Minister of Children & Families Jerusha Moses discusses different types of grief and how we cope with loss.
What is your style of expressing grief?
How do you process loss and pain?
What helps you when you experience grief?
Going Deeper: The Future Church
Associate Pastor Meg Lacy Vega and Pastoral Intern Spencer Law discuss the “future church” and how God is guiding us through our discernment process to see beyond what the church once was and currently is. This podcast is a supplement to Tabernacle’s ongoing discernment dialogue, exploring what God has in store for the little church at Grove and Meadow and also the universal Church.
What do you think the “future church” looks like?
How can you bring your gifts and skills to the church as it changes?
What are ways the church can transform for the better?
What are essential elements of the church, and what is subject to change?
Where do we see hints of the “future church” in our little church at Grove and Meadow?
Comment below or add your thoughts to the Communal Journal.
Going Deeper: Leading Beyond the Blizzard
Spencer Law reads and reflects on the article Leading Beyond the Blizzard: Why Every Organization Is Now a Startup by Andy Crouch, Kurt Keilhacker, and Dave Blanchard.
A brief summary (pulled from the article) is provided here:
- The novel coronavirus is not just something for leaders to “get through” for a few days or weeks. Instead, we need to treat COVID-19 as an economic and cultural blizzard, winter, and beginning of a “little ice age” — a once-in-a-lifetime change that is likely to affect our lives and organizations for years.
- Due to the complex and interconnected nature of our society and economy, the majority of businesses and nonprofits are “effectively out of business” as of today, in that the underlying assumptions that sustained their organization are no longer true.
- The priority of leaders must be to set aside confidence in their current playbook as quickly as possible, write a new one that honors their mission and the communities they serve, and make the most of their organization’s assets — their people, financial capital, and social capital, leaning on relationship and trust.
- The creative potential for hope and vision is unparalleled right now — but paradoxically this creativity will only be fully available to us if we also make space for grief and lament.
- We write this out of love for Christian organizational leaders and their work, with humility in a time of considerable uncertainty, and a prayerful hope that we are proven wrong by God, in his gracious providence, working miraculously through human ingenuity in this season.
After reading or listening to this article, what do you think it has to say to the current state of our church? Is it correct in its assertions?
What have you learned between March (when this article was written) and now?
And So It Begins: Intro and Initial Survey
In the fall of 2020, we as a church decided that, in order to enter into a deliberate season of discernment, we would move to a simple church model. We committed to spending our energy asking God where we are being called in this moment and beyond. Join us in this journey forward.
As you are praying for wisdom and clarity, please first watch the introductory video, then give us your thoughts through an anonymous survey. On the survey page you will find a video with more detailed information on what we’re hoping to hear from you. You can complete this survey as many times as you’d like. It will be open until the end of January, when we will compile the information we’ve received and move on to our next phase. Don’t hesitate to reach out to us with any questions, or to include your totally honest ideas and opinions.
For more information on our 2021 discernment process, go to the Canoeing the Mountains page.
Sunday, July 19 | Discernment
we’re glad you can join us for worship!
We would love for you to let us know you’re here. This worship guide is meant to be a companion to our Livestream service. You can join us live at 11am on Sunday morning or watch the recorded service later, following along with the words to hymns, etc. in a separate window or on your phone, or print this guide out if you like!
CALL TO WORSHIP: 1 Kings 19:1-14
19 Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. 2 So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them.”
3 Elijah was afraid[a] and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, 4 while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” 5 Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep.
All at once an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.” 6 He looked around, and there by his head was some bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again.
7 The angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.” 8 So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God. 9 There he went into a cave and spent the night.
The Lord Appears to Elijah
And the word of the Lord came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
10 He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”
11 The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.”
Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. 13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.
Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
14 He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”
HYMN #383: “Near to the Heart of God”
THE LORD’S PRAYER
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed by Thy Name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.
SCRIPTURE READING: Jeremiah 29:10-14, Romans 12:1-3, Luke 6:46-49
Tab Members and Visitors are invited to join us on July 26 as we meet to take a look at how God has been at work in our midst this year. You can read reports from staff and key leaders in advance of the meeting, and will have an opportunity to ask questions during the meeting.
The Ad Hoc Constitution Revision Committee will be presenting the revised Constitution and Bylaws at the Quarterly Meeting on July 26th. This will just be an information sharing opportunity with a vote by ballot to accept the document being held two weeks later. They will also share a page of items that may require Constitution and Bylaws changes later and also topics discussed at the Town Hall meetings that did not involved changes in the document, but were important for follow up later.
Church-Wide Survey
We want to hear from you as we make plans for what church will look like in the coming months! If you call Tab home in any way, please take some time to complete our survey about your experience engaging with the church during the pandemic and how we can best support one another in our faith journeys moving forward. The survey will be open for you to offer your thoughts through July 30.
This summer, we will actively covenant together in multiple ways, particularly in our physical gatherings in one another’s homes. You can find more details related to our expectations, hopes, and practices here.
Whether you’ve been coming to Tabernacle for years, or just recently started worshiping with us online, we are glad you’re here! We invite you to participate in other opportunities for fellowship and discipleship as well. We are currently in the midst of a podcast series, led by Art Wright. It is a discussion about Revelation, and how apocalypses, in addition to anticipating the end of the world, reveal things about our current realities. Listen to this week’s episode, and sign up for the Facebook group if you’re interested in further discussion!
Our Community Ministry is actively serving neighbors on a weekly basis. We have consistently seen about 50 families each week, and sometimes up to 100! If you would like to support this key ministry to our neighbors, our current needs include:
- Volunteers who love chatting on the phone
- Paper grocery bags with handles
- Toilet paper
- Soap
- Canned green beans or mixed vegetables
- Canned mixed fruit
- Instant oatmeal packets – any flavor