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
