where have found God’s love and provision? Now might be a good time for all of us to think about all the ways God has been faithful to us through the past season, and prayerfully recommit to following Jesus through the winter. After all, discipleship is a daily endeavor. All of the synoptic gospels contain Jesus’ call to take up the cross and follow Him in discipleship. But Luke remembers a detail that Mark and Matthew don’t: we take up the cross daily. Perhaps these Ember Days are an opportunity to pause, pray, and reflect on what that daily engagement in our discipleship should look like through this winter.

Please join me in praying for:

An end to this pandemic.
In praise for defense and recovery from the pandemic in our congregation.
Doctors, nurses, paramedics, PA’s and others working to keep us all well during this time.
Those spending Christmas alone, or with an empty space at the table.
Teachers and students as they work to finish up an unprecedented semester of challenge and study.
Our leaders at the federal, state, and local level
In praise for the new life being welcomed into the world by several of our families during this season.
For Christians and churches around the world celebrating Christmas during this season of uncertainty.
Faithfulness, day by day, season to season, in our discipleship.
One another (please email [email protected] if you’d like to be added to our prayer list).

You are the salt of the earth; you are the light of the world,

Marshall

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9/17/2020 0 Comments

Be the church

Beloved of God,

   This weekend we will all have the opportunity to hear from both of the missionary families that WRBC supports directly. We will be hearing from the Joneses on Sunday morning during the service via live video, and from the Blakes in the evening at 6pm in the Great Room. If you for any reason can’t attend or view either conversation, I know that the missions team would be happy to answer as many questions as they can.
   I have been so encouraged this past week to hear story after story of people who are looking out for one another through phone calls, visits, and shared table fellowship. I myself have been the beneficiary of a great deal of this kind of care. The great Baptist renegade Will Campbell used to say, “How can you go to church? You can be the church out there where God’s children are.” In a time where we cannot be together at the church house as often or with as many as we like, I am deeply encouraged to find so many of you being the church. I hope we will continue to be the church together.

Please join me in praying for:

Jerri McTaggart and other volunteers helping with hurricane recovery in Louisiana, and those who need their help.
Those fleeing from and fighting wildfires on the west coast.
The Joneses serving in Oaxaca, Mexico.
The Blakes serving in West Africa.
Those who are lonely, afraid and isolated.
In praise for the life of Dick Basinger and in intercession for his family.
Our youngest brothers and sisters.
Our oldest brothers and sisters.
For teachers and school administrators who are confronting unprecedented challenges as they seek to educate the young folks in our community.
For Doctors, nurses, other healthcare professionals and first responders as they battle this pandemic on behalf of us all.
For people in positions of public trust at the federal, state, and local level.
In praise, because no matter what, the Eternal One still sits on the throne, still loves us deeply, and is still working all things for the good of us: the beloved and the called.
For each other. Please email April ([email protected]) if you’d like to be added to our prayer list.