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| Rev. Lindsay Comstock will begin her new two year position as Associate Pastor on June 1, 2007! Please drop her a card or e-mail and let her know how thrilled we are about this next chapter in ministry.
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| Dear Family: God has called Rev. Lindsay Comstock, our dedicated Mission Mobilization Resident, into vocational ministry. We know this to be true because we have seen God use her gifts over these last two years and her ordination was a tremendous affirmation that she is prepared for the task at hand. Lindsay has a heart for ministry and the depth of her experience and wisdom is evident in the way she leads by example. I offer these words to you this week in the same spirit I offered them to the deacon board earlier in the year. We have spent the last few months discerning and praying about Lindsay's role in our immediate future. A special team appointed by the Deaconate has been hard at work looking at the issue of staff needs and will bring a recommendation to the Deacon and Administrative Boards before our April 29th business meeting. There is a strong possibility that a recommendation will be placed before the congregation at that meeting with a vote taking place after worship on May 6. The last several months have been full of meaningful dialogue, intentional prayer, and a genuine openness to God's guidance. The team, consisting of Bill Welstead, Bill Gradwell, Jim and Carol McMurray, Connie Jones, and myself, began a conversation with Lindsay with the understanding that we need to be honest with one another. We were not sure that a new ministerial position would be in the church's best interest and Lindsay needed to discern where she felt God calling her to go. She has considered and explored multiple opportunities but feels God calling her to stay. We have looked at where we believe God is taking us and feel that Lindsay can help get us there. Last week the Endowment Board approved funding for this position but only if the church feels that this is where God is leading us. It is quite humbling to see God working in so many ways and ultimately bringing us to the same place. JOB DESCRIPTION: The ministerial position is focused on building and organizing for our future. It is not an internship or residency but rather a full staff position. Lindsay, over the course of two years (June 1, 2007 – May 31, 2009), would serve as a "general practitioner" as opposed to focusing on any one specific area of ministry. We have a lot to discern and the entire pastoral staff will need to be flexible over this next period of time. We must spend these next two years determining our staff needs for the future. Here are some specific tasks Lindsay would be responsible for: 1) Help the church establish a more organized ministry to the poor. This includes but is not limited to: A) benevolence B) serve as our ACTS representative (a new initiative to help downtown churches work together to serve the poor) C) Emergencies with folks coming in off of the street D) A pastoral presence in the food-pantry 2) Preaching supply as needed 3) Serve as a resource to the Mission and Outreach Committee 4) Duties assigned as needed 5) Work with other pastoral staff and lay leaders to: A) Assist in Pastoral Care, along with the Deaconate and Pastoral Staff. B) Participate in Worship Planning C) Help implement and organize Small Groups meeting throughout city D) Develop Partnerships – specifically with mission groups and our extended family (Child Care Center, Richmond Concert Band, Richmond Shakespeare, Embrace Richmond, etc.) Please do not hesitate to contact a member of the team, your deacon, or myself if you have any specific questions, comments, or concerns. We will discuss this matter at length during our April 29 business meeting pending approval by the Deacon and Administrative Boards. I would ask for you to pray with your church family as we celebrate God's movement and recognize the many ways we are being cared for. These are good days. Yours in Christ, Sterling W. Severns Pastor
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| Last Wednesday evening I had the good fortune of serving as a greeter in the back of the Sanctuary. Many of you arrived fifteen minutes before our Lenten Service began. We entered the room in reverence and silence as people found their place in the pew to read scripture and pray. It was quite meaningful to stand in the back of the room and see so many of you reading the Gospel of Mark in unison. Since then I've spoken to several people that have shared their thoughts on reading the Gospel throughout the week. I wonder how God spoke to you in your reading of Mark? What did you find surprising? Was the hurried pace or the sense of immediacy? What emerged that you hadn't seen in a long time? Perhaps, you'd forgotten that Jesus feeds five thousand people with five loaves and two fish (chapter 6) and later he feeds four thousand with seven loaves and a few fish (chapter 8). How about the naked guy that appears in the garden (Chapter 14)? Whose story resonated with your own? What did God say in those sixteen chapters that you need to hear right now? I found myself drawn to a father desperately seeking salvation and healing for his son. The man stands in front of Jesus sharing words that seem so relevant to so many of us in this Lenten season, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!" (Chapter 9) I hope you will join me this week as we collectively read the Gospel of Matthew. By week's end we will have encountered numerous sojourners, chapter by chapter, that have something to show us about the nature of God's kingdom. God bless each and every one of you. Yours in Christ, Sterling W. Severns Pastor
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| "Mission is traveling. It is being on a journey. It is restless moving towards the time when God will be all in all in creation and salvation (1 Cor. 15:28). Christians are in transit. They have never landed at their final destination in this life. There is no vacation from the Gospel calling. The only thing that cannot be shaken is the kingdom of God (Heb. 12:28). Hence, the Church is because mission is. And because the Church collectively is missionary by definition, every member individually is also missionary by definition. And because mission is global, the missionaries, we will also be global in our outlook; a Church still attuned in the third millennium to the voice of its leader saying, Come! Follow me! " - J. Andrew Kirk, What is Mission? p.232-234 Other great resources on MISSION: A Place of Mercy: Finding God on the Street By Thomas O'Brien Children and Our Global Future By Kristin Herzog Theirs is the Kingdom: Celebrating the Gospel in Urban America By Robert Lupton
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That hollowness we sometimes feel is not a sign of something gone wrong. It is the holy of holies inside of us, the uncluttered throne room of the Lord our God. Nothing on earth can fill it, but that does not stop us from trying. Whenever we start feeling too empty inside, we stick our pacifiers into our mouths and suck for all we are worth. They do not nourish us, but at least they plug the hole. To enter the wilderness is to leave them behind, and nothing is too small to give up. Even a chocolate bar will do. What is going on when you crave a chocolate bar? Are you hungry? Well, what is wrong with being hungry? Are you lonely? What is so bad about being alone? Try sitting with the feeling instead of fixing it and see what you find out . . . Then tell the devil to get lost. (Barbara Brown Taylor, Home By Another Way, Cowley, 1999, p. 67 ff.)
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