Blog

The 2015 Live Stream has experienced great success! While on average live attendance is under six viewers, our regular attendees are able to keep a vivid digital connection to the family. Where Live Stream clearly has seen an increase is the number of views post live Worship. There has been an increase from 20 average views to 40 average views per week in the 30 days that follow the service. While we are only able to store online 30 days we have see several weeks with ~70 views and up to 92 views before the video expires.  This expiration is due to the Live Stream Free account we use auto-removes the videos after 30 days.

We have received positive feedback as folks have been able to join in worship when ill, after a long week who participate in their PJs, are at work, and have been away with family but catch up in the afternoon prior to meeting with their small group to discuss the service and sermon together. During the Christmas Eve service the Live Stream allowed families with children to participate in the service in the fellowship hall below the service overhead.

The platform was build to last 3-5 years without upgrade, and we are on track without requiring any capital costs. However there is no regular video archiving as it is currently and ad hoc manual process, also the system is not on a back schedule so if there is a failure all archived data is lost and a the system must be rebuilt from scratch.

With the successes in 2015 we have seen a drop in volunteers on Sunday morning. Two of the students have stepped up to assist however there is a need for a few more committed volunteers to join the team in 2016.  The ask is for one operator per week to create the event, start the stream, operate the camera during the service, and end the event. We covet your prayers and support for 2016.

David Wolf

The past year has been a tremendous year of growth and relationship building for our youth! Here are a few of the highlights from the 2015 year:

• We continued with our Wednesday Night D Groups as our middle and high school students gathered to discuss the passage for the upcoming Sunday. Leadership was provided by Mark Snipes, Kate Ayers, Emily White, and Samuel Lian.
• Sunday School continues to be a time of fellowship and discussion with leadership from David Wolf and Samuel Lian.
• We also began a Youth Worship Arts program on Sunday afternoons. Youth gather together, learn music, and explore ways that they can use their gifts and talents in worship on a regular basis. They spent a good chunk of the fall writing the Christmas Pageant, which was shared in worship on December 13^th.
• We gathered together for a mission weekend at Chester Baptist Church called Mission Madness, sponsored by CBFVA. We spent the weekend being the hands and feet of Christ to the community of Chester.
• We gathered several times as a group for various social events- Halloween party, movie nights- and supporting our youth in various sporting and extra-curriculuar activities. Our Christmas party was a combination “dinner and a show” as we supported Kekoa and Shinji in their high school production of Beauty and the Beast.

Our summer was very busy with 4 different camps available for our students:

• We attended UniDiversity Youth Camp again this summer, and focused on the theme of “It’s Complicated.” We explored how relationships of all kinds can be complicated, and how we should be the love of Christ in all we do.
• We attended Animate for the first time, which is a worship and arts conference at Samford University. We explored ways youth can lead in the Church universal; this was the beginning of the creation of the youth worship arts team.
• We also sent a number of youth to the VA Baptist All State-Choir and VA Baptist Music and Worship Arts Camp. We are blessed to have many musically talented youth in our midst!
• Finally, we finished our summer at Metro Baptist Church leading a week of CLUE Camp, alongside Buena Vista Baptist Church. We spent the week teaching children that they are made in God’s image.

We look forward to seeing how our youth continue to learn about themselves and grow into the people God has formed them to be. We are thrilled to have Samuel Lian serving as our Youth Pastoral Intern. We have already seen a revived energy in the youth ministry because of Samuel’s good leadership, and we look forward to continuing to support him as he supports our students.

Youth Team

Emily White, David Wolf, Samuel Lian, Sara Anne Burgess, Sandi Lowery

The children’s ministry has continued to experience tremendous growth during the 2015 year. We had a full year of ministry and events with picnics, trick-or-treating, ice skating, and movie nights. We continued to have some of our “annual” events, like the Halloween Party at the Denzler’s, and the Easter Egg Hunt at the Fiske’s, but we also tried some new things this year.

We had several successful events throughout the year.

• Vacation Bible School: This year’s theme was “G-Force: God’s Love in Action.” Children learned to move, act, care, follow, and share with God’s love. We learned stories about Moses, Solomon, Bartimaeus, and the women at the tomb. It was a fun and full week as we welcomed 65+ children into the building. We are grateful for the leadership of Bryon LePere and the youth of Buena Vista Baptist church, as well as all the volunteers from Tabernacle who helped make the week possible.
• We held our first ever “Family Advent Workshop” on November 22. About 10 families gathered together and spent time thinking through Advent and ways that they could observe the season together as a family.
• This year’s Christmas pageant was a tremendous success! While the youth wrote the actual script, the older children sang during the pageant, and the younger children help us create the nativity scene by dressing up as the different characters. Thank you to Judy Fiske, Jessica Corbitt, Terry Witt, and Graham Grinnell for leading our children through the pageant.

We also oversee the week-to-week ministries of the church: Sunday School, Nursery, Godly Play, Worship  Explorers, and Children’s Choir.

• Sunday School continues to be divided into three classrooms on Sunday morning, and our numbers continue to grow! We have a wonderfully dedicated team of teachers and assistants the lead our children in Sunday School each week. In June, we said goodbye to Way Doh, Brynne, and Peter as they moved up to the youth group.
• The number of children in the nursery continues to grow, and we are grateful for those of you who serve as volunteers on a regular basis. We are grateful for the leadership of Hope Nycum, Megan Strollo, Courtney Jackson, Heather Rose, Kelley McClellan, and Eh Klu Paw, who serve as our nursery mentors each week. With our new curriculum, we are able to provide children with a more structured environment that incorporates play and learning with our Bible Story for the day.
• Worship Explorers is another ministry of the children that continues to steadily grow each week. It is always a joy to see the steady stream of children lining up in worship to go to Worship Explorers each week.
• Our Wednesday night activities looked a little different this fall than they have in the past. We continued to have Godly Play for our preschool children (led by Anna Tuckwiler, Ryan Corbitt, Christen Schumacher, Sara Anne Burgess, and Jenny Jones) and our K-2 children (led by Joe Perdue, Megan Strollo, Ryan Corbitt, and Kelley McCllelan). We made the decision to provide our 3^rd-5^th grade chidren with a more intense music time (led by Judy Fiske, Jessica Corbitt, Graham Grinnell, and Terry Witt). This fall, these children have learned to play bells and read music, and have led us well in worship several times.

It has been a wonderful and growing year in children’s ministry at Tabernacle Baptist Church. We have enjoyed welcoming several families from the Northminster Community into our midst, and welcoming some families who have returned to the Richmond area after spending some time in other places.

We welcomed a record number of babies into the congregation in 2015- there were 10 babies born into our church family! What an amazing year filled with life.

We also want to extend a special thank you to Heather and Andy Rose. Heather and Andy have been faithfully serving in the children’s ministry for thirteen years, serving in various capacities as Sunday School teachers, volunteering in the nursery, helping with Vacation Bible School and serving on the Children’s Team- and countless other things. They have decided to take a step back from children’s ministry to have the opportunity to be “filled back up” after graciously and generously pouring out their time, energy and love on the children of Tabernacle. Heather and Andy, we are grateful for you both as you have held the line for over a decade. You have seen the highs and lows of children’s ministry at Tabernacle, and you stuck with it! Thank you for the ways that you have loved and cared for dozens of children who have come through the doors of our church building. You have touched the lives of countless children and families, and for your leadership and devotion, we are grateful.

The future of children’s ministry is bright at Tabernacle Baptist, and we are excited for another year of continued growth and meaningful ministry.

The Children’s Team

Andy Rose, Heather Rose, Jessica Corbitt, Kelley McClellan, Kristen Koger, and Megan Strollo

The Construction & Renovation Committee focused its efforts over the past year on completing Phase 1 of construction of our God-Sized Vision initiatives, analysis and planning for next phases of construction, communication of Committee accomplishments/activities, and fund-raising.   Below is a summary of progress made in 2015:

• Phase 1 of Construction–Fellowship Hall Changes, Including:
  • A new and more accessible Ladies’ bathroom with three stalls.
  • A new mechanical room for the Fellowship Hall air conditioning and heating unit.
    Note:  Relocation of the Fellowship Hall’s heating and air conditioning system helps prepare for our planned addition to the William’s building.
  • A new, larger storage room for the church’s kitchen activities.
  • A small storage room for the musical instruments used in Worship Services meeting in the Fellowship Hall.
  • A small office area for the church’s custodian.
  • Gas line relocated from a row house to what is historically known as the ramp alley.
• Architectural drawings for planned changes were finalized in conjunction with Huff- Morris, our architectural firm partnering with us to plan approved changes.
• Meetings with City officials were held to understand the impact of City building codes on our plans.  These meetings resulted in a clearer understanding of changes that we would need to make, such as steps to address asbestos abatement in the row houses, installation of a sprinkler system in the Williams Building, and changes to windows in the church to meet fire code requirements.
• Initial cost estimates led us to work with our General Contractor, Kjellstrom & Lee, for actual cost bids for construction per completed architectural drawings.  These bids confirmed that the construction costs are significantly higher than we could have known prior to efforts completed in the first half of the year.

After review of the costing bids obtained in the 4^th quarter of 2015, the Construction & Renovation Committee agreed to move forward to complete a professional program evaluation of the use of our existing space.   We expect this analysis to be quite helpful as we revisit the approach for our construction next steps now that we have a more accurate and complete understanding of the costs associated with the approved plans.

John Gass along with our lead architect from Huff-Morris, Jim Byerly, are currently meeting with various church groups and the pastoral staff to reaffirm space utilization needs that were defined approximately eight years ago.  The Committee agreed that this is a prudent effort to ensure that we are making wise choices in how we utilize the money you have generously given to this effort and will give in the future.  We believe that one of our most important roles in representing Tabernacle is to be good stewards of the funds entrusted for creating a physical structure that meets the needs of our spiritual ministries.

We expect that the space evaluation will be completed around early March.  This will help us to make certain that we are utilizing all of our available areas in the most efficient and effective ways.  This also ensures that we are certain to consider how we meet our needs as they change with our ongoing growth.

Additional recent Vison activities completed include:

• Completion of the removal of the asbestos from the row houses,
• Patching the Williams Building roof.  (Discussions with Saunders Roofing Company indicate that they expect the roof to hold up during the winter, which will save us from spending a significant amount of money as we complete our space analysis and perhaps revise our construction sequence of events.)

We are encouraged in scripture to “run with patience the race before us”.  This is exactly the manner in which the Construction and Renovation Committee is working.  Every day Tabernacle Baptist Church takes patient and planned steps toward our God-Sized Vision.

Our Vision Continues into 2016

• We are focused on a spiritual approach to change that involves updating our physical structure to nourish our ministries, nurture our children, and serve our community.
• Our commitment to each other as a loving, receiving and sending congregation remains unchanged.

Our Vision is Ministry-Based

• Our Vision Enables Us to Align our Physical Structure with our Ability to Adequately Address 3 of our Key Church Missions
  • Stand-up/Greeting & Adult Education Ministries
  • Child Care Center/ Children’s & Youth Development  Ministries
  • Parsonage, Missions, Refugee Resettlement & Summer Program Ministries