tbc Worship & Fellowship

Members On Mission: Laura Severns – Fan Feast

 

Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite holidays.  There are such precious memories of gathering at both grandparents’ houses with Fall decorations, my favorite foods, but most of all…the stories.  After eating way more than we should, our extended family would sit around the large dining room table and tell the stories of our family:  stories of my grandparents dating during WWII; stories of my parents meeting in youth group at their local church; stories of my Dad terrorizing the neighborhood with his brothers when they were teens.  Every year, the stories became more embellished and more entertaining resulting in hours of laughing and reminiscing and “remember whens.” 

     In our immediate family, our Thanksgiving tradition includes the Fan Feast at Tabernacle Baptist Church.  For the past fourteen years, our family has been part of this event that welcomes church members and neighborhood guests to share a meal of gratitude together.  Like my Thanksgiving memories of childhood, there are Fall decorations, favorite foods, and most of all the stories that are shared.  Over the years, the kids have graduated through the ways to serve at the Fan Feast.  As young children, they helped by decorating placemats and helping to clear the tables.  With age, came more responsibility…they were trained in beverage service and finally food service, carefully delivering plates of food to our guests.  In recent years, it’s been the treasured job of sitting with our guests and sharing stories.  There are friends who return each year and look for our kids to remark on how they’ve grown and “remember whens.”  When I asked our children this week about the Fan Feast and why it’s special, they shared that they love the time with our neighbors.  They love helping, but most of all, they love sharing the stories.  So on Saturday, join us at the table.  Pull up a chair, eat some favorite foods, and share in some life stories.   There’s a place that has been set for you.

tbc Worship & Fellowship

Tabernacle Child Care Center Report – Fall 2018

As of October 16, 2018, TCCC is serving 75 children and is fully staffed with 29 personnel.

Building/Projects

  • HVAC: new units were installed for the Williams Building first floor. These costs were covered by the Child Care Center. Consideration of adding units to the second floor of the William’s Building is under discussion.
  • Kitchen floor: a new floor was installed as required for the Richmond Health Department for child care licensing purposes. Previous issues with the installation have been corrected and ceramic tile was added under the stove. TCCC and the church shared this project’s cost equally.
  • Building permit has been issued for Williams Building’s entryway.
  • In preparedness for the new TCCC entryway, a new sandbox was added in a new location and the toy shed was moved. These costs will be covered by the Child Care Center.
  • A small gate will be added to the back blacktop fencing. Playground fencing and gate will be repaired. These costs will be covered by the Child Care Center.

Junior Kindergarten

  • Due to increased rigor in education practices and a demand for services, TCCC added a new classroom. The Junior Kindergarten classroom for older 4 and 5-year-olds opened in early September 2018 with 9 children. Many repairs and renovations were completed over the summer by vendors and volunteers.
    • Classroom was painted
    • New lights added in small nooks
    • Electric short in switch was repaired
    • Carpets were cleaned and new area rug added
    • Blinds added
    • Tables refinished
    • Whiteboard added
    • New licensed teacher was hired
  • Upstairs there are two classrooms: the Pre-Kindergarten and Junior Kindergarten. There are 18 total children, 2 licensed teachers, and one
    teaching assistant.
  • Three scholarships were awarded to children in these classrooms for the
    2018-2019 academic year.

Scholarships

  • The Scholarship Committee will continue building a process timeline to establish practices and protocol for the 2019-2020 academic year.
  • Four scholarships for the 2018-2019 school year were offered, and three accepted.
  • The committee reached out to additional community groups, however in other cases, families could not provide transportation and they chose not to attend.

Child Care Online Database: Tadpoles

  • TCCC piloted an online database to aid in daily communication, attendance, and employee time called Tadpoles. Initially 2 refurbished iPads were purchased and three classrooms partnered in the pilot.
  • Parents and staff found the program efficient and effective and the program will be rolled out to remaining classes in mid October.
  • This will aid in emergency communication to parents/staff/devices.

Special Activities

  • Junior Kindergarten and Pre-Kindergarten were invited to the Governor’s Mansion to meet the Governor, First Lady, and First Dog for a pumpkin festival. 17 children, 4 teachers, and three parents took the GRTC buses to the Capitol grounds for the event.
  • The Green and Yellow Room children will be headed to the pumpkin patch for a hayride and pumpkin picking, weather permitting this month.
  • TCCC has moved to using compostable sugar cane bowls instead of styrofoam. The center will continue to move toward more green efforts with other serving products.
  • TCCC children in the Yellow, Pre-K, and Junior Kindergarten rooms participate in music class led by Judy Fiske and volunteer church member Helen Davidson.
  • TCCC children continue to participate in a weekly chapel conducted by the director and pastoral staff on a rotating schedule every Thursday.
  • Yoga was added as an extra-curricular program. The Blue and Green rooms participate if parents opt in on Friday mornings. This is the first extracurricular activity having access to the Blue Room.
  • The Center is preparing for the annual Fall Fest October 25th at 5 pm.
  • A parenting seminar is planned for November 8th and all families of TBC and TCCC are invited. TCCC plans to work with the children’s ministry to plan similar events and other festivities throughout the year.

Financial status

  • As of September 30, 2018, TCCC’s financial condition continues strong. For more detail, see TCCC Financial Reports included elsewhere in this Quarterly Business Report. The 2019 TCCC budget is being drafted with input from the Church Administrative Board on shared expenses, with congregational review and approval planned concurrently with the Church’s 2019 budget process.

Blessings,
Kristen OSullivan, Ed.S.
TCCC Director

tbc Worship & Fellowship

Youth Minister’s Report – Fall 2018

On September 1st, I remembered that I’ve only been at Tabernacle for a month. One month!

The youth lived a lot of life in August. Let’s run through August:
First, we met. On Sunday, August 5, we met together for lunch after church. We awkwardly said hello and I began learning what was coming in the month ahead. Then, on the following Saturday, Emily White and Gerard Burton led us to challenge our fears at King’s Dominion. There are few better places to get to know one another. For many of us, this was the first time that we stepped onto a roller coaster and felt that tinge of panic and regret as we heard that “click……click…click..click.click” as we climbed the first hill. For some of us, it was the first time this summer that we had spent a full day with this group of people. Thanks to the hard work and generosity of Emily and Gerard, we all survived!
The next Sunday we enjoyed the hospitality of the Welsteads as we spent a day on the river. We enjoyed jet skis, canoeing, and kayaking. It was a day of conquered fears for some of us! Stepping into muddy water and controlling a kayak are no small feats.
The next weekend, the Kennedys hosted us for a weekend retreat in Fredericksburg. We ate and we swam, we canoed and we kayaked, we played games and watched a lot of Shaun the Sheep. We spent time learning about one another and thinking about what being the youth at Tabernacle means. How do we describe ourselves? In asking these questions, we started to think about who we are as individuals, and what things we bring to the table. We started asking our own questions, not to have them answered, but to have them heard.

Fall programming started in September. Our Sunday school classes were split into middle and high school groups. The middle school group is led by Cathy McGraw, and the high school group is led by Sarah Smith and Andrew Sabatini. For the last few months, we have used the Spill the Beans curriculum, which follows the Narrative Lectionary. On Wednesday nights, we have been meeting and going through two different series, one on Forgotten Saints in the Bible and one called Dismissed Faith.

In October, the youth have been thinking about and exploring their personal faith in its entirety, from their doubts and fears to their thoughts on baptism, scripture, and prayer. We are thankful for Emily White and David Gorman for being leaders on Wednesday nights!
We met for a youth game day at the home of Steve, Jennifer, Spencer, and Sam Law. About a dozen youth attended at various points for a time of community building and fun. We are thankful to the Laws for opening their home to us!
Youth Worship Arts resumed in October, under the leadership of Judy Fiske, Marty Watkin, and Ron Simmons. The youth look forward to leading us and sharing with us in worship very soon.

As I look back over the things that have happened in the last few months in the lives of our youth, I cannot help but feel that we have lived more than three months’ worth of life. Many of these youth have been journeying together for a long time, with supporters like David, Sarah, Andrew, Cathy, Emily, Gerard, the Welsteads, the Laws, and the Kennedys giving their time and energy generously. I haven’t even mentioned the Youth Team and the parents that sat down months ago to put many of these events together.

Brock Hogan

tbc Worship & Fellowship

Minister of Music and Worship’s Report – 2nd & 3rd Quarters 2018

Having missed the deadline for the second quarter report as I was preparing to take 28 children, youth and chaperones to Music and Worship Arts Camp at Eagle Eyrie I thought I should combine the two reports. It is a lot, so here goes!

April 1 was Easter this year so we started the second quarter off with a bang. Easter is always an exciting conclusion to a busy and meaningful Lent and Holy Week. Following Easter the Sanctuary Choir begins preparations for Pentecost and for summer. The Children’s Choirs begin preparations for a final performance. This year the final program was held on the last Wednesday evening in May and consisted of a concert of all types of music from Sacred to Broadway. Everyone had a great time and the music was beautiful. Many thanks are due to Jessica Corbitt, Terry Witt, Kathy McGraw and Susan Braden for their wonderful leadership with the school aged choirs. Helen Davidson and Larry Allen provide amazing leadership for our Preschool Choir.

 

 

Our summer music program included a month of sharing favorite hymns and their stories, both the hymn story and their stories in our lives. This was a great deal of fun and helped people to get to know one another as we sang and shared songs we love. In late June seven of us attended Animate Worship Arts Camp at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. This camp is a favorite and we love attending. Meg Lacy was one of the preachers again this year. Each of the youth learns so much about designing and participating in worship services. Later in July—third quarter, twenty-eight people attended Music and Worship Arts Camp at Eagle Eyrie. This camp is open to children over the age of 10. We sing a lot, learn about worship, play in the amazing Eagle Eyrie pool and figure out how to go to bed without a parent to tell us what to do. This camp experience is very valuable to both the spiritual and physical development of the children. They learn a lot about independence at camp.

August always brings renewed interest in liturgical installations. This year our theme is “stitched together”. We are displaying quilts and tell their stories as we are listening, worshiping and waiting for God’s guidance in our lives. The quilts provide a wonderful visual for the use of every scrap to make something beautiful in our lives. A group of adults and youth spent a couple of afternoons at the church dyeing fabric and stiffening it with glue after it had been cut into large squares. These are being hung in the sanctuary ceiling to form a “quilt” over our heads.

 

The music ministry moves back into regular programming in September. The Sanctuary Choir and three children’s choirs meet on Wednesday evenings and Youth Worship Arts meets on Sunday afternoon. In September the church thinking is guided by the Narrative Lectionary. The structure for much of our study and worship follows the structure of this Lectionary. This year we are in Year 1 of the program. The worship installation that was envisioned in August is coming into being. Christmas music is being rehearsed. The next quarter will witness the results of all of the work. It is good to be back in a regular routine.

Please thank the choir members and leaders young and old for the amazing work that they do to make our worship services meaningful.

Judy Fiske
Minister of Music/Worship/Organist

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Associate Pastor’s Report – Fall 2018

Greetings Tabernacle!
When I think back on the last three months, I am amazed at how much we have accomplished and how many changes have taken place. As new staff get settled into their roles, I have been excited to hand off some of the responsibilities in Communications and Children’s Ministry in order to dig more deeply into other components of my job description—especially assets mapping and helping our congregation restructure for growth. Below are some of the highlights of the past quarter:

Communications
You may have noticed that a few things have changed in our communications strategy recently, and we want to continue to improve our communication within the congregation and outside our walls to the neighborhood community. I have been working with a fabulous designer recommended by Terry McMahon since early summer on a few projects that have now come to fruition. The first is the design of a new bulletin that would help us better tell our story and connect with one another in worship, even as our congregation grows and we are less familiar with the new faces we see each Sunday. We also worked to create templates for announcements both in print and electronic forms. Hope Cutchins, our amazing Communications Coordinator, started in late July, and has been using and tweaking these templates. We introduced an e-newsletter, The Tab Weekly, in August, in the hopes of helping members and friends of Tabernacle stay connected with us even when they can’t be physically present. We would love your feedback if you have thoughts about what is and is not working as we develop strategy for communications at Tab. Our next venture will be updating and streamlining the website—be on the lookout for more stories and highlights of Tabernaclers doing awesome work in our community and around the world!

Pastoral Leadership
At my six-month review in June, Sterling and I realized that while I’ve been busy working, much of it has been behind the scenes. I was hungry for more interaction with congregation members, and there was a need for my leadership to be more visible. In response, we decided on a few steps forward. (1) I would begin preaching more regularly. (2) I would lead a Sunday school series on Spiritual Practices in August. (3) I would start a Wednesday night Spiritual Formation option, which became the Lectio Divina group that gathers on Wednesday evenings in the Parlor. These have been wonderful ways for me to connect with you—and hopefully for you to connect with me, too!

 

Administration
In addition to on-boarding and supervising two new staff members—Hope Cutchins and Jerusha Moses, I worked closely with the Personnel Committee to conduct annual reviews for other non-ministerial staff this fall. It was an enlightening process for me, both for the purpose of better supporting our staff, and for the gift of working with this passionate Committee and getting to see their talents at work in our congregation.

Asset Mapping & Lay Leadership Development
Two of the more unusual items on my original job description were related to (1) asset mapping in the congregation and (2) thinking about how to best restructure our process of lay leadership engagement, recruitment, and development. I’ve made a few small steps toward this work in the past few months. Tabernacle has not participated in any self-study for over ten years—and in the past 10 years the congregation has grown and changed tremendously. I have put together a team of lay leaders to act as a “think-tank” for me as we discern how to best help Tabernacle consider the following questions: Who were we then? Who are we now? Who is God calling us to become in the future? In spring of 2019, we’ll be
rolling out some activities to open up this conversation to the whole congregation, and we hope you will participate! I have also spent some time researching best practices for lay leadership recruitment and considering the church’s current nominating structure. While we aren’t ready to make any large changes at this point, the staff did decide that we wanted the nominating committee to have more information about the positions for which they are recruiting leaders. Over the past few months, I’ve been working behind the scenes to collect from each committee chair a list of upcoming projects and goals for 2019, to get a better sense of who our congregation may select or nominate to fill these positions. In the coming months, we will also be talking about how we can transition from a committee that recruits leaders, to a committee that both recruits leaders and helps to develop and support them in their various positions of leadership.

I’m getting to know you more and more, and as each season passes, Richmond begins to feel more like home, and Tabernacle begins to feel more like family. Thank you for welcoming me, encouraging our staff, and listening closely with us for the movement of God’s Spirit in our midst!

Blessings!
Meg