January always seems to be a month of getting ready as we get organized for the new year. Elders and Deacons who have completed their terms of service rotate off their respective Boards and Teams, and newly ordained and installed Elders and Deacons begin their terms and find their way to the various Ministry Teams they will serve. Schedules and calendars are prepared and then we get to work.
Our Elders and Deacons gathered on Saturday January 21 for their annual Officers’ Retreat and to begin the process of planning. This year we want to look beyond the current year, to plan for the next few years, even the next five years. With change happening so quickly all around us, it can be difficult to plan for the future, but we need to think ahead and try to envision what we’ll look like in five years as we celebrate our 150th anniversary, and from there determine what needs changing, what needs work so we can celebrate our sesquicentennial with confidence as well as joy.
We met at La Capilla, the restaurant that is housed in our old church building in Old Town Manassas. It proved to be a very fitting place for us to begin our work of looking ahead by looking to the past, to think and reflect upon our long and proud history. We stand on the shoulders of so many saints who worked so faithfully on behalf of God and our church over the past 145 years.
The Rev. Dr. Ed White, a consultant with the Alban Institute (www.Alban.org), led the Retreat and will be working with us throughout the year to help us with our planning. Ed has a long history with us and knows us very well – he was present at the dedication of our current building when he served as Executive Presbyter of the National Capital Presbytery. Ed is looking forward to helping us reflect, discern and plan for an exciting future.
In the more immediate future we’ll begin Lent with our traditional Ash Wednesday service on February 22. A soup supper at 6:30 will precede the 7:30 service, a worship service that focuses on repentance and forgiveness. The text that guides us is God’s word to us spoken through the prophet Joel: “Return to me with all your heart, says the Lord; rend your hearts and not your clothing”.
We’ll build on the theme of repentance and forgiveness with a five-part Lenten series on Thursday evenings beginning March 1. We’ll gather for supper at 6:30 and then at 7:30 spend 90 minutes each Thursday throughout March exploring what it means to repent, why God wants us to come before him with penitent hearts, and why we find it difficult both to forgive and be forgiven. Mark your calendars and plan to participate.
Lent is a time of renewal, a time to offer forgiveness, a time to seek forgiveness. Lent, even as it falls in the midst of winter, brings with it the hope of spring and the promise of rebirth and renewal – a promise we have each day in Jesus Christ.
Grace & Peace
Pastor Skip
