May 7, 2021
Friday Greetings Rock Creek Family and Friends,
On behalf of the session, I wanted to touch base about two issues that matter in our midst together:
1) Pastor Corby’s Sabbatical
Pastor Corby has begun a 3 month Sabbatical which the Session of Rock Creek Fellowship has given as part of our regularly scheduled practice to encourage pastoral and congregational health and longevity. We hope you will be praying for him and Rachel and their four precious children while they are away from us for the summer. I may send something more specifically about the sabbatical next week but wanted to alert everyone about it here just so you are aware if you weren’t previously.
But for now, please know that the extricating process for the sabbatical is a little tricky and unsure, especially at first, as there are a number of sensitive and delicate matters to figure out about how to lay down one’s pastoral duties, as encouraged and instructed for his benefit by the session, WHILE at the same time being mindful of the great number of relationships that one has as a pastor and his family. That’s where we can help by curtailing our relational demands as a gift to them in what winds up being a sensitive situation. Corby and Rachel and their kids love us all well and their lack of involvement is only a discipline of receiving this time of rest, not an indication of a lack of care.
There is an enormous amount of overlap between our pastoral work and our friendships and community involvement. Dave Hansen, in what might be a hyperbolic over-simplification but which nevertheless captures something, once said something like (this is from memory from long ago) “As a pastor, I am the guy who is paid to be in spiritual friendship with the community.”
Pastors are delighted to be friends and shepherds in the community. Corby is really so very good at being friend to so many!
So our gift to Corby and Rachel is releasing them from our expectation of their ordinary roles in our lives and limiting our demands on them. Of course, if you see them, be friendly, warm, and un-weird. They still live here. You will see them! Be kind and encouraging and thoughtful.
But they won’t be at church for the summer, because it’s awfully hard to rest from your labors when your labors are bound up in a community of faith you adore. And we should refrain from directing ministry requests of them. We are simply giving them space so they may be revitalized and refreshed after a 7 year stretch of spending themselves in all sorts of lovely ways in our midst.
2) Worship Plans Starting May 16, 2021
After careful deliberation, prayer, and considered input from you all, the Session has determined it best to transition to 2 changes regarding our regular Lord’s Day Worship each week.
a) Worship at RCF Lula Lake will resume on May 16, 2021 at 9:00 AM. This will be a mask optional service, with some distancing, and all our crank-out windows in the sanctuary will be open for air flow, and the fans will be on as well.
b) Worship at RCF Durham will transition to an Open-Air Service on May 16, 2021 at 10:45 AM with seating inside AND outside. This service will also be mask-optional. All the garage doors and windows will be opened, and seating will have some distancing, and the fans will be on during the services. Our exclusively outdoor service on the lawn will be discontinued. And we will no longer have the 9:00 AM service at Durham starting May 16.
Because of very low infection rates in our area, increasing participation in vaccines, and our open-aired buildings which permit generous air flow, we believe that these give us wise ways to meet with mitigated risk, while also granting various options to each of our folks depending on each one’s present level of comfort.
We also believe this gives us a transition toward normalcy in being together at both of our sites which we deem as mighty important for our individual and corporate nourishment and vitality as those who are kept and inhabited by our Lord Jesus.
We will continue to livestream the service at Durham each week as well, so the livestream will revert back to 10:45 AM and a recording will be available after the service.
If you have any questions or concerns, I hope you will feel free to reach out to me or to any of your other elders. We are always honored to hear from you and are privileged to get to be shepherds in this one-anothering community which we all adore so very much.
Warmly,
Pastor Eric for the Session
February 26,2021
Friday Greetings Rock Creek Family,
I’ve just been able to spend a few days with a numerically truncated but nevertheless delightful group of pastor friends this past week. It was refreshing and instructive as it annually has been for, I’m guessing, close to 15 years.
They, like all the friendships I’m privileged to enjoy, including the prized one with Cathy with whom I’ll celebrate 25 years of marriage in March, are a tremendous boon to my existence.
My experience, like yours I’ll bet, corroborates what C.S. Lewis once insisted in The Four Loves:
“Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art, like the universe itself (for God did not need to create). It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival.”
But because friendship gives “value to survival,” it sure does start to seem necessary though, doesn’t it? Many folks around the country and throughout our community have felt the crushing weight of a friendless (or a friendship curtailed) existence during this pandemic.
Although sometimes the deep enhancement of soul and re-stabilizing force of friendship is not immediately realized when it is gone. One may only start to realize it when re-acquainted with the affectionate connections that have been previously unavailable, interrupted, or denied.
Many of your friendships, I’m supposing for at least some of you, and lots of the communal and familial regularities of connection which make existence valuable and even tolerable have been removed or at least drastically altered in the last year.
Springtime Awakenings...
I am hopeful that the Spring might be a time when Christ begins to awaken, not only the dogwoods and daffodils, but also the hibernating parts of our hearts that have been slowed or shut down by all the changes, impediments, and difficulties which have made communal life (whether school, friendship, work, church, etc) so much more complicated and in some cases, downright paltry and diminished in the past year.
Along the lines of that earnest desire, I wanted to let you know (if you hadn’t yet heard) a few of the things we are working on and thinking about as a session for the benefit of the congregation and community that we are happily called to adore and shepherd:
1) INDOOR AND OUTDOOR WORSHIP OPTIONS AT DURHAM STARTING MARCH 14, 2020
The Session has cheerfully determined it wise, beneficial, needful, (and possible to do in a COVID sensible manner) to resume an in-person, inside worship service starting March 14 at 9:00 AM at Durham. Like most churches doing this, we will ask folks to RSVP for that service, wear a mask, and honor distancing suggestions. We will likely limit it to 70-75 people.
We will also continue to host our outdoor service at 10:45 am on the lawn at Durham. Notice the slight 15 minute change to accommodate the needed time for set up and logistical issues after doing the inside service.
For those wanting to mingle outside as happens now after the outdoor service each week, there will be a chance for the earlier service and the later service folks to overlap on the lawn for a few minutes of visitation (ingredients of friendship to make life valuable!) in between, if they wish!
And of course, we will continue to offer the online livestream of the worship service for those of our number who are still needing to refrain from public gatherings or are simply unable to join us.
2) CHILDCARE DURING BOTH SERVICES
We also plan to resume offering childcare in the nursery at Durham during both services beginning March 14. We will be asking for parents to RSVP for those limited spots during each service as well. And we are excited to be able to have the opportunity to help nurture our little ones and to spell their folks for a bit during the worship service whether at 9:00 am (inside) or 10:45 am (outside).
3) RCF LULA LAKE OPPORTUNITIES
We are presently discussing and will soon be announcing some non-Sunday morning gathering opportunities for our RCF Lula Lake families and folks. AND we fully intend as soon as we are able to resume worship at RCF Lula Lake.
We have made the difficult decision to continue for the moment to postpone the resumption of services at Lula Lake, because doing two services at Durham (in and outside) seems most amenable to the largest number of our people in the best and most sensible way, given our limited staff as well. In addition, our sanctuary at RCF Lula Lake at only 25% capacity would not hold very many of our dear folks. So we are beginning with two services at Durham, but it is our hope to figure out a way to re-convene at RCF Lula Lake is soon as it is feasible to do so, and we will continue to discuss and work towards that goal. In the meantime, we will hope to have some communal togetherness opportunities for our Lula Lake folk who are interested and desirous of such. More on that soon!
That’s enough for now. If you have any questions, I hope you will let me or one of your elders know. And I hope you will continue to pray AND put feet on your prayers.
There’s a lot of lovely one-anothering going on during this pandemic. Let’s pray that the Spirit of our Savior will continue to animate us more in more, stirring us up continuously to love and good deeds that benefit many and make life seem valuable to all!
Warmly,
Pastor Eric
Friday, January 15, 2021
Friday Greetings Rock Creek Fellowship,
A sizable portion of you responded to our worship survey last week. It was an encouraging level of participation and helpful, too. The session is presently deliberating over those findings from the congregation as well as thinking through the other important issues that have led us to worship outside.
We will be worshiping outside again this Sunday, January 17, for those able/willing to join us, unless, like last week, the temps are just too unbearable in which case we will be all online. And of course online worship will be available for everyone again if you cannot join us outside.
A Few Tidbits That Might Be Helpful:
1) Restrooms at Durham Are Open Each Week! The bathrooms are now available throughout the entire service if that has been a prohibitive issue for some of you.
2) Worship in Car? I will remind some of you that worship in your car is a possibility at Durham with the capacity to “tune-in” on your radio while on the Durham campus.
3) Chairs - We will have some folding chairs available for outdoor worship at Durham going forward for those of you who aren’t able or willing to bring your own chair. Of course, if you have chairs and wish to bring them that would still be welcome. We just don’t want those of you who find carrying a chair too difficult or don’t have easily transportable chairs to encounter an unnecessary barrier for participation.
**A final decision has not been made regarding our worship plans for the rest of January/February.**
For clarity, we had at the end of the fall, originally entertained going inside as winter struck, but then, along the way, had decent enough weather and turn out to continue to meet outside while maintaining the most freedom, least imposition (no masks, logistical demands, monitoring of spacing, demanding more time of our musicians and tech folks, etc), greatest risk mitigation, most alleviating of communal concern, and thoughtful witness and practice for the broader community.
We started to realize that if the musicians/and leaders were able and willing to play/lead on a Sunday in winter, that we’d keep staying outside as we weren’t forcing anyone to join us outside (and there remained online option) and yet we were getting surprisingly good turn out. And we hadn’t heard much at all in the way of complaint/protest. Of course, being outside continued to give us a number of same benefits as previously led us to worship outside while limiting some of the complications of being inside. That is why we haven’t changed course at present and are deliberating whether or not we should, going forward.
***We will communicate again soon about our next plan as the session confers again together next week.***
I promise you this. We hear your concerns, in whatever direction they trend, and they trend in various directions! We have, for instance a nearly equal amount of folks for whom Christ died and who are precious to him and to us who say, “I don’t/haven’t come to worship outdoors now, BUT will return IF you go inside with masks” as we have who take the contrary position, insisting, “I worship regularly outside NOW but will NOT come if you go inside with masks!
We do not believe that our conglomeration of individual preferences is the only factor to take into account as you have heard us intimate, even though your individual preferences do matter to us considerably!
So, more to come!
I’d leave you today with a little thought which recruits a realization a long deceased North African church father. These thoughts seem germane to multiple situations in our world at the moment, and therefore useful for us to carry around with us at all times.
Augustine, the 4th century North African Bishop, as you heard me say on Sunday morning, insisted in his Confessions some version of this diagnostic sentiment...basically, “it’s nuts to imagine that your enemy is of more danger to you then your enmity.”
To hate, have, or fixate on an enemy (read all modern political life, as a for instance) is often simultaneously to be blind to our enmity or else feel like our disdain is justified, necessary, AND righteous. And we have lots of groups in our country at present who are bound, not by love, nor by the Spirit of the Resurrected Christ, nor by mercy, nor even by common belief so much as by a common hateful contempt of a shared enemy. It is an atrocious glue to bind together a community, but it is cheap and easily accessible and therefore often used in Christian and non-Christian circles alike.
Please, pray against this devilish spirit so it that it wields no influence in us! And ask Jesus to eradicate it in our community and in our country.
IF you hate someone (especially if you don’t even know them!), find yourself riled up constantly at how awful, stupid, foolish, or damaging they are, please, please, please, pause and ask the Lord to show you whether there is something YOU need to do or feel differently.
AND if you are regularly watching, reading, or conversing in such a way that disdain, anger and criticism are the primary products created, please, for the sake of Christ, literally, stop it!
Let’s be asking Christ if we are depriving ourselves (and others) of needed mercy by refusing to share it.
Or if we are being blinded to our own slow self-disintegrating internal acid, while being so robustly certain of the errors, wickedness, or foolishness of our enemies, whomever that enemy (or object of our disgust) may be.
Christians are in a spiritual war to be sure, but it is not with each other, nor is it with or for a political party or regime.
Critic or Pupil
The second tidbit for thought is from CS Lewis, (who else?), who in Screwtape Letters has the tempters employ the following tactic...”whenever your patient goes to church, (if you can’t keep him from it altogether) then urge him to be a critic where the enemy (God) wants him to be a pupil.”
Lewis recognizes, as Theodore Roosevelt once did in his famous Man in the Arena speech, that cynical distance and standing above others as a critic is a fairly natural habit of heart for most of us most the time. AND watching tv, spending lots of time on social media, and being in a land that values autonomy over all other values, means that we are regularly cultivating our skills at finding out what is wrong and standing as inspector and judge of all. It has a tendency, Lewis realized, of making us untouchable by God or anyone, AND feeling smart and righteous all the while!
But being a pupil...well, that’s different. The posture of approach to another that says, “I bet I could learn something here, find out something, see something I hadn’t yet realized” is a stance readying us for the receipt of grace--because grace flows not to the one with closed fists ready to punch, but to the one with open hands ready AND needing to receive.
Discernment in all manner of matters is, of course, always required, but it would be worth each of us asking ourselves if we primarily find ourselves as critics or pupils? Jesus’ word for pupil, is disciple. Someone who is an apprentice, a learner...who submits himself to a master.
We are in contentious, confusing times with multiple, important complex issues which have endlessly debatable solutions. Most of them are treated as simple though, with one righteous solution and one wicked. The answer you and I prefer is often regarded as the righteous one leaving our opponent (because everyone is either ally or opponent instead of neighbor with a claim on my care) to prefer wickedness.
And, as one author said, “I feel like the supply of opinions is starting to exceed the demand.”
We now consider it virtuous to opine about every issue that exists, and cowardly or derelict not to weigh in. So we wind up standing as judge and critic, inspecting the issues of our day from college football playoffs, to impeachment proceedings, to how Apple configures their operating system updates. In the process, we develop, as watchers, a growing disdain for what we disagree with, and find a common connection with others in our hatred, dislike, or contempt.
And in the end, we are left with a recipe for an eventual, “war of all against all,” because the resources of unity that love provides and demands, like forgiveness, sacrifice to another's weakness and preference, merciful regard, and accepting someone whose flaws you see and know, and yet still welcome, are all eliminated by the poison of that contempt that encourages us to look down on others as if they were something entirely different than and below us. Contempt, (looking down in disgust/eye-rolling derisiveness/belittling) as John Gottman as recognized, is a reliable recipe for marriage disintegration.
It also disintegrates nations, cities, networks, companies, churches, and families as well.
And its antidote is the accepting grace of God that makes us a lot like the angry, old “righteous” men who were fixin’ to hurl rocks of judgment at the woman caught in adultery. Those with hands readying their rocks were told, “ya’ll without sin, go on and cast the first stone.” The gents more seasoned in familiarity with themselves put the rocks down first, and started walking away, leaving the lady to find mercy, and themselves to find the same.
Don’t Let “I hate this!” become “I hate you!”
Recognizing our own need for God to accept us graciously, and not to break us with scornful contempt is a fast-acting remedy which leads us each to walk away from our own critical enmity and to go instead to show mercy to a world aching for it.
Our survey last week showed me that we have a lot of merciful people aiming to love each other with whom they disagree or with whom they have differing vantage points, values, or emphases in their approach to the virus (and many matters!). We have folks wanting to go inside, those preferring outside, those who prefer to remain home, and those who don’t know what exactly they think!
AND most importantly, we have not had apparent broadcasting of scornful criticism, at least so far as I have heard. That’s a gift. And a continued aspiration.
During these desert times where there is much loss, confusion, isolation, abnormality, and hurt, it is easy for the understandable sentiment “I hate this!” to get converted and personalized to “I hate YOU!” at whomever we imagine is standing in the way of our relief. Let's labor to avoid that.
Let us bring out into our world, whether on social media or in real life an approach as pupils that are aiming to demonstrate the grace we’ve been shown with a love that heals and binds instead of the corrosive and viral contempt that comes so easily and destroys so quickly.
Grateful for you all and our patient Lord who has never once regarded us with contempt!
Best,
Pastor Eric
FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 2021
New Year Greetings Rock Creek Fellowship,
Throughout the pandemic your session has been meeting with increased regularity. Pre-pandemic we ordinarily met once per month. During the first couple of months of the pandemic, we began meeting weekly. Then in mid-summer, we moved to a bi-weekly schedule. One of the topics of discussion every two weeks ALWAYS has to do with COVID related matters, especially as it pertains to our gathered worship, but also concerning our dear people and the travails they are experiencing during these times.
As you know, if you participated online last week, or if you were one of the little over 100 folks who gathered with us for worship on the lawn at Durham, we had a spitting of snow during our outdoor worship this past Sunday, January 3, 2021! It was, to put it mildly, chilly! The shivery conditions even warranted a Keillor reference to Minnesotan winters. Some of you at home even found it uncomfortable---just to watch!
As a session, we feel a weight of responsibility in multiple directions during this time as it pertains to our worship.
And as such would like to hear from you pertaining to gathered worship in the following SHORT SURVEY.
As you see in the survey, we have assumed all along that our outdoor worship service combined with live-streaming has provided the greatest number of folks a way to worship with the greatest amount of freedom, the most amount of risk mitigation but with the LEAST amount of (controversial) requirements/encumbrances.
We’ve avoided mask controversies and not had to police and impose onerous indoor restrictions on folks. We have long considered that going inside would be a more impoverished experience than outside due to the need for multiple services, more demand for our musicians, masks (and displeasure from those who think them unnecessary), distancing, questions about whether or how much to sing, extra-cleaning, extra rules, possible RSVPs, etc...my friends at other churches (like yours) have had to orchestrate all this and many, I trust, would have been thrilled to have the opportunity to meet outside in a rather liberated way like we have been able to do.
Your answers to the survey, while not a vote, will most assuredly help us as we make continued considerations about our worship services and what we think it best to do. These questions aren’t the ONLY concerns we have, but they do represent information that we cannot merely guess at, and so we want to know your thoughts! If you responded already based on the group text last night, thank you!
If you are interested to read on, you might appreciate hearing these thoughts which may provide some beneficial insights for you:
We believe that gathering in worship and providing that opportunity for our people to be together to do so is a mighty needful and crucial aspect of life for the people of God. As such we decided in June to begin outdoor worship which has worked extraordinarily well. And surprisingly we have, to this point, only had to alter our plans due to rain or inclement weather a handful of times.
We realize also that online worship has been a necessary and beneficial provision for many of our people as well, since we have a number of dear ones who for one legitimate reason or another have not felt it wise, best, or safe for them to be exposed to or part of crowds during this time. We are thankful that we have been able to offer this provision consistently. We are glad to continue it in the future as the pandemic continues for those of you whose health, callings, or convictions about community care and witness make gathering untenable or unwise.
The Many Mini-States of Rock Creek
We have often said that Rock Creek is like a union or nation comprised of many little “states” within. Quite decentralized, we are not centered around our buildings but constituted in multiple smaller communities of connection. Many of these communities have little cross-pollination with one another through the week. But the pastors and elders are generally aware of and in touch with them in some form.
Because of our flat organizational structure and our set up, each of the little networks of connection in our congregation may have VASTLY different takes on the church, what is happening, what everybody wants, and on what is or should be happening (or not happening!).
A thought exercise: Imagine for a second the differences between California, and say, Tennessee in terms of outlook, handling of COVID, governmental sensibilities, attitudes toward science, politics, relationships, race, etc. Something akin to those sorts of differences in personality, conviction, style, and sensibility are at work in our congregation and spread across various demographics.
Your primary community of connection within Rock Creek may, for instance, ALL think that our church and broader community is being irresponsible by meeting in person at all. OR you may be situated in a tethered network who may ALL think we as a church are simply being fearful, silly, and overly cautious! I surmise that we have both impressions in the SAME church! And, everything in between.
Your group may be thrilled about the historic Georgia Senate election results from Tuesday and deeply relieved by the coming end of Trump’s presidency OR you and yours at Rock Creek may be weeping, in dismay, and fearing our nation’s future now.. And you are BOTH joined together in this one-anothering community by Christ who has spilled his blood for you and called you to belong to HIM!
And guess what?
Tied up in Knots
I love these dear ones of multiple stripes in our midst, and so does your session, and Pastor Corby, and so do YOU though many happen to hold widely varying opinions on a great number of things.
I mean really love them.
Really want their good, their flourishing, their spiritual vitality, their joy and progress in the faith....desperately want their economic, physical, emotional, and relational well being and eagerly pray for Christ to work wonders in and for and through them!
I worry for our folks when they hurt, or lose a job, or are in anguish.
And I walk around with my stomach in knots these days.
Because there are lots of opportunities in our community, city, church, and nation for misunderstanding and amplifying displeasure.
To serve and bend to one group of concern and their needs may be to injure another. To accommodate another group, may be to scandalize someone else. And when all the multiple families and pockets of folks entrusted to our care matter to you so deeply, it is never not a gut-wrenching ordeal to decide what’s best for the whole.
We Can’t Watch Cobra Kai Together
Add to it the fact that if you were having to make debatable and difficult decisions in your house which your family members disagreed with or didn’t understand, you could just talk it out, stay connected and then later watch Cobra Kai together after supper and laugh at the overly dramatic but nevertheless intriguing “rest of the story” of the never aging Karate Kid.
Or you could eat a meal together, give each other a hug, go for a walk, or lend each other a hand by taking out the trash or doing the dishes. You’d have a lot of ways to feel connected EVEN if you disagreed.
That’s much more difficult now.
I imagine a lot of us are sitting in a feeling of great disconnection AND disagreement, weariness, and upset and have little sense at how the lack of our being able, during this desert time, to be more normally connected is impoverishing us.
It’s always tricky to communicate well and decide things with wise discernment which have bearing on hundreds of people with differing opinions and needs. It is especially and befuddlingly difficult to do so when the tethering connections of normalcy that keep relationships humming have been as disrupted as the polar vortex that we continue to hear about.
Whatever we decide about worship going forward given our concern for our people, our staff, our broader community, Christ’s reputation in our area, the recommendations of public health officials, the recent spike in cases in our area, the need for togetherness, the impact of our group’s action, even, indirectly on folks most of us may never see....I wanted you to hear of our affection and sense of things right now.
And just so you know, we have people in our congregation who have gotten COVID and were fine in a few days. We have others who have experienced death in their families, harsh sickness, and lingering effects from the virus. Most the folks I know who have gotten the virus in a more severe way have adopted a more sober view of it once they or someone near to them has had it, unless of course they were one of the favored ones with limited symptoms.
We have people who think masks are unnecessary and others who think they are critical. We have those who think the government is not doing enough and others that it is vastly over-reaching. We have people who cannot understand why more folks aren’t listening to Dr. Fauci and others who wish that people would stop listening to Dr. Fauci.
A Refreshing Benediction
Fortunately, we have enjoyed as a congregation, so far as I have largely experienced, despite our varying opinions and convictions, a boatload of deference, humility, and respectful care among our folks. That has been a refreshing benediction. There are snags to be sure. Hurt feelings. Misunderstandings. Frustrations. But by and large, it seems to me folks are trying to love each other and to bear with the differences and difficulties that exist. For that we are thankful.
As a session, we will, I trust, do our best to make pandemic related decisions based on bending most toward the concerns of the cautious. As you have heard me say, it seems to me, for instance, that even if you think wearing a mask is the dumbest thing in the world, if the people near you, or the grocery store you frequent wishes you to wear one, because your lack of it increases their perceived or actual threat, then why on earth would a Christian not bend to needs of others to ameliorate their anxiety? That’s sort of our main thing in dealing with other people.
We try not to cause them to stumble.
We seek to set others at ease.
We follow our Savior in letting ourselves be disadvantaged if necessary to pursue the advantage of others.
If my neighbor doesn’t want me to shake his hand, then I will refrain! If he gets nervous when I get too close, I won’t keep edging near, EVEN if I don’t understand or agree that he has a reason for nervousness!
As we move through the winter with aspirations of one-anothering unity and a continued vocation to be a visible depiction of the warmth and wonder of our Savior in this community through our words and deeds even during a pandemic, I wanted you all to hear these few rambling thoughts.
I thought it might possibly be helpful. It is certainly too long.
If you have questions or concerns at any time, please let me, Pastor Corby, or any of your elders know. It would be an honor to hear from you. And it is an honor to serve with you in these trying and confusing times.
Grateful for you all,
Pastor Eric
SEPTEMBER 18, 2020 UPDATE
Friday Greetings Rock Creek Fellowship,
We intend to celebrate of the Lord’s Supper on Sunday on the Lawn at Durham during our 9:30 am worship service.
To learn more about that, we will reprise the role of Nigel, our inquisitive (and fictitious) congregant, who has aided us through his investigative curiosities to unearth the needful bits of understanding for our participating in the Lord’s Supper during this odd time. He interviewed me (so we will pretend), and I have lifted the salient parts of that interview for your consumption. At one point he got rather angry and used language that was suitable neither for work nor for church communications. He's a real hot-head sometimes. I have omitted that section.
Excerpt from Nigel’s Fictitious Interview with me about the very real Lord’s Supper happening at RCF Sunday September 20:
...So you won’t be using the kneelers then?
Wow, you just jumped right in. No, we won’t be using kneelers. Pandemic, remember? You’ll recall we are trying to exercise care, distance, and we are not eager to be the cause of a spreading event for the sake of our community and as a witness to Christ and our love for our neighbors.
How, then will people get the elements if they don’t come forward?
Well, here’s what we’ve come up with. At the beginning of the service, while everyone is arriving at Durham, there will be 4 tables set up at various parts of the lawn where our people will be moving toward their seats.
But how...
Let me finish, Nigel!
AT each of those tables will be one of our Rock Creek Elders who will be wearing a mask.
ON each of those tables will be a number of brown paper bags that only a gloved, masked person has touched to set them up. AND sanitizer will be available on those tables as well.
IN each of those bags will be a piece of baked communion bread and a small SEALED plastic communion cup containing grape juice (unfermented fruit of the vine).
Our people who are going to be taking communion, will each pick up their own bag, under the supervision of an elder, while maintaining clear space from others, and then move on to their circles for the worship service.
But when will they “take” the Lord’s Supper, you know, eat the body and blood and all that?
Well, that will happen after the sermon, as is our custom. I will preach, then lead us in a corporate confession of sin, as our way of “judging/examining ourselves” before we come to the table as the Scriptures urge, and then...
But what about the people at home?
Sheesh, Nigel. Your mother didn’t work on the interrupting bit with you much, did she? I’m getting to that. After the confession, I will pray and say the “Words of Institution.”
What’s that?
You know those words that recount Jesus’ last supper, and the words around it the Apostle Paul said had been handed down, “On the night he was betrayed, our Lord Jesus, after he had given thanks---
Oh, oh, I know, “Broke bread and gave it to his disciples...”
You’ve a profound memory, Nigel. Way to go. You remind me of the kid on The Princess Bride while Peter Faulk is trying to tell him the story.
But yes, you’ve got it. I will say those words that Jesus initiated for us as a way of reminding us what we are doing, then I will explain briefly what the bread and cup mean, and who they are for....
But what about the people at home?
Yes...but, you’re still not letting me finish. Just before I urge people on the Lawn to all take the bread together and eat at the same time, and then to do the same with the cup, I will lead our people who are participating virtually at home in a prayer that acknowledges that they are part of our body, but not able to be present to take the supper as we understand it necessary to be in order to participate.
What’s the prayer like?
Well, it will be in the bulletin, but here it is, if you’d like a gander:
In union, O Lord, with your faithful people at every gathering of your Church where the Lord’s Supper is now being celebrated, I desire to offer to you praise and thanksgiving. I remember your death, Lord Christ; I proclaim your resurrection; I await your coming in glory. Though I cannot today receive the Sacrament of your Body and Blood, I know that you are still the Bread from Heaven and Cup of Salvation for me. I implore you to feed and renew me by your Spirit and by your Word. Cleanse and strengthen me with your grace, Lord Jesus, and let me never be separated from you. May I live in you, and you in me, in this life and in the life to come. Amen
That’s a nice prayer.
Well, yes, I suppose it is. We are hoping it will also help reassure our folks who are not present how much they are a considered and esteemed part of our body, even though we know this pandemic has made it such that some for various reasons can’t be with us. We want them to be able to acknowledge their faith and be filled spiritually with Christ through the means of grace that is prayer, since they are, at the moment, unable to participate in the means of grace of the Lord’s Supper with the rest the gathered body.
I thought you said something about cars last week?
Oh, yeah. I did actually. We’re hoping that even folks who might ordinarily have reservations about coming because of conviction, calling, living with or themselves being high-risk folks, would feel warmly welcomed to join us on Sunday in their cars, that is of course, if they wish. They could tune in to their fm dial to hear the service, be able to see the service live, and still receive the Lord’s Supper as we are all gathered on the premises, in a safe, away from the crowd sort of way. But of course, we don’t want a soul to feel pressured to do that, just invited!
Oh, sorry, I just realized I interrupted earlier, what were you saying about when the folks on the lawn take?
YOU realized you interrupted? Miracles do still happen!
What do you mean?
Never mind. That was harsh. But after those at home are lead in prayer, I will then lead the people at Durham to eat and drink the elements from their bags at their circles. We will then have a prayer, closing hymn together, and the benediction as always.
That sure don’t sound like normal.
You are correct. BUT though it may not seem as leisurely, meaningful, and personal as it ordinarily is at RCF, we are still participating in this splendid provision where Christ puts his life in us, renews us, and binds us together. We can expect great nourishment from Him!
interview excerpt ended
**If you are unable to participate at Durham on Sunday because of Covid concerns or physical limitations that keep you housebound, please let me know. The pastors and/or elders would be honored to bring the Lord's Supper to you in a sensible way, if you are interested.
I hope all this was mildly beneficial.
I expect our worship on Sunday to be much more than mildly beneficial! I hope you will join us in praying that Christ might make it so. And if you have any questions that didn’t get addressed, please let me know. I’ve tried to address some things. I am certain there are unaddressed matters that you might also wonder about. But this is already too long as I am sure you will agree.
Thank you all!
Warmly,
Pastor Eric
SEPTEMBER 11, 2020 UPDATE
Friday Greetings Rock Creek Fellowship,
One of the questions I put to the elders, the staff, and myself from time to time, is “What do the people of Rock Creek Fellowship need to know?”
It’s often a beneficial diagnostic query, but not always one that is easily answered. But the kinds of questions we ask are often a rather good starting place for the types of wisdom and knowledge, we might eventually unearth. That question, which I intend ordinarily as a question of communication...(what do I know in my head and assume others do too, but they actually don’t?) is even harder to answer these days when we are not all seeing each other as regularly. But we can try.
So here are 2 somethings we think you might wonder about and an invitation to have you ask what you know you are wondering about!
1) Something we THINK you might want to know pertaining to worship plans.
We have decided that our Lord’s day worship service will continue to meet outdoors on the Lawn at Durham until the cold weather or new pandemic developments force or invite us to revisit the issue.
Rationale
For large gathered groups, we believe we are doing the best, safest type of group gathering that limits the spread of disease, serves community health, and avoids all the rancor and impediments that could/might happen if we were indoors. Though we realize some may disagree, as a session we believe that if we went inside at Durham for worship, we would need to ask folks to wear masks, at least part of the time, and more than likely all of it, AND we would need to reduce seating capacity substantially (1/2 to 2/3 reduction) of what we have presently outside which would make for a rather small gathering in a large building and it would necessitate multiple services. Of course, multiple services would increase the need to manage traffic flow, and have cleaning between services too.
We also surmise that if 2/3 of our folks are not coming now with what is arguably the safest and most liberated arrangement possible for a church that is also trying to be cautious and respectful of the vulnerable in mitigating risk of spread (in terms of outdoors, spaced, and in the sunshine), it is highly unlikely that going inside would generate an increase of participation or comfort from those who are staying away for reasons having to do with understandable caution.
Of course, there may be other reason folks are staying away from the lawn (like the heat, allergic to grass, too much hassle to bring their own chair (feels too much like camping), holding out for Lula Lake to reopen, or they may have just come to prefer worship on tv in their living room (an issue to address on another day)...or any number of other things I haven’t thought of...Some of those could be remedied inside, but it is not clear that we’d create a a better opportunity for more of our people to safely and enthusiastically join us for worship by going inside. It is likely that moving inside at Durham would simply be swapping inconveniences, entering us into the mask-wars that presently exist (maybe you’ve seen the news?), and would be a much less robust worship experience.
In other words, besides rain-proofing us, it is not easy to see what we would gain by going inside with the precautionary assumptions we have about what would be involved.
We realize that being outside is not the best arrangement in the world, but for now, given the multiple considerations we are trying to take into account, it does seem the wisest-- the best of the limited options. And parts of it have been quite pleasant. It’s a rather beautiful place if you hadn’t noticed. And a joy to be with the unmasked people of Christ on Sunday mornings!
2) For our dear RCF Lula Lake family, we are sorry to admit that it seems doubtful that we will be convening together at Lula Lake any time in 2020. We’d love to hope the beginning of the new year would see new possibility for our re-convening. The Lula Lake facility has HVAC (circulating same air), has a much smaller sanctuary and would have very limited spacing and masks if we were to worship now. Furthermore, many of our participants at Lula are in higher-risk category for the virus. We have plenty of Lula Lake folks gathering at Durham on the Lawn each week and are thrilled about it. We hope more and more will feel welcomed when/if they feel it prudent and possible to do so!
3) I wanted to put the question directly to you...What do you want to know about our church? By that, I mean, are there questions about our plans, or about something we are doing as a church, but you think we shouldn’t be or that you just don’t get, or perhaps, things that we are NOT doing, but you are convinced that we should? We are a de-centralized congregation (think, as Pastor Corby has said, of multiple states in a small country). We have many active pockets, and a multitude of tethered and connected groups of folks, but especially during a pandemic, it’s no simple matter to keep all of them equally apprised of what might most profit them to learn.
So, if you have a question of any sort today (or any day!), no matter how basic, I hope you’ll email me back and ask it!
We’d love to hear from you and will try to answer you if we are able, even if that answer might not prove as satisfying as you might hope! I’m glad we get to be the church together. We are bound, whether consciously aware of it or not, by the Spirit of Jesus Christ who unites us to each other and to Him. Let’s keep being the church, a gaggle of little Christs everywhere we work, rest and play, bearing witness to his reality in all our words and ways!
Best,
Pastor Eric
June 12, 2020 UPDATE
Friday Greetings Rock Creek Fellowship,
Today, after the fashion of Jonah Goldberg, I am sending this weekly email at day’s end on Friday. It’s another reminder and some needful details about Sunday’s outdoor worship, now just two days away...and yes, I did notice it was rather long. It’s a list. And there’s lots to know for our outdoor worship service Sunday:
RCF Lord’s Day Worship on Sunday, June 14, 2020 at 9:30 am OUTSIDE at our Durham Location.
We intend on to have 3 options available to you for Sunday morning worship on June 14, 2020:
On the Lawn at Durham: Outside Worship on the lawn at Durham (picnic style), bring your own chair or blanket and even your own shade if you wish.
In your Vehicle at Durham: Or you can come to Durham and stay in your car, and the entire service will all be broadcast on your FM radio dial, you know, “drive-in style.”
At Home with Online Live-Stream: Or you can you continue to watch/participate with the online live-stream as we will plan to live-stream the outdoor service at 9:30 am. (and it will be available afterwards on Youtube too)
Some JUST SO YOU KNOW STUFF and Other Pre-Cautions (ie. the things that are necessary to do and say but make it all seem cold and unwelcoming):
WHO SHOULD NOT COME - A weird lead foot perhaps, but we ought to begin by asking you who are well-versed in one-anothering to STAY AWAY if you are feverish (or have remedied a fever by taking Tylenol), are not feeling well, or have been having a series of dinner parties, game-nights or square dances with folks who’ve recently tested positive for corona. This isn’t even necessary to say is it? But there. It’s said. Or written, rather.
SPACING AND PRETTY PAINTED CIRCLES - In order to guide us in our communal quest to maintain appropriate spacing informed by one-anothering care (ie. social distance...dread term for communities of nurture!) we will have a bunch of spray painted circles which are 8 feet apart on the lawn to the right of the drive-way as you enter the campus at Durham. These ARE NOT an art project. THEY are a guide! We’d ask you to sit within a circle with your family, or with your roommates, or with whomever you have been quarantining together in some way.
May 1, 2020 UPDATE
Good Friday Morning Rock Creek Fellowship,
I got my first haircut in what seemed like 6 years on Tuesday night. Oh wait. Maybe it was Wednesday. I can’t remember for sure. The honors were well-performed by the inimitable Mrs. Youngblood AT OUR ABODE, in our living room with the ever attentive Huck watching intently! BUT some folks around town (and maybe even in our midst) can now get a haircut in an actual barber’s chair right now. And some have done so, maybe without a mask or nothin’.
States are re-opening. You know this. Some businesses are unlocking, un-shuttering, and accommodating a “new-normal” of some sort. With that, your curiosity may be emerging about worshipping services. When will we convene again? I wanted to offer some rather seminal, (and likely disappointing to some of you while reassuring to others) thoughts about that.
Here’s what the the session of Rock Creek Fellowship is thinking at present:
1) We are waiting and watching with all that implies....but haven’t landed on dates or solid criteria yet for re-convening....
-Though some churches and governments have set dates for reboots, we have not yet felt that doing so is necessary, wise, or useful in our context. We have realized that even if we determined a set of criteria to gauge when we could wisely convene or set an arbitrary date, there’s presently, still no telling whether those criteria or that date would, when met (or arrived at), be indicative enough of what our best course of action might be. So at this moment, we are watching, praying, talking, reading, and gathering information. Just this morning I read over four potential, phased, re-opening plans from other churches. Our presbytery will have a Zoom call this week for churches to discuss their own plans and thinking in order to collect wisdom from other pastors and elders in our region. I hope a couple of us will participate in that. And just so you know, the session is meeting EVERY week during this pandemic (on Zoom of course). So we are able to keep in touch well and will be poised to act nimbly and wisely when the time comes.
2) We expect a good plan to be coming together....that will just, “seem right.”
-A few years ago, I was talking to a man who was going to publish one of my essays. I said, “how long should it be?” And he answered memorably, and swiftly, “not too long.” That was unspecific but NOT unhelpful. I took it as a vote for brevity and a call to recognize a certain length would, at the time, seem right. I suspect that our next steps for re-opening/re-booting public worship will be taking shape, though we don’t have as detailed a plan yet as some may wish, and when we arrive at that plan, it will “seem right” to us and to you all. That’s the hope! After all, the Apostles in an early church decision at the Jerusalem Council started an important directive with this rationale (Acts 15), “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us....” We will be seeking to land on what we likewise can say seems good to the Holy Spirit and to us for re-opening. That’s how, without using that specific language, we have made many decisions throughout the past nearly 21 years of being church together.
3) It sounds like any convening for worship, whenever we get there, is still not going to seem entirely like convening for worship
-I can certainly tell you this. The tentative plans I have read from others for phased in worship replete with thousands (ok, being hyperbolic) of qualifications and safety procedures, make gathering seem so clinical as to feel artificial. So even though some churches will be meeting in person, even in the coming weeks, those in person meetings will involve distancing, smallish gatherings, no childcare, no communion, no handshakes, no hugs, NO SMILES...wait, I just made that up about the smiles to see if you were still reading. That’s no knock on churches at all. It’s merely an eye-opening and a little bit of a heart-sinking realization that even re-opening churches, according to what will likely become the “best practices” as advised by our public health officials and governing authorities will, while surely being superior to watching church on tv, still fall desperately short of the warmth and welcome we have historically been able to depict and experience when we gather for worship. But alas, these are the conditions entrusted to us.
4) The governing feature in our decision to re-convene will be seeking, as best we can, to nurture ALL the flock of God entrusted to our care WHILE ALSO seeking to care well for the community that we are in...
-The sentiment of the Scriptures is that Christians have a lead foot for taking “the weak” into account first, not "the strong." We bend in humility out of consideration for others. We will want to do our best to get back to worshipping as soon as it seems prudent to do so, for this is central to what we are called to be and do, but we will aim to do so in a way that honors Christ’s concern for the weak and most vulnerable among and around us.
5) Whenever we resume, we intend to continue to livestream the RCF worship service online so that those who cannot or do not feel comfortable attending may still be able to participate.
We are starting to look into the best ways to do that even now. And I trust this point needs no further elaboration.
6) MOST IMPORTANTLY let us be merciful to others... in all these ecclesial, social, economic, and public health decisions that are being made.
-I trust that governors and barbers, universities and nursing homes, the CDC and the City of Chattanooga are all making decisions about all this in the best way they can with the limits of their knowledge and control of the future; and are being guided by their own unique dispositions, values, and experience with this pandemic so far. Peggy Noonan recently reminded that “all of us are in the same storm, but not all in the same boat. Some are in yachts. Some are in row-boats with only one oar.” (She was quoting someone else) There are going to be varied opinions about how to proceed. They already exist. Please, as a people who have received mercy from Christ despite all the reasons we shouldn't have, let us be swift to exhibit and exhale the same merciful evaluations of others during this time whether in private conversation, online or publicly. No opening state is indifferent to the deaths of others. No sheltering state is indifferent to the disastrous effects of economic shut down for others. We are in an emergency situation with no perfect, easy, or costless choices. At our Screwtape lunch yesterday, I ran across two ways to describe attitudes toward the future. The devils are discussing whether, during a lull in the “Great War” they should be encouraging "tortured fear" on the one hand, or "stupid confidence" on the other. They realize, though polar opposites, as error always comes, either will be sufficient for extending misery, harm, dashed expectation, and most importantly, keeping people from God.
Let’s neither be governed by tortured fear nor by stupid confidence, but by our confidence in the sovereign and ever-benevolent Christ who is no stranger to our weakness and who will see us through every peril in this life until we reach that destination which is ultimately intended for us when all the sadness will come untrue in the life of the world to come.
Best,
Pastor Eric
MARCH 13, 2020 UPDATE
Friday Greetings Rock Creek Fellowship,
Here, at last, is the correspondence I promised you via text earlier today. I’m awfully sorry it’s so late in arriving.
Today has been an exhausting whirlwind, filled with myriad conversations, texts, email and essays as I deliberated with our session, pastors from around town and other parts of the country, and even receiving some medical input.
All this while our son and I drove 8 hours back from Charlottesville where we’d gone yesterday afternoon to get his books and such as he readies to begin online learning next week as many of your children will soon be doing.
If you’ve been around Rock Creek at all, you will have heard me recite that lovely adage by Archbishop William Temple where he insists “the church is the only cooperative society in the world that exists for the benefit of its non-members.”
It is precisely that sentiment that has compelled us as a session at Rock Creek Fellowship to make a decision that none of us wanted to make, but which we have increasingly come to believe we couldn’t fail to make, namely that we will be reluctantly cancelling all worship services and church activities at RCF Lula Lake and Durham this coming Sunday, March 15, 2020.
Of course we realize that there may be other Sundays where this will prove necessary as well, but we will deliberate about that next week as we learn more and see what materializes. As you realize, so much is changing so swiftly.
Giving Up for the Protection and Gain of Others
I’d like to assure you that we are not making this decision flippantly, lightly, or out of fear.
Quite to the contrary, we make the decision motivated by love---for the members of our one-anothering community of course, but also for our non-members--on this mountain, in our city, and in our country.
It will be a loss, and significant deprivation for all of us to give up the needful, nourishing joy and shelter of togetherness we experience in public worship where our Lord meets with us. But it is a loss we are willing to sustain for a time, for the gain of being able to care for those who are in the orbit of care, attention, and even acquaintance with all of us, most especially the immunosuppressed, those with chronic conditions, and the aged, who are disproportionately vulnerable to the most dire impacts from this dread virus rapidly making its rounds.
You all read the news. Or listen to it.
Given the unknown nature of so much of this, we have decided to err on the side of caution for the sake of protective love and a careful valuing of life that God calls us to adore and guard. And in so doing, we are deferring to the judgment of those with expertise in these matters. It seems clear that the one of the easiest way to ameliorate the rapid spread of this virus is to curtail the gathering of large groups.
For example, one computational biologist, and Christian, Patrick O’Neill working with New England Complex Systems to fight the OVID-19 pandemic has suggested that at this point:
“Given what we know about this outbreak, any large gathering of even apparently healthy people still constitutes a grave public health risk. Already we are approaching the point where there is a non-negligible probability (about 7 percent, according to my estimates, and rapidly rising) that any gathering of 100 people will involve at least one person infected with Covid-19. Therefore, I argue, it is not enough that attendance at large public gatherings be made morally optional; there is a moral duty to avoid even holding large public gatherings whenever possible.”
So we won’t be gathering for now out of care for our most susceptible neighbors and in prayerful hope that the world whose ruin our Lord Jesus has propped himself up against will be benefitted as we do our part not to unnecessarily (if unwittingly) spread the virus.
Scott Sauls has reminded that:
“Because the Everlasting God and Savior is our peace, we have a resource that enables us to say “no” to our fears and “yes” to trusting God and loving our neighbors. Whatever external threats may loom, those threats for the believer are temporal. Indeed, our long term worst-case scenario, according to Scripture, is resurrection from the dead and everlasting life. With this future having been secured for us at the cost of Jesus’ life, we are now free to serve others, even at the potential risk of our own.”
We will be in touch with more information and with suggestions for what we intend to do in the meantime. And of course there will be a number of opportunities in the coming days for us to serve our neighbors in various ways.
Let us be active in prayer, hope and service.
Thank you. It is a privilege to be church with you all.
Warmly,
Pastor Eric for the Session at Rock Creek Fellowship
For those of you not receiving them, here is today’s Lenten Prayer, which I hope is a fitting one for the time in which we find ourselves:
Day 17 Praying Through Lent with RCF
March 13, 2020
“I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity”-(Jonah)...
And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?” (God) Jonah 4:2 & 11
Relenting and compassionate Master, your motivation in sparing that ancient wicked city of Nineveh is tender and moving. Do it again. For all of us. A people in a land so habitually going astray. Let the threatening calamity that is shutting down economies, livelihoods, and all our ordinary rhythms be short-lived, muted, and squashed by your sovereign, concerned hand. Let me, your church, and all those around us employ this danger as an invitation to come to our senses and return, over and over again to a watching, waiting, and welcoming Father. Spare us from disaster for Christ’s sake, because you are tremendous in mercy. Heal the already sick. Guard the frail and vulnerable. Show us how to live unafraid as we entrust ourselves to you. Move us to benefit those who have been and will be severely disrupted and disadvantaged by contagions and the reactions to it. And don’t for a moment abandon us to encounter the choking smog of fear and confusion that arrives unbidden in times like these without strong and regular reassurances from your anxiety-dissolving affection. See us through O Lord with steady courage and strong comfort. Amen.