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