Happy New Year!

To my dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

It is with my utmost pleasure to wish you a happy new year for Friday.

Even though the season of Advent is the beginning of the new year for the Church, the celebrations that happen on the 31st and 1st are ones that indicate the joys of new beginnings, of turning over a new leaf and starting the new year with a fresh start and the best of intentions.

For the church that is certainly applicable, as the birth of Christ leads ultimately to the death and resurrection of Christ, not only becoming himself new and transformed but also offering us the same promise of renewal.

The glorious gift of grace is not that we as Christians are made perfect, but that we are continually given opportunities each day to begin a new life in Christ and God works through us, despite our imperfections!


For Faith Renaissance, this new year approaches with uncertainty. We are not going to hold service on the 2nd or 9th so that we can use this new year to better evaluate the needs of the people and the worship in order to make the best decision possible for all. Our service needs more people to continue to be offered, and we are going to see what we can do to make it serve that purpose more effectively.

As for my new year's resolution, it is to become a better communicator, and will strive towards more blogging to keep people updated. I will be accountable to you, and am striving for a weekly post- if not more frequently depending on what's happening. Any type of comments will also help reinforce my blogging and will stimulate conversation- the goal of my writing.

This blog will continue no matter the outcome of our Faith Renaissance conversations, although it may be transformed as well. No one knows what the future holds, but at least we know who holds it.

So for those who have a church, may you be so inspired this year to continue with a fresh heart the work of the kingdom.

And for those of you not in a church, may you always remember that you too have opportunities this year to choose faith, hope, and love.

But the greatest of these is love.


Grace and Peace,

Virginia Yates

God doesn't call the qualified; He qualifies the called.

I saw this on a bumper sticker once and it really stuck with me.

Look at any person in the Bible who does something amazing.

Before God, that person is just like us.
Has an ordinary life.
Has struggles.
Fails.
Screws up sometimes.
Enjoys the same types of things.
Before God, that person is not that amazing.

God takes that person, just like us, and does something amazing with them.

But what does he give them???

Just read the scripture that we'll be discussing on Saturday.
John 14:15-31

Jesus talks about what God can give and how to get it.
"Keep my commandments" and you will get:
-God to live in you (no more loneliness)
-God will be revealed to you
-Rejoicing
-Peace
-Love
etc.

The songs for Saturday are Be Glorified, Indescribable, Heart of Worship,
and Grace Like Rain.

The first two describe how awesome God is for giving these things to us, for allowing us to be alive and able to choose freely to follow his commandments or not. For me, that is important because these gifts from God we get if we follow the commandments become more special and mean more to us if we make a choice. If we get to see what life is like without those gifts, then we appreciate them when we experience how much better life is with them.

Real rejoicing.
Real peace.
Real love.

The world offers substitutes, but it is like living your life in front of the TV. You sit there and watch other people live life and have experiences, yet even though you may learn things about life through what you watch, you are not experiencing anything yourself.

What value is there in that?

You don't know how great it feels to be truly joyful or truly content or truly in love if you have only experienced the temporary highs of the worldly offerings.
Likewise, you could take for granted how special those pure, Godly gifts are
if you don't know what it is to be without them.

That is the blessing and curse of choice.

"Grace Like Rain" is a version of "Amazing Grace" that proclaims how wonderful life is now that the gift of Grace is in the life of the author.

"Heart of Worship" describes how one church stripped away everything that was not essential to worship and found a deeper relationship with God.

Choices.
It is continually a challenge to make the right choice,
but that is why we are given tools, advice, and people to help us along the way.

May your Advent season be full of joy,

Virginia Yates

Incorruptible

Faith Renaissance.
The rebirth of something old.

We will get a wonderful chance this weekend to discuss faith through scenes of the play
Incorruptible by Michael Hollinger
performed by the drama team from Wesley Theological Seminary.

"Welcome to Priseaux, France, circa 1250 A.D.; the river flooded again last week. The Chandler's shop just burned to the ground. Nobody has heard of the wheelbarrow yet. And Saint Foy, the patron saint of the monastery, hasn't worked a miracle in 13 years. In other words, the Dark Ages still look pretty dark. All eyes turn to the Pope, whose promised visit will surely encourage other pilgrims to make the trek and restore the abbey to its former glory. That is, until a rival church claims to possess the relics of Saint Foy -- and their bones are working miracles. All seems lost until the destitute monks take a lesson from a larcenous one-eyed minstrel, who teaches them an outrageous new way to repay old debts."



This dark comedy about the monks in the dark ages will surely spark wonderful topics of
conversation about the church, rituals, materialism, and most importantly, faith.

So come to the service, spend your own time in prayer, grab some coffee, and get ready for a night of laughs, discussion, and faith.

Happy Halloween!

Since Saturday is Halloween,
we're doing something different for our service this weekend.


We are going to have a Halloween party over at the parsonage on 8th Street!

So please, come as you like, (even if that is in costume), have some good food, and meet some wonderful people
at Pastor Abi's house Saturday night!


Blessings to you,

Virginia Yates

When the music fades, and all is stripped away...

Last Saturday, we talked about worship.

There's this great song by Matt Redman called "The Heart of Worship"
that we sang and discussed.

He wrote the song after an experience at his church where the pastor took all the audio and music equipment out of the church and the only thing people used for worship was themselves.
To read more about it, click here.


So what did we think was important for worship?

-MUSIC (of course, it was a group of musicians :-) )
-something meaningful to take away from the service
-some sort of further discussion afterward
(which hopefully this blog can become)
-fellowship and an inclusive atmosphere (a "feeling" of worship)



We also talked about many other things, including:

-Amazing Grace (go see the movie!!!)
-things that inspire us
-awesome movies
-our worship experiences in the past
-Rob Bell (PLEASE read his books "Velvet Elvis" & "SexGod")
-depression and ways to recover
-the definition of worship


In the end we discovered that the true aim and purpose of worship is to praise and honor God.
To thank God for all his many blessings.
To have a relationship with him.

God is the audience to our worship. The worship leaders are the directors of worship.
We are the players of our worship drama.

Just some food for thought.

Blessings,

Virginia Yates

What is worship to you?

What is worship to you?



Does it have to involve an altar?
certain songs?
a "way it is supposed to be?"

Can it involve nature?
coffee?
silence?
shouting?

Saturday at 5pm, we will explore what worship means to us.

The most important thing about worship is that God and people are there.

God will be present...

...will you?


May the Lord Bless You and Keep You,

Virginia Yates

God is our Refuge and Strength

That is the anthem that our Choir is singing on Sunday morning taken from Psalm 46.

Since we are celebrating World Communion Sunday this week, we are encouraging all our church services to meet as one body on Sunday morning at the 11:00 am service.

Instead of a service on Saturday night, we will have a prayer gathering
in a loose resemblance of a Jewish shiva.

"Shiva" in Jewish customs is the 7 day period after the loss of a loved one.
There are regulations and protocols for the friends of a family that has experienced loss,
and it is a custom for people to adequately express their emotions
and help a family during this time.

For example, a custom that we are emulating for Saturday night is
bringing food to the house of the grieving.
Yes, bring your favorite comfort food on Saturday night to share!

We will be doing lots of praying, and in honor of the losses of Job,
we will learn together how to effectively act towards someone suffering from loss.


Sometimes, we think of church as the place where we always have to be happy
and put on a mask
so nobody knows our real feelings
if we are struggling.

It is hard for us to deal with others who are suffering sometimes.
We don't know what to say.
We don't know how to feel.
We are afraid to connect.
But church is the place where we can be together
for fellowship
for support
for love
no matter what is going on with us.

As Pastor Abi said on Sunday, God is big enough that you can bring your whole self to him.

We want you to feel comfortable to bring your whole selves here, to Faith Renaissance.

Grace and Peace,

Virginia Yates

Guide my feet while I run this race...

...for I don't want to run this race in vain.

In my last post, I talked briefly about Job and how he experiences
emotion and pain like we do, yet because of his mature faith is able to
seek for understanding from God rather than turning away from him.
He is an extraordinary person for that.
Even more so because he is able to do that without a support system.

Friendship is an important aspect of a healthy life.

Having a community is especially important during times of distress and grief.

In passages between the scripture readings we learn about Job's friends, and how they cope with Job's misfortunes, and how they leave him in the dust, or at least the ashes.
No wonder Job is distressed.
No family, no home, and now no friends...

Yet he still keeps his faith; it is the only thing he has.

Yes, Job is an extraordinary person for that.

Luckily, we're here to be your support system.
During these hard times, it is hard not to lose faith as well.
But we're here.

I've witnessed miracles with my own eyes, and
I believe in the power of a loving, praying community.

If you are looking for that, please join us this Saturday, 5:00 pm at
716 S. Glebe Rd. Arlington, VA 22204

We don't want you running your race in vain.

Grace and Peace,

Virginia

Even though I Walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death...

People do walk through that valley. All the time. Our responsibility as Christians is to comfort those people, and love them. No matter what. That is why Job is so important. Because even the righteous people and the blameless people in the world walk through that valley. They suffer just like those who could "have it coming to them." How can we judge the "deserving" from the "undeserving" when we can all suffer in the same way? In our service this Saturday, the question was asked,
"Do you think that God tests our love for him?"

Most of us were uncomfortable with that idea. A loving God who tests us with horrible things? It sounded to egotistical of God, too abusive of that creative power. Some tried to reconcile that idea with the idea of free will. By giving us the power to choose, he had to give us a light and dark to choose from. Therefore, it would be interfering with our free will to remove us from the darkness because then we could not appreciate the beauty of the light.

Life tests our love for God, and God gives us the strength and endurance to make something beautiful come out of the darkness.

We also delved into the psyche of Job's wife on Saturday. She has one line in the whole book of Job: "Do you still persist in your integrity? Curse God and die." Sounds rather harsh. And realistic. Maybe she is just tired and ready to give up. Or maybe, she wonders how God can be someone good if all this bad is happening to my innocent and righteous husband? But Job rebukes her. Maybe Job's love for God is without conditions. Maybe Job loves God for just being God, with the same agape love in which God loves us.

Maybe, just maybe, Job shows us how we are supposed to love God... the same way God shows his love for us through Jesus Christ.

The whole point of Jesus is that he suffered too. God's son, a part of God, can empathize with what we go through. Even more so, because I cannot say that I've suffered the pain of crucifixion, or even that much persecution. My life has been truly blessed, and I am grateful. An artist from D.C. named Maxwell Lawton did many amazing paintings that encapsulated the type of pain and hope of Job. He suffered with AIDS before his death in 2006, yet like Job, he kept his faith in God despite the tragedies in his life. One of his most famous and controversial works was called "Man of Sorrows," a portrayal of Jesus with AIDS. He stated that he painted that image because: "I realized God knows my pain and shares my grief. I was healed of a lot of hurt. God still knew me." You can read his whole moving biography on his website and see the paintings in his gallery.

* * *

This upcoming Saturday we will be delving more into Job's suffering. In the passage for this week, Job 23:1-9, 16-17 we discover that even though Job has faith and still loves God, he also questions and searches and wavers on his journey. He is not optimistic to the point of unrealistic, he still feels like anyone else who suffers. He has the same emotions. It is his choices in that suffering which set him apart from the ordinary person. Instead of getting angry and turning away from God during his time of suffering, he seeks to understand what God's purpose is for him and for his suffering. Even though his friends turn away from him in earlier chapters, he is always searching for ways to be nearer to God rather than farther from God.

Two brief songs I want to incorporate in the service are from The Faith We Sing hymnal called How Long, Oh Lord (2209) and Guide My Feet (2208).
The second song has particular significance as it was sung by my college choir for a 14 year old boy named Matthew Campbell who was undergoing a heart transplant. His mother was a faculty member at our college and her son was the sweetest boy you could ever meet. He was going through all these difficulties and yet still remained a loving presence in the world until he left it.
Our whole college made a video for him to watch in the hospital, a pep rally of sorts to show our love and support for him. We were told that it was of such comfort to him and that song will always remind me of how we felt God's presence through Matthew Campbell.


What other songs do you feel match your emotions when you are in a time of distress?
What do you listen to when you are suffering?
How do you pray when you are hurting?


Searching for answers,

Virginia Yates

When bad things happen to good people: the story of Job

For the month of October, our fearless leaders Pastor Abi and Pastor Wes have decided to preach on the story of Job. Very appropriate considering our tribulations: the recession, the war, global warming and the speculation about the imminent 2012. Yes, we're going through hard times right now, personally, nationally and globally, and we're all feeling a sense of fear and frustration for the future. Personally, I feel that the story of Job is a good one to look at now.

Here's the gist of the story: There was this man named Job and he was faithful to God. He also happened to be rich, having a loving family, awesome friends, and everything that a man could want in life. Because of a "bet" between God and Satan about Job's faithfulness, everything was taken away from him. No more family, friends, land, money... nada. All gone. But the point of the story is that Job was still faithful to God. He balked and was upset and acted like any other man who has lost everything, but still trusted that God had an ultimate plan for his life. That everything would turn out better in the end. That God was bigger than all those bad things in his life and could turn those bad things into good things. And in the end, that's exactly what happened.

Job the faithful was vindicated.

So what does that mean for us? That is what this month's discussion is going to be about. We all go through hard times, and bad things do happen to good people. What can we do about it?

These are the scriptures we're going to be reading in the service, however the whole book of Job outlines the details of this story, and to get the fullest sense of what he went through, more reading is better.

October 3rd: Job 1:1; 2:1-10

October 10th: Job 23:1-9, 16-17

October 18th*: Job 38:1-7 (34-41)

October 24: Job 42:1-6, 10-17

For the music, my idea is to outline the ideas of each Saturday's scriptures. For this Saturday, I've thought of highlighting Job's faithfulness to God in a lighter mood, before any of the terrible things started happening to him. The songs I've thought of are:

Step By Step
[I will seek you in the morning, and I will learn to walk in your ways and
step by step you'll lead me, and I will follow you in all of my days.]
How Great is Our God
[Age to age He stands, and time is in His hands, beginning and the end.]
Enough
[All of You is more than enough for all of me, for every thirst and every need;
You satisfy me with Your love, and all I have in You is more than enough.]
I Give You My Heart
[Lord I give You my heart, I give You my soul. I live for You alone.
Every breath that I take, every moment I'm awake Lord, have Your way in me.]

If you think of other songs that would be fitting for this story, please comment so that I can begin to research them. There would also be some great lyrics to write one of your own and teach to us, or play yourself at the service. My goal is for us to collaboratively find songs that will enhance the worship. I am only one person and do not know all the songs out there.

I'd also like some inspiration on prayer stations we could put up. Our main one last week was to decorate phylactories, a Jewish box filled with a scripture that is bound to the body, to illustrate the literal meaning of "binding the word to yourself," as it says in Deuteronomy 11:16-22. What can we physically do to help us meditate on the story of Job?

Think about this as you go through your week. How can Job's story help us in our daily lives?

What can you think of to help us tell this story to the community?

Grace and Peace,

Virginia Yates

*As you may have noticed, October 18th is a Sunday. We're celebrating World Communion Sunday that day and will not have Faith Renaissance that evening, although some type of get together is in the works for that night. So come join our multi-national, multi-lingual, music and scripture filled Sunday to celebrate with us.

"From small beginnings come great things..."

Faith Renaissance.
It is more than just a name.
It is a new way of viewing the world.
A rebirth of good ideas.
A service meant to inspire and create faith.
A service that needs You.


This service is very unique because its purpose is to have everyone help create the service.

Are you:
-A person
-With individual ideas
-Who wants to be a part of something greater than him/herself
-Who has things to give
-Opinions
-Ideas
-Talents/Skills
-Gifts
-Presence
-Love

Then you should be a co-creator in this service.

We meet on Saturday nights at 5pm at Arlington United Methodist Church, but we're beginning this blog to create those services, and we need your help.

We want you to participate in this blog so that our service can be designed by you, the reader, the participant. In our service, we create "prayer stations" that you can access during the service. There has been an art station, where you can create different types of art as the spirit moves you during the service, a prayer journal station when we were talking about aspects of prayer, a station illustrating the transformation from grapes to wine when we were reading the passage from John about the vineyard, and the possibilities for each Saturday are endless.
We want you to help us create these prayer stations.

We also have need of musicians to help participate in the service.

-Join the praise team on Thursday nights from 6:30-7:30 pm
-Give ideas for songs the group should play
-Write music for the group


There are a million ways you could be a co-creator in this service.
No matter where you are or what your faith, we want you to help us inspire.

Right now we are a small group, but I truly believe in the proverb, "from small beginnings come great things." We have the idea, now we just need you to help us grow and nourish it.

Grace and Peace,

Virginia Yates



Faith Renaissance: Set-up 3:30pm, Prayer Stations open 4:30 pm, Service 5-6:15 pm
Arlington UMC 716 S. Glebe Rd. Arlington, VA 22204