Our worship service centers on Luke 12:49-56 (one of Jesus’ hardest sayings). Worship leaders include Katie Longo, Wint Wint Zaw, Denise Lowe Walters, Say Wah Htoo, Bawk JaMahka, and the church staff. Podcast tech: Bill. One of the highlights of the service includes the dedication of Jackson Petty.
Worship: Proper 14c, 8.11.13
We gather for worship, in this last stretch of the summer season, continuing our emphasis on the Gospel of Luke. Rev. Dan Schumacher’s sermon is based on Luke 12:32-40.
Worship, Proper 13c, 8.4.13
Our Communion Service centers on Luke 12:13-21, the Parable of the Rich Farmer. Worship leaders include the Malaysia Mission Team, Lisu Choir, Keith and Angelica Gottberg, Kristen Koger, Kathy McGraw, and the Church Staff.
A Word from our summer Pastoral Intern
If you ask me what I did during my summer internship, I couldn’t give you any flashy stories. I didn’t take a life-changing mission trip, leave the country, or start a new program. This summer, my fourth as an intern in a church and my second at Tabernacle, felt very different than the first three. The first three summers, I felt like I was doing all of the things a minister should be doing—planning, taking children to camp, VBS, visiting—but I didn’t always feel that I was actually being a minister. This summer, I did those things, but instead of structuring my summer around them, I began to ask the question, “What would it look like for me to be a minister in this moment?” As a result, something surprising happened. Instead of two or three large trips defining my summer, the smaller, everyday ministry that took place grew to be equally as meaningful as the larger events, and for the first time, I felt like I was actually serving as a minister.
- Moments like driving the van and suddenly finding myself engaged in a conversation with some of our students about the nature of heaven and God’s love,
- encouraging our children and youth as they discovered gifts at camp and expressed a desire to use them back home, and sharing pie with a church member
- and listening as she described the ways that God is igniting a passion in her for ministering to our homeless brothers and sisters are the ones where I felt God’s hand guiding us forward.
- I’ll carry with me the visits I’ve made with a 93 year-old church member and the precious moments we shared talking about her love of gardening and vine-ripe tomatoes, her enduring faith, and her love of Tabernacle.
- Each time I remember Judy and four of our youth discovering that the fruit they purchased for the Mini Burmese Food Festival was actually the durian, also known as the “stinky fruit,” I will smile and think of the many ways God surprised us all this summer and the ways our willingness to say “Yes!” even when the outcome is uncertain has become a wonderful witness to faith and trust in God’s provision.
This summer, when I was unsure or confused, your courage and steadfast commitment to Christ and to one another reminded me that God would see me and us through this season and strengthened me on my journey.
So, if you ask me what I did this summer, don’t be surprised if I start telling you a seemingly random story about the time a child’s sidewalk chalk drawing helped me see the Gospel in a whole new light or the ways Legos have enriched our children’s understanding of Jesus’ teachings recorded in Luke. The Spirit moved while we were at camp in miraculous ways, but the Spirit equally stirred up my own passions in the comings and goings each day in the church office, in our conversations Sunday mornings, and in your words of encouragement along the way. Thank you all for your trust and for your willingness to let me serve you this summer. I’m looking forward to a great year with you beginning in September!
Peace,
Julie Gaines
What would it look like for you to be a minister…?: A CCI reflection
What would it look like for you to be a minister…?: A CCI reflection
The following post is from Julie Gaines, a student at Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond and one CBF’s Collegiate Congregational Interns (CCI) at Tabernacle Baptist Church in Richmond, Va. This blog is included as part of a series of posts from CCI-ers who will share about their summer experiences.
During the first week of my internship, my senior minister challenged me to consider what it might look like for me to be a minister in each situation I found myself in this summer. He looked at the weekly calendar I had blocked out, pointed to different squares and asked, “What would it look like for you to be a minister while you’re in the office, planning a youth trip? What about on Sunday mornings? What would ministry look like for you while driving the church van?”
The questions he asked were straightforward, but I found myself taken aback by them. “I thought planning time was just supposed to be planning time?” I thought to myself, but no sooner had my brain formed that sentence than I realized the trouble with that way of thinking.
If planning time is just finalizing details, if visiting is just doing what my senior minister asked me to do, if driving the van is just an excuse to get out of the church building for a few hours, then when does ministry actually take place?
I’ve been struggling with this question all summer. I’m not a good planner by nature. I rarely feel like I’m prepared to respond when someone asks me a hard theological question. I don’t always remember all the details. Many nights, I’ve sat up and wondered if God really knew what God was getting into when calling me into vocational ministry.
Initially, I think I entered the summer with the assumption that if I could just spend the right amount of time planning, if I could just be meticulous enough to think through all the potential problems that might pop up during camp, if I could just find the right words to say to this person during my pastoral visit, then my summer and ministry could be considered successful.
This past Sunday, our passage for worship was the story of Mary and Martha, found in Luke 10:38-42. Our senior minister, Sterling, preached a wonderful sermon in which he suggested that the story of Martha and Mary challenges us to look for the surprising ways in which Christ chooses to show up in our daily lives. Towards the end of the sermon, he asked the congregation what it would look like if we actually stopped and recognized the presence of the sacred in our midst, especially during those daily tasks that seem the most routine.
I think that challenge summed up what my summer has been about these past 9 weeks. Looking back on the events of the last two months, the times when I felt that I was serving and ministering the most are the times where I planned to the best of my ability, showed up and took one step at a time forward as I felt God leading.
I experienced God’s grace through the laughter and stories of a 93 year-old church member, who energized me and helped me realize that I’m passionate about reminding those who spend much of their time alone and are aging that God has not forgotten them, even when they are unable to physically get to church.
Then, there was the time when a billboard on the side of I-95 prompted a spontaneous discussion, initiated by one of our students, about God’s love, heaven and what salvation really looks like, all in the back of the church’s 15-passenger van while we drove to the lake for a day trip. I admitted that I didn’t really feel like I had all the answers, but wanted to talk about what they thought, and a 10-minute dialogue began where tough questions about baptism, sin and even questions of predestination came up. That conversation surprised me, and the fact that I managed to stay present and have that conversation surprised me even more.
Most Sundays, I found God in the holy embrace of ladies before Sunday School and after the worship service, in the warm smiles and handshakes during the passing of peace, and the stories that each person I encountered shared with me in those sacred spaces.
Even in the moments where I felt like I was about to fall over from being so tired, like the time the door to the church bus stopped working in the pouring rain during VBS week, I felt God’s presence sustaining me and God’s still, small voice whispering to me, “Keep your eyes open. I’m still here. I’m still at work, even while you rest or are too busy to see. I’m going to do something greater than you can imagine with the seeds you are planting right now. So, be still and enjoy the ride!”
Later that week, a 3-year-old boy who refused to say one word to me for the last almost-two years ran off the bus on our last day of VBS. Just before I shut the door, he turned around, grinned and waved to me, shouting, “Bye!” before running into his home. As I shut the door, I shut my eyes, just for a second and thanked God for the reminder that God was at work, even as I buckled car seats, sowing seeds and growing plants.
I found God to be most present in these moments where I stopped trying to “act” like a minister and started just trying to be present with whatever situation I found myself in and whomever stepped in front of me. I learned the importance of being willing to extend a hand and practice the art of holy listening, a practice which allowed me to start making connections and bringing people in our congregation together.
I learned that ministry for me looks much more like this—like equipping the saints to serve, naming God and those sacred spaces and sharing the love of God with all of the neighbors whose paths cross mine—and much less like having all the answers or planning and controlling every detail.
This summer has renewed my faith in the Holy Spirit and the Spirit’s continued presence in the local church, challenged me to accept and live into my identity as a minister, and reassured me that God has not abandoned me as I pursue God’s call into the ministry.
As I transition into the fall, I enter my third year of seminary at BTSR with gratitude for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s CCI program for supporting me over the last four summers as I discerned God’s calling toward seminary and vocational ministry and for Tabernacle Baptist Church in Richmond, Va., for opening their doors and their hearts to me and for their patience as I continue to learn and grow as a minister and a person.
I’m entering the fall with the faith and the confidence that God is planting seeds in my life, even when I’m unaware, and that God will continue to show me the way forward, one step at a time.
Worship: Proper 12c, 7.28.13
Our Worship Service centers on Luke 11:1-13, the parable of the persistent prayer. Worship leaders include Sandi and Allen Lowery, TBC Children, Bob and Helen Davidson, Jim McMurray and the Church Staff.
Worship,Proper_10c_,July_14_2013
Our Worship Service centers on Luke 10:25-27, the parable of the good samaritan. Worship highlights include a vacation bible school presentation by our children and reunion with the beloved Coppage Family.
God bless the missional church
MISSION: We affirm that our local church, as part of the universal Church, has been given the task of living out the life-giving and life-changing message of Christ’s ministry on earth: to minister to the spiritual, physical, emotional and social needs of all those we encounter. We pledge to use all our resources and lives to share in God’s Mission to the world.
In 2008, just a few short years ago, we spent the summer months focusing on a theme entitled It’s Time: The Missional Church. Some of the questions floating around the sanctuary and hallways included:
What is our role with the Coppage Family on the other side of our mission team traveling to Hungary?
How can we help to make a home for these new refugees from Burma?
How can we partner with the Hyaets Community in Charlotte?
Do we have a role in the Richmond Baptist Association?
Are we still connected with Virginia Baptists and the various national bodies we have related with over the years?
Will we find a voice in the ecumenical and interfaith communities in Richmond?
All of these questions, and so many more, centered on our willingness to move beyond ourselves and embrace our identity as a missional/cooperative church.
When I consider the significant milestones we’ve reached between the two bookends, It’s Time theme (summer 2008) and Building the Church Together theme (summer 2013), I can’t help but to be overwhelmed with gratitude. This summer we find ourselves sending well over 40+ individuals to the ends of our state, country, and world. Next week alone, we will have active members serving in:
- Wingate, NC
- Millboro Springs, Va.
- New York, NY
- Lynchburg, Va.
- Malaysia
- Zimbabwe
- Poland
On Sunday we will welcome the Coppage Family back to Tabernacle and a well deserved furlough before they return to Hungary. We will have just completed a week of Vacation Bible School where the love of Christ was shared with 75+ children. The bulletin on Sunday will feature two upcoming mission trips to Metro Baptist (NY, NY) and Charlotte (NC). Our children will bring forward a special offering to help support ReEstablish Richmond, a new non-profit created by Patrick Braford and several of our church family members. The story goes on and on……
It strikes me as significant that each one of these individuals and endeavors is deliberately connected to the larger Church family. The promise we made in 2008 to embrace our missional identity points to the call the Spirit gave us at Pentecost (Acts 2:1-21) and the faithful reality we are living into points to a church coming into it’s own. God bless each and every one of you as we live out our faith together and do so with open arms.
Hope to see you on Sunday.
Yours in Christ,
Sterling W Severns
Pastor
Worship: Proper 9c,7.7.13
Our Worship Centers on Luke 10:1-11,16-20, the sending out of the 70. Worship leaders include the Youth Group, Kate Ayer, Kathryn Hall, Bill and Gail Welstead, Sally Irwin, Megan Strollo and the church staff.