Week of the Fourth Sunday in Lent
Dear Friends in Christ:
Here are items concerning our life together which merit your attention, consideration, and response:
Midweek Lenten Series:
Our Midweek Lenten Program via Zoom continues this coming Wednesday, March 30 at 7:00 pm with a brief service of the word featuring readings from the daily lectionary which complement our Sunday readings. Following worship, Gordon Lathrop will offer reflections and engage in conversation with you on how global travels and work have expanded his views of both Christianity and the church. We’ve been hearing about some enriching experiences from those who have offered reflections, and in subsequent conversation, participants have also shared some of their own international experiences of Christianity and the church. Please join us this Wednesday as part of your Lenten discipline.
The Zoom link will be distributed via Constant Contact. If you wish to receive our Constant Contact messages, then please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
The bulletin for Midweek Lenten Worship is below:
RELC Lenten Midweek Worship for March 30, 2022
On April 6, we’ll conclude this series when we hear from Mimi VanPoole. Many thanks to each of our members who has offered a reflection.
Get Ready for a Major Spring-Cleaning at Church:
As we prepare to receive The Village School as our tenant in the better part of our building’s educational wing, we will soon embark on a major Spring-Cleaning, as it were, of our church building. All items, including furniture, will need to be cleared from the rooms designated as dedicated spaces for use by the school, with major focus on the former preschool area on the lower level and the several rooms on the north wing of the second level.
There will be much that will need to find homes elsewhere – maybe other preschools or places that could benefit from our items. There will be things that simply need to be discarded because they have outlived their usefulness. There will be items which we will want to keep, and thus, find new storage places for in spaces kept for our congregational use.
All of this gives us the opportunity carefully to discern what is needed for our current and anticipated future mission as a congregation. This allows us opportunity, too, to purge items throughout our church building that no longer serve our mission. Which is to say, I envision this undertaking involving our entire building, and not just spaces dedicated for use by The Village School. In short, this will be a major undertaking which as I have said before will require many, many hands on deck for helping out.
We will soon convene a working group that will oversee these operations, creating priorities lists, a timeline, and a plan for what we will tackle first, doing a kind of triage so that we will begin with what is most urgent and time sensitive and then go on from there to less urgent, but nonetheless important tasks.
If you are interested in serving on this planning oversight group, especially if you have responsibility for ministries and initiatives that have things stored in various places in the church, please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. of your interest.
Beyond this coordinating working group, there will also be calls for volunteers to help out with the Spring-Cleaning work on designated days in the coming weeks and months. Kindly be at the ready to offer your time and energies when invited to do so!
I don’t know about you, but I’ve found it energizing whenever I’ve undertaken Spring-Cleaning kinds of initiatives in my own homes throughout the years. These efforts have renewed my sense of connection to my personal spaces, and de-cluttering areas consistently contributes to my overall sense of well-being. What is true for our homes is true for our church, particularly when we engage this work with a mind toward discerning what is needful for our life together in our current mission which God has entrusted to us. Again, please be at the ready to join in this important work.
Voting Members Needed for Synod Assembly:
Resurrection Church is in need of two lay voting members (one female, one male) for the annual Metropolitan Washington DC Synod Assembly. This year’s Assembly is planned to be in person and will take place at the College Park Marriott in Maryland beginning on Friday morning, June 10 and concluding by early evening on Saturday, June 11.
Annual Synod Assemblies – especially in person – are wonderful ways to get a first-hand, embodied sense of the wider church and its many ministries and initiatives in service of the mission that God has entrusted to us. Worshiping with several hundred other Lutherans is almost always inspiring in and of itself. Keynote speakers likewise can be inspiring. And it’s lovely to connect socially with others in the Synod in the hallways, at meal times, and other occasions during the two days together.
If you’ve never served as a voting member to Synod Assembly before, consider offering your name. If it’s been several years since you’ve been a voting member, consider stepping forward as well. Your expenses will be paid by our congregation.
If you are interested in or feel drawn to serving as a voting member for the Assembly, please be This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to get more information and to have your questions addressed.
Moving forward in Jesus’ name, and with the guidance of the Spirit,
Pastor Jonathan Linman