Advent, Impatience, & Waiting

Joint Worship Service 12/18 (Photo taken by Franklin Golden)

I’m pleased to share a piece I wrote for Faith and Leadership about Advent and waiting for a new thing. For those of you who have kept up, St. John’s is in the middle of transition, and we’ve seen awesome glimpses of God’s faithfulness. Read Impatiently Waiting to hear about our history and what the Lord has been doing with us.

To learn more about click here: Bull City Presbyterian Church. And if you feel ever so inclined and moved to give and support this ministry financially, by all means, you can give on the website too.

We are excited and overjoyed with the work the Lord has done in our midst… and it is marvelous in our eyes.

Peace, Happy Advent, and Merry Christmas

In-Between, part deux.

Often, the very things that echo in our preaching and teaching, are the ideas and movements that stir within our own lives.  During this first week of Advent, I’ve been reflecting on Psalm 63 and the in-between.  The Psalmist is in an in-between– he thirsts and yet God quenches his thirst.  The psalmist feels fear and yet places his trust in the Lord.

Since August, I’ve been serving at University Church (UPC) and with Presbyterian Campus Ministry (PCM) as the Campus Ministry Fellow.  I’ve hard the great opportunity of meeting terrific students and working alongside them as they think through small groups and Thursday night programs.  I’ve also had quite a bit of conversations about racial reconciliation and outreach.  The students have been excited to see and hear stories of reconciliation and hope happening all over town.

(a mural of programs is displayed on the walls, here’s a snapshot of what Gina created for the program I led).

Not only have I had the opportunity to serve and to give, but I have been blessed in that the students have given me far more than I could have asked.  They have shared moments of joy and we have rejoiced together.  Times of sadness and we have mourned together.  Tears from chopping onions in preparation for Thursday night programs, and yes, we laughed and cried together about it.  We have engaged in the rhythms of life together, and it has filled me with joy.

I’m currently in an in-between.  At the end of this calendar year, I’ll be transitioning out of my position with PCM into working more closely with Heather Ferguson, who oversees Christian Education at UPC.  I’ll have opportunities to serve in worship at University Church but also to lead a sunday school class, a small group, and maybe even a pub group.  This is a great opportunity to be stretched in different ways and learn new ways of doing Christian Education and discipleship in the church.

While I make this transition with sadness, I am also full of joy and hope.  The experiences I have had and will have will enrich my life and my ministry for years to come.

Grateful to the March 5th Group and University Church for this chance to learn and explore creative ways for doing ministry.

Grace and Peace to you.

The In-Between (Psalm 63)

“my body desires you
in a dry and tired land
with water nowhere

i’ve seen you in the sanctuary
i’ve seen your power and glory”

Psalm 63, read the rest here

We are in Advent, an in-between time marked by longing and waiting.

Over the last year we have been praying and discerning our call as a church.  It seems like we are living in an in-between time.  The Holy Spirit has stirred in us a vision for ministry and partnership down Roxboro Road, and we are excited.  Yet, we are in Advent, the in-between.  What we know for sure is that God is with us and continues to be with us.

Like the psalmist in psalm 63, we’ve seen ‘God in the sanctuary, we’ve seen God’s power and glory’, and we find ourselves in an in-between.  Whether in the life of our church or our own personal lives, we often find ourselves in an-between phase.

Waiting for a visit.  Waiting for a job.  
Waiting to hear what post-graduation plans will turn up.  
Waiting to hear from the doctors. 
Waiting to see what this new church will look like.

We are thirsty, we desire more of God, and we want the wait to be over.  The psalmist reminds us in psalm 63:

“I will bless you as long as I’m alive.”

Whether we are thirsty or fully satisfied, our life together operates in seasons like the liturgical calendar. Waiting is hard, but it teaches us patience and trust in the Lord.  Like the psalmist and the prophets, we get to seek and wrestle with what it means to seek after God.  We don’t rest with what we’ve seen because we know there are glimpses of God’s glory in the waiting.   It is in God that our thirst is fully satisfied.

Stand firm in God’s love and faithfulness in the waiting.  As we pray through the Psalms and hope this Advent, may your prayers be full of expectation and joy in the glimpses you catch now and for the future that will be.

Grace and Peace,
Charlene

Dulled Senses (Psalm 115)

“Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands.

They have:

mouths but do not speak

eyes but do not see

ears but do not hear

noses but do not smell

hands but do not feel

feet but do not walk
They make no sound with their throat.

Those who make [idols] and those who trust in them will become like them. Israel – Trust in the Lord!“

- Psalm 115:4-8, Translated by Franklin Golden, Read the whole thing

I once heard a pastor say, “Idols are good things that we turn into God things.”

He explained that we take careers, health, money, beauty, worship and even Church—and turn them into gods. We hide our treasures and our hearts in these items. Idolatry leaves us with tunnel vision, focusing in on our own enjoyment and gratification for the moment.

We often find enjoyment and gratification in worship as an event — a worship service held on Sundays at 11am brought to you by your local church. Our worship can get overly-predictable, stagnant, and stale. It provides enjoyment for the hour, but it dulls our senses to the explosive way God moves in the world. Psalm 115 describes that dull state when idols take our God-given senses of speaking, seeing, hearing, smelling, feeling, and walking and put those senses to sleep. We become numb, no longer able to perceive or participate in God’s redemptive power.

Idolatry attempts to convince us that we are satisfied, and Psalm 115 warns against this. The truth is, our souls and bodies long for something intimate and sincere. Worship should not dull our senses. Worship is a time to awaken and re-calibrate our senses to God in the world.

Remember, worship is not just an event; it is a way of life and living. Worship is an openness and trust in the Lord, so that we will be awakened to God’s movement, God’s steadfast love, and God’s blessing now and forever.

Peace to you,
Charlene
(A very gracious thank you to Amanda Diekman for her editorial additions and insights, amen).

Count It All Loss

October 2 (World Communion Sunday), I had the opportunity to preach at University Presbyterian Church in Chapel Hill, NC for the first time– an experience that was very different from some of the places I usually preach.  I’m very grateful for the opportunity and it was a joy and a pleasure.  The text is Phil 3:4b-14.  Here are the audio and video for my sermon:

Video Here   |||  Audio Here

Thanks for listening.