Greetings,
I’m writing to you from Camp Alkulana (in Bath County, VA) where my family is spending the summer. Many of you know that my wife Beth directs the camp, and it has been a wonderful summer of ministry so far. Thank you all for your prayers and support from afar!
Since Kristen Koger has left for First Baptist Church, Decatur, GA, I’ve taken the lead on recruiting leadership for worship each week this summer. Many of you have received emails and phone calls from me asking if you would read the call to worship, pray, or read scripture on Sunday mornings. Thank you for those who have helped to lead us in worship in this way so far! If you haven’t heard from me and would like to help lead sometime soon, please send me an email—I’d love to find a way for you to help lead us in worship.
Earlier this summer I developed and sent out a survey to the congregation to assess our current status regarding spiritual formation and discipleship, and to ponder our next steps and needs. We had more than 30 folks respond, and your feedback has been very helpful! Thank you! I’ll try to find a way to share some of the results with you all in the very near future.
As the summer is typically a slower season in the life of the church, I have spent a lot of time preparing for the coming year. As we approach the fall season of ministry, I have a number of needs on my radar for this area of the life of the church. Can you help serve our church family in any of these ways?:
1. Leaders for a “What does it mean to be Baptist?” class: We’d love to offer a short series (4–6 weeks?) on what makes Baptists distinct. I have some good resources and can help plan. We need one or two folks who could help plan with me and then lead the class sessions and discussion.
2. Leadership for the Fall Church-Wide Retreat (September 22–24th, 2017): We need help planning and leading the retreat. Each year, we need help with worship planning, transportation coordination, meal planning and cooking, and various other small items. We’d especially love to hear from you if you’d like to help cook for the weekend. If you are interested in helping with one or more of these aspects, let me know!
3. A Tabernacle 101 Organizer: We try to offer one or two “TBC 101” series each year to help people who are new to our congregation better understand who we are as a church. This doesn’t require a lot of work, and we have a pretty decent template that we use, but I would love it if someone could help me coordinate these.
4. A couple of leaders for a Sunday Lunch Group: I would love if we could have a regular plan for a few folks to go out for lunch on Sundays after worship to get to know one another better and possibly to discuss the sermon. I imagine that each week we’d have different participants—it wouldn’t exactly be a small group with a regular membership. It would be great to invite visitors to come along, too! We just need a couple of folks that can help plan and coordinate this!
If you can help us fill any of these needs, please give me a call or email me at wright@tbcrichmond.org.
I’m grateful the ways in which we are growing together as a community of faith!
Grace and Peace,
Art Wright
Minister of Spiritual Formation
