The Pastor's Letter: Pastor Skip Ferguson

The Art and Science of Worship

2011-11-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

Why do we worship? How should we worship? When should we worship? Where should we worship? What should the space in which we worship look like?

These are among the many questions our two weekly Bible Study groups asked throughout September and October as we studied the many elements that fall under the word “Worship”.

As always, we began our work with a look at the Bible to see what we could learn in its pages. Did you know that the basic model for how we worship was established more than 400 years before the birth of Jesus? The Old Testament book of Nehemiah teaches us that the faithful gather in community, prayer is offered, Scripture is read, and then Scripture is interpreted “so that there is understanding”. Worship is as simple as that!

We learned that interpretation isn’t limited to a spoken sermon. Music, dance, drama, and pageants are among the many creative ways we can interpret the Word of the Lord. We learned that worship spaces are as varied as the people who fill the rooms. Our Confession of 1967 helps us to understand that “the arts, especially music and architecture, contribute to the praise and prayer of a Christian congregation… awakening us to God’s presence”.

One of the most important lessons we learned is that worship requires the active participation of everyone gathered. A congregation seated in a sanctuary is not an audience. Our Book of Order teaches us, “the people call God by name, invoke God’s presence, beseech God in prayer, and stand before God in silence and contemplation. They bow before God, lift hands and voices in praise, sing, make music, and dance. Heart, soul, strength, and mind, with one accord, they join in the language, drama, and pageantry of worship.” In other words, everyone is actively, energetically involved in every part of worship – not just those who happen to be in the chancel.

We also learned that every hymn we sing is a prayer we offer to God. It doesn’t matter whether you sing well or struggle to stay on key – the important thing is to participate in the prayer, even if it is just saying the words of the song.

As you worship each Sunday, remember “Worship is the workshop where we are transformed into God’s image,” but only if you come to worship ready to be fully involved, “heart, soul, strength, and mind, with one accord…joining in”. Come to worship each Sunday ready to “call, invoke, beseech, stand, bow, lift hands, make music, dance and join in the pageantry of worship.”

The psalmist said it best when he wrote:

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.

Worship the Lord with gladness;

come into his presence with singing.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise.

Give thanks to him, bless his name.

(Psalm 100)

Or, as Eugene Peterson paraphrased the psalm in The Message: “On your feet now – applaud God! Bring a gift of laughter, sing yourselves into his presence!”

Grace & peace

Pastor Skip

Happy 200th PTS!

2011-10-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

Next year the Princeton Theological Seminary will celebrate its 200^th birthday. It was the first seminary to be established by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church and is the largest of the 10 Presbyterian seminaries.

Prior to Princeton Seminary’s establishment, clergy were trained in college classrooms. Young men called to ministry in the Presbyterian Church made their way to Princeton to attend the College of New Jersey, founded in 1746 and renamed Princeton University in 1896. The Rev. Dr. John Witherspoon, President of The College of New Jersey in the later years of the 18^th century and a Presbyterian pastor and teacher, had the distinction of being the only clergyman to sign the Declaration of Independence.

The Seminary’s charge at its founding was “to unite in those who shall sustain the ministerial office, religion and literature; that piety of the heart, which is the fruit only of the renewing and sanctifying grace of God, with solid learning; believing that religion without learning, or learning without religion, in the ministers of the gospel, must ultimately prove injurious to the church.”

Learning has always been foundational in the Presbyterian Church, so it is not surprising that Presbyterian seminaries are centered around two buildings: their chapels and their libraries. Princeton’s chapel is lovely, the perfect setting for daily worship in the midst of the academic scrum. But Princeton’s library is matchless, an extraordinary resource available to students, faculty, and the broader community. You’d have to travel to Rome, to the Vatican Library, to find a richer and broader theological collection.

All buildings age, and the Seminary’s library building was no exception. It was dated and worn when I was a student 15 years ago. A bold decision was made a few years back by the Seminary’s leaders to tear down the old building and in its place build not just a replacement, slightly larger and technologically up-to-date, but a building that would house a library designed to reach out to the global community: to pastors, teachers, and lay women and men in far distant lands, especially those without the easy access we have to books, articles and other resources to help them learn.

Construction of the new library is well underway. I’ve been following the library’s progress closely not only as a faithful alumnus twice over, but also as a member of the Bicentennial Committee that is helping the Seminary prepare for a joyous celebration next year.

Our Pastors’s Committee has a two-fold charge: first, to help raise funds for this exciting ministry project, and second, to help our congregations learn more about Princeton Seminary and how broad the school’s reach is. There are 11,000 Seminary alums scattered throughout the globe, including almost 400 here in Virginia, ministering, teaching, preaching, counseling, evangelizing, and praying in the name of Jesus Christ. Seminary professors author books and articles that influence preaching and teaching in churches of every denomination. We’ll host Professor Cleo LaRue next June as guest preacher and teacher.

The world of theological seminaries seems removed from us as we go about our daily business, as though they were cloisters, rather than the vibrant centers they are. Our seminaries touch all our lives – not just mine – deeply and profoundly.

We as a church community should take a keen interest in and be strongly supportive of all our theological seminaries, and especially Princeton as it takes a giant step forward to become a resource available to men and women the world over eager to learn, eager to grow in their knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Thank you Ann and Amy

2011-07-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

The sign out front this week as I write this letter says, “Thank you Ann and Amy.” It is just one more way for us to express our gratitude to Ann Curtis and Amy Simpson as they both leave the staff for new opportunities.

Ann worked so capably as our Office Manager for five years. She was so much more than a secretary, so much more than a receptionist, so much more than an administrative assistant. She kept our website current, prepared the weekly worship bulletin, managed the building, answered the telephones, helped edit and produce the newsletter, and juggled the needs of the rest of the staff as well as the various ministry teams. And she managed to do it all with a smile on her face!

Amy Simpson was part of our Early Learning Center staff for four years: the first two in the classroom, and then the past two years as our Assistant Director. Like Ann, she brought a smile to her job. Her love for children was as obvious as her devotion to the ministry we provide through our ELC.

ELC has already filled the Assistant Director’s position with Jody Ritner. Jody has been a part of our ELC family for 20 years, most recently as the lead teacher for the Purple Bears – the pre-kindergarten class. We are blessed to have Jody succeed Amy.

Our Personnel Ministry Team, chaired by Elder Scott Myers, is working to fill the Office Manager’s position. They’ve updated the job description and have posted it on the church website, as well as on the National Capital Presbytery’s website. They have posted the opening through other sources, too, all in an effort to find the best person to fill Ann’s big shoes.

At its June meeting the Session discussed the practice that a growing number of churches have adopted in recent years of separating staff positions from church membership. Things can become complicated and stressful when a person is employed by the place that is also his or her church -- the place he or she looks to for spiritual growth, renewal and refreshment.

Many churches have put in place boundaries to assure that for members the church is a not a place of employment, but the member’s spiritual home. Our Session has adopted that policy for the Office Manager’s position. This will assure that the person in this demanding and sensitive job will be fully able to put in the long hours the job requires, and then find renewal and refreshment on Sunday morning at his or her church.

I am excited to be part of the process as we discern whom God has chosen for us to join our staff and be part of our team. We are a busy, dynamic place as we follow the Head of our church, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Grace & peace,

Pastor Skip

The Constancy of Change

2011-06-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

“Slaves obey your masters” – the words are right there in Scripture, in Paul’s letter to the Colossians. “Obey your masters”, Paul wrote, “to please them”. Today the very word “slavery” horrifies and repulses us, but two thousand years ago slavery was so common that Paul saw no problem with it.

“Women should be silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be subordinate.” Once again, we find these words in Scripture, again in Paul’s writings, this time in his first letter to the Corinthians. In the 21^st century there are still many churches adhering to these words, with women in decidedly subordinate roles, but this is not true for us within the Presbyterian Church (USA). Our Brief Statement of Faith, one of our Confessional statements, reminds us that God “makes everyone equally in God’s image, male and female, of every race and people.” Fifty years ago the PCUSA did not allow women to be ordained to the office of deacon, elder or minister, but this year 19 of the 33 ordained officers serving on our boards here at MPC are women.

The Holy Spirit leads us to change and transformation over time, opening our eyes, our ears, our hearts, and our minds to perspectives that we had not been able to see before. For more than 30 years we have debated, often bitterly, Scriptural passages which some have argued should exclude a class of men and women from serving as ordained officers of the church. Others have argued that the passages in question are being read in a way that lacks God’s grace, love, and acceptance revealed to us in Jesus, and, as a result, creates barriers in a place where our Lord teaches us to remove barriers.

The recent vote to change the language of an amendment in our Book of Order removes barriers and eliminates language that excluded otherwise faithful, qualified men and women from serving as deacons, elders, or ministers. This is a welcome change, as is any change which removes hindrances to service in the name of Jesus Christ. Conversely anything that creates boundaries, barriers or hindrances goes against our Lord’s teachings.

I look back at how the Holy Spirit has worked within me over the past 30 years as my thinking has changed. I was once very supportive of exclusion but am now very supportive of inclusion. I read, I studied, I prayed; I thought I knew. But God helped me to see in a new way, a different way, a way that is grounded in the grace that was lacking in how I once thought.
You can find more information about the change on the PCUSA website (www.pcusa.org). As the new language puts it so well, we submit “joyfully to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in all aspects of our lives”, lives that begin with grace and acceptance, and end with love given all, without exclusion.

Grace & peace

Pastor Skip

Happy Birthday KJV!

2011-05-01T07:00:00.000-07:00

“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.”

These are the familiar words from the Twenty-third Psalm as they come to us from the King James Version of the Bible. The psalmist comforts us with words of such profound faith, and the translation sings in its poetry and its lyricism.

The Bible I use in the pulpit each Sunday is a New Revised Standard Version, the most accurate translation of the original Hebrew and Greek currently available. But, for as accurate as the NRSV is, it lacks the poetry of the KJV. The NRSV’s translation of Psalm 23 is correct, but dry:

“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters;he restores my soul.He leads me in right pathsfor his name’s sake.”

The KJV is celebrating its 400^th anniversary this year, and with the celebration has come renewed interest in the text. It was England’s King James I who decreed in 1604 that the Bible should be available in the English language and then assembled a team of scholars who worked the next seven years preparing what we now know as the King James Bible.

The work was fraught with challenges. There was the difficult task of going through ancient texts and translating from the original Hebrew and Greek. Even more challenging was overcoming the conviction that Latin was the only appropriate language for the Bible since Latin was the language of the church. William Tyndale had tried to translate the Bible into English a century before and was burned at the stake for heresy.

It isn’t surprising that the KJV sounds so wonderfully Shakespearean — it was produced when Shakespeare was in his glory. The translators worked to make the KJV lyrical and elegant, powerful and yet musical. In his engaging history of how the KJV came to be, God’s Secretaries, Adam Nicolson observed, “the Bible was appointed to be read in churches… and so its meaning had to be carried on a heard rhythm, it had to appeal to what T. S. Eliot later called the ‘auditory imagination’, and that ‘feeling for syllable and rhythm, penetrating far below the conscious levels of thought and feeling, invigorating every word.’”

For as glorious as the language is, the weakness of the KJV is the translation itself. The group that produced the Bible worked from manuscripts that were often not at all accurate, and their knowledge of the languages was well short of mastery. As Nicolson put it, “this is clearly a translation done by people who didn’t really understand what they were translating.”

Masterful, lyrical language is wonderful and certainly has its place, and so we should sing out Happy Birthday to the KJV. But the greater legacy of the KJV beyond its language is its attempt, even with its flaws, to discern as accurately as possible the word of God. Scholars continue this work today so that you and I can know more completely the word of God to help us understand more fully the will of God.

Grace & peace,

Pastor Skip

"The Sunday following the paschal full moon..."

2011-04-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

“The Sunday following the paschal full moon, which is the moon that falls on or after the spring equinox”. This is how we determine Easter Sunday each year and it’s why Easter is so late this year, while just three years ago Easter fell on March 23. The Council of Nicaea decreed the formula back in the year 325 and for almost 1700 years this is the cycle we’ve followed even as the calculation confounds us as we juggle different schedules each year. Even pastors would love consistency: “Can’t we just settle on the Second Sunday of April?” as one colleague wistfully suggests.

This year we will gather to celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord on the last Sunday in April, as late in the cycle as possible. The date on which Easter falls may change from year to year, but our joy and enthusiasm never wane. Even in late spring, with Mother’s Day, graduations, and Father’s Day straight ahead, we will still “lift high the Cross” as we celebrate Easter.

The late date this year does have an advantage: it provides us with the opportunity for a slow, steady, purposeful and prayerful walk through the remaining weeks of Lent. We may be at the beginning of April, but we’re still only half-way through Lent.

We’ll begin the month on Saturday April 2 with a celebration of the Seder, the Passover meal, the meal Jesus shared with his disciples on the night of his arrest and betrayal. This is a wonderful opportunity for us to enjoy an evening of fellowship as we learn why faithful Jews had been gathering to remember the Passover for more than a thousand years even before Jesus and his disciples took their places in the Upper Room.

On Sunday April 3 we will celebrate both Sacraments as we Reaffirm our Baptismal Covenant and partake in the Lord’s Supper – our Sacrament grounded in the Passover. We’ll focus on the word “shalom” on Sunday April 10 as we learn that the word means so much more than “peace”; it means a deep peace that comes from a wholeness and completeness that can come only from our faith in God and walking with Christ.

Holy Week begins with our joyful Palm Sunday service on the 17th, all our voices singing out, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!” as we wave our palms, just as the people of Jerusalem did two thousand years ago as Jesus entered the city. Then on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings the men of our church will present the powerful drama, “The Living Last Supper,” recreating Jesus’ final evening as he and his disciples gathered to observe the Passover.

On Maundy Thursday we’ll have what I consider our most emotional and moving worship service of the year as we walk with our Lord through his betrayal, his arrest, and his crucifixion. We will leave the service in silence remembering that for three long days the world walked in utter darkness.

But then on the 24th, we’ll recall with glad hearts the words from the first chapter of the Gospel of John, “the light shines in the dark, and the darkness did not overcome it,” as we conclude Lent and bring April to a close with our glorious Easter service celebrating the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We have a wonderful opportunity with our late Easter this year to immerse ourselves fully and completely in a truly Holy Lent. I invite you to take full advantage of this year’s unique lunar cycle.

Grace & peace,

Pastor Skip

Fauré’s Requiem

2011-03-01T09:00:00.000-08:00

Our Jerusalem Choir will offer an extraordinary gift to God and all of us during worship at the end of the month when they perform Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem. Mozart, Brahms, Verdi and many other composers have written Requiems, but Fauré’s is, in my opinion, matchless for its ethereal beauty and its visceral evocation of the promise of life eternal that is ours in Jesus Christ. It is music that doesn’t weigh the listener down with the somberness of death as much as it lifts the listener heavenward in the hope of eternal rest, eternal joy, and eternal love in the Kingdom of God.

Fauré wrote his Requiem in response to the loss of his father, and even as he worked on the composition his mother died; he knew well the powerful grief that washes over us and fills us when a loved one dies. Still, his composition doesn’t focus on death, nor does it focus, as traditional Requiems do, on the Day of Judgment. Rather, his celestial music turns our focus upward to heaven, our ears attuned to the sound of the heavenly choir.

Most Requiems are built on the Roman Catholic liturgy of the Mass for the Dead, and Fauré follows that path, though loosely. He begins with the traditional Introit and Kyrie: “Grant them eternal rest, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy”. He then moves to the Offertoire, in which the singer lifts up prayers of praise to the Lord God.

The third movement is the traditional Sanctus, similar to what we sing each time we celebrate the Lord’s Supper: “Holy, Holy Holy, Lord God of Hosts; Heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the Highest”.

Then comes the Agnus Die: “Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, grant them rest. Let eternal light shine on them O Lord throughout eternity.” The fifth movement, the Libera Me, speaks to the traditional focus on the day of wrath: “Deliver me, O Lord, from eternal death on the day of Judgment.”

And last comes the shortest movement, the In Paradisum, which fills the listener with hope and peace. Even without the words, Fauré’s music will lift your eyes, mind, and heart heavenward: “May angels lead you into Paradise…May a choir of Angels receive you...”

Fauré’s Requiem is the perfect piece of music for us to hear as we walk through Lent, for it reminds us that in our Lord’s Resurrection death has been vanquished, utterly defeated. We have the sure and certain promise of life eternal in our Lord Jesus Christ: “Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live” (John 11:25).

Our Choir will perform the Requiem at both services on Sunday March 27^th. Coincidentally, the Requiem will also be performed by the Christ Church Choir at the National Cathedral on Friday April 1 at 7:30 pm. Don’t miss this extraordinary piece of sacred music.

Grace & peace

Pastor Skip

Sailing Together

2011-02-01T06:00:00.000-08:00

Watch a crew on a large sailboat in a competitive race and you’ll see teamwork at its best. Everyone works together, each person with a specific task, yet all committed to working with one another to keep the boat moving forward trim, taught, and fast. Everyone does his or her assigned task, yet each also supports teammates, everyone on the crew working together to assure that every breath of wind is captured to keep the boat moving forward.

A few weeks back I spoke of our calling to be a Sailboat Church, the Holy Spirit the wind in our sails, powering us, guiding us, moving us forward. We are to work together like the crew of a boat, each of us called to different work within the church by the Holy Spirit, each of us empowered by the Spirit, yet all of us working together as together we capture the power of the Spirit leading us into God’s future.

I concluded that sermon with the words “All hands on deck”, about as close to an altar call as you might find in a Presbyterian Church! But it is a truism that a church depends on volunteers to run. The staff of our church is much too small to sail the boat we call MPC. We need everyone involved and active, working together.

As we start a new year, it’s the ideal time for you to get involved in a new, or perhaps more committed way in our church. We do much of our work through our Ministry Teams: Christian Education, Early Learning Center, Finance & Administration, Membership, Mission, Personnel, Property, Stewardship, and Worship & Music. Each of these Teams is always happy to have new folks help out. If you’ve been thinking about getting involved with one of our Teams, there’s no better time than right now!

We need to create a new Team this year, one that helps us with our website and other ways of communicating with one another and visitors. We created a new look for our website a couple of years ago and Ann Curtis does a wonderful job keeping it up-to-date, but it is too big a job for one person. We have found that most visitors first learn about us through our website, so we need to keep our site current, and expand the information we provide. Are you comfortable with technology? Are you creative? Then perhaps this new Team is the place for you! Speak with me and I will be happy to tell you more.

Another Team I think we need is a “Green Team”, a group focused on two goals: helping us as a church operate as good stewards of God’s earth, and helping all of us in the congregation learn how to walk lightly on God’s creation.

Don’t wait to be asked – step up and get involved. The Spirit is calling you even now – all hands on deck!

Grace & peace

Pastor Skip

"Jolly ol' St. Nicholas"

2010-12-01T07:00:00.000-08:00

“Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.” Those are the famous words of Frances Church, the editor of the New York Sun, writing in 1897 in response to an anxious letter from an 8-year-old girl who had reached that age when we all begin to lose a bit of the wonder. Santa Claus is as much a part of Christmas as evergreens, lights, Jingle Bells, and presents. As the editor wrote, “Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus.”

Santa has his roots in a fourth century Greek bishop named Nicholas, who, according to legend, secretly passed out gifts to the poor and needy, and, as one wonderful story goes, tossed a small bag of coins down the chimney of a home of a family who had no food. Over time stories became more myth and legend than fact, and by the early years of the 19^th century Saint Nicholas had morphed into the person we know as Santa Claus.

It was the Clement Clark Moore poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” written in 1823, that gave us the Santa we all love: a jolly fellow with reindeer pulling his sleigh across the night sky as he brings presents to all the girls and boys. But Santa isn’t just for boys and girls; even we adults are eager to sing, “Jolly ol’ St. Nicholas, lean your ear this way! Don’t you tell a single soul what I’m going to say. Christmas Eve is coming soon; now, you dear old man, whisper what you’ll bring to me; tell me if you can.”

Santa is a wonderful part of Christmas, reminding us of the joy of giving, the joy of sharing, the joy of wonder and enchantment. It is Jesus Christ’s birth that we celebrate, of course, but the very idea of Santa blends with our faith: charity, giving, peace, reconciliation, and more than a little mystery, appealing to the child in all of us. And, of course, the model for Santa Claus was a man of the church who was known for his goodness, his kindness, and his generous heart.

Children of all ages: treasure Santa Claus! Leave a plate of cookies and a glass of milk for him. Marvel at his ability to visit homes all over the world in the span of one night. But remember that Saint Nicholas kept Christmas in his heart all year round as he lived his faith. “For to us is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.”

Or, as one of John Rutter’s beautiful carols puts it:

Find him at Bethlehem laid in a manger

Christ our Redeemer asleep in the hay

Godhead incarnate and hope of salvation

A child with his mother, that first Christmas Day.

Blessings for a joyous Christmas!

Pastor Skip

Living in Gratitude

2010-11-01T05:57:00.001-07:00

“Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” The apostle Paul wrote these words to the people of Philippi in a letter that was filled with words of warm praise. While Paul found much to criticize among the people of Corinth and the people scattered throughout the Galatian region, Paul was delighted with how the Philippians had embraced the gospel and were living their faith.

What adds zest to these words is the fact that Paul wrote them while he languished in prison. Locked up, possibly even chained to a wall, Paul still managed to write “Don’t worry! Be thankful!” Despite his situation, the words reflect how Paul lived his faith: filled with trust, confidence, and hope.

Paul knew the inside of a cell all too well. He had a least three stays in prison, possibly as many as seven. He spent the last two years of his life imprisoned in Rome before he was executed. He probably wrote his letter to the Philippians during an earlier imprisonment, mostly likely during a two-year incarceration in Caesarea. Still, “Don’t worry; be thankful; lift up your concerns and requests to God.”

Paul lived in gratitude and thanksgiving even as he endured an arduous life. In addition to his numerous times in jail, he was beaten for his faith, shipwrecked, and was often mocked and laughed at. He had no permanent home from the time the scales fell from his eyes, living out of a suitcase as he traveled constantly to share the good news.

He saw every setting as an opportunity to share the gospel, even the inside of a prison cell. His calling was not to convert, but rather simply to share the good news of God’s grace and love revealed in Jesus Christ with any who would listen, including his jailers. Indeed, he told the Philippians, “I want you to know that what has happened to me has actually helped to spread the gospel, so that is has become known…that my imprisonment is for Christ.”

Paul helps us to learn to live our lives in gratitude to God for blessings small and large. And this life of gratitude and thanksgiving is not limited to the month of November, of course, but one we are called to live year-round. A 16^th century prayer reminds us “not to be thankful when it pleaseth me, as if thy blessings, O Lord, had spare days.” For in Jesus Christ, we know that God does indeed “bless us and keep us” -- always and always.

Grace & peace

Pastor Skip

Welcoming All

2010-10-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

In 1961 Temple Beth Zion, one of Buffalo’s oldest and largest synagogues, burned to the ground. The congregation of Westminster Presbyterian Church, where my family and I worshiped, immediately opened the doors of the church to the members of the Temple for worship and meetings. It was almost five years before the Temple was rebuilt, and throughout that time Westminster served both congregations.

In the early 1990s the favor was returned when the people of Westminster worshiped in the sanctuary of the Temple while Westminster’s facilities underwent major renovations. As they shared space, the two congregations learned about one another: they learned about their histories, their practices, and their beliefs. They learned that they had far more in common than they had differences that set them apart.

Those experiences have been on my mind these past few weeks as we have witnessed so much anger directed at members of the Muslim community. A community center that also will have a place for worshiping the God of Abraham is told it is unwelcome. A man who claims to be a minister of God and a disciple of Jesus Christ threatens to burn the Quran, the Muslim holy book.

If a neighboring synagogue burned to the ground, would we open our doors to the congregation? If a neighboring mosque burned to the ground, would we open our doors to that congregation? Muslims, Christians, and Jews: we worship the same God.

Christian history is filled with many shameful episodes of bigotry, prejudice, and even violence directed at the “different”. Intolerance is inevitably built on a foundation of ignorance. But the more we learn about other people and other communities, the more we realize, like the two congregations in Buffalo, we have in common.

Frederick Buechner has written that the very essence of any religion must be “compassion – that capacity for feeling what it is like to live inside another’s skin, knowing that there can never really be peace and joy for any until there is peace and joy finally for all.”

The apostle Paul reminds us that Christ calls us to the ministry of reconciliation grounded in love. And, as Paul so famously teaches, “love is patient, love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” If we learn this lesson, then we’ll know we are called to stand at the door with Christ, our arms stretched out in welcome – to all.

Grace & peace

Pastor Skip

Bits & Bytes

2010-09-07T13:00:00.000-07:00

I’d been thinking about it for more than a year, and in early August I finally did it: I bought a Kindle, Amazon’s e-book reader. I have always been a voracious reader, but more than that, I have always loved books. The idea of an electronic book reader at first left me cold. Still, my fascination with things technological stirred me, so I finally hit the “Order” button.

Now, a month later, I can say I am hooked. I love the fact that I can order a book and have it downloaded into the Kindle within minutes. I love the fact that e-books are less expensive than paper books. I love the fact that I am saving a tree or two. But what I like best is the fact that I can enlarge the typefont on the screen and make the pages of any book easier to read.

I’m still buying regular books – many of the theological books that fill my shelves aren’t available in e-book format and probably never will be. But still, the technology fascinates me. I have always been an eager consumer of new technology. I was an early Apple fan; my home computer has consistently been a Mac for 20 years. I have always found Windows a poor and cumbersome attempt to mimic the best of Apple.

I don’t plan to lobby for an “All-Mac” office at the church, but I am always looking for new ways to incorporate technology in the church. You may not think we are a “high-tech” church, but just look around: you’ll find technology everywhere. We’ve been working the past few years to update and upgrade all our office computers to assure that everyone has a reliable and efficient workstation. We’ve installed wireless connection in the office and are hoping to expand our wireless capability to the rest of the building over the next year or so.

We’re putting a flat-screen television in Room 5 to provide us with more opportunities to view the growing number of excellent DVD presentations available on the books of the Bible, the life of Jesus, and the story of the church. This Fall I’ll be leading our Wednesday and Thursday Bible Study groups through Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch’s 6-part series entitled Three Thousand Years of Christian History. We hope to have a Sunday morning Adult Education class use the DVDs as well.

If you haven’t visited our website in a while, have a look (www.mpc-va.org). Ann Curtis works diligently to keep it up to date. We are hoping to be able to provide MP3 audio files of worship services and sermons before long as yet another addition to the site.

In giving us the Great Commission to “go and make disciples of all nations…” Jesus may not have been thinking about the Internet, or iPods, or texting, or blogs, but he would no doubt encourage us to use all means available to us to share the good news. Bits, bytes – it doesn’t matter, for it is always the Word of the Lord.

Grace & peace

Pastor Skip

Time for an Associate Pastor!

2010-06-26T06:27:00.000-07:00

It’s official: we are going to fill the office next to mine with an Associate Pastor! At its June meeting the Session enthusiastically received the report from the Personnel Ministry Team and unanimously approved the Team’s recommendation that we call an Associate Pastor.

Six years ago, before I was called as Pastor, this congregation made the difficult decision to eliminate the Associate Pastor position. This was done reluctantly, solely for financial reasons. When the decision was made, virtually all agreed that it was a “temporary” decision until we were able to fund the position.

We know we need a second pastor – we have too many ministries that we are either underserving or not serving at all, especially our ministries focused on our youth. Our newest group of high school graduates have had constantly changing leadership since their Middle School days, when what they have wanted is stability. Our young people need someone they can develop a relationship with, someone to help them walk those stressful years that come with adolescence and early adulthood, someone who will be there to help them grow in faith.

The Personnel Ministry Team recommends that the Associate Pastor’s time be divided, on average, among the following ministries:

Middle School Youth 20%

High School Youth 25%

18-30 “Not-So-Youth” 20%

Adult Ed. /Programs 10%

Worship 12.5%

Administrative/Other 12.5%

These are averages, of course. There may be weeks when the AP is committed completely to one ministry, such as a Youth Group Mission Trip, or preaching and leading worship, while other ministries are set aside for that week. Most of the emphasis will be on our Youth, but we also want to give our Associate Pastor the opportunity on occasion to teach Adult Education classes, as well as assist with worship, including preaching regularly. And the AP will also need time to participate in staff meetings, visit, and work with a Ministry Team or two.

This is such an exciting step for our church. But we still have a great deal of work to do. Calling an Associate Pastor is a process we will do jointly with the Presbytery, just as we did when I was called as Pastor. The biggest hurdle we have yet to overcome is financial. Last year’s economic recession took its toll on our finances; we will need a successful Stewardship campaign this Fall to close the gap and fully fund the position. We are close, but not quite there yet.

You’ll be hearing more from our Personnel Ministry Team and from Stewardship in the months to come, but my hope and prayer is that we will all share the Session’s excitement and faith in our future. “How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity!” (Psalm 133:1).

Grace & peace

Pastor Skip

The End of Another School Year Already?

2010-06-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

June always brings the end of the school year accompanied by shouts of joy from children released from classrooms for a summer of fun and adventure. Of course, there are more than a few joyous shouts from teachers, too! But even as children and teachers celebrate the end of the year, there is also a sense of wistfulness as everyone scatters. Classrooms are community with bonds built over the course of the year and June breaks those bonds.

For those who are moving up through graduation, new adventures lie ahead: the move from elementary to middle school, middle school to high school, high school to college, college to …where? We have a large group of high school seniors this year and it’s been such a joy for me to learn of their plans for next year. And as reports have trickled back from our new college graduates, I have been so pleased that most have either found jobs or are hopeful. This is wonderful news in an economy that still is sluggish.

Our Early Learning Center ends its year with a lively closing program in our Sanctuary featuring the children performing wonderfully creative songs. I get to participate as the narrator. Then our building grows quiet; too quiet and too empty without their smiles and laughter.

Even as this school year comes to an end, the ELC Board and staff are already looking ahead to next year. Among the changes the ELC is considering is asking all parents to covenant that they will not use cellphones or other electronic devices when they are driving through the parking lot. We have been astounded and disturbed by how many people drive through our lot talking on phones or using other devices, even as other parents and children are walking through the lot. This has become a serious concern for us; the safety of everyone on this campus must always be our top priority.

Session has also discussed whether we should adopt what I call a “Hang-Up-The-Phone” policy. Studies have shown that a person who is talking on a cellphone or using an electronic device is significantly more distracted from their driving and considerably more likely to cause an accident. Everyone who comes onto our campus, whether for ELC, church activities or a meeting of an independent group, becomes a part of the larger MPC community and we should expect every member of the community to abide by our concern for the safety of all.

A church is a community, bonded by the love God has graced us with in Jesus Christ. School communities may change, work communities may change, but the church community is always there, with arms wide open in welcome. This is the place where God calls us all to turn off our phones and Blackberries so we can more readily find “the goodwill of all people” and find the peace which surpasses all understanding.

Grace & peace

Pastor Skip

Happy Easter - Every Sunday!

2010-05-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

Every minister in the Presbyterian Church is provided with a wonderful opportunity each year: every minister, from the newest to the most experienced, is required to take at least two weeks of study leave each year. This is time separate and apart from vacation; it is a time for study, for reading, for learning, and for reflection.

Over the years I have used my study leave time in a variety of ways: I’ve taken quite a few two- or three-day seminars on a variety of topics. I spent time with other pastors learning about church growth, stewardship, and governance at the Presbyterian Church’s Stony Point Center in upstate New York. I spent a week as a Fellow at the Engle Institute for Preaching at Princeton Seminary. And, from September 2004 through last May I worked on my doctorate at Princeton.

Last month I spent a week taking a fresh look at the theology and practices we have developed over the centuries within the Reformed tradition and the Presbyterian church on how we look at death and all the issues that come with the end of life. The combination of the excellent workshops our Christian Education Team offered on Finding Hope in the Chaos of Aging, along with the promises that are ours in the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ made my study particularly compelling.

In John’s gospel Jesus says, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” This is the very foundation of our hope in eternal life. Paul reinforces this in his letter to the Romans: “If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.”

We capture our belief concisely in the Apostles Creed when we say: “I believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.” What this means for us as followers of Jesus Christ is, as Paul has taught us, nothing in life or death can separate us from the love of God given us through Christ.

This is a glorious promise that allows us to live our mortal lives filled with hope. Yes, we will all die, all of us returning to the dust. But we will live this life knowing the love of God in Christ, and we will continue to live in that love in the life to come.

Death is still very much a subject that most of us prefer neither to think about nor discuss. But in Christ’s resurrection, death has been defeated; death has no power over us, because death cannot separate us from God’s love. For us, this makes every Lord’s Day a “Happy Easter”.

Grace & peace,

Pastor Skip

Ministering Together

2010-04-01T10:00:00.000-07:00

Congregational care is always on my mind: who is in the hospital? Who is looking after an ill family member? Who’s concerned about employment or finances? Who is struggling with family issues? Who is anxious, hurting, suffering? And who has a joy to celebrate, a blessing to share?

Congregational care is not just my concern, of course – it is something that concerns us all, every one of us, something we all do together. Congregational care has been very much on the minds of our leaders the past few months as we look for new and better ways to look after one another.

You’ve heard about the step our Deacons took in January: with approval from the Session, the Deacons expanded from 15 to 18 to provide for more involved care and concern for the more than 500 men, women, and children who are part of our church family. We did not stop there, though: each of our Elders is now paired with a Deacon to help provide additional support and care.

This past winter’s snowstorms reminded us that we have many folks who live alone, so we have created a “Home Alone” list to help us be more attentive in looking after them and checking on them, not only during bad weather, but year round.

We have also created a better system to remind us of who is sick, facing surgery, or in the hospital, or who might be looking after a loved one who is sick or in the hospital. Hospital stays are so short these days that it seems that I often don’t hear about a hospitalization until after the person has come home. If you know of someone who has been hospitalized, please make sure you tell me – I would rather hear it four times from four different people than not at all.

Congregational care is not just the pastor’s job, or the Deacons’ job; it is OUR job, all of us working together to look after one another. A simple telephone call to someone you haven’t seen in a while; an offer of a ride to worship, or some other activity, to a member who no longer is able to drive; a note, a visit – there are so many different ways we look after each other.

When Jesus gathered with his disciples for their last meal together, he said to them, “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34) These words should guide each of us each day as we go about our service as disciples of Jesus Christ, caring for one another within our own church family, and looking after all those in every corner of the world who need our Risen Lord’s love.

Glory to God, for Christ is Risen!

Pastor Skip

Easter People

2010-03-01T06:00:00.001-08:00

Ten years already! It’s been a little more than ten years since my ordination as a Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (USA). I was ordained in a lovely service at the Brick Presbyterian Church in New York City, where I had worshiped while I lived and worked in New York, and where I was “under care” while I was at Princeton Seminary.

I have learned much about ministry over the years, almost all outside of classrooms. I have learned that ministry is consuming; it is exhausting, the hours longer than any required of me in vocations I had before I became a pastor. Still, I can laugh at the old joke that pastors have it easy since they work only one hour a week on Sunday morning – or in my case two. I can laugh because I have also learned that ministry is deeply fulfilling, nourishing, joy-filled, and abounding in grace.

It is tempting to try to capture ministry in numbers: a million words written in more than 500 sermons; presiding at the Lord’s Table close to 200 times; celebrating more than 40 baptisms; witnessing to the promise of life eternal in more than 50 funerals; joyfully hearing the marriage vows of some 40 couples; moderating well over one hundred Session meetings.

But ministry isn’t numbers. Ministry is sitting with children on the steps of the chancel on Sunday morning and asking them a question, only to have as a response, “Do you like my new shoes?” Ministry is hearing what 14-year-olds think as they grapple with faith and life in preparation for their public profession of faith. Ministry is talking with a young couple as they anticipate marriage. It is speaking with parents as they plan the baptism of their first child. It is walking with an individual or a family through illness, job loss, death of a loved one or other losses. It is listening to the stories that are written within each person in this unique Body of Christ.

I have learned how to live more completely in faith, trusting God in good times, and even moreso, in difficult times. I have learned how “to let go and let God”. I have learned why Jesus says so often, “be not afraid.” Through ministry I have learned how to be an Easter person: how to live in the hope that is ours in the Resurrection.

Of course, I am not the only one called to ministry – we all are. In fact, it says so in every Sunday worship bulletin: “Ministers…Every Member”! Every one of us is called to ministry in the name of Jesus Christ. And the more you give yourself to ministry, the more you “let go and let God”, the more you trust and walk by faith, the more you let go of anxiety and fear, the more you’ll understand what it means to be born “into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ”.

Lent is the ideal time to give yourself more completely to ministry. And in the process, don’t be surprised if you learn over time what it means, what it really means, to be an Easter person, trusting God, guided by the Spirit, and filled with the hope, grace and peace that is ours in Jesus Christ.

Hosannah in the highest!
Pastor Skip

Working Hard on Retreat

2010-02-01T09:13:00.000-08:00

Lots of blue, a few red, a few green, only one yellow. At our Officers’ Retreat last month we did a little exercise to learn how much we have in common with one another. “What’s your favorite color?” was one question. We were fairly evenly divided among Rock, Classical, Jazz, and Country/Western music lovers. Most officers prefer Autumn among the seasons.

We learned that many of us came from traditions other than Presbyterianism, that many of us were not active in church when we were younger, and that most are not all that comfortable leading a group in prayer.

But everyone was in complete agreement with the hope that their time serving as an officer would be a time of getting to know others in the church better, a time of service in the name of Jesus Christ, a time of spiritual growth, and a time of helping our church to grow.

On Saturday morning we worked in small groups exploring what our Book of Order and Book of Confessions have to teach us. We learned, for example, that every member of our church is called to “proclaim the good news; take part in the common life and worship of our church; pray and study Scripture and the faith of the Christian Church; support the work of the church through the giving of money, time and talent; respond to God’s activity in the world through service to others; live responsibly in personal, family, vocational, political, cultural, and social relationships of life; and work in the world for peace, justice, freedom, and human fulfillment.”

Most important, we learned that we as officers are called to serve God and our church with energy, intelligence, imagination, and love. We committed ourselves to doing just that through a Litany of Commitment as we worshiped together on Sunday morning.

We had a wonderful time working, praying, worshiping, talking, relaxing, and taking in the beauty of Meadowkirk, guided throughout our time together by words spoken by God through the prophet Micah: “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8)

We came away from our weekend energized and excited about the year ahead, wondering where God will lead us, confident that we will continue to build on our strong foundation, and ready to take up our responsibilities to serve eagerly and joyfully.

Eugene Peterson’s The Message puts the Micah passage in different words, compelling and powerful: “But he’s already made it plain how to live, what to do, what God is looking for in men and women. It’s quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor, be compassionate and loyal in your love. And don’t take yourself too seriously – take God seriously.”

Such appropriate words to guide our Elders, our Deacons, me, you – all of us as we follow the One who is the Head of our church, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Grace & peace
Pastor Skip

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-01T14:11:00.000-08:00

“Yeah, there’s too much commoicialism in Christmas.” This is a common complaint this time of year as stores try their best to entice us with their wares. It isn’t a new complaint, however: this particular lament comes from the classic holiday movie, “Miracle on 34th Street”, the version that dates from 1947. Sixty-two years ago Alfred, the young custodian, voiced in his wonderful Brooklyn accent a feeling we share even now.

Yes, Christmas can be a time of commercial excess. Yes, it seems that there’s too much Santa, Rudolph, and Frosty, and not enough Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. But Christmas is what we each make of it. It is up to each of us to keep Christmas in our hearts and minds, even as we shop for gifts, wrap packages, and sing “Silver Bells”.

I find great joy in the season, even as I walk through stores and shopping malls garlanded, tinseled, and sparkling in the season. It doesn’t bother me in the slightest when someone says, “Happy Holidays” to me; barking “Merry Christmas” back at them is hardly in keeping with the grace and joy of the season. Whether Christ is in your Christmas is all that matters.

Putting Christ in Christmas is not difficult, even with rampant “commoicialism”. Putting Christ in Christmas is to focus on the gift given us in the birth of Jesus Christ. Putting Christ in Christmas is to walk joyfully through each day, filled with glad tidings. Putting Christ in Christmas is to give and share, reflecting on your own blessings and responding to your blessings by giving to others. Putting Christ in Christmas is to smile and sing, reflecting the Spirit of Christmas in your every word and your every deed.

Christ will be in your Christmas if you put him there. Christ will be in your Christmas even in the face of “commoicialism”, even as you watch “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”, even as you hear Bing croon “White Christmas”. Christ will be in your Christmas because Christ is Christmas.

Grace & peace,
Pastor Skip

November Already?

2009-10-26T13:00:00.000-07:00

Is it really November already? The month may have arrived before I was ready to say farewell to October, my favorite month, but I look forward to all the exciting activities we have planned throughout the month: our High School Youth will lead worship on the 8th; We will celebrate our Stewardship Campaign on the 15th; We will honor long-time members and the wonderful history of our church on Heritage Sunday on the 22nd; and we will mark the beginning of Advent on the 29th. The month is filled with opportunities for us to express our thanksgiving for the many blessings we have at MPC.

At our November meeting the Session will discuss our budget for 2010. It is always a joy to plan for another year’s ministry in the name of Jesus Christ. Our Session will give thanks that we have the financial resources to do as much as we do: nurture one another in worship, teach one another through Christian Education, reach out to young children through our Early Learning Center, provide a facility that is welcoming and safe for member and visitor alike, and take the love and hope of Christ to the farthest corners of the globe through our mission work. We are still hopeful that we will get that much closer to having the funding in place for us to begin the process of calling a new staff member to work with our youth.

At our October Session meeting we discussed our calling as Elders “individually and jointly to strengthen and nurture the faith and life of the congregation committed to our charge.” We do this in a number of ways, including “encouraging the people in the worship and service of God.” We devoted quite a bit of time to a wonderful discussion of how we worship, with a particular focus on an issue that many churches have wrestled with recently: should worship be “traditional” or “contemporary”?

I have never found those terms helpful – they tend to put worship in a box. Deborah Panell and I try to make every service both traditional and contemporary, a “blended” service. We follow a traditional pattern for the order of the service, but we remain open to the call of the Holy Spirit to try new ways to interpret the Word of the Lord, new ways to sing our praises to God, and new ways to nurture our faith together.

The month of November reminds us that our lives are a blend of the traditional and the contemporary. On Heritage Sunday we will give thanks for the history and the traditions built over the past 142 years by the saints who have gone before us, but we will also give thanks that the Spirit calls us into the freshness of today and the newness of tomorrow.

Every worship service reminds us of our blessings as we gather to “praise God from whom all blessings flow.” Every service should be new and fresh in response to the Spirit and the Head of our Church, Jesus Christ. Every service reminds us that our every day should begin and end with such simple words: “Thanks be to God!”

Grace & Peace,
Pastor Skip

Spiritual Leaders

2009-09-25T05:46:00.000-07:00

The Session’s September meeting was lively, even exciting. Wait a minute! A Session meeting? Aren’t those the meetings that go on for four or five hours with everyone arguing over just about everything?

Actually, a typical Session meeting is a wonderful mixture of community, faithfulness, dedication, and more than a little laughter. Over the past three years we have reduced the number of meetings we hold, shifted more of our routine business to e-mails, and kept meeting time to about two hours. We also enjoy a meal together and share joys and concerns.

We are gradually shifting our focus away from reports from Ministry Teams and other routine business so that we can spend more time on our primary calling: our service as spiritual leaders of the church. The Session is called “to lead the congregation continually to discover what God is doing in the world and to plan for change, renewal and reformation under the Word of God.” That’s exciting work grounded in discernment of God’s will.

We spent most of our September meeting talking about the future of our church, thinking about where God might be calling us. We broke into 3 groups, each charged with thinking about what they believe our church would look like one year, two years, and three years into the future. The groups spent time responding to questions I had given them to guide their conversation as they talked about what worship might be like at the end of 2010, 2011, or 2012, whether we’ll see changes in our Christian Education program, our Early Learning Center, or in other ministries.

All three groups saw an Associate Pastor in our future, sooner rather than later. Each of the groups also saw a continuing expansion of creative ideas in worship. We were confident our Early Learning Center would continue to provide its vital ministry to the community. And we also saw an expansion in Christian Education opportunities in the years ahead.

The Session will still maintain its responsibility for oversight of the Ministry Teams, the Board of Deacons, the Stephen Ministers, and other groups within the church. We are transitioning away, however, from having Elders chair Teams in order to provide Elders with more time to focus on their calling to church-wide leadership.

In the months ahead we will continue to evolve how we do our work as the Session as we seek to discern God’s will for our church. But if you should walk by Room 5 while we are meeting, don’t be surprised if you hear laughter and see smiles.

Grace & peace,
Pastor Skip

Exclaiming our Support

2009-08-25T13:41:00.000-07:00

“Punctuating Life” was the title of the sermon in the bulletin. I was intrigued and I looked forward to hearing the preacher as I prepared to worship at the charming little Congregational church on the Green in Dorset, Vermont.

The pastor’s theme was simple: our lives are divided into periods that can be compared to punctuation marks. Our growing years are the “Exclamation Point” years, when we are establishing our identity and want the world to know who we are, even if we are still trying to figure it out ourselves. By the time we hit our 30s, we are beginning to move into our “Question Mark” phase, when we realize that there are things in life we don’t understand and are beyond our control: things like illness, broken marriages, or job loss.

As the pastor moved through his thoughtful sermon, I found myself struck by the punctuation metaphors, especially the “Exclamation Point” imagery of our early years. My thoughts turned to the young people of our church: the Middle Schoolers, High Schoolers, those in college and graduate school, and the 20-somethings starting careers. They are all in the “Exclamation Point” time of their lives as they grow and learn about themselves.

The “Exclamation Point” years are such vital years. These are the years when the very foundation of person’s life is built. And of course, we all want every young person’s foundation to be built on the love and grace God gives to them and to all of us in Jesus Christ.

Five years ago we as a congregation left a sentence open and unfinished when we decided to drop temporarily the position of Associate Pastor. It is time now for us to punctuate our commitment to our young people with an exclamation point and finish the sentence with strong statement reflecting the promises we made in their baptisms that we will “guide and nurture them by word and deed, with love and prayer, encouraging them to know and follow Christ and be faithful members of his church”. It is time for us to restore the full-time position staff position to have someone to look after the needs of our youth and young folks as they travel through their Exclamation Years.

The Session has already begun talking about how we can restore this position, what the job description would include, timing, and how we can fund it. But to make this happen will take more than Session support; it will take the enthusiastic commitment of every member of our church.

I invite you to exclaim your support for our young people, and punctuate your support in both word and deed.

Grace & peace,
Pastor Skip

Calendar Confusion!

2009-06-20T07:29:00.000-07:00

Life can sometimes be terribly confusing, especially when I try to figure out which calendar I should follow for planning worship, activities, and programs at the church. Should I follow the calendar that's on my desk, the "normal" one that starts on January 1 and ends on December 31? Or should I follow the Liturgical calendar that begins with the first Sunday in Advent, and ends with Christ the King Sunday, both movable Sundays that fall at the end of November or early December? Or should I follow the school-year calendar, which starts after Labor Day and runs 10 months through June, with a break in July and August?

The answer is of course, all of the above. But if I were to rank them in importance, I would start with the school-year calendar, followed by the Liturgical calendar. Much of our planning and most of our activities follow a September through June cycle. Summer is supposed to be a slower time, a time to take vacations, relax, and renew ourselves. Summer is, for most of us, though, busy as can be, but it is nice to take a break from schedules that fill much of the year.

Even our governing body, the Session, takes a break during July and August. We meet if we need to, but otherwise our next scheduled meeting is in September. The 15 Elders we elected to serve on the Session have earned a respite after a busy year going about their work of governance and leadership.

We had a particularly busy meeting in June as various Ministry Teams brought recommendations and proposals before the Session. The Early Learning Center Board asked Session to confirm the hiring of Chris Fox as the Director and Amy Simpson as Assistant Director, which we joyfully did. The Property Team sought approval to blacktop and re-stripe the entire parking lot, which we also agreed to. We heard plans for the Fall Stewardship campaign and heard updates from other teams.

Christmas is six months away, but the Worship & Music Ministry Team works that far ahead. We approved their recommendation that we change our Christmas Eve worship schedule by adding a 5:30 pm service of Lessons and Carols, and dropping the 11:00 pm service. We have many young families in our church who had no option for worship on Christmas Eve, with the 8:00 pm service too late for young children. And we had seen attendance at the 11:00 pm service drop each of the past three years; last year the number of participants in the service exceeded worshipers. We know there are some who like the traditional "midnight" service to welcome Christmas, but we also want to make sure we provide an offering for our young families, so Session readily approved the change.

Elders will not be idle over the summer. We will be reading a book together: The Will of God, by the Reverend James C. Howell, a thoughtful book that raises excellent questions. We'll discuss the book and its lessons when we meet again in the fall.

All of our Elders serve God and our church faithfully and they deserve our praise and thanks. And they also deserve a few weeks off this summer!

Grace & peace,
Pastor Skip

Graduation Day

2009-05-27T11:48:00.000-07:00

We rejoice in June with all those who have finished their school year after completing countless tests, papers, reports, and exams. We celebrate those who are moving from Pre-K to full-time kindergarten, from elementary school to middle school, middle school to high school, high school to college, and college to graduate school.

Somehow, in spite of my age, I snuck into this year’s group of graduates. After almost five years of work, I was awarded my Doctor of Ministry degree by Princeton Theological Seminary on May 23. The last part of the process, writing my dissertation, occupied much of the last year, and almost every spare minute the past few months. Vacations and days off were spent in front of my computer as I worked to meet the deadline. Cole, our Scottie, served ably and faithfully as my Research Assistant.

When I began the Doctor of Ministry program in September 2004, I was looking for a structured and intensive program to continue my growth both in faith and as a pastor. I’d found that attending the occasional two-or three-day Continuing Education seminars schools offer was not enough.

The program at Princeton provided depth, breadth, and perhaps a little more intensity than I had bargained for! The first two years were given over to three separate resident workshops held on the Princeton campus, and then lengthy reading lists and papers to write on our own back home.

Then it was on to the dissertation, or Final Project. Mine focused on how elders in our church perceive their call to leadership as they go about their work on the Session. The impetus for my dissertation was the fact that there is no church-wide training program for elders. We have more than 11,000 churches in our denomination and we are all going about our training in 11,000 different ways.

One of the many blessings I found in the program came from the 8 other students who were part of my class. Four of us were Presbyterian, and the others represented the Episcopal, Lutheran, Church of the Brethren and Church of Christ denominations. We came from throughout the country, as well, with one classmate coming all the way from Hawaii. We’ve all become wonderful friends over these past five years; I will miss my time with them.

This will be the last degree I am likely to pursue, but it certainly is not the end of my learning. God calls us to learn, to “take and read” as Augustine put it. Now, however, I can choose what I want to “take and read” as I continue my own journey as a disciple of Jesus Christ, and the stack of books has grown large these past few years. What’s on your summer reading list?

Grace & peace,
Pastor Skip

Just Five Minutes

2009-04-28T13:26:00.000-07:00

We all know the feeling: we’re trying to make a plane and we’re late. The minutes fly by as we speed through traffic. We spill out of the car and race to check-in and then security before we make the final sprint to the gate. Why is it that the gate we want is always the farthest one from the main terminal! We arrive moments before the flight is closed for take-off.

Sweating, huffing-and-puffing, clothing askew, dragging carry-on items, boarding pass clenched in our teeth, we make it with seconds to spare. We bump and crash down the aisle to the angry glares of the other passengers, who have settled in and are eager for the flight to depart. As we finally fasten our seat belts, we promise ourselves that next time we’ll leave much earlier so we won’t have to rush.

This scenario isn’t limited to airports, of course. Train stations, concert halls, movie theaters – we can find it any place where there is a scheduled start time. And that includes churches – people racing into Sanctuaries as the Call to Worship is being offered, or as congregants stand to sing the Opening Hymn, or even most notoriously, as prayer is offered.

When we come before God to worship, we should be attentive, focused and filled with a sense of purpose. We should come before God ready, with hearts and minds turned and tuned to God. Rushing into the Sanctuary after the service has begun is no way to come before God.

Five minutes is all it takes. Coming into the Sanctuary just five minutes before the service begins provides you with time to focus and prepare yourself. We offer a Voluntary, as well as a Text and Prayer for Preparation to help you get ready to worship. Worship bags help children settle as well.

The five minutes before Worship begins are so important. Those five minutes are a time to transition, and time even for transformation. Five minutes provides us with time to be mindful of God’s words to us spoken through the Psalmist, “Be still, and know that I am God.”

Add just five minutes to your schedule on Sunday morning so you can come to Worship calm, ready and attentive to God. Add just five minutes so that you can come “worship the Lord with gladness and come into his presence with singing.” You don’t even need a boarding pass!

Grace and Peace,
Pastor Skip

Active Members

2009-03-24T17:51:00.000-07:00

It was at Easter that men and women were received into membership in the early years of the church. In the formative centuries, the ritual for membership was elaborate, generally involving three years of study culminating in a two-step process beginning with baptism followed by reception as a member.

Those who went through the process were called “Catechumens”, a word from the Greek for “instruction”. The Catechumens spent three years learning Scripture, theology, and creeds. At the end of the instructional period, the Catechumens were examined by the bishop, who would decide whether a person was ready to join the church, or whether he or she might need more instruction.

Things are much simpler for Inquirers now: instead of three years, we ask those who feel called to membership to participate in three classes on Sunday mornings. We are especially eager to help our Inquirers understand Presbyterian history and theology, since most new members come to us from other denominations and faith communities. We teach them about Reformed theology, as well as the Book of Order and our Book of Confessions, which together make up the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (USA).

Here’s what the Book of Order teaches us about membership in the church: “A faithful member accepts Christ’s call to be involved responsibly in the ministry of his Church. Such involvement includes:
a. Proclaiming the good news,
b. taking part in the common life and worship of the church,
c. praying and studying Scripture and the faith of the Christian Church,
d. supporting the work of the church through the giving of money, time, and talents,
e. participating in the governing responsibilities of the church,
f. demonstrating a new quality of life with and through the church,
g. responding to God’s activity in the world through service to others,
h. living responsibly in the personal, family, vocational, political, cultural, and social relationship of life,
i. and working in the world for peace, justice, freedom, and human fulfillment.

As we welcome our newest members on Palm Sunday, I invite you to reflect on how you are doing with this list. No bishop – or pastor – will examine you! But the list provides a helpful reminder that Jesus, who is the Head of the Church, calls us to active membership, serving one another, serving the church, and serving all the world as we proclaim the gospel, and especially the joyous news of Easter: He is Risen!

He is Risen indeed!
Pastor Skip

"It's Not My Fault"

2009-02-21T13:35:00.000-08:00

“It’s not my fault.” “I am not to blame.” “I didn’t do it.” We have a difficult time saying, “It is my fault”; “I am to blame”; “I did it”; “There is no one to blame but myself”. We have trouble taking responsibility for own actions. We are quick to look for excuses or blame someone else.

A few years ago I wrote a prayer for a magazine article to point out the dangerous direction in which we seemed to be headed where we no longer take responsibility for our actions: Almighty God, I may or may not need your mercy, for I am neither admitting nor denying that I have transgressed. For I would come to you with a penitent and contrite heart if I were guilty of sin, which I am not saying I am, and I am not saying that I am not. For all my sins which I may or may not have committed, forgive me, even as I deny any specific need for forgiveness. Amen

This is not a prayer we should lift up to God! We read in the first letter of John the familiar words, “if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:8) Lent is the ideal time for introspection, for looking deep within ourselves, looking honestly, so we can acknowledge where we have made mistakes and gone wrong, where we are to blame, and where we have failed to take responsibility.

This can be a very hard thing to do, but we cannot hope to be washed clean unless we first acknowledge our missteps and mistakes. As the letter goes on to say, “If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Where have you broken relationships? Where have you been selfish and self centered? Where have you been greedy? Where have you been angry? Where have you been judgmental? Where have you been to blame? Where have you been at fault? Where have you failed to take responsibility?

This is not an exercise in guilt; it is an exercise in rebirth and renewal -- that’s God’s promise to us in the grace given us in Jesus Christ. That’s the promise of Lent. Don’t make the 40 days of Lent a time for giving up ice cream or French fries; make it a time for taking on new habits and disciplines so you can fully embrace God’s grace and love.

You’ve heard me say that Lent is the time to get out the broom and do some “spiritual housecleaning”. Getting out the broom assumes that we are in need of a sweeping, dusting, and scrubbing. Start there this Lenten season. Start with the words of the Psalmist: “For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me”. Start there, and then you will know the joy and deep peace of being forgiven and washed clean by the grace of God given to us in Jesus Christ.

Grace & peace,
Pastor Skip

The Annual Officers' Retreat

2009-01-20T07:42:00.000-08:00

Massanetta Springs Conference Center in Harrisonburg is an ideal place for our annual Officers’ Retreat. The setting is idyllic, tranquil and lovely. The Lodge building, where we stay, provides the simple comforts of a hotel, with a large conference room where we can gather as we do our work throughout the weekend. At mealtime we walk down the hill to the main building where the dining room is located and join groups from other churches.

The weekend provides us with a time for learning, worship, fellowship, and renewal. This year we spent much of our time together reading and wrestling with biblical texts. It seemed a fitting theme to complement our Year of the Bible program. Our principal focus was looking at what the Bible teaches -- and does not teach -- about our call to share our resources. Are we each called to tithe? What does the Bible teach us about sharing resources through our Mission giving within the church? We learned that the answers are not as clear as we might have thought. All of our discussions were rich and lively.

As important as the learning, fellowship, and renewal times are, the highlight of the weekend is when we gather on Sunday morning to worship. I create the service to encourage everyone to participate. One person writes and offers the Call to Worship, another writes and offers the Prayer of Confession. Still others read and interpret texts for us. Before we gather at the Lord’s Table we all participate in a Responsive Covenant to remind us of the promises we all make to God, the church, and one another as officers of the church.

The final part of the service is Communion. We gather in a circle as everyone offers a part of the Great Prayer of Thanksgiving. Then the loaf and the cup go around the circle, each person receiving the bread and wine, and then in turn offering the bread and wine. We truly feed each other in the service. It is a wonderful way to close our time together.

Every time we gather as officers at Massanetta Springs, or gather as a group for Bible Study, or as a team of volunteers planning an activity, we gather as the Body of Christ, each of us responding to Jesus’ call to service and discipleship, each of us part of the “fragrance of Christ”, as Paul calls us. As we begin a new year, I encourage you to find your place to respond; perhaps in a new way, or perhaps building on work you’ve already been doing. If you are waiting to be asked, your wait is over: Jesus is asking you now. It’s that tap on the shoulder you’ve been feeling, that voice in the wind you’ve been trying to hear. “Come and serve”, says our Lord. “Come build the Body of Christ.”

Grace & peace,
Pastor Skip

No Presents Under the Tree?

2008-11-24T13:00:00.000-08:00

It starts in early November, slowly, quietly. I am hardly aware of the fact that I have tuned my iPod exclusively to John Rutter’s Christmas music. Then it’s on to the DVDs that have been hibernating the past 11 months, usually starting with Cary Grant, Loretta Young, and David Niven in “The Bishop’s Wife”, followed by “Miracle on 34th Street”, and then my newest favorite “The Polar Express”. By the third week in November the plastic tubs that hold our Christmas decorations begin to grow restless in the basement. Is it my imagination, or could those be voices coming from the storeroom calling, “Christmas is coming – let me out!”

And then it’s here: the first Sunday of Advent, the start of the Christmas season. Retailers launch into the season right after Halloween, of course, but even I will admit that’s too soon. As soon as Thanksgiving is past, though, it’s time. Time to get ready for Advent; time to get ready for Christmas; time to prepare to celebrate the birth of our Lord.

Christmas brings with it the push to buy gifts for everyone on our lists. Advertisements fill newspapers and catalogs overflow in our mailboxes, all screaming for attention: BUY! For some months I have been trying to slow the torrent of catalogs that come to our house using the catalogchoice.com website. It was when I entered the one-hundredth catalog that I realized how absurd our consumerism has become.

So this year, Pat and I will give no gifts to each other. Instead, we will do as my sisters and I have been doing the past few years: we’ll make donations in one another’s name to various charitable organizations. It was the 13th century German theologian Meister Eckhart who put it so simply when he said, “To be full of things is to be empty of God.” With more than 100 catalog merchants knocking on our door, and endless choices in local stores, still, they are only things.

Which charities to choose, that’s the difficult part. There are so many to choose from and the needs are so great. Feeding hungry children or providing much-needed medicine or health supplies leads to, among others, UNICEF, Doctors Without Borders, the American Cancer Society, or Capital Hospice. Caring for our environment and the creatures who all came from God’s hand: the Natural Resources Defense Council, Nature Conservancy, or the Humane Society. Make a donation to the World Wildlife Fund’s gift center and in return you can choose to receive the best re-usable shopping bag we’ve found. Education and learning have always been at the top of my list.

This Christmas why not give back as you give? Choices are as unique as each individual on your gift list, so you are sure to find the perfect match. This Christmas set aside gifts that are empty of God, and instead find gifts that shout out, “Glory to God in highest heaven!”

Grace & peace in this joyous Season,
Pastor Skip

A Dream Come True?

2008-10-21T05:00:00.000-07:00

It was in 1963 that the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and told the world that he had a dream, a dream that his children would “one day live in nation where they would not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” Dr. King did not survive to see whether his dream would come true, but if he were alive today, he might well conclude that the day he dreamed of for his children had still not yet come.

Forty-five years after that historic speech and it is clear that we still do judge people by the color of their skin, by their country of origin, and by their ethnic background, long before we ever get to the content of their character, if we get there at all. The political campaign has often brought out the worst as racial epithets have become a disturbing part of the conversation. At times comments have been blatant and overt, but more frequently and more insidiously, they have been veneered in respectability. What would Jesus think?

Judea in Jesus’ time was the crossroads of the world that surrounded the Mediterranean Sea. Romans, Greeks, and Jews lived together, crowded into a small country, but the diversity in Judea was even richer and wider, with men and women coming from every point on the compass. And Jesus reached out in compassion to all, teaching us that there is no limitation on or boundaries around the word “neighbor”. Everyone is our neighbor, and we are called to love our neighbor.

In his 1964 acceptance speech for the Noble Prize for Peace Dr. King argued that humanity “must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.” For Dr. King, a follower of Jesus Christ just like you and me, that love is the love that Christ teaches us and calls us to share.

We have invited the Reverend Dr. Kenyatta Gilbert, assistant professor at Howard University’s Divinity School, to be our guest preacher in worship on November 9th to help us address these concerns. Professor Gilbert is an old friend from Princeton Seminary, where, in addition to his Master of Divinity degree, he also earned his Ph.D. I am delighted that he’ll be with us to help us explore such a persistently difficult issue.

When we look at a garden, we thank God for creating beauty in so many varieties. How dull a forest would be if all the trees were oaks. God has blessed us with richness in diversity in all life. In this time of year when the word “thanksgiving” is very much in our minds and on our lips, we should thank God for the diversity in all God’s creation, including humanity, and remember that in every face we see the image of God.

Grace & peace,
Pastor Skip

Responding Joyfully

2008-09-29T08:43:00.000-07:00

At the top of my list of things to do before I left for vacation in August was “Return Stewardship Pledge Card”. The Stewardship Ministry Team met with our Elders and Deacons in early August and asked that the officers lead our Stewardship 2009 campaign by returning pledge cards even before the start of the Fall Stewardship campaign.

I filled out my pledge card joyfully, gratefully, and eagerly, happy to have the opportunity to make my pledge of support to the work God calls us to do through this Body of Christ that is the Manassas Presbyterian Church. There are so many wonderful ministries we do together all in the name of Jesus Christ. And, there is so much more we could and should be doing.

Each Sunday throughout the Fall we are focusing on the work of our 9 different Ministry Teams. We’ve already heard from Christian Education, the Early Learning Center, and the Worship & Music ministry teams. Over the next few weeks we will hear from Mission, Personnel, and, of course, Stewardship. Property, Membership, and Finance & Administration will share their ministries with us in November.

Our Ministry Teams are eager to share both the work they do and the challenges they face as they try to respond faithfully to their respective calls to ministry. A few Sundays ago we learned from Christian Education that we spend only about $30 per child per year on their Sunday School education! The Early Learning Center shared with us that over the past 40 years, more than 6,000 children have walked through our classroom doors to learn, sing, play, and be nurtured and loved. Our Worship & Music Team shared with us how many people are needed and how many little details go into planning even the simplest worship service each week.

Every ministry is important to our church, and every ministry we do is a response to God’s call to service. And, for as much as we do, God always calls us to new, different, and expanded ministries. We are particularly eager to expand the ministry we offer our youth, and we also want to expand our education ministry to our adults – and we can provide both vital ministries by restoring the Associate Pastor’s position.

Our Stewardship Ministry Team has put in countless hours to make this Fall’s Stewardship campaign successful and fun in the process. When the saddlebag comes to your home, I hope you will fill out your pledge card as I did: eagerly, gratefully, and joyfully. Henri Nouwen captures perfectly the opportunity we each are given through our pledge cards, “to invest yourself through the resources that God has given you -- your energy, your prayers, and your money --- in this work to which God has called us." Everything we do is ministry and the way we live our lives is stewardship, all as we follow the one who came to serve, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Grace & peace,
Pastor Skip

See You In September

2008-08-25T10:24:00.000-07:00

It is mid-August as I write this, but the signs of September are everywhere: school buses practicing their routes, stores in full “Back-to-School Sale” mode, college-bound students packing suitcases and trunks, and the temperatures at night cooler and dry.

September always brings a feeling of renewal that is as refreshing as an autumn breeze. With September comes a new year in Sunday School, the return of the choirs, the switch back to worship at 8:30 and 11:00, and all the activities that keep our building humming. I enjoy the slightly slower pace of Summer, but I miss the activity and the liveliness of Fall, Winter, and Spring.

Things don’t stop in Summer, of course, and many Ministry Teams were hard at work even on the steamiest days. We are still searching for a new director for our Early Learning Center to succeed Linda Lindamood. The ELC Board has been working diligently and faithfully to discern whom God has chosen for the position. We hope to have a candidate by mid-Fall, but we also know that we are working on God’s schedule, not our own.

It’s almost impossible not to see the results of the never-ending work our Property Ministry Team does all year-round maintaining our property: a new parking lot in front (I love the speed bump!), fresh paint on the cross on the steeple, and freshly painted offices, just to point out the more obvious changes.

Our Finance Ministry Team also had a busy summer working with the accounting firm we hired last spring to help us review our finances and provide better reporting not only for our Session, but for the whole congregation. Lisa Faust, our Financial Administrator, has been a wonderful addition to our staff as she updates reports, systems, and how we manage our finances. The accounting firm will provide a detailed report and presentation to our Session in October.

Perhaps the Ministry Team that was busiest over the Summer was Stewardship, which has been planning for what is sure to be an exciting Fall Stewardship campaign. The Team didn’t even wait for Labor Day to get started, meeting with the Elders and Deacons over lunch in early August to share their ideas and sign up volunteers. If you are asked to be a “Station Agent” or a “Trail Boss”, say “yes”!

The Stewardship Ministry Team conducted two “Focus Groups” at the beginning of the summer to learn how we can do a better job with our Stewardship campaign. One of the things we learned is that we need to do a better job communicating information about our Ministry Teams. So, beginning in mid-September, every Ministry Team will have a Sunday to participate in worship leadership and share with all of us how they serve God and our church through their work.

God is always at work in us and through us, Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring, renewing us, transforming us, and guiding us, as follow our Lord Jesus Christ. The page on the calendar turns to a new month, but God’s abiding presence remains constant, God’s love for us unwavering. That’s reason to celebrate all year round.

See you on Genesis Sunday!

Pastor Skip

Faith Seeking Understanding

2008-06-24T14:00:00.000-07:00

How did you do with the questions I asked in my sermon a few weeks ago? Did you open up your Bible to look for answers? Did you find out that Noah’s wife was not named in Genesis? Did you read Psalm 150, at the very end of the Book of Psalms? How many Proverbs are there? Have a look!

Each week I lead two Bible Study classes, and I always look forward to our time together. We read, we learn, we ask questions, as we seek to grow in understanding. I love leading the classes because every time I read a passage in the Bible, no matter how many times I’ve read it before, I always learn something new and find something fresh. That’s God’s Spirit at work, opening my eyes!

Our Wednesday morning class decided last December to make 2008 a “Year With The Bible”. So we all bought copies of “One-Year” Bibles, in which the Bible is divided into 365 daily readings: a text from the Old Testament, a text from the New Testament, a bit of a Psalm, and a Proverb or two each day. Each day’s reading takes about 20 minutes, and we now find ourselves half-way through the entire Bible!

Our Thursday evening group has chosen a more eclectic path this year, combining Biblical texts with articles and books. The past few weeks we took a fascinating journey asking questions about what Jesus means when he speaks of “eternal punishment”. We wanted to ask how we reconcile God’s grace, mercy, and love, with what appears to be unforgiving wrath and torment. We read from theologians and pastors who present a very different perspective from what most of us learned in Sunday School when we were growing up. If you want to learn more, come join us, or just ask!

I devote at least 6 hours of every week preparing for these two classes and then participating in them. It is rich time for me -- time to immerse myself in the Bible, in our Book of Confessions, in thought-provoking articles and books by theologians and other scholars, and in prayer for guidance by the Holy Spirit.

It was Anselm who almost a thousand years ago spoke of “faith seeking understanding” – that even as we take things on faith, we still are filled with a desire to understand, and that as we grow in understanding, we grow in faith. And that understanding comes through questioning, reading, studying, and learning, with our minds open to God’s guidance through the Holy Spirit. The Psalmist put it best when he wrote, “The unfolding of your words gives light”. Now: can you find the Psalm that verse comes from!

Grace & Peace,
Pastor Skip

A Visit from Mrs. Mary Dingleberry

2008-04-29T17:47:00.000-07:00

Over the past few months I have focused on the work of our Session in my Pastor’s Letters. I have wanted to highlight the work our Elders do as they govern and lead our Church, following Jesus as the Head of our Church. I have also wanted to add some clarity about how our Session works and what our Elders do.

A common assumption that many folks have is that Session meetings are long and tedious. Most of our meetings take about 2 hours; we are a busy church with a great deal for us to discuss. Twice each year we schedule meetings for Saturday mornings to give us extra time to discuss issues in depth. In an effort to make our meetings more productive we are working to leave more of the details to Ministry Teams. Session should be focused on overall policies and practices.

Our April meeting was one of our two Saturday meetings and it was a wonderful example of why our meetings cannot be called tedious! Linda Lindamood, the Director of our Early Learning Center, gave us a lively and informative presentation on this wonderful ministry MPC has provided to the community for more than 40 years. Members of the ELC Board of Advisors were there as well to answer questions. And Linda brought a special guest, Mrs. Mary Dingleberry, who filled the room with laughter as she dispensed her unique, lavender-scented wisdom.

When we turn our attention to Christian Education programs at each Session meeting, I have the joy of providing updates on our Confirmation Class. I have had the privilege of teaching our Confirmation Class this past year with Mary Langley. The students in the class have been enthusiastic, inquisitive, and fun, challenging us as they have sought to grow in faith. They are now finishing their Service Projects and will turn their attention to their Statements of Faith. We will close our year with a Retreat at the church on May 10th, and then celebrate the year together with Confirmation Sunday on the 18th, first at breakfast with the Session and then in the 11:00 worship service as the students make their public profession of faith.

When our Elders meet as the Session, we try to follow Paul’s wise words to the Colossians: “Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body…And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” These are words to guide us not only in Session meetings, but in every part of our lives as we follow our Lord Jesus the Christ.

Grace & peace,
Pastor Skip

The Wisdom of our Elders

2008-03-27T10:00:00.000-07:00

Each time our Session meets we have a detailed agenda befitting our practice of doing things “decently and in order”, as the Apostle Paul teaches us. We begin our meetings with a brief lesson and devotion, followed by prayer. If our meeting is in the evening, we share an enthusiastic thank-you to Audrey Little for preparing a delicious dinner for us. Our Clerk, Jo Ann Staebler, updates us on Presbytery activities and changes in membership.

We then move on to reports from our Ministry Teams. We now have 9 teams: Administration & Finance, Christian Education, Early Learning Center, Membership (combining Fellowship and Evangelism & Assimilation), Mission, Personnel, Property, Stewardship, and Worship & Music.

We don’t always hear from every Team at every meeting. We are trying to focus on different Teams throughout the year to help us all develop a better understanding of each Team’s ministry. In April we will hear detailed reports from two Teams.

First, we will hear from the staff and Board of our Early Learning Center. Did you know that each week hundreds of 2, 3, and 4-year-old boys and girls participate in different programs our ELC provides? Under the leadership of Linda Lindamood and Chris Fox, the children play, learn, and sing, all in a very compact 3 hours. It is a ministry that is easy to miss because it happens on weekday mornings in rooms that we think of as Sunday School classrooms, but it is a vital ministry and one we strongly support.

We will also hear a more detailed report from our Mission Ministry Team. This Team spends long hours wrestling with how we can best and faithfully respond to the overwhelming needs we see all around us, stretching from within our own church family, to places and people thousands of miles from us. The needs will always exceed our abilities and resources, so Mission has the difficult task of assessing where and how we as a community of faith are called to respond.

Mission has also been working to lead us in becoming more faithful stewards of God’s creation. The Team has developed an environmental stewardship policy that all Elders have adopted. We will implement the policy in all that we do here at MPC to help us reduce, recycle, reuse and tread more lightly on this beautiful creation. God reminds us in the Pentateuch that the earth belongs to him, and that we are to look after it for future generations.

I encourage you to pray for our Elders, that they be graced with wisdom, energy, and faithfulness. Our Elders work hard to serve God and this church. In all we do as the Session of our church, we are guided by the prayer offered by our Lord, that we seek to do God’s will, and not our own, and that makes our service a joy.

Grace & peace,
Pastor Skip

What Do They Do?

2008-02-22T14:32:00.000-08:00

A question I am often asked is, “what is the Session?” The follow-up is usually, “what do our Elders do?” It often seems that our Session does its work so quietly that most folks are not even aware of its presence. Yet our Elders work very hard as members of the Session called to lead our congregation.

Our most recent meeting reflected the broad expanse of our calling and our work. We spent quite a bit of time discussing a new policy for building use: what outside groups may use our building, under what circumstances, and if we charge the group, how much we should charge. We have lots of requests for our space; more than we can handle, so we need to have a policy.

Did you know, for example, that every week the BEACON program is here teaching English as a second language? Did you know that we host Girl Scout leadership teams? Or that we are the meeting space for Toastmasters? Support groups have used our space in the past, and we currently host a Brazilian Church congregation that worships here twice each week. All this is in addition to the many programs that are run directly by our church.

Our Property Ministry Team is also scheduling a number of large maintenance projects for this year, including repaving the front parking lot, cleaning and painting the cross on the steeple, and painting more interior spaces.

We decided to merge the Fellowship Ministry Team with the Evangelism & Assimilation Ministry Team into a newly named Membership Ministry Team. The new Team, chaired by Spence Curtis and Susan Simmons, will take responsibility for all aspects of membership: welcoming new members, organizing fellowship activities, and working with the Deacons to look after all our members. Membership will also oversee a newly created Task Force that will help us redesign our website this summer.

Over the new few months we will focus on our Early Learning Center, a vital ministry we offer to our community. The demographics in our neighborhood and community are changing and we need to adapt to those changes. We are also working on new ideas for Stewardship; we are still eager to find the financial resources to allow us to restore the position of Associate Pastor.

I plan to share more information about our Session in the months ahead, but if you have questions, just ask me or any of our Elders. We post minutes of Session meetings on the bulletin board across from the church office, along with information about our Deacons. Both groups work faithfully remembering the words of our Lord, “I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit.” Our Elders and our Deacons work with great dedication to bear fruit for all in this Body of Christ.

Grace & peace,
Pastor Skip

Our Officers' Retreat

2008-01-22T07:00:00.001-08:00

Our Elders and our Deacons gathered last weekend for our annual Officers’ Retreat at Massanetta Springs. It was a wonderful weekend as we learned together, prayed together, shared stories with one another, and grew in faith.

We began our time on Friday evening with an exercise that divided the group into teams, with each team on a variation of a scavenger hunt. Teams were given numerous passages from our Book of Order, Directory of Worship, and Book of Confessions with blanks and they had to locate the passages and fill in the blanks. The books that make up our Constitution are rich with the history and theology of the Reformed tradition, along with the beliefs and practices that distinguish us as Presbyterians.

As we reviewed our responses on Saturday morning, there were lots of questions, and the questions led to wonderful, thoughtful conversations about why we do things the way we do. We learned especially how important the Bible is to us: reading it, studying it, and seeking understanding with God’s help through the Holy Spirit.

After lunch the Board of Deacons and the Session went off to separate room so each group could meet. On the Session’s agenda was passing the Budget for 2008. We are in the process of changing and updating much of our financial reporting with our new Financial Administrator, Lisa Faust. We also made the decision to hire an outside Accounting firm to review our reports and practices, something we have not done in quite a few years.

We also agreed to restore a practice our church had not that long ago, one that many other churches use with great success: designating one night a month as Ministry Team Meeting Night. We want to improve communication about our Teams, as we all work within this Body of Christ. Making the Meeting Night work will require some schedule adjustments from most of us, including me, but churches that follow this practice all find it well worth the effort.

We ended our time on Sunday morning with a worship service. What made it truly special was that everyone was involved, from Call to Worship through the Benediction. When it came time for the Lord’s Supper, we took a common cup and a loaf of bread and passed it around the circle, each person served, each person serving. We were gathered in a meeting room in the beautiful setting of Massanetta Springs, but we were also spiritually gathered in that Upper Room.

I find it such a joy to work with our leadership groups. Our Elders and our Deacons work hard and work faithfully serving God and this church. I encourage you to learn more about their work, pray for them, support them, and thank them, remembering that we are all called to the work of “promoting the Body’s growth in building itself up in love.”

Grace & peace,
Pastor Skip

It's Finally Here!

2007-12-04T17:58:00.000-08:00

It’s started. It’s not even Thanksgiving as I write this, and yet I am already listening to Christmas hymns and carols and I have already begun to get out the Christmas decorations. Just a few, of course – I try to wait until after Thanksgiving, but when a new nativity I had ordered from a catalog arrived the other day, it seemed a shame to box it back up for just a few weeks, so out on the table it went, ready for the season.

I am not sure who sprints out of the gate earlier: me or the stores in the mall. I love everything about Christmas: the lights, the scents, the sparkle of tinsel, the greenery, the ornaments, children filled with excitement, the carols, the sense of wonder. I am always eager to step over the threshold that leads into the wonderful room we call December as we await the coming of our Lord.

Yes, the season brings with it a rush of activities; it is certainly the busiest month at the church. Still, the season brings with it a sense of peace that falls so gently upon us, like snowflakes drifting down touching us, filling us, stopping us even for moment in the midst of the crush, calling us to pause, to remember, to wait. The peace reminds us, as the composer John Rutter wrote in one of his beautiful hymns, that love came down from heaven on that first Christmas Day.

But even as I look forward to Advent and Christmas, I am also already looking ahead to the New Year, as we begin our 141st year. Our Session and Board of Deacons will begin the new year together with their annual retreat at Massanetta Springs, where we will continue working on what it means to be leaders in the church, work we began last spring. Our Book of Order reminds us that Elders are called to lead us “continually to discover what God is doing in the world and to plan for change, renewal and reformation under the Word of God.” It is exciting and challenging work, as we seek to discern the will of God as we follow Jesus.

We will take the wonder, the glory, the peace, and the Spirit of the Christmas season into the New Year, as we should. The Spirit of Christmas should fill us all year round, for the Spirit of Christmas is, after all, the Spirit of Christ. My hope and my prayer is that the Spirit will blaze in your hearts throughout the Season and throughout the year ahead.

Glory to God in Highest Heaven!

Pastor Skip

Thanks Be To God

2007-11-15T18:10:00.000-08:00

This is the time of year when we are filled with thoughts of thanksgiving. We have so many things to be thankful for, so many blessings for which a prayer of gratitude is appropriate.

What are you thankful for? Your family? Your home? Your health? Counting our blessings may prove too formidable a task, but still, naming things we are thankful for is a wonderful exercise to do all year round. Here are just some of the things that are on my list:

I am thankful for my family: for my wife, my sisters, aunts, uncles and cousins. I am thankful for wonderful friends, many scattered in far distant lands. I am thankful for good health, my home, for having food and clothing.

I am thankful for the colors of the rainbow, colors created by God to give us beauty. I am thankful for the magnificent colors that come with autumn. I am thankful for the rains that refresh the earth and wash things clean. I am thankful for the squirrels, whose antics seem so amusing this time of year as they prepare themselves for winter.

I am thankful for men and women who have been called to serve: called to serve as firefighters; police officers; utility workers who restore power even in the worst weather; men and women who endure heat, cold, loneliness, and fear as they serve in our military. I am thankful for men and women who serve in hospitals, in every capacity, twenty-fours a day, to care for others.

I am thankful for our church as we close our 140^th year and look to our 141^st year filled with such promise and hope. I am thankful for the wonderful staff I work with each day. I am thankful for our special ministry in the Early Learning Center and the staff and teachers who embrace each child we welcome each day with warmth and love.

I am thankful for the season that lies before us, the season of Advent, a time of watching and waiting. I am thankful for those who have written so many wonderful hymns and carols that help us to focus on the coming of our Lord. I am thankful for the talents of countless artists who have captured that radiant, peace-filled scene of the birth of our Lord in so many ways to bring us the mystery and the hope of God with us.

This is my list today. It may be different tomorrow, and different yet again the day after that. But one thing will remain the same each day: my gratitude to God. The Psalmist said it so many times with good reason, “O give thanks to the Lord.” And so I will, and not just in November, but every day.

Grace & peace,

Pastor Skip

You Want Me To Serve On WHAT Committee?

2007-10-18T18:00:00.000-07:00

Twenty years ago I served as co-chair of the annual Stewardship campaign at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Buffalo. I was an active member of the church, the third generation of my family to worship there, but I was not at all interested in serving on the Stewardship Committee, much less take the co-chair’s role. The pastor would not take “no” for an answer, however, (and no: we don’t learn that skill at Seminary!) and so I found myself helping to lead the annual campaign.

Six months later, after an effort that we all considered successful, I concluded that God had blessed me richly by calling me to serve on the Stewardship Committee. My eyes had been opened in a way that never would have happened had I not helped with our campaign. Serving on the Stewardship Committee helped me to think about not just what I was giving to the church, but why I was giving, and who was calling me to give.

I realized that I was not making a donation to the church. I wasn’t making a gift. I was simply returning a part of what God had blessed me with. And it wasn’t the Committee that was asking for the pledge, nor was it the Session, nor the minister; it was God who was putting the pledge card in my hand. It was God who calling me to respond. God was gracing me with the opportunity to bring my “first fruits” to his table to do his work.

I think everyone should serve a two-year term on the Stewardship Ministry Team. In fact, I think we should require it of every active member. Your eyes will be opened in ways you might not have thought possible. You’ll develop a better appreciation for where and how we spend our funds on all the ministries we do here at our church. Indeed, you will see how everything we do is ministry. You will see how even painting a door or shoveling the walk is ministry.

In this month of thanksgiving, make sure you thank those who have helped with our Stewardship efforts this year. It was a small core Team led by Elders Mishelle Noble-Blair and Jim Crane. But there were many helping hands. Find them, and then, after you have expressed your gratitude, offer to serve on the Team next year. And don’t be surprised if, at the end of two years, you find that you have been “enriched in every way for your great generosity, which will produce thanksgiving to God…”

Grace & peace,

Pastor Skip

The Light on the Horizon

2007-09-20T08:00:00.000-07:00

Pat and I thank you all for your words, your notes, your cards, and your prayers these past few weeks since my mother died. Every word, every thought, every gesture has been a great comfort to us and our hearts are filled with gratitude.

The presence of Mom’s absence has become apparent in countless ways. I have noticed it each afternoon. As her health deteriorated this past year, the late afternoon was usually her best time of the day, so I would telephone her and talk with her while I drove home. I have felt her absence even more acutely on Sunday afternoons. For more than 30 years that was our time to talk, a routine we fell into when I first went off to college and long-distance calls were something done sparingly.

But even as I feel the presence of her absence, I am also filled with a sense of relief: relief that she is beyond the reach of cancer, relief that no pain can touch her, relief that she no longer needs to fear yet another trip to the hospital, relief at knowing that she is at peace, bathed in love in the presence of God.

How blessed we are to have the promise of eternal life in God’s Heavenly Kingdom awaiting us at the end of our journey here on earth. At the end of our mortal lives it is not death that comes for us, but Christ himself. So, as Paul reminds us, “if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.”

I took comfort in knowing that my mother embraced this promise as she neared the end of her life. She knew where she was going. Her faith gave her the strength and courage to bear her final few months with grace and peace. The twinkle never faded from her eye.

“Death be not proud”, wrote the poet John Donne. “Mighty and dreadful: thou are not so… One short sleep past, we wake eternally, and death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.” This is the promise we take on faith, for it is the promise we have in Jesus Christ.

The absence is real and the grief deeply felt when a loved one dies. Yet even in death there is hope, a ray of light that shimmers over the horizon that reminds us that our lives here are only a prelude for what awaits us: eternal life in the presence of our Lord. Thanks be to God!

Grace & peace,

Pastor Skip

Happy New Year?

2007-08-21T18:27:00.000-07:00

September marks a “New Year” in most churches, as we come back from summer activities and travels. Following Labor Day we will resume our schedule of two worship services (but not till September 16th!), the choir will be back in the chancel, Sunday School will be ready to greet learners of all ages, and the building will buzz seven days a week with activity. I will particularly enjoy the beginning of the new year for our Early Learning Center – weekdays have been much too quiet without the sounds of children talking, giggling, singing, and learning.

Our Session will continue the conversation we began in June about where we believe God is calling us in the years ahead. Our priorities have changed over the past decade since the first thoughts that led to the Vision 2010 program were discussed. We now realize that rather than adding space, we need to put more effort into maintaining and enhancing what we have. Our 30-year-old building needs to look as bright, warm, and welcoming as all the new church buildings that have sprung up all around us over the past few years.

Our Reformed heritage reminds us that we are the “Church Reformed, Yet Always Reforming”. As important as tradition is, change is also an equal partner in our discipleship. The Holy Spirit calls us to changes and leads us, gracing us with the wisdom and courage we need to walk forward boldly and faithfully. Changes come in small ways: fresh paint all around our building, including splashes of welcome color; more graphics, pictures, and helpful information on our website; or new volunteer leaders for our Youth Groups. And changes come in bigger ways as we think about new ministries and missions, or plan for how we can restore the position of Associate Pastor.

One of many changes we made this summer was to update our computer database to help us capture information from Time & Talent surveys that our Stewardship Ministry Team has put together. Our Deacons will be sending you the Time & Talent form for you to fill out and return – right away, please! Our database is vastly improved thanks to the efforts of Ann Curtis and Sarah Slader, so be assured that we will match interests and needs.

Where will God be calling us in the weeks and months ahead? Where will God be calling you to serve in the weeks and months ahead? We have only to “be still” and listen – God will make our paths clear. And as Paul teaches us, whatever we do in word and deed, whatever the path, let us be sure to do everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Grace & peace,

Pastor Skip

How I'll Spend My Summer

2007-06-18T12:00:00.000-07:00

Summer looms: long languid months in which to relax, lie in a hammock, drink lemonade, and listen to the birds in the trees…. Somehow I don’t think that describes what summer will be like for most of us! Summers seem to be as busy as the rest of the year, with travel, vacations, camps for children, and projects to be done around the house.

Still, summer allows us a change of pace, and a chance to focus on different things. This summer will provide me with an opportunity to have some concentrated time on my doctoral work. In September 2004, I began work on my Doctor of Ministry degree at Princeton Theological Seminary. I completed all my required classroom work last summer, leaving me with “just” the dissertation, or what the program calls the “Final Project”.

I spent much of this spring developing and refining my Final Project Proposal, a process that is rather like trying to corral mercury loosed from a thermometer. Papers and responses flowed back and forth between me and the Seminary’s Doctoral Committee over the months, all part of the normal process that every doctoral student goes through. Happily, the Proposal stage is nearing completion, so I can begin work this summer on the Final Project.

My Project will focus on leadership in the church. Every year God calls a new group of women and men to leadership roles in the church as Elders and Deacons. Amazingly, though, there is no training program from the Presbytery, no handbook written by the Synod, no workshop offered by Louisville, no ready resource to help us become better leaders in the church. There are more than 11,000 churches in the Presbyterian Church in this country and it appears that there are 11,000 different ways we go about trying to develop leadership!

What I hope to develop is a program we can use at our church to help officers become more comfortable in their role as leaders as they serve God and this church. Our Book of Order charges our Elders in particular to “exercise leadership…by seeking together to find and represent the will of Christ”. How best to do that is a challenge when we all struggle with discernment, demands on our time, and different interpretations of the word “leadership”.

Of course, we begin our study of leadership by remembering that we are also followers: followers of our Lord Jesus, who is Head of the Church. As we go about our ministry, as long as we “let the word of Christ dwell in us richly…and…do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” we can be confident that we will be both faithful leaders and faithful followers.

Grace & peace,

Pastor Skip

How Are You Doing?

2007-05-24T14:13:00.000-07:00

So: how are you doing? How are you doing as a steward of God’s creation? We had a wonderful Earth Day celebration in April, and we have talked a lot recently about our role as stewards of God’s creation and the responsibility God has given us to look after this creation.

Are you recycling more and throwing out less? Prince William County takes newspapers, magazines, telephone books, catalogues, cardboard, plastic bottles, glass, and cans. Go to the county’s website, www.co.prince-william.va.us/default, and click on “Recycling and Trash disposal” and you’ll find all kinds of helpful information, including what to do with old computers, televisions, and other electronic gear, used engine oil, batteries and other goods.

The more we recycle the less we will put in the ground in landfills. Take a drive south out 234 past Hoadly Road and look at the size of the mound of trash at the Prince William County Landfill – that’s all from you and me. The next time you head east on 66, have a look at the large hill that’s on your right at the exit for the Fairfax County Parkway. That’s all trash under there. Your trash and mine.

What else are you doing? Have you begun to go through your house to see where you could replace lightbulbs with the new more energy-efficient bulbs? Are you planning to buy a new refrigerator, washer or dryer? Check to make sure your new appliance has the Energy Star logo. You’ll save money as well as energy.

Our cars pour millions of tons of pollutants into the air each day, even if we don’t see the toxins coming out of tailpipes. If it is time to replace your car, look for a model that gets at least 20% better mileage than your current car. For a helpful website, go to www.autos.yahoo.com/green_center/. You’ll save money at the gas pump and pollute less. Do you plan to keep your car for a while yet? A simple way to use less gas and pollute less is slow down. Yes, simply driving the speed limit will improve your mileage and reduce the amount of pollution you’re putting in the air by more than 10%.

Everything we do has an impact on God’s creation. We are looking for more and more ways to “go green” around the church. Are you looking for ways to live green at home and at work, as well as at church? The world we live in is God’s, not ours. We are God’s stewards, called to care for this earth at church, at home, at work: everywhere, in everything we do so that God “may always rejoice in his works.” So: how are you doing?

Grace & peace,

Pastor Skip

How Do We Read the Bible?

2007-05-01T12:00:00.000-07:00

I sat in on a Senior High class a few weeks back. I’d been invited in to respond to questions the students had. The questions were excellent: thoughtful, reflective, probing, and faithful. I noticed the questions had a common thread, something that we all struggle with: how are we to read the Bible, and especially, how are we to read difficult passages, those verses that seem not to make sense, or that trouble us?

We find passages that we question in both the Old and New Testaments. For example: “You shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed; nor shall you put on a garment made of two materials.” (Leviticus 19:19) “Let a woman learn in silence with full submission. I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent.” (1 Timothy 2:11). If we were to follow these verses literally, most farmers would be in trouble, most of us would have to buy new wardrobes, and we would lose the majority of our Elders, Deacons, and Teachers. So what do we do?

Our Book of Confessions and Book of Order (together they are the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church USA) provide help and guidance. The Book of Order tells us that the Bible is “by the Holy Spirit, the unique and authoritative witness to Jesus Christ in the Church universal, and God’s Word to us.” We do not refer to the Bible as the “literal” or “inerrant” Word of God, as some other denominations do.

The Confession of 1967 teaches us that the Bible is “to be interpreted in the light of its witness to God’s work of reconciliation in Christ.” Jesus, as the living Word of God, is the lens through which we are to read the Bible. Christ himself knew his Scripture, yet he often taught lessons that seemed to contradict a literal reading of Scripture.

The Bible is not a rule book, with neat aphorisms and guidelines that we can simply list and follow. Rather it is a book of books filled with nuance, subtleties, and many seemingly contradictory statements. We need help as we read the Bible, which is why the first thing we must always do before we read is offer a prayer for illumination, asking for God’s help through the Holy Spirit as we read.

We always have to be mindful of the context, the history, and the literary style of the writer of each book. We also have to be mindful of the fact that translators who have worked with the original Hebrew or Greek texts often have disagreed on how different verses should be translated.

As we read through the Bible, the Spirit calls us to interpret passages in light of God’s mercy, love and reconciling work in Jesus Christ. That means that reading the Bible requires prayer, faithfulness, an open mind, and an expectation that each time we read it we will be transformed, even just a little, to be more Christ-like in what we say, what we do, and how we live our lives.

Grace & peace,
Pastor Skip