As my reflection this week, I want to share with you the poem “The Birth of Wonder,” by Madeline L’Engle. I came across this poem when preparing for our midweek Advent services and I was immediately struck by the words. I found that the poem captured the feelings in my heart this Advent season. The poet speaks to the joy that goes beyond just a festive season, which is the joy for which I know many of us are longing.

The Birth of Wonder
As I grow older
I get surer
Man’s heart is colder,
His life no purer.
As I grow steadily
More austere
I come less readily
To Christmas each year.
I can’t keep taking
Without a thought
Forced merrymaking
And presents bought
In crowds jostling.
Alas, there’s naught
In empty wassailing
Where oblivion’s sought.
Oh, I’d be waiting
With quiet fasting
Anticipating
A joy more lasting.
And so I rhyme
With no apology
During this time
of eschatology:
Judgment and warning
Come like thunder.
But now is the hour
When I remember
An infant’s power
On a cold December.
Midnight is dawning
And the birth of wonder.

In the midst of your last minute holiday preparations this week, I hope you will take a moment to reflect on the joy we know as followers of Christ. It is the joy of a Savior who has put on flesh to dwell with us in the Christ child and who promises to come again, too. Let this joy fill you, even in the midst of the sadness, grief and challenges you may face.

I also encourage you to take a moment to invite someone to come to Christmas Eve services at Abiding Presence. There are so many searching for joy right now who are waiting to hear the good news of Jesus. Share the joy you know! Offer an invitation!

Read More

This weekend we begin the season of Advent, the four weeks in the church year leading up to Christmas. While this is a time of preparation for celebrating  Christ’s birth, that is not the focus of Advent. Instead, Advent is as season of looking ahead. We watch and wait for Christ to come again. Trusting in God’s promise that Christ is coming again, we look into the future with hope and anticipation of what God will do next.

It makes sense, then, that during this Advent season we also look ahead to the new year and the ministry we hear God calling us to in 2020. There is lots to be excited about, especially the news we recently shared about our new Teaching Pastor and Congregational Care Minister. If you missed the letter in your mailbox from me and Steve Lucky, our Council President, there are copies of it available for you to pick up in the narthex when you head to worship this weekend. As I look ahead to the coming year, I cannot wait to see how God will continue to work in and through us to fulfill our mission of Connecting People to Christ through Community.

If you have not yet offered your financial statement of intent for 2020, please do so this weekend either online at AbidingPresence.net/soi or by filling out the paper form included with this weekend’s bulletin. You can place your paper forms in the offering plate during worship or mail them to the church office. Our Stewardship Team will be making calls this week to families who have not yet made commitments as a way to invite them to do so and answer any questions they may have about our vision moving forward. Together, working generously and faithfully, we can meet or exceed our goal of $65,000 in new income for 2020. 

Next weekend, December 7/8 will be Celebration Weekend. We will not only be offering prayers of dedication for the financial commitments given, but also thanking the congregation for making them. You don’t want to miss it! We have some special things planned to say, “Thank You” as we look ahead to 2020.

Read More

This Sunday is a festival Sunday in the church year known as “The Reign of Christ.” At our services this weekend we will hear the story of Christ’s crucifixion as we think about what it means for Christ to be king of our lives. We know that he reigns in heaven and on earth, but what does that actually look like in the midst of our day to day realities? That is what we are thinking about this weekend. 

 “The Reign of Christ” is also the last Sunday in the church year. It is our equivalent of New Year’s Eve. Next weekend we will be the first Sunday of Advent and a new church year will begin. As such, this is a time for us to  both look back and look ahead. We can take stock in what we have done and we resolutions about what we hope to do differently.

 Stewardship season always falls in this New Year’s time in the church when we ask you to take a look back at your financial commitment to the church in the past and prayerfully consider your commitment in the future. I hope that you will spend some time taking a look at the bar chart in the bulletin insert as a way to think about your commitment. It will take all of us offering our financial commitments to fulfill the 2020 vision. 

Now, I know that it isn’t always popular for the church to talk about money. But, Jesus talked about money a lot! In fact, over a quarter of Jesus’ parables are about money. Why? Because Jesus meant what he said when he told his followers, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:21)”

Jesus knew that our hearts and our bank accounts (or the first century financial equivalent) are closely connected. How we spend our money speaks volumes about who and whose we are, which brings us right back to the church year celebration of the “Reign of Christ.”

As followers of Jesus, we believe that Christ is King—of heaven and earth, of our hearts and minds, of our treasures and finances. To acknowledge Christ as King in our hearts means to do so with our financial priorities as well. The two are more closely connected than we might some days want to think.

Read More

When you come to worship this weekend, make sure you pick up the red and white stripped bag that will be waiting for you. You don’t want to leave church without it!

Inside the bag you will find the usual stewardship resources, including our “Where We’ve Been and Where We’re Going” booklet, a letter from me and a Statement of Intent. Please plan to take a little time to read through the resources and prayerfully consider how God is calling you to respond. You can return your commitment for 2020 in the offering plate, by mailing it to the church office or by going online at AbidingPresence.net/soi. We’re asking for all commitments to please be turned in by December 1 in preparation for Celebration Weekend on December 7/8. (Just wait until you see what we have planned for this year’s celebration!)

The usual stewardship resources aren’t the only thing you will find in your bag this year, though. You will also find your very own personalized Abiding Presence hot chocolate kit. Now, I realize you might be wondering, “What does hot chocolate have to do with stewardship?”

Here at Abiding Presence our mission is Connecting People to Christ Through Community. More than just any community, though, we want to connect people to an authentic community in which they can be real. We follow Jesus in community not because we all know the way, but because it is easier to stumble on the path together. We don’t have all the answers, but we are willing to sit in the questions listening for God with one another. The Abiding Presence faith family reminds us of who and whose we are as beloved children of God when the world tries to tell us otherwise.

Creating this kind of intentional and authentic community is built through relationships. That’s where the hot chocolate kit comes in. We hope that you will find a way to use the kit to take step in your relationship building as we seek to invite people in to see what this faith family is like.

Maybe you can enjoy a mug of hot chocolate as a family while you sit and talk together at a time when phones are put away. Next time the grandkids (or the adult kids) come over, get it out. When they ask, “What is that?” use it plant a seed and talk for a moment about why you go to church. Put out the packets at  your book club or when a friend comes over as a conversation starter. Talk about your church, share about this community of faith and spread the word that all are welcome.

Whenever and however you use your hot chocolate kit, I hope it will be a reminder of what we are about here at Abiding Presence. This is your community and we are glad you are here.

Read More

One evening last week one of our church council members texted me to say, “I love that when mental illness support was requested on [a Facebook group], Abiding Presence was the first thing mentioned.” “Me, too!” I replied. I then went on to check out the thread. Sure enough, someone had posted in one of the local Facebook groups asking for recommendations for where to get support for themselves as they provide care for a family member with a mental illness. The first reply was to check out Abiding Presence with links to our website. The best part was that the comment came from someone who isn’t even a member of our church!

Week after week, day after day, I am privileged to see the impact Abiding Presence is making on people’s lives – both people in our congregation and people in our larger community. I hope you see it, too. The Facebook group is just one example of the how Abiding Presence has become known in the Burke community as a place where people can turn for help and support. What we do here is important and it matters.

This weekend I want to say thank you for the ways you make possible the life changing work possible we do at Abiding Presence. We are able to do what we do because of both your presence in our faith community and your financial support for our ministry. We are the church together. Thank you!

 This is also the weekend where we begin to look ahead to next year as we launch our annual stewardship campaign. Enclosed in your bulletin this weekend will be the first of four weeks of inserts that describe our vision for 2020. That vision will lead us to:

Build Sustaining Faith
Grow in Discipleship
Make Disciples
Maintain & Grow in Excellence of Ministry

Next weekend we will distribute packets to every household in the congregation as we invite you to consider your financial commitment for 2020. This packet will include our annual stewardship book that tells the story of where we have been and where we are going, a statement of intent to record your commitment for 2020 and a letter from me. Here at Abiding Presence, we think stewardship packets are pretty exciting, so you won’t want to miss the fun things that will be in your packet, too.

 As I look ahead to the coming year, I am as excited as ever to be your pastor. Abiding Presence is an amazing faith community that is changing lives, connecting people to Christ and build authentic community. Thank you for all you do to make our church the vibrant, active and Spirit-filled congregation it is.

Read More

All Saints Sunday is my favorite weekend of worship of the entire year (and not just because it always coincides with Daylight Savings Time and an extra hour of sleep on Sunday morning). I countdown all year, preparing to sing with gusto the verses of “For All the Saints,” which is my favorite hymn. While I hold tight to the promise of eternal life throughout the year, on All Saints Sunday I cling to it as I am especially mindful of the saints in the great cloud of witnesses who surround us each time we gather at the Lord’s Table.

As your pastor, I find there to be something especially holy about standing at the font and the altar and naming the new saints—both naming those baptized into the living saints among us and naming those who have died into the great cloud of witnesses. Most years, I read the names through eyes blurry with tears. After nearly 10 years of ministry with you, the saints we have buried this past year people who I had come to know and love deeply. One of my greatest privileges is walking with you and sharing in your grief, too.

As I look at the pictures of all those who surround us in the great cloud of witnesses and out at all of you living saints in the congregation, the memories come flooding back of the saints in my life who have led me to this place. I remember people like Miss Betty Gerwig, the volunteer librarian at my home congregation when I was growing up who taught me how to play the game “dots” one Sunday while I waited for my parents to finish talking. I think about Mrs. Genevieve Manley, too, an older woman at the church who had no family in the area who my mom helped care for by driving her to doctors and checking in on her until her death. These two women taught be about what it meant to be a “faith family” long before I knew the phrase.

It is also the Sunday of the church year when I think about all of the children who I had the privilege to teach back when I was a teenager and sensing this call to ministry. All of those kids are now grown up. Some of them even have kids of their own. One of them, Billy, passed away in a tragic accident this year and I’ll be trusting he will be there in the great cloud of witnesses.

Finally, I call to mind the saints who taught me about generosity and faithfulness to God and the church. One of those saints is my grandfather. I was in my early 20s and visiting him one afternoon when he asked me to get his checkbook. He wanted me to write out his monthly contribution to the church for him so he could sign the check. He was homebound at the time, not getting to church and nearing death. “You are still giving to the church, Di?” I remember saying to him that afternoon. “Of course,” he explained, “you don’t stop giving to the church just because you cannot go.” It is a lesson that took me several years to learn and digest, but my faith journey has been far richer because of it.

I invite you to join me in thinking about your saints this weekend. Call to mind the people who have brought you to this place. We know and trust that they are present with us each and every time we gather at the Lord’s Table. This weekend, in particular, we will celebrate their presence as we cling to the promise of eternal life together. 

Read More

Throughout the month, we have been looking at the core value statement of our congregation:

At Abiding Presence:
All Are Welcome
We are a Faith Family, Together
We are God's Hands and Feet in the World
We See People as Christ Sees Them 

On this Reformation Sunday weekend, it is fitting for us to look at our first core value, “All are Welcome.”

So, what do we mean when we say, “All are Welcome?” First and foremost, we mean you are welcome. But we mean more than that, too. So, here’s a glimpse of what this value means to us.

No matter who you are or where you are on life’s journey, you are welcome at Abiding Presence:

· If you are young or old or somewhere in between, you are welcome
· If you have brown skin, black skin, white skin, or any color of skin, you are welcome
· If you are single, married, widowed, divorced or in a complicated relationship, you are welcome
· If you are LGBTQIA+, you are welcome
· If you are sick or well, happy or sad, you are welcome
· If you are rich or poor, powerful or weak, you are welcome
· If you believe in God some of the time, none of the time or all of the time, you are welcome

You are welcome here, so come:
· Come with your kids, your spouse, your extended family or by yourself
· Come with your gifts, pain, hope and fears
· Come with the church experiences that have helped you or hurt you or with no church experience at all
· Come with the life experiences that have shaped you and challenged you

Come and be part of the faith family of Abiding Presence where when we say “All are Welcome” we mean all and we mean you, too.

This welcome statement has been personalized for Abiding Presence, but is one many churches have adapted from Gordon Brown’s Shaping Sanctuary. Thankfully, there are many Christian churches that offer a clear welcome to all.

Read More