Meditations from Father Nick

An Important Message from Father Nick

Dear Christ Church,

I am writing to inform you that my last day as Rector of Christ Episcopal Church will be on Christmas Day. I cannot tell you how much it saddens me to write this, and I would like the opportunity to tell you why we have made this difficult decision. ]

When we first came to Christ Church, we knew that we were not going to stay forever, but we definitely did not just want to stay for a couple of years and then go. We decided that between five and ten years would be ideal. We have been here for over four years now, and I knew that we had a good fit, but I could not have imagined that I would love you and love being your priest this much. I had no idea what I was doing, and you have shown me so much patience as we learned to do ministry together. We have been through so much, and I feel a bond with you and with this place that will last a lifetime. There was never a time that I considered leaving Christ Church because I was unhappy with our community. I honestly have loved every minute as your priest, and I feel deep down inside that I will never be in a more supportive community.

I heard rumors that once we were done with building projects and I padded my resumé, I was going to leave. This has never been the case. Taking care of our deferred maintenance was something that needed to be done, and I wanted us to aim high when we started tackling these projects. In all truth, I saw these projects as obstacles to getting actual ministry done. Last year when we announced that we were going to tackle the undercroft and our lay leadership rallied the troops, I had dreams of the events, discussions and meals we were going to have in our new ministry space. The renovations were never the goal. My heart was always set on what could be done with a cleaner, happier and more functional space.

We have been able to accomplish so much in the past four years and more than just building projects. We are engaging the community in new and wonderful ways. Our buildings have always been about more than just looking beautiful. They were meant to have life and feel alive, and as I write this, I can feel the pulse of the place. We have been through so many sacred, wonderful, fun and sometimes tragic moments together. I will forever miss the oyster roast and all of the fun and good that it represents. I am filled with awe and joy when I think back on all of the baptisms and weddings that have happened these past four years. Sacred moments are not always joyful. The times when I was privileged enough to mourn with you will stay with me forever. Whether it was parties, baptisms, weddings, Sunday services or funerals, I have always felt deeply honored to be with you. With that being said, I am filled with so much regret about projects and work that never came to fruition. I regret not getting a pastoral care team together and organized. Doing ministry with our children and youth has been a highlight of my time here, but I wish I could have done more. Most of all I regret leaving you in the midst of this weird and uneasy time. Though the timing is far from ideal, I have every faith that you will be able to persevere and thrive in the coming months and years.

As the Church, we are never out of work to do, and I suspect that no matter how long I stay here, I would never feel “done”. If you have shown me anything, it is that you are committed and capable of tackling anything that you put your mind to. What makes you exceptional is not the result of a priest doing everything for you; it is the result of the full body of the Church coming together in faith to effect change in their community. Before I arrived, you had already done so much. Banjo Church, family Sunday School, the Christmas pageant, our Octoberfest booth, and so many more great ministries exist because of your initiative. I hate leaving you, but I am beyond confident that you will continue to be good stewards of this bit of God’s mission to the world.

The reason we are leaving is to be closer to our family. We actually found Martinsville because you are exactly halfway between my parents in Northern Georgia and Leandra’s parents in Alexandria, and our hope was that we could be able to see both sides often. Unfortunately, we have found that we are just far enough away that we are not able to see much of either side. For a while, we knew that our next move was going to be Alexandria or Chattanooga, so at least we could be very close to one side, but we thought this would be years down the road. Vacancies for Episcopal priests do not come up often, but there are enough Episcopal Churches in both cities that I thought one would be available when we were ready.

Then this summer all four Churches that were within a reasonable drive of where we would live in Alexandria began searches. All of the previous priests stayed for more than fifteen years, and we thought that this was our one opportunity to raise our children in the same neighborhood as their grandparents. I put my name in a couple of searches, and I was not sure if I would like any of them, or if they would like me. To my great surprise one medium-sized parish, not dissimilar to Christ Church, worked out very well, and they have called me to be their priest.

I have no doubt that this is the right move for our family, but this was not an easy choice to make. I am excited for the future, but my heart aches thinking of not being part of your everyday lives. It has been a tremendous honor being your priest, and you have forever shaped our family. Thank you for all of your love these past few years. I hope that you know that you can move mountains. I worked hard, but compared to you I actually did very little other than loving you and rooting for you. God has made you a tremendous beacon of hope and faith for our community, and I pray that you continue to show the love of Christ because this place needs you and the unique love that God has placed in your hearts.

We have a bit more time together. My sincere hope is that I get a chance to talk to each of you individually before I leave, and I expect to come back and give you a proper goodbye complete with hugs once we are past this pandemic. Once again, we love you, and cannot thank you enough for everything that you have done for us

Blessings,

Nick, Leandra and Bandy

Farewell My Friends, and Keep the Faith

Dear Christ Church,

I am rapidly running out of opportunities to say goodbye. I told you three weeks ago that my last service as your priest would be Christmas Day, which is less than three weeks from this moment. I imagined my last month as your priest to be a crescendo of emotional conversations and sermons, all of which would culminate in the Christmas Day service, where everything will be said, and everyone will feel loved and optimistic about the future. I like the thought of this departure, but I don’t think it is possible, because I am going to be spending the next decade processing our time together, and I do not think I will ever run out of things to say about these past four years. Though, our official time together is nearing its end, you will continue to affect my life, ministry and my worldview, and I hope that my time with you will be felt even after I have left my post.

I am at a loss on how to approach my last newsletter article to you, so here are a few things I want you to know before my time runs out.

The welcoming, enthusiastic and generous culture at Christ Church has uniquely suited us to welcome in new members and to do ministry in our community. Even though this culture was already strong when I arrived, I tried my best to continue to support and encourage its growth. Evangelism can feel like a four-letter word, but it is natural and simple. Allow yourself to talk about your Church and your faith like anything else that you are excited about. There is so much fear and trepidation around talking about spiritual matters, and as a whole our culture is not great about discussing difficult issues compassionately and candidly, and we won’t improve if we do not practice. If you see an opportunity to talk about how God has changed your life, or what your Church means to you, I urge to share your experience. Evangelism isn’t necessarily about getting the person in front of you in your Church. Sometimes having a good but difficult conversation can invite the Holy Spirit to shape us in ways we have not yet considered. These conversations are rare and can widen perspectives, and they will never happen if we are not bold or compassionate enough to talk about our faith.

Do not forget that the person that you do not know in Church is the most important person in that moment, so make a point to introduce yourself. If they do not look like they “belong” in this Church, then making them feel like they do is that much more crucial. Regardless if they turn out to be a lifelong member that you just don’t know yet, or if they are someone who walked through our doors for the first time, the Church will be stronger and more whole with the two of you acquainted. Churches that want to have their bases covered may form welcoming committees to do this work, but remember that an official welcome from the clergy or a committee is going to feel less genuine than that a warm greeting from the person sitting next to them.

One thing that I have not encountered often, but one thing I want to warn you about is making ultimatums. If you threaten to leave or to simply stop coming if a decision is made that you disapprove of, then you could be holding the whole Church hostage from where it needs to go. Even if the idea turns out to be a bad one, your voice will be absent from bringing the Church back around to where it needs to be. Regardless of what decision the future clergy or vestry make, your mentality should be that you are on the “be” team. In that you “be” here before they got here, and you’ll “be” there after they are gone. This is not asking you to go along with whatever the future leaders of the Church decide, actually quite the opposite. If you think they are making a mistake, don’t threaten to leave, threaten to stay. If the change they are advocating for is going to fail, make sure it fails because of its own lack of merit, not because a small group held the Church hostage by threatening to leave or withhold pledges.

If you are excited about your Church and you are willing to share it, if you get to know people you do not yet know and make them feel welcome, and if you remain committed to Christ Church, even if you do not agree with everything, then I have no doubt that you will continue to thrive. You have heard me say this so many times, but I honestly believe that God has made this place special, and you have always been the stewards of this gift. You are unique in our local community, and you are stand out in the greater Episcopal world, and this is something to lean into, rather than run away from. After four years, I believe that I have been able to get a glimpse of our Church’s soul, and it makes me love you all the more. You are fundamentally good, and I cannot wait to see what wonderful things the Holy Spirit has in store for you.

Blessings,
Nick

An Important Message from Father Nick

Dear Christ Church,

Blessings,

Nick, Leandra and Bandy

VOTE!!

Dear Christ Church,

I am writing this to you one week before the general election, and I can feel the tension in the air. Like most, I have my own political convictions, and I feel no small amount of anxiety about who will be elected, and what that will mean for our country, but this does not seem to be the major source of the omnipresent tension of the season. In this election, democracy and our ability to be a functioning nation are on the line. Democracy fundamentally depends on a plurality of opinions, debate, and compromise to function, but we have devolved into a world of hyper-partisan politics that is more about defeating the other side than living into our noble democratic institutions, and doing the good, but honest work or recognizing the innate value of the other side. I have been harping on much of this for a while, but I want to offer you some encouragement before all of our ballots are cast and we begin to hold our breath.

I have been harping on to this for a while, but I want to remind you that you need to vote. This political environment lends itself to disillusionment and the desire to disengage entirely. I think this is understandable considering literally millions are being spent on ads highlighting the worst qualities of the other candidate. If you are tempted to opt out of the election by not voting, please keep in mind that there will never not be a deeply flawed person running for president, because all we have are deeply flawed people. As Christians we are called to work with sinners in a broken world. If we refuse to participate in the world, including our democracy, because it does not live up to our standards, then we are turning our back on the Holy Spirit.

Throughout scripture God prepares the people of God to face adversity with integrity. Tremendous things can be done when the people of God are mobilized, even if severe mistakes are made. The Hebrew people leaving Egypt took a tremendous amount of risk on the part of the Hebrews, and faithfulness on God’s part, but things did not always go smoothly. Think of the golden calf that was being worshipped shortly after their liberation. Just because we are called by God to act in this world, it does not mean that we always nail everything the first time around. We are no different than the ancient Hebrew people. God is calling you to act, and innately that will be messy, but God has empowered us to be moral agents in this world, and we cannot turn away from that tremendous gift. Please, go and vote.

The election itself is nerve-racking, but the real test of our democracy is going to be in the days that follow November 3rd. Our country has been running hot for a long time now, and at some point, we are going to learn to stop waging war on our fellow citizens that sit on the other side of the aisle, and actually strive for the common good. This must involve nuance and compromise, because it is built into our system. The beauty of democracy is that parties and individuals that fundamentally disagree must work together to pass bills into law. A desire to annihilate the other side and sweep through ideologically pure legislation is fundamentally unamerican, and it is ineffective. Whether it is in Churches or in governments we must strive to work with those who differ from us, because there is a good chance that all sides are wrong to some degree. Through debate and compromise we can come up with plans that transcend the limited perspective of any individual or party. To silence our ideological opponents is to deny the fact that somehow, we are greater than the sum of our parts. When democrats and republicans compromise to get work done, their work no longer becomes democratic or republicans, it becomes American.

This next week will be nerve-racking and historic. I urge you, that regardless of the outcome, please be prepared to love your neighbor, keep hoping in and participating in the future, and most of all, be prepared to keep the faith.

Blessings,

Nick

Old Commie Stuff and Learning about Humility

In High School I was an exchange student in eastern Germany, and my short time there made a permanent impression. The people, food, language and culture were mind-blowing, but one of the surprising things that has stuck with me is the old communist aesthetic that lingers in much of eastern Europe. Those old buildings seemed to be stuck in a recently forgotten world, and for me, it was the first time that I saw that much of the world looked and felt so different than my tiny sliver in Northwest Georgia. For the record, I am no fan of the Soviet Union, or the authoritarian paranoid police state was East Germany, and I have no living memory of the Cold War as I was just a toddler when the wall came down and the Soviet system collapsed. Perhaps it was the fact that I didn’t have these memories that I was so fascinated with what everyday life looked like for the people in the East just over a decade before I arrived. I met people who actively worked toward the destruction of Soviet system, and those who still lamented its demise, but all around me there was evidence of the monstrous entity that just didn’t wake up one day. The people that lived under its ever-watchful eye were now free, and they started to look like and sound like everyone else.

My first feelings about those buildings and faithfully cared for Trabants was a sense of pride and superiority of my own worldview. The Soviet system was oppressive and evidence of their evils are so incredibly easy to see, especially being far off and a dozen years removed. My sense was that we have now “arrived” in an age when we are finally doing this life and government thing right, and those old communist husks were just further evidence of our superiority. Though, I much prefer our government to the Soviets’, there was a major hole in my thinking. Everyone assumes that their culture, generation and preferred form of government has “arrived”, when in reality, we are always in transition, and we will never arrive. God made to be in this beautiful liminal space.

Old monuments, Chateaus and Castles are neat and I love visiting them, but my favorite bits of traveling and studying are those rare glimpses of everyday life of forgotten ages. Of course, the Colosseum made it to our day, but graffiti is much rarer and revealing. In Pompeii, their villas were occupied by the Roman elite as they escaped their crowded capital, their graffiti offered candid views on their neighbors and houses of ill-repute, and they did not have a word in their language for “volcano”. The fact that their city was rapidly covered with volcanic ash when Mount Vesuvius erupted has given us a unique window into their lives that is noticeably missing at other archeological sites, and it reminds me of my experience in eastern Germany. They had much of the same cares and concerns that we have today, but everything just looked and felt different. Slavery was part of everyday life, though Christianity was around when Pompeii was destroyed polytheism was still the norm, and no one wore pants. So much of it seems so alien and bizarre, but they are just as human as we are, and even though they could not even begin to imagine our modern lives, they were just as convicted that they have “arrived” at this life thing, and anything outside of that norm was just wrong or weird.

Do not fool yourselves, many of the things that we hold dear will be unimaginable to those living just a few generations away from our own, and who knows, maybe some of the things that we thought were going to be fads will make it in the long run. If we become so focused on how right we are in our convictions we might forget to grow, and be amazed at what might be just around the corner, and we should not be surprised that God made us for these transitions. The Bible is filled with painful and difficult changes, and time and time again God reminds us that we are God’s even if the world seems to be crumbling around us. God was with his people when they were in Eden just as much as when they were in Egypt or Babylon. God has been with us through generations of Monarchy, and a bright short spell of democracy, and God will be with us wherever we find ourselves in the decades to come. In a world where the only constant is change, it is good to know that God will follow us wherever we might wander, and it is our job to keep the faith. It is not to be right (at least all of the time), but our job is to have the faith and be keepers of it, which requires more humility than self-righteous indignation.

Blessings,

Nick

Donate to Loaves and Fishes

Dear Christ Church,

Below you can find a letter that I wrote to our greater community about supporting our Loaves and Fishes Ministry, and I wanted to be sure that you saw it as well.

The past few months I have been so proud to see our Church step up to help alleviate some of the stress of the pandemic. One difficult aspect of our situation is that we need to keep our volunteer base as small as possible to limit the risk of spreading the virus. It is times like this that we need to remember that sometimes we are called to act and other times we are called to be still. As frustrating as it is, most of us are called to remain at home as much as possible during the pandemic. I am deeply thankful for the volunteers that have made Loaves and Fishes possible the past few months, but I am also deeply thankful for those of you who stay home out of a sense of love for your neighbor.

If you are able to give financially, then we can continue to serve those in need for a bit longer through our Loaves and Fishes program. If you are not able to give, then that is ok. Your innate value does not lie in your wealth, or in your ability to work, or to lead; it is in the fact that you are a beloved child of God. Your life, your body and your health is a gift, and we should do whatever it takes to maintain that gift, which sometimes means being still.

Thank you for working when you are able to work, thank you for giving when you are able to give, and thank you for your faithfulness, even when that means doing nothing at all.

Blessings,
Nick

Dear Friends,

Before the world got turned upside down with the coronavirus, Christ Episcopal Church offered a free monthly meal called Loaves and Fishes to whomever was in need of food or community. We focused on encouraging people to take their time, get to know each other, and to make high quality food. Since late March we have had to do things differently. It was no longer responsible to cram everyone in the same room, nor was it wise to have a large group of volunteers, so we started offering a drive through around our Parish House with a skeleton crew. We also thought that people might be under extra financial strain, so we offered the drive-through dinner every Wednesday, rather than just once a month. We thought this might be needed for about six weeks, and here we are.

The same small group of volunteers have shown up every week since the pandemic began to cook, package, and hand out meals. We thought we would eventually see a drop off in people needing the free meals, but the Loaves and Fishes Ministry have consistently provided between ninety and a hundred and ten meals every week. This crisis has lasted much longer than we expected, and our typically healthy “Mission Fund”, which financially supports our Loaves and Fishes Ministry, is getting slim. It appears that the virus will be around for a while, and its financial impact will be around even longer, and we want to continue to help as long as we can.

Each Wednesday we spend about three hundred dollars to feed over one hundred people. If you would like to help us continue making this possible, please consider making a donation to our Loaves and Fishes Ministry. We can ensure that your donation will go to feed our community, and your gift will remain completely separate from the Church's operational income.

If you would like to make a donation to our Loaves and Fishes Ministry you can leave cash at our office or mail a check to our office, with a note including your information and that you’d like that money to go to Loaves and Fishes. You can make a payment online if you have a PayPal account at the following link:

Donate to Loaves and Fishes

If you do pay through PayPal, please just remember to leave a note saying you would like your gift to go to Loaves and Fishes.

I would also like to use this space to thank Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, who have been bringing us groceries and toiletries to give out to those who need them every week since March. Your generosity, willingness to partner, and your faithfulness is inspiring!

Once again thank you for your support, and for helping us to take some of the stress of the pandemic off of our most vulnerable neighbors.

Blessings,
Nick

Doing Dishes and Being the Church Without Walls

It’s strange how just a few months of life experience completely changed my views on something as mundane as washing dishes. Leandra and I have very different approaches on cooking. She is undoubtedly the better cook, but I enjoy cooking as well, and I love making it the most efficient process imaginable. I time everything carefully, I only use the necessary utensils, and clean cutting boards and pots once their purpose in the meal is over. When I am done cooking, I have adequately prepared food and a spotless kitchen. When Leandra is done cooking, she has a work of art, and every single pot, pan and cooking utensil we own is piled in the sink waiting to be scrubbed. This was once a point of contention, because our general rule is that whomever cooks, doesn’t clean, which isn’t necessarily fair given our different cooking habit, and those lost fifteen or twenty minutes felt like an outrage.

At the end of March, we pulled Andrew from daycare, and we have been trying our best to keep up with his insatiable energy and curiosity ever since. This time has been a sacred bonding time for the three of us, but there have been days when Leandra and I count down the minutes until bedtime, so we can have a moment to ourselves. We used to debate and compromise about the fifteen minutes it takes to clean the kitchen and do the dishes after dinner, but now it is cherished role, while the other gives Andrew his evening bath before bedtime. One person has to sprint the last mile before bedtime by giving Andrew his bath and wrestling him into his pajamas, while the other gets twenty minutes of guilt-free solitude in the kitchen listening to whatever music they like.

I honestly think this time has been healthy for us. Shaking up our routine has always been uncomfortable, but it has always made us stronger and more appreciative. Regardless of what vestries decide and what plans are drafted, Churches will always act out of muscle memory. We see this in every aspect of the Church. The Altar Guild, the Parish Life Committee, and the Youth Group all have an idea of what needs to have year after year, and generally the Church will be sure the big things happen regardless of leadership. This can make the Church resilient and a place of comfort, but it can also make change very uncomfortable.

Since late March the sacrosanct routines of the Church weren’t just interrupted, they were brought to a grinding halt. I am still exceedingly proud of how our Church mobilized and tried to make the best of a difficult situation. We started to film Sunday services, we started doing the daily office every day on Facebook, and we doubled down on our efforts with Loaves and Fishes. This was grand, but there is absolutely nothing that can replace the solemnity of stripping the altar on Maundy Thursday, or the abundantly joyful worship on Easter Morning. No one really complained, but I heard from many devout members, and occasional members alike that told me how hard it was to not be in Church on Easter Sunday, and I cannot help but agree with them. We tried our best. We are trying our best, but nothing can replace what we took for granted this time last year, which is breaking bread together and being able to hug and shake hands without fear.

There are some who debate the necessity of these measures, believing that treatments not recommended by the CDC or WHO are enough to rid the virus from our country. I have no desire to debate public health policy, but even those who debate the necessity of social distancing do not debate its efficacy. Staying away from others stops the spread of the virus, and if not meeting in person can even save one life or slow the spread in our community by just a fraction, then we will continue to be the Church without walls. We can choose to see this time of longing and disruption as punishment, vanity, insolence, or we can choose to see it as a spiritual discipline.

Leandra and I mourn for our lost time and freedom, but we have gained so much more. We love the vulnerable things under our charge, but each time we add a dog or a baby to our family it means a little bit less freedom. Choosing connection and life over our personal time has fundamentally made us less selfish. Being invested in the lives of others, especially during times of crisis, always means a sacrifice somewhere else. We can let that make us bitter by focusing on what we’ve lost, or we can lean into it and see it as an opportunity to be thankful and show love in new ways. As Christians we should not shy away from challenges and sacrifices, especially if it means respecting the lives of those that we love. I don’t want to pretend that social distancing is not difficult. It is, but it is worth it.

Blessings,

Nick

We are Still in the Wilderness

I am getting absolutely worn out of all of this Coronavirus stuff. I am tired of having my routine upended, having my existential dread dialed up to ten, losing my confidence in our country’s ability to effectively respond to crises, and I really miss Church with communion and a full choir. I feel like we were in such a good place when we had to start worshipping online. Lent was ramping up and, for once, I actually had a plan and did not have to resort to flying by the seat of my pants. We had a lot of newcomers, and our nursery was getting more populated on Sunday mornings. I was excited, and I loved living into our sacred season of Lent, and I could not wait for our joyous Easter services.

Every Lenten season you hear me preach at least one sermon about the biblical notion of the wilderness. The wilderness is where the ancient Jewish people, Jesus, and a bunch of others went to go and faced trials, were vulnerable, and would become reoriented toward God. A big part of the wilderness is that it is innately miserable. After God freed the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt, they didn’t all immediately thank God and Moses for their freedom. They constantly complained, and asked Moses if he led them away from their comfort and security in Egypt just to die in the wilderness. They had to depend on God, but they also messed up a lot and made idols and worshipped them instead of appreciating the gift that God had granted them. The wilderness is a hugely important spiritual theme in our faith, and when we go through times of crisis, such as the loss of a loved one, we see our struggles in those who wondered the wilderness before us.

We tell the story of our salvation every year through the different religious seasons, and Lent is when we focus on some of the more uncomfortable aspects of our spiritual lives. We remind each other of our mortality and we read a lot of stories about the wilderness. Many of us give up things that bring us comfort to symbolically live in the wilderness. Though we try to put ourselves in that time of sacred vulnerability, we are comforted by the fact that Easter is on our calendars, and we know exactly when we can go back to our old routines. Sometimes we forget that in real seasons of Lent and wilderness, we do not know when we are going to emerge on the other side and find our new normal.

Those who are grieving, gravely ill, or facing mental illness do not have a date on their calendars when they are going to wake up and feel like themselves again. For those who are suffering, the wilderness is not a symbolic spiritual exercise to help us admit our own mortality, existence itself is at risk. The wilderness can be a real place, and when we find ourselves within it, we are given no choice but to give up control and trust in God, which can be tremendously painful and difficult. Much of the time these struggles are intensely personal, but we are in a time where we find that most of the world is still in Lent.

For us, Lent did not end with Easter. It was important for us to celebrate the resurrection, but our spiritual disciplines of isolating, wearing masks, and worshipping online continued, and, unfortunately, our new normal is nowhere in sight. I imagine, that like me, you are done with this season, but the season is not done with us yet. Many have decided to ignore the reality of our situation, and have resumed doing things that remind them of normalcy. They do this to the risk of not only themselves but their neighbors, and ultimately prolong our collective time in the wilderness by allowing the virus to spread. When Christ was tempted by the Devil in the wilderness, he did not make compromises. When the Jewish people were fed up with the wilderness, they did not turn back. It is in the absolute worst moment in our journey in the wilderness that we must continue, we have to embrace the misery that comes with isolation, and we have to support each other and remind each other that we are doing this out of love for our neighbor and for the love of our creator, redeemer, and sustainer.

So many people have asked me when we are going to go back to normal, but that is something I cannot possibly predict, and it is something that we cannot schedule. We are not in a time of planning, but we are called to live in the moment and realize that we are called to be vigilant to protect ourselves and our neighbors. When we cannot do the things that we typically rely on to keep us going, we must turn to God and learn to depend on our creator, which has always been at the heart of the wilderness. While we embrace the misery of this time and we strive to rely more on Christ while we have to go without, do not forget to be patient and to support each other. We are all going through this time in different ways, so each person’s struggles are unique, so do not forget to make sure that love and grace must abound.

Blessings,

Nick

Graduating in The Midst of Crisis

I find it both baffling and humbling that I have been at Christ Church for almost the entirety of our graduating seniors’ high school careers. During the Pentecost service, I got fairly nostalgic and even teary-eyed when I listened to their reflections on Christ Church and what it has meant to them. I was so busy filming, editing, and preaching during the week that I did not think about the change that was happening both in their lives and within our community.

This is a bittersweet time. We should congratulate our graduates on their accomplishments, however, we must also realize that this is a time of loss. Although Christ Church will always be a home for our graduates, , we will not see them in Church on a regular basis. After they leave for college our Church Community will be different, and they will be missed.

As the Church, we have always been called to show the love of Christ to the next generation, and this involves listening just as much as it does teaching. When we spread the Good News of Jesus Christ to others, we are not called to make clones, that we mold as we see fit; rather, we must rely on others to make their own decisions in their faith as they continue to grow in their faith. I believe that our Church has done a masterful job in doing this with our graduates. They know the Gospel, what it is like to worship in a loving faith community, how to serve others, and, most importantly, they know that they are valued as individuals by their community.

In the coming weeks, months and years, our graduates will continue to grow and change as they are exposed to new people and ideas. Christ Church will still be part of their identity, but we will share space in their hearts and minds with other ideas and communities as well. Even if they come back with new ideas that we have never considered, or might even find challenging, this could be the Holy Spirit working in them to help show us a new way. If we listen and value one another as fellow children of Christ perhaps we can begin to discern together where God is calling us to move.

For me, graduation was joyous, but it was a bright spot in an otherwise dark time. COVID-19 and the resulting economic fallout have put a strain on our lives. The unrest regarding the recent racial tragedies highlights the fact that, as a country, so many have lost that spark of love, grace and respect for others. Regardless of whether or not our society’s challenges are natural or manmade, they have been twisted, polarized, and broadcast to people who are desperate to have an enemy to blame. I am disappointed when the actions of a few are used as an excuse to dismiss the Black Lives Matter movement, just as I am frustrated when black police officers are seen as traitors to their race. Making these generalizations only serves to ignore our neighbors who might have uncomfortable truths to tell us.

We are not listening. Instead, we are retreating to the familiar talking heads on our favorite networks to tell us what the other side is saying, rather than actually listening to the other side. Having an “us” and “them” is easier than having a brother and sister in Christ who disagrees with you. Some are so quick to draw lines in the sand that they refuse to believe that racism is rampant in our country, or that most police officers want the best for the communities that they serve. Both of these things are not mutually exclusive, and solutions do exist, but our country has become more about winning than about democracy, which innately involves valuing and listening to the other side. Not only do we need to listen to the other side for our country to work, it is what we are called to do as Christians.

If any of our graduates returns to Christ Church espousing something with which you disagree, I hope that you will listen and engage because you love them and because they are part of your Church family. If you disagree with someone you love, then one of you may be wrong, but that is ok. As finite beings that embrace abundant divine grace, we know that we cannot always be right, and you cannot truly listen to someone else unless you can consider the possibility that you might be wrong. Remember, that one of the greatest gifts we can give to our graduates is the ability for them to think on their own and to discern where God is leading them. Yes, they could be wrong, but they could also be who God is sending to you. We need to extend this love and grace beyond our Church walls now more than ever. Whenever your blood begins to boil from whatever new bit of news you hear from Washington DC, or Minneapolis, look for opportunities to listen and to sow love, because just like you, me, and our graduates, they are children of God as well.

Blessings,
Nick

Existential Angst, God’s Grace, and Dogs Wearing Hats

My isolation began about six weeks ago. I was eager to take bold steps to be a priest to a congregation under quarantine, but I was unsure of how to go about this task. While trying out different ideas, I began to stream the Daily Office to Facebook Live. The Daily Office consists of prayer services for the morning, noonday and evening, and I was surprised how many people join in with me for each service. Saying those prayers every day over Facebook has been a constant for me during this bizarre time in the world. Though our platform is uniquely modern, the prayers are ancient, and have helped people for hundreds of years to mark the time and keep their spirit focused on God’s grace.

I find it interesting who prays with me on a regular basis. I know for certain that many would not feel comfortable in Church, but they still join in and find comfort in this ancient routine. I often wonder why our online congregation embrace this form of prayer, but remain hesitant about praying in Church on Sundays. I think this shift in perspective may have to do with wanting to embrace a theology and worldview that acknowledges grace in moments of pain, and it might have something to do with my dogs wearing hats during these services.

I happen to think that our services are sacred and filled to the brim with honesty, hope and joy, but to the uninitiated, our services can seem formal and cold, which can be amplified by a crisis happening in the background of our lives. Then, you throw in a dog with a banana hat into our Morning Prayer service, and everything is put into a new light. If the depressed cynic wants to tune in to reaffirm their belief that the world is a cold and unloving place, then that is how they are going to see our service. But what if they see something that cannot be anything else that silly, frivolous and meant to bring joy? Evil in the world has made people jaded toward religion, but, as far as I can tell, dogs in tiny little cowboy hats are still completely unsullied, leaving cynics with nothing to do but smile

The numerous serious conversations that dominate our screens around public health, personal liberty, and maintaining the economy can feel dreadful, because in this odd time they are often in direct conflict. The world needs more pure frivolity that can be interpreted as nothing other than joyful and remind people that through the haze of fear and quarantine, there is still room for joy and laughter. I am not the first to realize this. People are sharing cute baby and pet pictures like never before, but we should not let these joyful distractions be an escape, but rather a safe harbor to let our minds reset from dwelling in the dreadful doldrum of isolation. Maybe these adorable moments of joy can even be a safe place where we turn off our ego, listen to scripture, pray for those we perceive to be our enemy, and re-enter the world slightly more oriented to the love of God.

Blessings,

Nick

The Church Deployed

Dear Christ Church,

Well, a lot has happened since the last time that I wrote you in our monthly newsletter. Just a month ago, the Corona Virus was something that we saw in international news, and the full gravity of its impact had yet to be seen. It’s humbling to know that its full impact won’t be seen for some time, even though it has disrupted our lives so much already. I spend much of every day trying to keep up with the reality presented to me in the morning. I make plans with the leaders of the Church, try to follow through with those plans, and I wake up to find out everything had changed overnight, and then we start all over again.

There are a plethora of memes (online captioned pictures) going around. One of my favorites is a picture of the inside of a vacant Church, and the caption reads, “The Church isn’t empty. It’s deployed.” This has been my experiences with you, our Church neighbors, and our greater Episcopal community. We haven’t retreated. We are actually working harder than we ever have been. It has been bizarre to not go to Church on Sunday morning and see the Websters ready to go (they are nearly always the first to arrive), going to Bible Study, celebrating the Eucharist, and then ending the day with the youth doing Evening Prayer in the gathering space. I thought those full Sundays were the real deal, but now I realize we were just training for times like these. In under two weeks we have re-tooled the Church to focus what is essential to our identity as Christians, which is worship, helping our neighbors, and creating community, all without actually physically being present with each other. This is remarkable. There are too many people to name to thank that have gone above and beyond, so the Church can step up and be the Church in the world, while our doors are closed. If you drive by on Sunday and mourn the empty Church, remember that it is empty, because we are deployed.

I want to use this space to explain a couple of things. I have been delighted and happy to make the pre-recorded Sunday worship services. I have gotten a lot of positive feedback, and I hope that you have enjoyed them. If you have had a difficult time finding them please let us know. With that being said, continuing in this manner is not sustainable. I could spend my entire working week filming, editing, and preaching, and I still would not have enough time. And, unfortunately this is not the type of work that can be easily shared with the many people that have offered to help. This is our holiest time of the year as we prepare for Easter, and I am committed to continuing these videos through Easter, but afterwards we are going to change formats. In a nutshell, we are still going to have online worship on Sunday mornings, but it just won’t be as fancy as you have seen thus far.

Last week we decided to see how the drive-through version of Loaves and Fishes went, and then we were going to gauge whether or not we could do this safely and sustainably on a weekly basis. We learned that it is manageable, and that there is tremendous need in our community. We wanted to include people that wanted to help, but wanted to limited the number of people in the parish house, in order to maintain social distancing. So, last Thursday we did a lot of discussing, and thought about asking people to bring homemade chicken salad, and then handing it out in containers with loaves of bread. We thought this was a great idea, so we sent you all an e-mail. Yesterday, I heard that various health organizations made an official recommendation about not getting to-go meals that didn’t require to be heated as the last step in preparation, like chicken salad. The idea is that the heat would kill whatever germs got in during preparation. They also recommended not getting a lot of different people to work toward a common meal, which also goes directly against our plan of having people donate food. Each day, we are faced with a new reality, and new health caveats that we have not yet considered. Next week, we will adapt and overcome whatever new health hurdles we are faced with, and we will continue to do Loaves and Fishes as long as it is safe and possible, and I urge you to realize that we are changing as quickly as we possibly can.

I am filled with all of the emotions right now. I miss seeing people, especially people that I love dearly. I am afraid for those who might get sick. I mourn for those who have died. I am intensely proud of our Church. I am tired of sitting in front of a computer so many hours a day. I am hopeful about Easter. I am warmed by the people that worship with me on the internet. I am impatient for normal to happen again. In this whirlwind of feelings, I am reminded that all of them exist for good reason. We are paradoxically deployed to our isolation to save the lives of those around us. Our isolation is the hallmark of our love, and our online presence is no longer a necessity to stay relevant in the information age: it is the spiritual lifeline for our community. In our deployment to be disciples of Christ, we have shed our buildings, and we are quickly adapting to showing Christ’s love in whole new ways. While we learn, please help us solve problems, and be patient when things always do not go perfectly. And please keep praying continually, and remember that in this odd time, staying in can be a sign of your love for God’s people.

Be safe, stay compassionate, and remain faithful.

Nick

Spring Cleaning

Dear Christ Church,

When I first arrived at Christ Church, I was so excited to be serving in such a loving and beautiful Church that I did not, or could not, see the mundane work that was right before me. The office was filled with old furniture that was largely unused, we had cabinets filled with documents that we have not needed for years, and we even had a safe that was locked that we had no way of opening. Our office was filled to the brim of stuff that we did not need, and after spending some decent time here, it began to feel claustrophobic. There is something about Lent, especially when the weather starts to warm, that fills me with the spirit to purge all of the clutter in my life. When Lent arrived in 2017, I started to literally throw furniture and old useless files out of the office, and it was glorious.

The office purge was desperately needed. Long before I arrived, the office staff was significantly downsized, but the office furniture remained the same; it was an echo of what once was, rather than what the church could be. Deciding what needed to go, what should go, and what we actually needed was a watershed moment for Deborah (our parish administrator) and me. Even though some blood, sweat and tears were shed, we felt renewed after we finished.

This was a paradigm shift for my perception of Christ Church. Up until this point, I had a fairly nihilistic view of Church property; however, once I began to see peeling paint, crumbling ceilings, and, of course, the infamous carpet in the undercroft, I realized that something needed to be done. The physical condition of our buildings affects how we worship and learn, and we must take care of them. At this point I began asking you for money, something that I was initially very uncomfortable with, but have not stopped doing! Every spring since we started our renovations, we have tackled massive projects such as: the air conditioning ductwork (which was surprisingly huge), making the new nursery, finishing the rectory, and remodeling the second floor and basement for the Boys and Girls Club. Now, we are about to begin remodeling the undercroft on March 2nd, and I am unbelievably relieved, and I am sure you are as well.

This has been a tremendous effort from our Junior Wardens, especially Trent Bowles, Carol Deaton and Dan Cahill, but it truly was a team effort from the entire congregation. Many of you donated time, talent and funds to make our Parish House and Church look like the beautiful and loving places that they always have been. Everything in the undercroft is older than I am, and when the ceiling and carpet come out, it will be our chance to make it a welcoming place for our guests. Our Church is a sacred mix of ancient traditions, space that has been shaped by past generations, and our current ever-changing ministries. I am glad that we are able to embrace our past while shedding our physical clutter; in doing so, we can build a stronger church foundation that can better serve Christ through our neighbors.

As spring creeps into our lives and we embrace this season of Lent, it is important to remember how wonderful getting rid of the clutter can feel. Just like our physical Church, we are an amalgam of wonderful histories, hopes for the future, and maybe some clutter that would be better left behind. Sometimes this clutter can prevent us from being as devout or as loving as we would like to be. Looking at all of the deferred maintenance of our souls can feel so overwhelming it is tempting to just let it go. Instead of fixing it all now, take one room and start to throw all of that junk to the curb and start to breathe a little clearer.

Blessings,

Nick

What Makes Us Unique

Dear Christ Church,

I am constantly dumbstruck by the multitude of experiences I have had that certainly must be unique to Martinsville. Sometimes these experiences are not positive. If you go to the Kroger parking lot on Saturday afternoon you can encounter traffic behavior that could not exist anywhere else, and you’ll probably leave with existential angst. I have also had people furious with me that I have not kept appointments that they made by writing notes to me and stuffing them into the cracks in the brickwork of the Church. Despite the odd bits of disfunction, the things that make our community unique are far more positive than negative.

Sometimes Martinsville manages to have the best of both sides of city and country life. I have not been anywhere else where I can walk with my three dogs on the trail that is as nice as the Dick and Willy (the name of our trail system must also be unique to our locality) for an hour without seeing anyone and still be able to walk to several restaurants in our Uptown area. Every morning, I take my child to daycare, I get a great cup of coffee at Daily Grind, go to work, and I can do so without having to drive at all. This is not normal, and it is absolutely remarkable. There are many great things about living in Martinsville, but one of my favorites is the sense of community that is thrust upon you. In major cities, you have to be intentional about building community and most people get to pick and choose who is in their circle. In Martinsville, the community pulls you in regardless of what camp you are in, and everyone knows your business for better or worse.

I have found myself in the middle of minor controversies a couple of times. I don’t regret my stance or behavior with any of them, but I remember the attention I got after the first one was unnerving, and it left me feeling vulnerable. If I had lived in Atlanta or Washington DC, I probably would have gotten a bit of support from fellow Episcopalian clergy, but that is about it. In those tough times, I will never forget the amount of support that I have received from all sorts of clergy types and from perfect strangers. I have witnessed tremendous acts of kindness that people have done for strangers. If these modern Good Samaritans had lived anywhere else, they probably thought they could not have reached out to the help that they were helping, because of difference in political party, or the Church they attend. In Martinsville, you often feel like it is impossible to feel anonymous and that can feel very claustrophobic; however, when the rubber hits the road and you feel life punch you in the gut, all of those people that know your business are there to help lift you up.

In many ways, the community that has developed in Martinsville is not unlike a family. You don’t always get along with everyone in your family, and sometimes you may not even like them, but you always love them. In places that are big enough to ignore your neighbor, people rarely get the chance to get to know, invest in, and get to love the people that they disagree with. In Martinsville, we do not have the luxury of treating our churches like tribal camps, separating ourselves from our brothers and sisters in Christ. And at Christ Church we do not have the sinful privilege of ignoring someone that comes through our doors. Whenever someone is in need, we must show the love of Christ and step up, because that person is our family. When strangers step through our doors, they are the most important people in the Church, because they have made it home, even if they haven’t realized it yet.

Blessings,

Nick

Santa's Delivery Schedules

Dear Christ Church,

As many of you know, most of my childhood was spent in central Michigan. This time of year was always a bit harrowing and not just because it was Michigan in winter. All of my grandparents lived in Toledo, which, being two and a half hours away, was pretty much on the other side of the world. I felt guilty going so far for Christmas, because Santa would have a hard time traversing such a long distance in one night. To make things even more complicated, each set of Grandparents lived on opposite sides of the city, making Santa’s work that much more difficult. I was never too stressed though, because everything worked out in the end; generally, Santa would come a couple of days before actual Christmas day to my Grandma and Grandpa Batchelor’s house, and would then visit my Grandma and Grandpa Hull’s house for Christmas Day. He didn’t have anything to deliver to our actual home, but we always made it a point to leave him cookies and milk anyway. Later, I learned that Santa’s gift delivery schedule worked out great for my mom’s crazy schedule as an ER nurse, where it was the rule that everyone had to work either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.

As a child, everything seemed to fit together so seamlessly that I assumed this was going to be the way it would always work, and it was how it worked for everyone else. Only now when Leandra and I are carefully negotiating present delivery schedules with Santa do I realize how complicated and sometimes painful this process can be. Both Leandra and I have to mourn the loss of old present delivery schedules that our parents established with Santa, and we have to form our own. This year, we went through a trial contract with Santa and the Thanksgiving Turkey, where presents were delivered in Georgia on Thanksgiving, while Santa will swing by Alexandria a couple of days after Christmas. I do not know if this is how it will work out with Santa in the future, but right now we are just trying to have Christmas with all of the people that we love, regardless of when that might be.

This may sound like a stretch, and maybe it is, but not nearly as much as you might first guess; in a lot of ways, this is kind of how the Church first started celebrating Christmas. Christmas on December 25th, with a pageant and Midnight Mass the night before, was not always the way it worked. Jesus never gave us a commandment that we celebrate his birthday during a winter festival each year. We actually do not know when his exact birthday was, but early Christians felt the need to celebrate it regardless, just as we do today. Before Christmas was on December 25th, most European cultures and religions had winter festivals to combat the dark and dreary days; as these people converted to Christianity, it made sense to celebrate Christ’s birth during these festivals. As hundreds of years went by, people forgot about this season’s pagan roots, and never questioned why they bring trees into their homes and why Santa Claus looks suspiciously like Oden. Then most people, like people today, see Christmastide as a chance to be with family, to remember that so long-ago, Christ was born to an unwed couple in Bethlehem, and how that is gloriously and mysteriously tied in with our salvation. Regardless of when or how you may celebrate the coming of Christ, the important thing is that you celebrate it, and try to do so with those whom you love.

Merry Christmas,

Nick

A Snapshot

Dear Christ Church,

A tremendous amount of tragic, wonderful, and profound things have happened in the last two months. In the midst of all of the heaviness, sorrow, and joy, something very discreet, but significant happened. The picture directory was finished and printed. This may not sound like a big deal, but it is going to likely play a larger role in our Church than we initially thought. It is practical and helpful, but its real use and value will not be seen for some time. I began every church job I have ever had by studying the old picture directories. My goal, foolishly, has been to memorize peoples’ names before I meet them, which never worked.

Picture directories are not great tools for memorizing names and faces, but they are wonderful windows into communities in a very specific place and time. If you think about it, they almost immediately become obsolete. The information in the directories stays the same, while we constantly change. When you pick up your directory, you may notice that the beautiful summer weather in the family portraits is gone, and maybe you changed your hair style. Twenty years from now when you find it in the bottom of an underused drawer, this will be a prized treasure. You will laugh at how we dressed, and you’ll comment on how everyone is all grown up. You will notice the names and faces of those who have died, and those who have moved away. You and our community will be entirely different, filled with different grumpy old men, busy altar guild members, and little children with runny noses. This directory will take you back to this time and place, and you may even long for how you feel right now.

Getting older is a weird thing. For some crazy reason, God made us to be dynamic. We not only change from year to year, but from day to day and hour to hour, yet somehow, we always convince ourselves we have arrived. We are hardwired into believing that we finally understand the world as it is, and we are always devastatingly wrong. Sometimes we expand our worldview so gradually we don’t even notice, and other times we become suddenly aware of how little we know, and we are forced to change. I try to remind myself that there is no arriving to a place of perfect awareness and wisdom. God made us to be dynamic, so we must be made to constantly be on a journey, and to arrive at perfect awareness is to be stagnant and limited. On this journey, things like our directory can act as markers of how far we have come since those pictures, addresses, and phone numbers were compiled, and when we revisit these memories years from now it can a reminder that we are constantly changing, and we never arrive at perfect knowledge, or even perfect faith, but it is on the road that we encounter Christ.

Blessings,

Nick

Sacred Distractions

Dear Christ Church,

It has been three years since I first started to unpack the boxes in my office to begin work as your priest, and I still cannot get my monthly newsletter out on time! I imagine that others see me as a bit disorganized and maybe a little bit scatterbrained, and though I do have my disorderly moments, I am actually a very punctual person, and it bothers me to no end when these deadlines pass by, and there is no article in sight. In the coming years, I will strive to have more consistently timed articles for our newsletter, but I have to admit that I really do not regret being as late as I have been. Things have had a habit of popping up just when I would start to feel the need to sit down and start writing, and these distractions were often the most important things I have done at Christ Church. I keep waiting for the busy season to finally end so we can focus knocking out our long to-do list of unglamorous, but necessary tasks, and I am beginning to realize that the busy season will simply never end, and that is good news. I have found that these distractions are at worst, slightly annoying, and at best, an invitation from the Holy Spirit to see the sacred things happening just around the corner.

Let’s organize these sacred distractions in the three broad categories:

The “Hey Fr. Nick, You Wouldn’t Believe This!” category is joyful, usually uncomplicated and always fun. This often happens when the church is directly involved in their happy moment like a wedding or a baptism. Marrying people and baptizing babies are some of my favorite things in this world, and those moments are sacred for obvious reasons, but the more subtle moments fill me with joy as well. A younger member of our community grabbing me before Church to tell me that they got an A on a stressful test, or that they got their learners’ permit fills my heart with love.
The “Hey Fr. Nick, I Just Popped into to Chat.” category is a bit more complicated. First of all, you don’t fool me. No one pops in just to have casual conversation with their priest, and that is ok! This category generally pops up when people do not know how to say something on their mind, and it’s my job to help with getting it out.
Sometimes this involves a question someone feels self-conscious in asking, like, “Do you think my dog is going to heaven?” (which my official stance is, “I don’t know, but my guess is probably yes, especially if they were a good dog, and I haven’t met any bad ones.) Other times this comes up when someone is upset with me or the church, and is afraid that this will lead to conflict. If you are upset with me or the Church, and you came into my office to talk about it rather than ringing up half of the Church, then I already hold you in the highest regard! Asking a question that feels silly, or letting someone know that you are upset with them can make people feel vulnerable, which makes these little pop-ins fertile groups for sacred conversations.
The “Fr. Nick, We Need Your Prayers” category is always difficult, powerful, humbling and filled with grace. Regardless of what statement or request comes next I know that the person cared enough about it to reach out, so it is always important. Sometimes it is the health of a beloved pet, sometimes it is about a loved one who is going through a hard time, and sometimes it means that their lives will never be the same. These are the calls or even text messages that I dread, but I feel so very privileged that people think to call me in those moments.
These distractions are small windows into the soul of our community. They are unscheduled, and sometimes the shutters to these windows fly open in an instant and demand that we peer through to see the joy, pain, insecurity and love that was always brewing just beneath the surface. Sorry that this is late. I hope to improve, but if I don’t, I know that you will understand.

Blessings,

Nick

It Is the Best Medicine

Wherever I find myself, emotionally or spiritually, something in our worship service always seems to resonate. When I am in a good place, praising God through our hymns and the Gloria, I am always reminded to be thankful for the good things in this life. When I am feeling down, the Prayers of the People give me words for my wants and needs, while giving me a chance to turn my heart to others. The confession gives me a chance to admit my wrongs, and more importantly, reminds me that I am still loved despite my faults. All of these things are wrapped up in the Eucharist, where I find my complete self being saved through God’s only son, a miracle that goes beyond understanding. Constantly, our world tells us to be a certain way, always happy, always productive, but Church invites us into a more honest space. Whoever you are when the bells ring and we start our first hymn is who you were meant to be in that moment, and in that moment, you are a beloved child of God. As Christians we find God in all of the emotions that God has given us; however, we seem to shy away from one in particular, and it may be the one that we need the most.

We have thanksgiving, humility, hope, despair, and comfort all built into our worship, but where do we embrace humor?? I think an unfortunate assumption that many carry is that while all other ways of feeling can be sacred, humor, frivolity and laughter are always profane and not fit for Christian life. Some of my fondest memories in Church are when I have found myself doubled over in laughter sharing a wonderful moment with those around me. My family was always very good at making bits of sacred humor in Church, and it kept me and my siblings engaged when we were less than interested in the finer points of liturgy. One of my favorite family traditions evolved around the offering. When the offering plates were going around, we would wait for my dad to take out the envelope, and then we would try to discreetly snatch it, so we could have the honor to place it in the plate. Eventually this small competition became so fierce that my dad wrote three checks so we could each put in our own envelope. This of course, turned into a race to see who could get their check in first. One Sunday, the ushers were so confused when my brother very respectfully walked to the front of the Church at the beginning of the offering to beat all of us to the plate. Another Sunday, the sermon was about the great reversal where the last will be first, and the first will be last, so of course, now the winner was whoever got their envelope in last. These silly little things bonded my family together. In the midst of the liturgy happening around us, we were creating our own family rituals that reminded us that the laughter we share is sacred as well, and that Church does not have to be perpetually solemn and rigid.

Humor requires a healthy dose of humility. If we take ourselves too seriously, then a humorous mistake becomes mortifying, shameful, and awkward. I am prone to mistakes in Church, and I am always thankful when my mistakes are met with generous and kind laughter. This not only reminds me that I am not perfect, but that there is always grace to be found in our community. Humor can cut tension, and when used with tact and compassion, it can remind people of the bond that they share. Frivolous family rituals and inside jokes strengthen bonds among families and friends. In the midst of the heaviness and seriousness of the world, we desperately need to embrace the humility and pure joy of frivolity, humor, and laughter.

Blessings,

Nick

Summer Pilgrimages

When I decided to write this article about summer vacations, my initial thought was to talk about them in terms of refuge. Many of us have that one place we retreat to in the summer whether it is the beach, the mountains, or even that aunt’s house with the great porch just down the road. In the Gospels, we constantly see Jesus seeking some alone time in the midst of his ministry of preaching, healing and eating with sinners. On his way to Jerusalem, Jesus is inundated with people seeking his wisdom, or attempting to catch him in some heresy, and every once and while, Jesus seems to try to get away and goes off into the wilderness alone. This rarely results in the rest and relaxation he may have been expecting, because the crowd faithfully follows him. It is natural and even a good and holy thing to seek refuge in those special places away from the busyness of our normal routines, but the more I think about the summer trips we have planned they look more like pilgrimages than places of refuge.

Early Christian pilgrims would go on journeys to places of great significance to the faith. Common destinations included Jerusalem, Rome, or places a bit closer to home where Saints were said to have performed miracles. The journey was meant to be a transformative time that challenged the pilgrim physically and spiritually. Though the journey ended at a shrine or even on the very streets that Christ walked, it was the journey that was often the most important element of the pilgrimage. Leandra, Andrew and I are going on a couple of trips this summer, and both destinations are sacred places for our families, but imagining packing up the car with all of Andrew’s essentials, worrying about the details of traveling with a baby, and stressing out about leaving the comfortable routine we’ve created for our child makes these trips feel like times of sacred transformation and less like a retreat.

Andrew has been sleeping in his bassinet almost his entire life. Every morning he is greeted by our dogs who are equal parts excited to see him and for their upcoming breakfast. From there, he either goes to daycare or comes into the office with me. At noon, Leandra picks him up and takes him back home where he naps, eats, and plays until bedtime in the early evening. This routine is comfortable, and it gives Leandra and me a sense of control and sanity in the midst of the chaos of being new parents. Even before we can remember, our parents created similar comfortable routines for us and then broke them to show us the important places in their lives. For Leandra, her extended family would retreat to Bethany Beach Delaware, and my family would go to Sleeping Bear Dunes in Michigan and then to Lake Hiawassee once we moved to Georgia. Some of my earliest memories are being in the family car bursting at the seams with excitement to go swimming and see family that I would only get to see twice a year. I didn’t realize until I was much older that these trips were just as much about showing me what people and places are special to my family, as they were about relaxing and having fun. It was an exercise in our parents showing us who we were outside of the routine, and I cannot remember a time when we did not take these annual pilgrimages to our family’s special places.

Now it is our turn to show Andrew where he came from and introduce him to the people that loved him before he was even born. Pilgrimages are journeys that transform us by showing or reminding us of who we truly are. I would go crazy if it were not for our daily routine, but now my soul is aching to go through the trial and tribulation of getting Andrew to my family’s sacred places, and where the distance between us and God feels so very thin.

Blessings,

Nick

Things Left Undone

There is mirror leaning against the wall in our bedroom that should have been hung three months ago when it was bought. At its current angle it is pretty much useless except for reminding me that I still have one more thing that I should, but am not going to do, before I can relax and go to bed. I already know where it needs to be hung, and all I have to do is get my tools and get it done. All in all, this would take about five minutes, but it is still not going to get done any time soon. As soon as I get home it will slip my mind, and I will not think about it until I get changed for bed, and it will be too late. I have probably a dozen little things on my to-do list that I have been putting off for months, and they all seem to be easy to put off exactly because they are so minor. For some odd reason I seem to be wired to tackle difficult things promptly and aggressively, but allow minute tasks to pile up until they become overwhelming, which is a shame, because it is often the small things that make such a big difference.

In our confession that we pray every Sunday in Church we confess things done and the things left undone that have distanced ourselves from God or from our neighbor. I think you may be like me in that I have more things on the “left undone” list, and most of them seem so very minor, but they can carry a tremendous weight. It’s not just silly things like remembering to take care of a chore, but small things that can show love to the people in your life. It can be checking in with a friend that is hurting, or calling a sibling that is going through a big shift in their lives. These small things often just take a minute, and I often find myself at night wishing I had thought of calling my brother or sister before it had gotten too late. The busyness of the day pushed the thought of those most important to me to the back burner, and it was only at night when I had time to slow down that they popped back into my mind.

Once in a blue moon I find a gloriously empty day, and I start to notice all of the little chores around the house that I have been putting off, and the day turns into a whirlwind of activity. By evening all of those small neglected boxes on my to-do list are checked off, and I feel a bit of weight go off of my chest, well at least until I start neglecting another duty, which is pretty much immediate. What is even more rare is when I find myself driving to Roanoke by myself and my mind is forced to slow down, and I end up giving someone I love a call, and it is always worthwhile. I do not know why I am wired to leave these small but vital things left undone considering I find so much joy in doing them. I guess it makes me thankful for our confession, so at least I know that I am forgiven, and it gives me hope that maybe one day I can change my wiring and find the time for the small things.

Blessings,

Nick

On the Loss of a Prophet

This past weekend, Christianity lost one of its most faithful prophets and leaders. Rachel Held Evens was a bit older than I am, but not by much, and died after receiving an antibiotic that she unknowingly had an allergy to. She had a husband and two young children, and a massive fanbase of readers that were taken with her approach that refused to fit into any stereotype or mold. Rachel was born into the evangelical/fundamentalist movement and was a bit of a zealot for much of her early adulthood. She eventually became disillusioned with the culture around that movement and became a vocal critic, and eventually became an extremely popular religious author. Even though she parted ways with the fundamentalist movement, she always approached difficult subjects with heaps of compassion and nuance. During her faith crisis, she found her way to an Episcopal Church in Dayton, Tennessee, not far from where I went to high school. Many of the articles I have recently read about her make it sound like it was her newfound Episcopal identity that lead her to be a critic of her former Church, which is entirely inaccurate. She was a critic first, and in her search for authenticity and sense of place she found the Episcopal Church.

Rachel Held Evans was outspoken on many different subjects, one of them being the purity movement geared toward young women within evangelical circles, which places a very strong emphasis on abstinence only education. This was the culture that Rachel was raised in, and was a firm believer in for much of her life, but as she grew older she saw the shame-based tactics directed at these women to not only be unfair and ineffective, but not in line with her understanding of a loving God. If you want to know more about her views on this matter, please read her blog.

In this blog post Evans wrote about how this culture teaches children that women are either “virgins or whores”, and there was no in between. This binary approach does not represent a world and a God filled with grace, compassion and nuance. Her criticism did not only come from her conviction that this culture is harmful to young people, especially girls, but that it is not theologically correct either. Most vocal critics of the purity movement ignore the religious aspect, or openly use it as a weapon against Christianity in general. Evans turned the conversation on its head and wrote to Christians, as a Christian, and advocated for another way that better reflects the Christian life.

The sexual purity movement is pervasive in much of Christian culture, but the idea that ideologies, movements, political parties, Churches and lives must be completely pure is a growing trend, and it is just as much void of compassion and nuance as the purity movement of Rachel’s adolescence. This culture of purity in our religious and secular worlds motivates its adherents by getting them to fear those outside of their bubbles and rewards loyalty and conformity with acceptance and affirmation. The polarity in our political system, and schisms within so many Churches is a symptom of purity culture. If you take any hot topic in the world today, you can only find two approaches to addressing the issue. For example: if you are Pro-Choice you believe this creed, and these are your talking points. If you are Pro-Life, here is your creed and what you say. If someone from either side strays from their creed, then they are often seen as a traitor to the cause. This is purity culture controlling the conversation around the most important issues of our day, and it is quick to snuff out dissonant voices.

Rachel Held Evans was a master of writing outside of the lines that others had drawn around these subjects, and she was not afraid to address controversies boldly, while trying earnestly to engage both sides of the issue. Regarding abortion, she wrote:

Even though I think abortion is morally wrong in most cases, and I support more legal restrictions around it I often vote for pro-choice candidates when I think their policies will do the most to address the health and economic concerns that drive women to get abortions in the first place.

Abortion makes pretty much everyone uncomfortable. Purity culture helps people feel more comfortable by giving them well defined allies and enemies. If you know who is on your side, and if you have someone to fight, then you don’t have to ask yourself the difficult questions. I love this quote from Rachel Held Evans, because it does make me feel uncomfortable. It does not fit into the dialogue that you hear being debated on the evening news, or in work place break rooms, and there is a bit of something that challenges both sides’ orthodoxy. What I love most is how she presents her views. It boldly points to the truth that when it comes to big issues such as abortion, politics, church and sexuality there are no enemies. We are all children of God, redeemed by Christ, called to love one another and are made to search for truth authentically and compassionately, and Rachel Held Evans seems to have been the only one writing with these things in mind. She will be dearly missed for a long time to come.

May you rest in the grace of God.

If you want to read more about Rachel Held Evans I recommend her two most recent books:

Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again

Searching for Sunday: Loving, Leaving, and Finding the Church

Moving, Puppies and Babies: We've Been Through it All

Dear Christ Church,

My first newsletter article was thanking you for the incredible welcome that Leandra and I had received when we arrived in Martinsville. You had given us so much to be thankful for. We were showered with your support and love, and immediately we knew that Christ Church was a special place. Time and time again our suspicions were confirmed. We have been through so much, big things and small. Simple and sincere words of encouragement mean so much on a rough day, and when the rubber hits the road you have always been there for us. I will never forget when Peanut, our beloved dog, almost died from eating a corncob, and I had to miss a Sunday Service to be with her and Leandra in Greensboro. At the time I was confident that I would receive a lot of blow back in most other Churches, and I was a bit nervous about missing the service on short notice, but we were once again given nothing but your love and sympathy for our sick little dog. You have been our neighbors, friends, dog sitters, and pretty soon you will be our baby sitters!

Once again, I find myself looking at a newsletter deadline, and I want you to know that we are so very thankful for everything you have done for us throughout Leandra’s pregnancy, and the first weeks of Andrew’s life. This is by far the most difficult and wonderful thing we have ever done, and we could not have asked for a better community to support us as we figure out how to be parents. Unless I am mistaken (John Swezey, I’m sure you can fact check me), there is no precedent for a priest having a child while serving at Christ Church. Plenty of priests have had children, but they were already born by the time they got to Christ Church. When I told the vestry that we were expecting, we were in uncharted waters. Having those first two weeks with Leandra and Andrew were priceless, and all of the prayers, meals, gifts, the baby shower, and love made us feel part of a family, not just a congregation.

Family is used as a metaphor throughout scripture for God’s love, and what the Church is supposed to look like. God is described as our Father, and we are God’s adoptive children through the love of Jesus Christ. In the Church we are all brothers and sisters in Christ. Scripture consistently points to the profound conclusion that we are all part of a family that is not bound together by our own relation, but by the love of God. Being part of a family can be complicated, and it can be filled with unspeakable grace and love. Too often Churches embrace the complicated part, and not the grace and love part of being a family in Christ. I am thankful that we do not shy away from the complicated bits, because the occasional controversy or argument with a large dose of honesty and compassion is healthy, but every once and a while it is wonderful to feel the grace and love part of being a family in full force, which we have definitely received the last few months. Thank you for being part of our family, and showing us what the love of our Church family can feel like.

Blessings,

Nick

Opening Our Door

Dear Christ Church,

Churches technically have nothing to do with buildings. Our Church is the sum of hundreds of people that are connected to our community through prayer, worship, service and fellowship. On top of that, the culture of Church did not develop overnight. Thousands of people over the course of many generations called Christ Church home, and they help lead and direct the Church to what it is today. If any one of these people were absent we would be incomplete. So, our Church is the sum of thousands of people, present and past, who have put something into our little community that professes Christ as savior in a very proper Anglican manner. So, our Church really has very little to do with our buildings, but let’s face it, we have really nice buildings.

Most fellowship halls I’ve been to are made out of cinderblocks, or badly bruised drywall. I remember feeling surprised and bit in awe when I first got a tour of the Parish House. It really is a unique place that feels out of time. I never thought I would ever be able to teach Sunday School in such a wonderful spot like the library on the first floor. We also make our Parish House an asset to our community by renting it out for baby showers, parties, and for prom pictures.

The problem with wonderful old buildings like our Parish House is that they are a ton of work to maintain, and they stay the same size even if the community around them grows, or shrinks. We are now in an upswing in attendance and participation, but there is still no way that the children and youth would ever need all of the space upstairs or in the basement, and they haven’t in a while, so these spaces have become disused. They haven’t been abused, but it is clear they haven’t been used to their full potential, and they have been in a state of decay.

In my first tour of the Parish House we were going down the back stair well. I’m not sure if you’ve been on those stirs recently, but there isn’t a light and the paint is peeling heavily. I remember walking down those stairs, and thinking, “Well, we’re never going to get that fixed.” The reason why I thought this would be in a perpetual state of disrepair was because there was no reason we would ever need to fix it. There would always be a better project in a space that was used more often for us to spend the time and resources on than an unused staircase. It was clear that the Parish House had far more room, and odd features, like a back stairwell, than our congregation could ever use.

If you drive just over a mile away to the Salvation Army there is another community about to be vacated from their building. The Boys and Girls Club had been in a building on the Salvation Army campus for some time, but the Salvation Army needs to consolidate, so they have to amicably end their relationship. When I heard about this I invited the Boys and Club to visit our property, and initially everyone was skeptical, but the weird and quirky aspects of our building actually made everyone start to imagine what this would look like.

The Church really only uses the first floor, except for one Sunday School room upstairs, along with the archives room. One room in the basement is reserved for AA meetings, but they only meet at noon and on the weekends. The back stairwells give direct access to the basement and second floor, while keeping the first floor secure. If we turned four unused rooms upstairs into administrative offices, and three unused rooms in the basement into a teen center and computer lab then the Boys and Girls Club could move most of their operations into our building. They would get a better space than they had, we would get rent income to reinvest into the Parish House, and more importantly we would get more young people onto our beautiful campus to enjoy our unique space, and maybe they will come to call this place home, just as we have.

This partnership has tremendous opportunity, but I do not want to downplay potential challenges that we may face. The vestry and I have been working diligently to identify issues and create plans and policies to address them before they become problems, but at the end of the day there will always be an element of the unknown. The Boys and Girls Club is offering us a menagerie of things that we desperately need, such as a direct connection to the greater community, advertising for the Parish House, a means and a reason to fix up unused parts of our campus, and it encourages us to engage youth and make programs for the next generation. By conservative estimates we will breakeven financially, so their rent will pay for our renovations over the course of three years. There is a good chance we will make more than the cost of the renovations, in which case that money will be reinvested in the Parish House. However, this is an unknown element. We can make projections and estimates, and I believe we have done our due diligence, and even then, there is no way of telling the future. We have thought of where we might step on each other’s toes, and so far, we have found solutions to every situation. The staff of the Boys and Girls Club are showing themselves to be very flexible, and interested in being a good neighbor. However, there will always be situations that could not have been thought of in advance, and we will have to cross those as they come.

Even though our buildings are not what define us as a Church, they certainly mean a lot to us. Our walls are soaked with the prayers and memories of people that have passed long before us, and when you walk through the doors to our Church or Parish House you can feel that you are walking into somewhere special. When we welcome in the Boys and Girls Club in early April we are inviting them to participate in that history. We are handing over some of our special space to help form their lives as well, and that can make us feel both excited and vulnerable. For at least the next three years we will be cultivating a relationship with everyone that is involved at the Boys and Girls Club, and I do not want to pretend that everything will always go smoothly, but I see far greater opportunity than challenges for Christ Church, the Boys and Girls Club, and our greater community, and this is an opportunity that should be passed.

Blessings,

Nick

Everyday Epiphanies

Ever since we told the world that we were expecting a baby we have received a tremendous outpouring of support from you, and we cannot be more thankful. We have received countless well wishes, and tidbits of advice and insight into parenthood. I have found that most of these interactions follow a similar format. First, the person asks when the baby is due, and one of us replies with, “February 27th”. The next reaction is threefold. First, the questioner gives a short gasp or comment and their eyes get very large. The second step is to tell us what we should dread. This usually is sleep or fecal related. “Get sleep while you can, but once he’s here you’re done with getting eight hours a night!” and “I hope you know how to change a diaper!” (I don’t) are common second step responses. The third step is a cryptic message of hope such as, “But, oh man, it is worth it… Once you see them start to grow… well you’ll see. It’s the best thing in the world.”

Every aspect of this unique interaction points to the truth that Leandra and I cannot possibly foresee the challenges and joys that are only seven weeks away. Intellectually we know that we are going to be tired all of the time, and we will change so many diapers that we will do it in our sleep. We also know that we will love being parents. Knowing these things intellectually, and truly living them are very different, and I can see it in your eyes when you tell me about your experiences. You know that we know that sleep will be a valuable commodity when the baby comes, but you feel compelled to tell us anyway, and your eyes seem to be telling us, “Yes, you know that you will be tired, but you cannot possibly know how tired. Yes, you know it’s all going to be worth it, but you don’t know how wonderful it will be.” My hunch is that when baby Andrew finally comes Leandra and I will have an Epiphany about what it is to be parents, and we will be forever changed. We simply are incapable of comprehending what it is like until that moment finally arrives, and when it does we will understand the look in your eyes when you tell us about being truly tired, and truly in love.

The moments of Epiphany in scripture seem to follow a similar format. The disciples knew to follow Jesus, and probably considered him their Lord, but they could not comprehend what that truly meant except for a few sacred moments. We see this at the transfiguration, where Peter, James and John seem to finally understand not only who Jesus is, but what he is for one glorious moment. Even though the moment was fleeting it changed them. I feel like my life is like the disciples following Jesus even though they cannot possibly understand what Jesus is while they are with him. They understand intellectually that they should follow and listen to him, but they are incapable of understanding why, just like I am incapable of understanding parenthood without being a parent. We pursue so many things on faith that we forget that we are constantly journeying into the glorious unknown. Leandra and I have faith that we are called to be parents even though that belief cannot be measured or tested, so we boldly and naively journey on that great adventure. In the same way we follow Christ boldly and with great naivety. We know in our hearts that we belong to God, and that Christ has redeemed us, and each day we learn a bit more about what that means, but this truth is far too large for us to understand fully, so we live for the next Epiphany.

Blessings,

Nick

The Marathon

I want to talk to you about your heart rate. A low resting heart rate is a sign of good cardiovascular health. Somewhat ironically, increasing your heart rate through exercise is necessary to maintain a good resting heart rate. We don’t achieve a slower pulse by practicing keeping our pulse low, instead we do the exact opposite to achieve our goal.

Controversy gets a bad rap. Generally, when we hear about controversies in Churches we hear about once healthy congregations being torn apart about whatever topic is in vogue that generation. We don’t hear about Churches facing a difficult issue, hearing each other out, and navigating a way forward without either side getting so upset that they leave in a huff of self-righteous indignation. We don’t hear about these stories because they are boring and don’t make headlines. Self-righteous indignation is almost always ugly, while in my opinion, I think controversy is an innocent victim.

The pulse of any organization is controversy. If a Church becomes completely void of controversy it means that people don’t care enough to find things they disagree about, or even worse, they feel like they cannot rock the boat without everything falling apart. In these Churches the pulse goes flat and they usually die a quiet death. The opposite is just as dangerous. If people only go to Church to look for the next fight then the pulse goes too fast for too long until the Church falls apart from exhaustion. We can see controversy in scripture as well. There were tons of controversies when the ancient Jews were in the wilderness, and the new Christian Church didn’t even exist a generation without having a major controversy about circumcision.

At Christ Church I think we have a really healthy pulse. I don’t spend most of my time playing referee, nor do I feel like people are afraid to speak up or form unpopular opinions. You could say that we have a healthy resting heart rate, but just like our actual heart, our Church’s heart might need some exercise, and that is a sign of our health rather than our sickness.

Many people have approached me and suggested that we have one service on Sunday so we can all worship together. Just as many people approached me and said that consolidating services is the worst thing since Miracle Whip (seriously people, use Duke’s or Hellmann’s). The worship committee met recently to discuss the possibility of trying one service for a season, perhaps over Lent and Easter, and see how people like it. Trying an experiment like this is good, because none of us know what the outcome will be. Maybe consolidating will increase overall participation, because having a fuller Church will reflect how vibrant we actually are, or we may find out that overall participation will drop, or people will miss having a more intimate worship setting. The fact of the matter is we don’t know. The point of an experiment is to discover the unknown variables, so we can make an informed decision.

After a passionate hour long meeting the worship committee decided that it did not have any consensus on whether or not to do this experiment, or what the experiment would look like. What we did decide to do is to hear from you. We want to know what will work for you and what will not. Would having one service at 9:30 or 10:30 make it impossible for you to attend? Would it make you just really not want to go? We want to know these things.

I will be transparent with my thoughts on this matter. I prefer more services to fewer. I don’t like the idea of giving something up, and I want to engage as many people as possible. I’d rather add a third service on Sunday than go to one. Here’s the thing, I could be wrong, and I am interested to know if there is a better way of doing worship at Christ Church. And what I care about far more than the number of services we have on Sunday is our ability to be flexible, to try to new things, give ourselves permission to fail with grace, and face controversy and disagreement directly and with abundant compassion.

The worship committee will meet again on January 28 at 5:30 to discuss this matter, and we would like to invite you to attend to listen and contribute. What I encourage you to do is to be honest even if your opinion is not in the majority. What you may not do is get so passionate about your view that you cannot consider the possibility that you are wrong, or so passionate that you cannot give others grace to try an experiment and fail. Remember that we are people of grace and humility, and that our Church is old, beautiful, and we are in this for the marathon and not the sprint.

Blessings,

Fr. Nick

Marking Our Days

I like to give a little talk about how we make time sacred whenever we do a service out in the community, or when we have a lot of visitors that may not be familiar with the liturgical seasons. Every year we savor the Gospel by having seasons that tell the story of Christ. The liturgical year begins with Advent when we prepare for the incarnation, and we go through Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Pentecost, and my favorite, “The Season After Pentecost”. These seasons tell the story of our salvation, and they help give depth to how we mark our days. On top of the liturgical seasons we also have a calendar of saint days that we typically observe on our Wednesday Eucharist. Almost every single day is the anniversary of the day a saint has died, and we remember them by telling their stories. This is another way that we give meaning to time. All of this points to the truth that there is no such thing as truly ordinary time. Every day is significant, relevant to the gospel, and has its own powerful message to give us in our own day. These are all examples of how we mark time with the global Church. Most other denominations observe the liturgical year to one degree or another, and many other traditions remember the saints, and we join with our brothers and sisters in this practice.

Since I began at Christ Church two years ago I have been learning about how our community uniquely marks time. We do some things are typical of many Churches. The flowers for each Sunday are paid for by different members of the Church to remember someone that has died, or to in honor of a loved one that is still with us. These flowers that make our sanctuary that much more beautiful and they give us a way to add another layer of depth to the service that is tailored to our community. Last Sunday was not just the “Twenty third Sunday After Pentecost”, it was a day to remember Mimi, Reed and Lucy.

We are not the only Church that does our flowers in this way, but we certainly claim it as part of our culture. We do other things that are less typical, like the time capsules that we have been burying at the end of every school year. Children get to see what they put into the capsule five years after they were buried, and this is a way of putting their time at Christ Church into perspective. On the same day we also send off our graduating seniors as they transition from being members of the youth group to going off and discovering the adults that they will become. One or two of them receive the Beverly Parish award, which is in honor of a young member of the Church that died fighting in the second world war. Suddenly this day is not just another day, but a day that recognizes the sacred moment of heading off to become an adult after High School.

As I write this we are preparing for the Dan Prince Memorial Oyster Roast. When I first arrived, this event was called “Fall Flavors”, and I was shocked at how much fun I had at a Church party. It is rare that Churches host parties that people genuinely want to attend, and can actually be one of the best parties in town. That year a beloved member of the Church died far too young, and the event transitioned to become The Dan Prince Memorial Oyster Roast. Initially this was merely a fundraiser for the Church. It was a damn good fundraiser, but something mundane nonetheless. When people that love Dan decided to make this an expression of their love and a way of remembering him, it ceased to become just a party. It became a way of marking time, making it a sacred.

There is no such thing as ordinary time within Christianity, or within our community. Every day brings a new reason to remember, rejoice, and celebrate. Every day is an invitation to recognize the sacred all around us.

Blessings,

Fr. Nick

Love Transformed and Opportunities Lost

Ever since I listened to the story of Derek Black I have been thinking a lot about how we are supposed to love our enemies. Derek Black was taught to hate from the time he was born. Both of his parents had dedicated their lives to racist causes, and even went as far as to try to overthrow the government Dominica, a small Caribbean nation, to establish a white paradise. Derek’s father spent some time in prison for this failed coup d’état, and when he got out he started the still influential racist website “Stormfront”. Derek emulated his father and started a companion website for children aptly named “Stormfront Kids”. When he got older the mission of his family and their website was to make their racist views more mainstream. They no longer spoke of race wars, but ran for local government positions and tried to ease everyday Americans into more and more racist policies and rhetoric. By the time Derek went to college he had his own talk show in Florida to promote his views. Derek was the doubtless heir-apparent to his father’s racist legacy.

The incredible part of Derek’s story is not that he changed, but how he changed. When he first started attending college he knew it was only a matter of time until his peers realized who he was, and he would become an outcast, so he decided to out himself by leaving an article he wrote out for everyone to see. He did get a lot of flak from his peers, but a group of Jewish students decided to take him under their wing. Their strategy was genius. They would invite him to their weekly Shabbat dinners, and would talk about everything except for race and Derek’s involvement in white nationalism. This slowly led Derek to become disillusioned with the movement that he inherited, and he is now a vocal opponent to the views that he once championed.

In a recent interview he said that it wasn’t until much later that he realized how much it pained those Jewish students to reach out a hand to him when he felt isolated and lonely. It’s doubtless that they loathed him as much as he loathed them, but week after week they continued to engage him with carefully planned conversations, and even though they may not have liked Derek or what he stood for, they certainly loved him. The love that those students showed Derek is an incredible model for the rest of the world on how we should love our enemies. They gave the love that he needed rather than the love that he deserved, and he was transformed by that subtle and persistent engagement and love from those Jewish students.

The students that continually engaged Derek are true heroes, and Derek deserves a tremendous amount of respect for being willing to change his mind. His entire community was based on the white nationalism, and he had to give much of that up when he denounced his beliefs. Timing is also an incredibly important detail in this story of redemption. Derek had a community of racists, but they were not with him at College. If Derek had a community of like-minded peers at his school he probably would not have chosen to attend these Shabbat dinners when invited, and he would not have seen the humanity of the people that he claimed to hate. His future friends that invited him to dinner did not just see a leader of a hate group, but a scared and lonely college student that suddenly found himself a pariah. They did not know at the beginning that they could cure him of his racism, but they knew that they could cure him of his loneliness.

I keep coming back to the bit about timing. What if those students encountered Derek in the middle of an anti-Semitic demonstration? What if things got tense, or even violent? The same students that saved Derek at school could have easily fought him if the timing and context were slightly different. Derek would have still had the potential to change, and those students would have had the potential to change him, but not in that moment. This is a hard lesson for me. I know that Christ calls on me to love my enemies, and I know that it’s okay to stand up for myself when I’m threatened or being manipulated, and that much of my encounters are not solely based on my own merit or capacity to love or hate, but on the timing of the situation. I look back on all of the times I have had to privilege to show someone my love that wanted to show me their hatred. Those circumstances could have been much worse if the timing was just a bit off. I also look back on the few times I’ve had to confront people. I don’t regret those encounters either, but maybe I mourn that the timing wasn’t quite right to show them love instead.

Blessings,

Nick

No Guilt Attached

This article is for the occasional Church attender. I promise that when I see you in public I have never once thought, “Geez, where have they been?!”, or “I wonder what excuse they have this time.” And when you are able to get back to Church I never consider you to be any less part of this community.

Sometimes my position and the clerical collar make me feel pigeon-holed into this outdated, and largely inaccurate troupe, of the parish priest that is constantly on patrol to remind people of their shortcomings. The last thing I want to be is the Church attendance police. Not only is guilting people about their attendance unhelpful, it is also unchristian. There are a million reasons why you might miss Church on a regular basis, and if I don’t see you for a month, and we run into each other at the Rives, I will be glad to see you, and if you decide to go back to Church, we will welcome you with no guilt attached.

Don’t get me wrong. I want everyone to come to Christ Church, become members, pledge, join committees, and maybe even run for vestry. I want this, because I honestly believe that our Christian community has something unique to offer the world, and every new member of the Church makes us that much stronger and complete. I also realize that I am bias, and my hopes are simply not realistic for most people. My enthusiasm for our parish comes second to my commitment to you as a brother in Christ, and as a friend.

Time and time again in the Gospels we see Jesus reach out to the people on the fringe of religious society and lift them up. This seems to be for one of two reasons. The first we see in the parable of the lost sheep. Jesus teaches his disciples that the shepherd will leave his flock of ninety-nine to search for the one that is lost. He doesn’t talk about chastising the sheep when the shepherd finds it, because his search is motivated by concern and love, not anger. Our other reason is akin to the first, but distinct. Throughout the Gospels Jesus humbles religious leaders, while pointing toward the religious depth of those who have been forgotten, or even pushed out. We see this in his encounters with the hemorrhaging woman, the Syrophoenician woman, and many more. These paragons of the Gospels are not just brought into the fold, because they have been missing. They are lifted up, because the profound faith and religious depth they possess seems to be unique to those on the margins.

You could be missing Church on a regular basis because you are hung over, drained from the work week, depressed, chronically ill, you might be avoiding that one person, maybe your feelings are still hurt, or you might have lost faith. When I see you on the street, at parties, or when you come back to Church I do not know why you have been absent, but I do know that you have been missed, and regardless of why you have been gone you will be welcomed back as a fellow brother or sister, and not as an outcast.

Blessings,

Fr. Nick

The Ministers of the Church

We use the word “minister” a bit differently than many other Christian traditions. Many Churches consider ministers to be ordained people, or maybe individuals that have some sort of official leadership position within the Church. We claim that the ministers of the Church are bishops, priests, deacons and all baptized Christians. So, in other words, every member of the congregation is called to minister to the Church and to the world. In the best occasions Churches see this as an empowering approach to showing Christ’s love. They see it as a rallying cry, and motivation to shape the world. Unfortunately, this approach is often totally neglected, or dismissed as wishful thinking. I have seen many vibrant Churches and many stagnant ones, but I have never seen a Church that looks quite like ours. Energy and leadership seem to naturally rising to the surface of our community, and this affects everything from altar guild, to worship, to our buildings, and even the parties that we throw. I imagine that those of you who have been here for a long time may see this as completely normal, so I thought I would share just a couple of the amazing things I have seen and show you just how delightfully unusual they are.

The culture around worship at Christ Church consistently surprises me. This applies to our music, lay leadership, altar guild, the nursery, and any other conceivable role that has to do with worship. Here is a list of things that can cause worship to completely crumble and disappear in Episcopal Churches: not having the normal priest or preacher, not having the normal organist or choir master, last minute change of venue, literally anything different, and probably the most dramatic, having the priest run out of the Church vomiting during the Christmas pageant. Christ Church has not only experienced all of these things, the community has thrived under these normally debilitating circumstances. When the AC wasn’t working on Sunday we moved Church to the gathering space behind the Church, and people were thrilled!! This does not normally happen. When Lynn (our organist) is gone not only do we persevere, we get Will Zimmer on guitar and change the whole feel of our worship for that Sunday! This is not normal. When someone moves to town oozing with preaching talent, like Pete Budde, we get them to preach and help with services, and people love it! Once again, this is not normal. And when I got food poisoning and barely made it to the peace during the Christmas Pageant Steve Keyser, and Phil Gardner calmly took over for the rest of the service. All of these occasions would normally be debilitating for a congregation, but time and again Christ Church has proven itself full of grace.

If we are being painfully honest right now, most parties hosted by Churches are terrible. People go to be supportive, but if you pressed them on the issue they would rather be doing something else during that time. I experienced the oyster roast shortly after I arrived in Martinsville, and I was honestly surprised at not only how much fun I was having, but how much the entire town seems to look forward to the party. Not only can we throw a party we can throw the social event of the year. So many people deserve credit for all of the great events that I have seen at Christ Church, but it was especially amazing to witness Page Beeler command her small army of volunteers that orchestrated the oyster roast, parish picnic, and so many other great events at the Church. These events should never be underestimated. Our ability to plan these great parties means that people care enough to put in the work to make them happen, and the fact that people go and have a good time means that we actually enjoy each other’s company. Once again, this may sound normal to you, but it is a rare and wonderful trait of our Church.

There are so many other areas that I could point out to you. Have you noticed that we have a great looking website, our Facebook is always current, and the newsletter you’re reading right now looks professional. That is all done by Cari Zimmer. One thing you will probably not notice is our finances and our budget. A ton of time goes into that, and it is done by the people that fill the pews on Sunday. In nearly every corner of the Church is an empowered minister dedicated to making our community function. Sometimes that work and dedication is up front and center, and sometimes that work is behind the scenes. Regardless of where it is I am constantly amazed and surprised by all of the true ministers we have in our Church.

Blessings,

Fr. Nick

How did they live without AC?!

When I walk outside my lungs immediately begin to protest at the harsh hot humid air being forced into them. I start to think how unbelievably hot it is, and then I remember that not that long ago I lived in a much hotter, much more humid place, and my level of discomfort was about the same. And a few years prior to that I was hiking through the southern Appalachians in July and during a heat wave. That was intense, but by the end of it I was equally as miserable as I am when I walk from the office to Shindig on Main Street for a delicious fried chicken sandwich (Shindig, you owe me for the free plug).

Believe it or not, there is actually a scientific reason for me being about just as miserable in these three different situations. Our bodies are able to develop a tolerance for heat in the same way that it develops tolerances to drugs. The more time we spend in hot environments the more it seems normal, while never really getting to fully normal. While I was hiking, in Columbus, and walking in the heat here it always seemed to be on the boarder of unbearable. We constantly complained about the heat and humidity regardless of how well we were acclimated, but in retrospect it was getting a little bit easier and easier. When I got off of the trail I could not tell that my tolerance for heart really changed at all, but then I would not feel the need to turn on the AC at 85 degrees. Our ability to adapt ever so slowly is a subtle, but wonderful gift from God that should be a beacon of hope, because it applies to so many aspects of our lives.

Sometimes we can find ourselves on the cusp of something so foreign and new that it feels like that blast of hot air going into our lungs when we open up the door to the summer air. It can be overwhelming, and the thought of this extreme condition being our new normal seems impossible. It seems impossible to bear, tolerate, and definitely impossible to thrive within; however, day after day we face that new reality, and somehow manage to survive, and given enough time we can even find ourselves thriving and having fun again. This is what quitting smoking was like. Every day I was convinced that I would never be happy again without nicotine, and then one day I realized I forgot to be miserable and started to live again. This is how I imagine having children is like too. I have no doubt that they are wonderful, but I also have no doubt that they change everything, and that when we have children there will be equal parts joy and terror. Any change, good or bad, has the potential to leave us in a state of utter disbelief that we will one day learn to live differently, and awe that others already do.

Next time you breathe in that hot air, or find yourself staring at the next stage of your life remember that God made you strong and more resilient than you give yourself credit.

Blessings,

Fr. Nick

I am a Material Priest Serving in a Material (Sacred) World

Even though we are all destined to participate in materialism, it is often considered the primary symptom of modern shallowness. Images of sport cars racing past the forgotten poor may arise when materialism comes to mind, but we all must participate in materialism to one degree or another. Getting a paycheck, buying groceries and saving for retirement are all materialistic, but they are also responsible and necessary things to do. As living beings, we must participate in the material world to survive. It is not the participation in materialism that is sinful, but it is when material things become our God that can lead to idolatry and excess that we may expect. The reality of materialism in our Christian life is also a necessity that can easily turn sinful. Recently a televangelist asked his viewers to buy him a new private jet so he would not have to sit with the sinners on commercial airliners. The absurdity and excessiveness of his request is clear, and his excessive materialism deserves the scorn he has received; however, to condemn the material world outright might be throwing the baby out with the bath water.

At Christ Episcopal Church we have a plethora of objects that straddle the boundary between the mundane and the divine. We don’t want to put things on a pedestal to the point where they become idols, but there is no doubt that the chalices given in memory of loved ones, the stained glass, and even the bricks that make up our Church are not things to be discarded and forgotten. Maybe when they were bought they were just like any other cup, or just like any other brick, but after generations of use, and after the countless hopes and prayers that the objects have witnessed they have become a connection to the faith of the generations before us. This sort of materialism is neither good nor evil, rather it is an example of how we give meaning to the physical world around us. We can even see this within scripture. When Jacob had his prophetic dreams in the wilderness he built an altar on the stone he laid his head on. It was just like any other rock, until it became a reminder of the sacred moment he encountered. We do this in our life outside of Church as well. We may save a wedding dress, a child’s shoes, or a lock of their hair from their first haircut, because they remind us of a sacred time and help us to maintain that connection.

Church is often the focal point where meaning making happens, which explains why there are so many of these powerful objects within our walls. What happens when Church goes beyond the walls? Cari and Will Zimmer had the great idea three years ago to have a service at Rooster Walk that was lovingly dubbed, “Banjo Church”. Throughout the festival a table with supplies was set up for people to make prayer flags. The flags were then hung in the trees, and the prayers would blow in the breeze throughout the festival. Sunday morning worship would be in the midst of the prayer flags from that year and the years before. This year the Zimmers were out of town for a wedding during Banjo Church, so Leandra and I took the lead in setting up the flags from the previous year. As we were setting up the flags we realized that we had a ton, maybe too many to hang, and we considered getting rid of some that… lets say didn’t look very sacred. Not to say they were inappropriate but looked more like doodles than prayers. One just had a bunch of S’s on it, and I figured that would be the first to go if we needed more room. Almost on que the artist of the S flag walked right up to us. She was a young girl, maybe nine years old, and she told us that she made flags the last two years and was looking forward to making a third this year. She began hunting for the one that she made three years ago, which for her was nearly a lifetime ago, and she found it. A white flag covered in stylized S’s. You can see the look on her face when she found it. It was the work of her hands a third of her life ago, when she was a very different person than she was in that moment, and its presence meant the world to her.

On the surface that particular flag didn’t look like much. We asked people to write prayers on the flags, and this flag did not seem to fit into our hopes for this ministry; however, this young festival goer showed me that I was looking at it in all the wrong ways. Three years ago, she inadvertently made a sacred object, and every Rooster Walk she can look forward to seeing the works of her past and participate in beautiful material ritual of creating something new to fly in the trees with her and other’s memories and prayers.

Blessings,

Fr. Nick

Marking Our Days

I have this odd irrational fear that pops up in the last few days of winter that spring will never come. I love all of the seasons, but by the time March comes I am done with winter, and anxiously wait for the leaves to start appearing on the trees again and for the earth to come back to life. The fear is slow to start in. First it begins just as a yearning for the warmth and joy of spring and summer, but eventually I get impatient. What if it never comes? Not only would this be an ecological disaster, it would also condemn us to live in a world without the vibrant colors that come with warm weather, and the new-found energy I find with the sun on my face.

Of course, this fear is completely irrational, but nonetheless it is part of my annual cadence, and it makes me feel that much more appreciative when the world comes into bloom. The last week I have been day dreaming of time on the water with Leandra and the dogs, and I literally cannot wait for warm weather. This past weekend it was only 58 degrees outside, but it looked like lake weather, so I packed up the dogs and we went to Fairy Stone State Park. No one else was there, so we had the trails to ourselves, and all three of us drank in the day. Bean focused on hunting, so would chase animals back to their borrows, and dutifully point to the exact location. Peanut was supposed to have been born a sea lion rather than a dog and reveled in being able to swim to her heart’s content. I strolled along with the overwhelming feeling that the world, at least in that moment and place, was exactly as it should be.

Whenever I look at something close enough I see echoes of our faith. The rhythm of feeling the despair of winter, and longing for summer runs parallel to our Lenten season, and I felt hints of the hope of Easter on my perfect day on the lake in early spring. Easter marks our exit from a time of penitence, remembering how we are dissonant with God and the world, to a time of harmony and hope in new life. When we talk about our liturgical seasons it can feel like an intellectual exercise, but it is actually something as natural as being aware of the changing physical seasons around us. Our liturgy, and our ancient rites and rituals should not be considered some oddity that has somehow seemed to have survived into the modern Church. These ancient practices are in remarkable harmony with the world around, and help us to mark the meaning in our lives, and can even give us words when our vocabulary comes up lacking, and they are constantly reminding that our days are sacred, and should not be taken for granted.

Blessings,

Fr. Nick

The Journey to Easter

When you read this we will already be in the Easter Season. The stone will be rolled away from the tomb, the children will have already hunted for colored eggs, and Easter brunches would be a fond memory of the recent past. However, I am in the odd predicament of writing about Easter in the midst of Holy Week. Holy Week is one of my favorite times of the year, but it can be filled with so much chaos and stress that it makes me thankful it only happens once a year. On the other hand people get so enthusiastic about Church this time of year that it fills me with joy. Last year we decided to go all in for Holy Week, and we are doing the same thing this year. We have daily services, and in addition to the usual Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter services we are also doing Compline, Tenebrae and a very joyful Easter Vigil. I love Holy Week not only because it prepares us for the joy of Easter, but also because it adds depth to our faith.

I remember when I was still in High School there was a growing assumption within Christian communities that anything that was not uplifting was not only unnecessary, but it was also deplorable and probably the reason young people didn’t want to go to Church. Many people expect that mountain top experience every time they go into Church, and that is fine, but I wanted to explore the spirituality of Good Friday as well as Easter. As I got older I started to notice the beautiful melancholy of Ash Wednesday, and I began to look forward to Maundy Thursday just as much as I looked forward to Easter. The very thing that was supposed to be pushing young people away from Church was drawing me in, and inviting me to a deeper understanding of God and the resurrection.

I know that I am not alone in this experience. I see many of our own young people drawn into these solemn services just as much, if not more, than they are drawn to silly games and pizza parties. You can get pizza and play games anywhere at anytime, but Tenebrae is something special. Last year I asked Clare Warner Coleman, who is in middle school, to chant the psalms with Raul, our cantor, during the Tenebrae service. Tenebrae is an ancient service that is all about light and darkness. It is a long service, and intentionally moves slowly. I doubt anyone who experiences Tenebrae would imagine a teenager leaving the service with the exclamation, “That. Was. So. Cool!” but that was exactly what Clare Warner said while still in her black cassock as she left Church. We did Tenebrae again last night and got even more youth to participate, and they were all enthusiastically engaged in this ancient solemn service.

I am not sure if I can speak for them, and I doubt that this is a universal phenomenon, but I have a hunch that people like Clare Warner, Emily, Will, Aurora and I find these services compelling not because we love to constantly wallow in moody melancholy, but because it makes Easter feel that much more meaningful. The whole story of our salvation is not told on Easter Sunday. Jesus on the cross, and in the tomb is part of that story as well, and if we forget these parts of the story and fail to live into them, then Easter just feels like church followed by an Easter egg hunt. On Easter morning the choir, altar guild, and I will be utterly exhausted, thankful for Holy Week, but equally thankful for the respite that is Easter, and Easter will be that much sweeter, joyful and powerful for the journey we went through together.

Blessings,

Fr. Nick

For Whom the News Scrolls

For Whom the Bell Tolls

No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thine own
Or of thine friend's were.
Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.

-John Donne

I read John Donne’s For Whom the Bell Tolls when I was a sophomore in High School, and I had no interest in deciphering its dated metaphors and other hidden secrets. Only after a decade and a half did I realize that Donne’s poem is just as relevant, beautiful and uncomfortable today as it was when it was written in 17th century England. The poem’s premise is simple. None of us exists as an island; completely self-sufficient and not requiring the main land. Initially the poem just seems to an appeal to logic. Europe is less if a clog washes away or if a peak overlooking the sea collapses. Regardless of the magnitude it is a loss.

Donne shifts from abstract metaphors to the concrete and punches us right in the gut. In his time bells would toll to let people know someone in their community had died. Donne tells his audience to not bother checking to see for whom the bells are tolling, because they are tolling for you. His safe metaphors turn sharp, and he reminds us what it is to be invested in humanity and to be part of a community. When we toll our bells at the beginning of a funeral it should strike us as a personal loss. Or, what might be more relevant in our time,

“Therefore, don’t turn on the news

to see for whom the news scroll scrolls

it scrolls for thee”

When we see ourselves as islands the tragedies in the news become less personal, less devastating and less scary. We see so many stories about civilian deaths in Syria that it becomes white noise. Mass shootings within our own boarders have become so routine that maybe deep down we begin to feel that it happens so often, but never to us, so maybe it never will.

After the latest shooting in Florida I felt outrage, and even shed tears for the stories of heroism, but it still felt distant. Yesterday during the healing service at noon I began to get frantic texts from my family. Shots were fired at our local high school, and that was all that we knew. That is the high school I went to, and many of the children in my home church go to school there. When I got onto Facebook I saw their posts. One girl was just down the hall from where a teacher (a well-beloved and seemingly well-oriented teacher) had barricaded himself into his room and fired at the principal. I did not feel outrage. Instead my knees felt weak, and I felt completely helpless.

Fortunately there were no victims at Dalton High School. The teacher was having a breakdown and never intended to hurt students, but no one knew that when he fired his pistol. As the news was unfolding it was not reporting about some distant crisis, it was reporting about my crisis.

Sometimes we convince ourselves that we are islands, even when we were connected to the mainland of humanity all along. We also convince ourselves that our community, whether that is our family, our Church, or even our country is an island, and not connected to the rest of God’s family. We forget that we are all children of God, and that binds us. We forget that Christ died for all, and not only for us and for our loved ones. Yesterday was a reminder for me that when we see scared children, or headlines of great loss of life an ocean away that scars me as well, and my thoughts and prayers should remind me of that truth. Our prayers can remind us that we are all part of God’s family, and can lead us to treat each other accordingly.

Blessings,

Fr. Nick

Pray With Everything That You Have

I have five senses, but I am constantly tempted to limit my prayers to words. I remember not too long ago prayer for me was an intellectual exercise, which is not a bad thing, but it limited my prayer’s potential. Every night I would try to compose a totally complete prayer, so I could be sure that no one would be forgotten in my careful benedictions to God. I would be sure to pray for everyone’s needs from my own and my family’s, to the needs of forgotten refugees across the world and everyone in between, and when I realized that someone was forgotten I would start over and be sure to include them that time around. My prayer life fueled my growing obsession with BBC news, which at the time for me was a kind of prayer research website. This type of prayer life was great for pushing me to understand complex geopolitical issues and it pushed me to expand my compassion for others, but it was terrible for cultivating the peace of Christ in my own life. I was praying vigorously with my mind and with my words, but by neglecting my other senses I missed an opportunity to listen to God rather than try to have God listen to me.

Shrove Tuesday, Ash Wednesday, Lent, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter will soon be upon us, and within these decadent, somber, reflective, tragic and joyous services is an opportunity to pray with our whole bodies and live into the love that God has shown us. Each of these services and events seems to touch a nerve on what it is to be a child of God, and each also seems to invite to pray with all of our senses.

Shrove Tuesday is the most recent and probably the most secular of the events happening this season, but it can still show us something about our relationship with God. Shrove Tuesday started because decadent foods such as butter, sugar and meat were banned during Lent, so they would eat as much of these things as they could before it was too late! Pancakes and sausage seem to be a natural choice for this occasion, because of their unapologetic celebration of fat, sweetness and deliciousness. Even though Shrove Tuesday is a joyful event it lives in the shadow of Lent, so the pancakes that we are consuming remind us of what we may not have the next forty days. A reminder that even when we feel most stable and self sufficient, we may be relying on God the next day more than we thought.

While our taste buds rule on Shrove Tuesday I cannot help but think of the smell of incense during Lent. Many of the Churches that use incense reserve it for Easter and Christmas, but I will always be reminded of the smell of and sight of rising incense before an altar during a Lenten meditation. Incense and other sweet smelling things would be used to cover up the smell of death in ancient times, and Ash Wednesday and Lent are meant to remind of our mortality, as well as the death that Christ suffered for us. The joy of the resurrection could not have happened without the bitterness of the crucifixion, and the sweet smell of incense is a subtle reminder of what was paid for us.

Shrove Tuesday is a day of abundance, and Lent is a season of absence, and one thing absent during this season is our proclamation of “Alleluia!” It is one of those things where I don’t miss it until it’s gone, and when it’s gone Church just doesn’t feel right. All year I take it for granted, and miss it terribly in those forty days. So, for Easter I pray with my ears. That first “Alleluia!” at the Easter vigil feels triumphant, and to hear the enthusiasm of the congregation confirms my suspicion that they missed it as much as me.

There are many ways we can pray with our whole bodies. We pray when we use our ears to listen to scripture, we pray with our bodies when we kneel or stand for the Eucharist, and we pray with our sense of touch when we lay on hands at the healing service. When we pray with our whole bodies we leave that space that we create for ourselves in our heads, and we enter a world that is God’s gift to us. Living into the story of Christ in the world around us can make our lives a prayer of thanksgiving to the God that made us whole.

Blessings,

Fr. Nick

Surprised by Hunting

I suspect that I am a terrible hunter. A while ago I decided that eventually I would become a deer and turkey hunter, which would be our primary source of meat. I imagined learning how to make venison sausage, which is a favorite of mine. I also decided that I would become such a good charcuterier (fancy word for a sausage maker) that everyone would cherish getting gifts of venison sausage from me around Christmas. Finally my dream seemed to be becoming true. My father-in-law bought me a very nice rifle, I learned how to shoot it well, and Ron Probst agreed to teach me how to hunt. I thought this last step would be the easiest considering I see deer in my back yard nearly every morning. The first time we went out it was relatively cold, and I wore street clothes. I would not spend money on camouflage or any other unnecessary piece of gear considering Martinsville’s deer seem to be ambivalent to my presence under any other circumstance.

On our first day we did not even see a deer. I thought this was merely a fluke, but the second time in the woods we again saw absolutely nothing. So I started to read up on the finer points of hunting, bought a ton of stuff, and the only time I have seen deer has been walking my dogs on the Dick and Willie trail. I suspect that I am a terrible hunter, and I have not even gotten the opportunity to practice my sausage making skills, but what I have gained has been invaluable. Ron’s enthusiasm for hunting is contagious, which is about the only thing that could get me up at 4:30 in the morning. Getting into the woods before the break of dawn, and trying to remain perfectly quiet and still as the sun rises is the closest thing to mediation that I have experienced. I am a restless person, and being mindfully still is not on my list of skills, but sitting in a tree stand scanning the woods and passively noticing the birds waking up, squirrels going about their business has not only given me an insight into nature, but also into what it is to be truly still.

I am still going to work on the hunting thing. Maybe I’ll eventually figure out what I’ve been doing wrong, or maybe my luck will merely shift, but I am determined to follow through with this goal. However, even if I never figure how to be a master hunter, or even get a chance to perfect my sausage recipe I will continue to be grateful for the time I spent in the woods learning to be still. In many ways this past year feels like my lessons in hunting. At the beginning of 2017 I had still not been installed as your rector, I had not run a vestry retreat, and I had not yet experienced Easter in Martinsville. I felt like the deer in the headlights (pun intended). With each of these I was expecting to grab the bull by the horns and figure out the formula to do each of these things perfectly. Instead I learned to depend on the people that already have those valuable experiences, and how to work together as a team. And when I failed I learned how to accept your grace. This coming year will be filled with plans and expectations, many of which will not come to fruition. I have no doubt that we will continue to grow together, and we will strive to grow closer to Christ, but no amount of planning or predictions can determine where we will land at the next new year, but perhaps we will be exactly where God intended.

Blessings,

Fr. Nick

Advent Message, Part II

Dear Christ Church,

I remember writing this article for you last year. It was only a couple of months into my tenure at Christ Church, and I remember being very pleased with my message to you about the upcoming Season of Advent. The sum of it was that most clergy types would tell you to find the moments of peace and expectation in this season that the secular world makes hectic. I tried to flip it on its head and told you to embrace the chaos! Everything about Advent screams of stress. On top of being pregnant with the Son of God and being unwed, Mary was also forced to travel all the way to Bethlehem for a census. If I were Mary or Joseph I would have been freaking out. It is natural for us to feel stress when hoards of family come to visit, or when we want to find that perfect gift for a loved one, and just like in the story of Mary and Joseph, God works in the brokenness and stress despite our best efforts. This still rings true for me, but I think there is another layer to the complexity of this season. Moments of refuge and sanctuary in seasons of chaos can help put stress into perspective, and might even give us a glimpse into how God is working in our lives.

In many ways Advent is the season of almost, but not yet. I am tempted to bring up a number of stressful things that are almost resolved, but not quite yet. One such thing is the pledge campaign. We have gotten in over half of the pledge cards that we received last year, and we are cautiously optimistic for the coming year. Our hope is to avoid a deficit budget, and if the generosity we have seen continues we should be in good shape. Our financial situation is almost resolved, but not yet. Another issue has been the vile people that were removed and banned from Church a couple of weeks ago. They feed off of attention, and we have been ignoring them. They are running out of things to say about the Episcopal Church and me. They still harass me, but soon they will move on. The haters are almost gone, but not yet. In the midst of these things you have shown me what generosity looks like. So many of you have stepped up to help us sustain our ministry, and so many of you were willing to defend your Church, and I have been continually reminded of why I am honored to serve at this outpost of Christ’s Church.

These are important things to feel stress over, just as the census was important for Mary and Joseph, but we should not forget that our stressors are the background music to the season, and not the main act. I wonder if Mary and Joseph ever let the stress of their journey make them forget about the miraculous event that was about to happen. I wonder if they ever felt that getting to Bethlehem was more important than the miracle within Mary’s womb. If they did, I would not have blamed them. Like most people I am susceptible to loosing the forest for the trees. In all of the bits of drama and excitement that we have experienced this past year I also remember the moments of peace and sanctuary. I cherish those times when I realized how small my concerns were, and I could see glimpses of God working in our lives. Thank you for these moments of perspective, and I hope that you will be blessed with those sacred moments this coming Season of Advent.

Blessings,

Fr. Nick

The Heart of the Church

I cannot believe that almost exactly a year ago we packed up our meager belongings along with two dogs and drove from Columbus, Georgia to Martinsville. We arrived hours after we had planned, because the weather and traffic were so bad, but Sue Rosser, and Debbie and Ben Lewis were there to greet us with dinner and dog treats. The rectory was in the final stages of renovation and the downstairs toilet was not yet installed, which suited us fine, because it was the only seat that we had that night. So much has changed in this past year. For starters the rectory now feels like a home due to a lot of help from members of Christ Church. We have also grown together. When I first arrived we were bombarded with hundred of names and faces, and slowly we got to know each other and hear each other’s stories. We have also tried a lot of new things from dodge ball to tenebrae. In many ways I still feel like we’ve just arrived, and in others I cannot believe we have done so much so such little time.

Many people say that clergy get a year honeymoon before things start getting difficult, and this kind of makes sense. It takes about a year for someone new to see what needs to change and figure out how to change it, and change is rarely popular. I have to say that we’ve already tried so many new things that I do not see this derailing our groove, but something more menacing might be lurking in our midst, and its called fund raising fatigue. Fund raising fatigue happens when an organization, especially a Church, is so focused on fund raising that people begin to think that’s all they do, and they loose heart. People begin to ask, “When will they ever be done with this?!”, and fund raising pleas start to sound like background noise.

So, here is the news: we are not going to stop focusing on ministry. We will continue to develop and grow existing ministries like Loaves and Fishes, and we will continue to start some new ones like our Youth Ministry. The big “but” of this reality is that we have a ton of work to do, and it is going to cost money. You can help in two big ways.

The first is to pledge if you have not pledged before, or to consider increasing your pledge. It is a rough guess of what you think you can contribute to the operating budget the following year. This helps us come up with our budget and make a plan on how to pay the bills. Last year we ran a deficit budget, which we cannot get away with again. This helps us keep the lights on, pay salaries, and keep the day-to-day operations of the Church going.

The second way you can help is the big one; you can help us repair the Church. The past six months has been a whirlwind of structural emergencies. From the west window, to the ductwork, to the roofs, to the sidewalk, to the columns of the parish house, and the list goes on and on. The good news is that you have already been extraordinarily generous. The window project is complete, because of your generous gifts in honor of Dan Prince. The ductwork project was significantly more dire than we originally thought. Several times we thought we had ahold of the situation only to be told that the workers uncovered another tremendous issue. We have already managed to raise approximately twenty-five thousand dollars, but still need to raise another fifteen to cover the costs. Thank you so much for your generosity, because we must be aggressive in addressing these issues or they will only continue to get worse.

Your generosity is the good news. The bad news is that this will not be last big project we must undertake this year. The flat sections of the roof of the Church need urgent attention. You may have noticed a small section of the ceiling collapsed in the narthex. This is because the roof in that section is retaining a significant amount of water. There is actually a small pond on top of the roof. This would be nice if we could raise fish in it, and if it did not leak water into building beneath it. We do not have figures for this project yet, but it is likely to be significant, and if we do not fix the roof it will only continue to damage the rest of the Church.

So, there it is. The menace that is looming just beneath the surface of our community is a problem that will require a lot of generosity, dedication and patience. I wish I could give you a figure or a date when we could stop asking for money, but we are not in a position to do that now. In the midst of leaping over our structural and financial hurdles we will not stop doing Church. We will be responsible in taking care of our Church building, but will also care for the soul of the Church as well. We will continue to have lively Sunday School classes, celebrate the Eucharist, and share our good times and bad. This past year has been a blessing for my family and me, and honestly if this is our biggest issue then we are doing pretty well. We are facing many challenges that can be fixed with brick and mortar, but our foundation is solid. Not once have we regretted making Martinsville our home, and it is not the buildings that make us want to stay, it is the people within them.

Blessings,

Fr. Nick

The Body of Christ Church

I started working at Christ Church October 10th of last year, so I am in the last couple months of doing things here for the first time. Whenever a big event comes up that I have never experienced I feel a bit of lingering anxiety. A misguided sense of importance leads me to think that somehow I am ultimately responsible and capable for ensuring the success of any event at Christ Church. Even though I am often the face of our community I deserve very little credit for anything that happens within our walls. To assume that any one person should or could completely organize something like fall flavors, loaves and fishes, the parish picnic, or even worship on Sunday is not only inaccurate, but also unbiblical. Paul writes in his letter to the Romans that we are all members of the body of Christ. Each of us is simultaneously vital to the life of the Church, while being completely dependent on the other members. This is just like how each of our organs is vital, but completely dependent on the rest of the body. The parish picnic this past Sunday is a perfect example of how this model works in our community.

For a couple of months now I have seen Page Beeler, Karen Jones, and Anna McClain meet at the parish house and organize the picnic. They arranged the date, the venue, the food, and activities. In many ways they were the central nervous system of our body. They also had a lot of help with people eager to set up tables, lend and transport kayaks, and provide games for the kids. These people were like the arms and legs of our body. Then on Sunday many of us came to the picnic, and we were the blood of our body. The picnic was expertly planned and executed, but it needed people to come share food, conversation and fun in order to give the picnic life, and the picnic was thriving.

It was a good sign that at the end of the day I was fairly certain two-year-old Ryan Lawrie, and our more senior members all thoroughly enjoyed themselves. I was part of the crew that floated down the river and it was fun to see everyone slowly find his or her own pace and group to float with. Some people went quickly down the river, while others such as Lewis Pitzer enjoyed hanging behind to help anyone who may have gotten stuck. Once I got off of the river Will Zimmer was playing music, children were climbing all over Lewis’s flat bed truck, and scores of people were just enjoying each other’s company.

It was amazing to see the Church so full of life this past Sunday, and I deserve no credit for its success. We have made a lot of progress in the past ten months, but I knew that I was coming into a Church that was already motivated and mobilized. A few people put in a ton of work planning the event, a few more went above and beyond to help set up, but most importantly our Church showed up, and made our picnic a wonderful experience for our youngest members to our oldest. Thank you to all of you who give life to this Church, and make our community possible!

Blessings,

Fr. Nick

Home

I go to the Daily Grind at least once a day for my morning coffee, but if I am in a hurry I can find myself eating most meals there considering the food is good, and it is right next-door. Today felt especially busy, so I went to lunch at the Daily Grind for a quick sandwich, and I was surprised to see Dan Cahill, a newer member of the Church there as well. We ate together and after we finished our chicken salad sandwiches we decided to go over the Church to look at the various construction projects, and admire the stained glass windows. We mostly talked about Church, but Dan mentioned caring for his family’s graveyards around Philpot Lake, which have been in his family for generations. This almost immediately struck me as special, and got me thinking a lot about the idea of home.

When looking into my family’s history it is clear to see that we moved around a lot. We left our ancestral homes in Germany, the British Isles, and Sweden and came to the United States, and once we got here we did not stay in one place for very long. Coming to Martinsville I can imagine that it would be powerful to know that many of your families have been here for as long as there was a Martinsville. The landscape around us would have been home to your ancestors as well, and the streets, hills, and river feel familiar to you on a deeper level than I may understand. In many ways you give us an inside look into the intimacy you feel with this area and this community. You share the stories that make up this town, you let us into your own homes and share your hospitality, and you even helped us make our own home at the rectory. Even those of you whose families haven’t been here for generations share stories about growing up here, and how the town has changed, and that is invaluable as well. You have given us a window into what it is like to have deep roots in one place, and I can see how special that is.

I cannot help but see Church in this idea of home. When we go to Church on Sunday we believe that we are just not worshipping with the people present, but with all of the saints that have come before us. Our tradition, rites and practices are ancient, and I imagine celebrating the Eucharist feels familiar to me as the landscape of Martinsville might feel familiar to those of you who have been here for generations. In many ways it feels like home. My parents, grandparents, and so on all participated in this form of worship in various denominations for generations and generations. It shaped them and it is shaping me just as Martinsville shaped you and your ancestors.

Martinsville is gradually becoming our home. I know how to drive most places now without a GPS, and the streets, hills and river are becoming more and more familiar. For many of you this has been home for a long time, and I cannot thank you enough for sharing Martinsville with us. We have a home in common at Christ Church where our roots go deep, where we share our common faith, and open our doors to welcome others home.

Blessings,

Fr. Nick

Generous Giving

I am consistently surprised by the generosity of Christ Church. I see people being generous in so many different ways. When I was brand new to Christ Church I saw Beverly and Lewis Pitzer welcome a young mother and child into the Church when they walked in during the Eucharist. You could tell that they felt awkward and maybe a bit out of place. Without hesitating this dynamic duo sprang into action, invited them to sit by them, and had the little girl laughing in no time. The mother may have felt mortified to have her daughter laughing out loud during such a solemn part in the service, but when she looked around she saw friendly faces instead of the judgment she may have been afraid of. We are generous in spirit. We are not afraid to break custom or sacred silence in order to do the holy work of being generous to our neighbor.

I have also been pleasantly surprised with how generous our Church can be with special projects. We have intimidating buildings to care for, and I believe that our efforts are worthwhile. So many historic buildings, especially Churches, have been lost in Martinsville. We have one of the oldest, if not the oldest Church building in town, and choosing to keep this bit of history alive and part of our community forms us in ways that we may not realize. When you walk into the sanctuary you can feel that the walls are well soaked in prayer. The age and love in the Church itself is a sign that we have been around for a long time and will continue to be here regardless of what the changing tides of society has to say. We are here to stay. With that being said, it did not take me long to realize that there is a long maintenance list for the Church. You start to notice that some of the back windows need replacing, you realize the undercroft could use some serious work, you are told that the roof is not completely functional, then you try to restore a stained-glass
window and are told by the contractor that the brick around it is about to fall out. Our Church needs some serious help.

Starting next year we will try to have a successful capital campaign to tackle all of these issues, but we need to start immediately on several projects, or they will turn into emergencies. You may have noticed that work has already begun on one of our huge stained glass windows. Half of this money was covered by a grant, but we need to raise the rest of the funds, which amounts to nearly eleven thousand dollars. You may have noticed that the windows in the kitchen are almost completely rotten as well, which will be replaced shortly. There is also the issue with the insulation in the roof, which causes condensation to drip into the pews. With doing very little official fund raising many have already given to these causes. The person who won the raffleat the last Fall Flavors returned their winnings. Several people have written generous checks to care for our Church. Someone wrote a check for the kitchen windows out of the blue! Someone else gives a generous monthly gift for special projects. I am overwhelmed by the generosity of this Church. We are generous in many ways. We are generous in spirit, in worship and with the care of our prayer soaked buildings. We also still have a lot to do on issues that need attention now. If you can be generous with your funds and want to help fix our ?stained glass window or the condensation problem you can make a check out to the Christ Church with “special projects” in the memo.

Thank you all for the generosity you have already shown, and for the generosity you will continue to show.

Blessings,

Fr. Nick

On the Eve of Rooster Walk

I have received incredible support since I have arrived here last October. I love walking around Martinsville and hanging out in the local coffee shop where people often ask me about my collar and about Christ Church. Being out in the community as a representative of our Church comes naturally to me, and many of you have told me how much you like how we are starting to bust out of our walls and taking our community to the streets. Here’s the thing, you all were already doing this! It’s one of the things that initially struck me about Christ Church is that lay people were already enthusiastic about what was going on in the Church, and not afraid to try new things. We’ve been playing with a lot of new things the last couple of months. Our Easter Vigil at the Gardner’s farm was new and exciting, and our participation in the dodgeball tournament was a cohesive moment for our community. When I tell people about Banjo Church at Rooster Walk they immediately give me credit, but Banjo Church pre-exists my tenure at Christ Church and it is already a well-oiled machine! Sometimes one of the best things a new priest can do for a Church is to show them what they saw when they first arrived, so here is what I saw:

I saw a Church that was unafraid to take on adaptive challenges. Ok, so we’re getting into obscure language, so here are two concepts for you before we continue. Every group of people has technical and adaptive challenges. Technical challenges are easy. Let’s say your doctor says you need to exercise. The technical challenge is buying a tread mill. The adaptive challenge is running on it every day. Most Churches recognize problems and just buy stuff or create committees, but never go out and actually do the hard work of changing and adapting so they can thrive. Before we ever even heard of each other a group got together, recognized a problem, and did something about it. Christ Church needed more visibility in the community, you saw an opportunity at the Rooster Walk music festival, so Banjo Church was born. A table was set up by the Church where anyone could make prayer flags, and on Sunday the lay people of Christ Church led worship in the grove at Rooster Walk, one of the biggest community events of the year. This is a massive and huge undertaking! I cannot stress enough that most Churches would not have the will to bust out of the walls of the Church in this radical way.

When I came to interview I saw a Church that was already mobilized and enthusiastic to start new things. I saw a congregation that was not afraid to be leaders and not afraid to try and fail. Right now I feel that we are in a good rhythm. Our enthusiasm for the Church is contagious, and you can see that on Sunday morning, and I do not deserve credit for this. We are a team, and every day we are digging deeper into our call to serve Christ and our neighbor. We still have a lot of growing to do. I am still learning what it is to be a rector, and on the times where I try and fail I know that I have an empowered congregation on this journey with me, and I cannot tell you how much that means to me. Thank you for being Christ Church.

Blessings,

Fr. Nick

Great Expectations

Today is special. This time last year Leandra and I were buying candy, decorations and costumes for our first Halloween in a house. We had always lived in apartments before and never had the very grown-up experience of handing out candy to trick-or-treaters. Last year we were so excited to experience this rite of passage, but unfortunately God had other plans. Even though we saw hordes of costumed children pass by our house almost none stopped in looking for candy. In retrospect we should not have been surprised. The previous week we had sown grass seed on our lawn, and although it would soon be a beautiful lawn, it was still mostly mud. Our muddy landscaping, coupled with the spooky music I was playing in spirit with the season, and two dogs that we decided not into the idea trick-or-treaters made our house a daunting destination for any potential candy seekers.

So, tonight is our big chance! We now have a well-manicured lawn complete with beautiful flowers and nice walkway. Peanut has her princess costume, and Vanilla Bean has her lion’s mane to soften their image to any passersby. We are filled with the expectation that we are going to have the quintessential adult Halloween experience, and this is why today is special, because in many ways we are entering into the season of high expectations.

Technically we are still in ordinary time in the life of the Church, and by this next time next month you get an article from me about Advent and embracing the expectation of the coming of Christ. Even though Advent has not officially arrived, this is the first of many holidays in rapid succession where we put a tremendous amount of expectation on ourselves, and on our loved ones. Tonight we may stress over the quality of our child’s (in our case dog’s) costume, next month we may have a panic attack over the cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving, and the month after that we may find ourselves sprinting through Wal-Mart hoping to grab the last toy needed for the perfect Christmas.

It may not be the official season of expectation yet, but our lives are slowly ramping up for the joy, worry, excitement, and stress of the holiday season. I could give you a common message that we should not burden ourselves with all of this stress during this time of year, but I think I am beginning to realize that these modern bits of wisdom are like telling someone with anxiety to “get over it”. Of course it would be great if we could let go of our stress and focus on God and our families, and of course we are going to stress out anyways.

I think Advent has something deeper to show us about expectation. It is completely human to be stressed and worried when we are expecting something tremendous in the world, even when we wish we could let go of all of those burdensome emotions. Perhaps it is ok to not only accept these feelings, but to even embrace them. Worry and stress are not inherently bad. They often give us the energy and drive to get things done when we are running out of time. I bet Joseph and Mary were stressed on their way to Bethlehem, and especially when they could not find a room. Where stress and worry can become toxic is when we give them too much credence in our lives. I hope during this season of holidays and high expectations you feel just as much, if not more, joy and wonder than you feel exhaustion and frustration. But when you find yourself at your wit’s end over Halloween costumes, cranberry sauce, or this year’s hot toy I hope you can remember that in the midst of our expectations is something miraculous, beautiful and completely unexpected.

Blessings,

Fr. Nick

This Was Bound to Happen Eventually

Ok, so I am going to do something I have never done before, and something I am not quite ready to do, but it is time. I was thinking we were going to have more time before this was going to happen, but we all knew it was going to happen eventually. Even though it makes me severely uncomfortable, and may make you uncomfortable too, it is necessary. Even though there are a thousand voices from grandmothers around the world telling me not to bring up this topic in polite company here we go. I am going to ask you for money.

I am not only uncomfortable because asking for money feels rude. As a leader in the Church focusing too much on money feels dirty and a little sinful, and I don’t want pledge or capital campaigns to overshadow the ministry that we are doing at Christ Church. There is still a cynical part of me buried deep in my bones that sees Churches just as fundraising organizations that are not focused on doing the work of the Gospel. Leandra and I fell in love with this Church not because of the financial package. We came here because we fell in love with you, and we could see that you were eager to do ministry, to worship together and to grow closer together in Christ, and we have not regretted coming here even for a minute. In my eyes you are the real deal.

When looking at the reality of our situation there are so many positives. Attendance on Sunday is growing. We have started new traditions and events that have been well supported. We have new people in the Church looking to become members. We have made relationships with other Churches and non-profits. There is a general enthusiasm in the Church that can’t be quantified, but I can feel it every Sunday morning. I am very optimistic for our future, but I also want to tackle our problems head on.

One problem is we need to increase the revenue of the operating budget. Right now we have a deficit budget. This is by no means a crisis, but if we are going to continue as we are, then we will need to increase our pledges. Another issue is structural work that desperately needs to be done to the Church building. Once again, we are not in crisis mode, but we are not far from it either, and we need to address these issues before we can begin talking about fixing up the undercroft or kitchen, which also need a lot of TLC. I want to be transparent with you about these problems, and I want you to know how we will address them. Next fall we will have a pledge campaign and we will ask you to increase your pledge or to pledge for the first time. I hope that next year we will have a balanced budget and we can focus on thriving and doing ministry rather than trying to figure out how to get by. Next spring we will have a capital campaign where we will try to raise enough funds to fix these structural issues. Maybe we will even raise enough to transform some of our space so it can work better for families and for groups who use our space.

What we are going to start doing now is telling stories. For the next couple of months you may find a story in your bulletin about what your pledges enable us to do. These stories are not to guilt you into giving more. I don’t want to you do anything for the Church out of guilt. I want you to feel compelled to come to Church and to help support our ministries with your love, time and resources. I want you to know what is happening in the Church, and how you can make a difference. And if you feel compelled to increase your pledge this year we will be that much better prepared to do ministry.

Ok, we did it! We talked about money. It was a little painful for me, but not as much as I was thinking. Regardless of what this next year looks like know that I will be here with you ready to worship on Sunday.

Blessings,

Fr. Nick

Lent Prepares Us for the Wilderness

In the beginning of this season I told you that I don’t really understand the whole giving up stuff for Lent. I don’t think it’s a bad thing at all, and many times it can be a helpful way to change our lives, but other times it becomes more about self-improvement than throwing ourselves into the wilderness, shaking up our lives and finding God in the most unlikely of places. During Lent it is our custom to choose what we give up. We maintain control of how far we are going to push ourselves, we choose our path and make our own wilderness. There is nothing terrible about this. I do it too. I have my two Lenten disciplines that I carefully chose, and I have been challenged in all of the ways that I expected. But, what happens when something is taken from us, for good or ill? True wilderness happens unexpectedly, it is disorienting, challenging, and calls into questions things we thought we knew about the world and about God, and in these moments we can find ourselves in Lent regardless of the season.

The status quo is comfortable. Even if it is killing us, or tearing away our humanity we cling to it, because it gives us a sense of stability and control. We can see this plainly in Exodus. As children we are told the story of Moses leading the enslaved Jews from Egypt to the Promised Land. We hear the stories of God’s miracles that freed the Jews from their bondage. Go back and read the story again. Many of the Jews weren’t necessarily asking for this freedom. Once in the wilderness they were quick to turn on Moses accusing him of leading them to die. They missed their stability, food and homes. They were driven into the wilderness against their will just as much as they were freed from slavery. They were quick to turn on God as well. Even after witnessing the power of God and knowing God was invested in their lives they worshiped their golden calf as Moses was receiving the commandments. They could not understand what God had in store for them, and all they could feel was loss. This is what being in the wilderness feels like. Even if we cannot understand, choose not to understand, or can only feel sad for what we have left behind, it does not mean that God has given up on us.

The most traumatic event of my childhood was moving from Michigan to Georgia when I was twelve years old. In Michigan my life revolved around my friends. I could ride my bike anywhere and I was always just few minutes from people who knew me and wanted to spend time with me. I did not choose to move. It was something that happened to me, and I could not have felt more lost. I lost my friends, I was acutely aware that I was different than everyone else in my new town, and our new house did not feel like home. I felt like a stranger living in a foreign land. I could not see that this move would shape my life for the best. I could not see that this traumatic event would shape my personality, my opportunities and make me who I am today. I was lost and depressed as a child, but that did not mean that God had abandoned me. Even though it hurt it was path that God was leading me down. When the things or even the people that we love, that give us security and identity, are taken from us we can find ourselves in the wilderness. We can feel abandoned by God and nostalgic for the past, but we can also feel hope for the future. Lent is less about self-improvement and giving things up that we ought not to do, and it is more about reminding ourselves that one day our lives will be shaken up, we will feel sad and lost, but we can feel that loss while trusting in God.

Blessings,

Fr. Nick

Lent is Weird, a Little Sad and Oddly Beautiful

Lent is a weird thing. In the Church we take this time to prepare ourselves for Holy Week and Easter, and its forty-day duration reflects the forty days that Jesus spent in the wilderness. In many ways this is our time to be in the wilderness as well. On Ash Wednesday we will spread ashes on our heads and be reminded of our mortality. The music during this season will be muted and not have the joy that is typical of our worship, and we are forbidden from saying “Alleluia”. We also have the informal tradition of giving up nasty habits during Lent, or sometimes even adding various disciplines with the idea that these habits will draw us closer to God.

Some of these rituals and customs are somewhat strange, especially giving up stuff for Lent, but for me I am amazed at the amount of people, especially people who don’t go to Church, that are fascinated by this season. Ash Wednesday is arguably the most depressing day of the Church year. The purpose of the service is to openly remind people that one day they will die, which contrasts the hope of the resurrection that we see on Easter Day. A lot of people come out of the woodwork for Easter for obvious reasons, but you would be surprised how many people who do not claim to be Christians that go to get the ashes on their forehead on Ash Wednesday. Even my atheist friends in the past had a lot of questions about Lent and one even came up with his own Lenten disciplines despite his general skepticism of organized religion. There is something special about this season, something that goes against the grain of society that appeals to people.

In many ways our culture is constantly trying to live in a manufactured false state of Easter. Of course we want to be happy all of the time and we wish our youth would last forever, but we are unique in history as actually having the resources to live into these delusions. Entire industries have popped up promising to keep us young, healthy and happy, but even these efforts will ultimately fail, and no one seems to be talking about this difficult truth. This is where Ash Wednesday enters into our world, and it is what draws people into Church to receive their ashes. Ash Wednesday is unapologetically melancholy and honest when it comes to the reality that we cannot always be happy, and that our days of health of youth will one day end. Yes, we rejoice in the hope of the resurrection, but Christ wept at the tomb of Lazarus, and we should not ignore the sadness that we feel when confronted with our mortality, and we should not think that coming to God with sadness is any less holy than praising God with joyful Alleluias.

Ash Wednesday is a phenomenon in the Episcopal Church. It seems to go counter to everything that we think people want, to constantly live in a joyful state of Easter, but priests stand on street corners in urban areas with ashes and scores of un-churched, or under-churched are compelled to hear the words, “remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Lent is weird, a little sad and oddly beautiful. It tells us something we spend most of our time avoiding, and without the sadness that Ash Wednesday, Easter means nothing. Lent invites us to be whole, to be able to face the good and the sad knowing that God walks with us.

Blessings,

Fr. Nick

We are Evangelical, February 2017

For most Episcopalians “evangelical” is a four-letter word, and I have some experience with this sentiment. I was twelve when we moved from Michigan to rural Georgia, and as soon I started school it became clear that I was the only Catholic kid around. Almost immediately my peers started asking me if I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and savior. I of course said, “I guess…” and explained that we went to the Catholic Church. My peers were shocked that I didn’t already know that I was going hell for worshipping Mary and insisted that I go with them to their churches, or this or that church camp. Eager to make friends I often went to these camps or church services, which were filled with repetitive music, and guilt-filled appeals for me to accept Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and savior. After the hundredth time I was asked if I have accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and savior I began to understand what it really meant, “are you one of us?” And eventually my answer became “no”. All of my friend’s efforts at evangelism were little more than a desire to make me like them, and had little to do with Jesus Christ, and the fruit of that evangelism was bitterness and cynicism. For many of us evangelism is at best synonymous with awkward conversations, and for many of us evangelism amounts to little more than religious bullying, and as nice, considerate, and enlightened Episcopalians we avoid this word at all costs. Maybe, just maybe, we should reclaim the word.

If you are a member of Christ Episcopal Church, and if you are reading this article I imagine that Jesus Christ, and our community mean something to you. I will even go as far as to assume that you have been shaped and molded in your faith in Christ by this community and by the Episcopal Church. For me, finding the Episcopal Church and being quietly accepted as a teenager filled with doubt, anger and angst changed me in the most fundamental way.

Evangelism is fundamentally about sharing our experience with Christ and allowing God to work in the lives of others. We are merely messengers, and sometimes, even spokespersons for Christianity and the Episcopal Church. If you have an honest and compassionate conversation with someone who does not have faith, and if you did not convince them to come to church, pledge and eventually join vestry, you did not fail. Showing the love of Christ is something that is inherently good, and we should not try to quantify our efforts. I hope our efforts are grounded in spreading the love of God, and I have a hunch that there are scores of people in Martinsville that could find a home at Christ Church. These people may not look like us, or even think like us, but we should never be afraid to offer a hand and open our doors if we see the opportunity to welcome someone back to the home they did not even realize that they were missing. We can be evangelical in our homes, at work, and even at Kroger. Together we can share our faith with others without judgment, show the love of Christ to our neighbors and welcome strangers into our Church with open arms. Together we can be evangelical.

Blessings,

Fr. Nick

Celebrating Christmas 2016

I was terrified of Christmas this year. I feel like I had just arrived at Christ Church when we started planning the Christmas services. Lynn Gardner and Deborah Scearce did a great job filling me in on everything that needed to get done, and the Colemans took command of the pageant, but the fear that something would go terribly wrong lingered in my consciousness.

So much work went into the services. People volunteered their time to decorate the Church, pageant rehearsals dominated Sunday mornings before Church, bulletins were made, proofed and printed, the choir rehearsed for weeks to offer us stunningly beautiful music. All of this grace-filled work was unfolding around me, and I was blinded by my own angst that I would mess up my first Christmas service as rector that I could not see the beauty surrounding our Church. All of the work that went into the Christmas services was not done out of a sense obligation or duty, but a sense of love. The love that drives us to make our houses feel like Christmas incarnate by the time our family comes into town. When the Christmas services actually began my anxiety slowly started to melt away, and I looked around to see countless poinsettias, a hoard of children in their pageant costumes ready to tell the Christmas story, and a Church full of people home for the holidays. The Church was transformed into that perfect place to welcome home the people that mean the most to you, and this is what Christmas and Church is meant to be; our collective work of love.

Christmas takes an especially large amount of work, but every service we do at Christ Church takes an immense amount of work. A few of us are paid, but most of the work that goes into our worship is completely done by volunteers. David Cole has motivated and trained a small army of acolytes that strive for perfection in the service; the altar guild is tireless in making our Church beautiful and meaningful; the ushers welcome people into the Church and help everything happen in an orderly fashion, and there are countless of others that are compelled to be ministers in worship, whether they are seen or unseen. This Church thing that we do is not just about my sermons or praying the Eucharistic Prayer, as I was reminded of on Christmas, this is something that takes a community. Everyone comes together with their gifts, talents and passions to create something that is unique to us, something that is authentic and real, something that is grounded in love. Only when we put these pieces together can we create something that is greater than the sum of its parts, only when we can work together in love can we do Church, and welcome family home and Christ into our lives.

Merry Christmas my friends and thank you for showing me time and time again what it is to do Church.

Blessings,

Fr. Nick

Happy Advent, December 2016

Happy Advent! This is a season where we make ourselves ready for the coming of Christ in our spiritual lives, and we are getting ready to see relatives, exchange gifts, and indulge in a whole host of deliciously unhealthy foods. For many this can also be a difficult time. Everyone has that one uncle, or niece or nephew that will not fail to bring up that one sensitive subject that everyone wishes would be avoided at all costs.

Fortunately you are there to save the day. You are determined to be ready to face the onslaught of bellicose posturing and rhetoric, and you will be the salvation of the family gathering by not only guiding everyone past the trap of debate at the dinner table, you will also manage to show everyone the light of your position saving not only Christmas, but the whole country and all of Christendom from certain peril. Then Christmas comes, you see the minivans pull into the driveway, and you go over your talking points in your head as you go out to greet your soon-to-be debate sparing partners. Within a matter of minutes the debate starts early, but not about anything that you had expected. Someone was holding the fridge door open for too long, loaded the dishes wrong into the rack, or even about how the curtains should be during Christmas, and all of the energy that you and everyone else put into their debate prep comes pouring out. Before you know it there is a scrum people with tempers flaring arguing about some mundane thing, and all of a sudden you realize that they are actually not arguing about the curtains, and maybe the awkward annual Christmas debate was never really about that one issue that always came up. Instead, like so many other families and communities deeper issues were pushed to the surface, but ultimately avoided by arguing over something mundane.

Much in the same way that we may argue over the curtains with a loved one, we can avoid big issues as a society by creating controversy over something small. The past couple of years I have been hearing a lot about the war on Christmas. Last year Starbuck’s decision to have plain red coffee cups during the holiday season was met with uproar, and it quickly became the front lines on the perceived war on Christmas. I have also heard people bemoaning signs that say “Happy Holidays” rather than “Merry Christmas”. What is really at the heart of these resentments? Behind these arguments and hurt feelings I see a great deal of fear and insecurity. There is no doubting the shift that has happened in our society in the last fifty years. Younger generations are less religious and the public discourse around the Christmas season is becoming less about Christ, but we should not think that the later is the cause of the first. We are not going to ensure the survival of our faith by putting up a billboard of the baby Jesus for every secular sign we see.

What we can do is continue to show Christian charity and the hope that is inherent in the season of Advent. When we see our culture shift we can be tempted to raise signs reading, “The End is Near!” like some doom and gloom street preacher, when in Advent we should be raising signs that say, “The Beginning is Near!” Advent is a time of hope in the midst of uncertainty. Regardless of what the future may hold we can trust that God is indeed active in our lives, and we do not need the affirmation of corporations or the rest of society to validate that truth for it to be true. If you find your self tempted to argue about the curtains in whatever form just breathe, and remember that we are in the season of hope and faith, and that there is nothing anyone can do to take that away.

Happy Advent!

Fr. Nick

Prayer Soaked Walls, November 2016 E-News

I went to this clergy conference this past week, and they brought in a great speaker. He had us do an exercise, I won’t bore you with the details, but it involved writing down all of our challenges on one side of a large piece of paper and our assets on the other side. This was a collective activity, so people were yelling out their thoughts as the speaker was writing everything down. One of the first challenges that someone offered was the historic building that was their church. I was kind of aghast, because I was going to put that down as one of our assets. I love our old buildings. They scream that we have been around for a very long time and that they will be around even after we are gone. Yes, they are expensive to maintain, but there is something sacred about the generations of prayers that were uttered in those walls. I also feel like embracing the old is very counter cultural in a society that embraces the new and temporary. This is what we have at Christ Episcopal Church; we have prayer soaked walls from generations and generations before us. When I walk into our sanctuary I can feel that I am walking into a sacred place. All of this is to say that our place matters, but it matters specifically because of the people. Without the those who prayed in those walls before us, those who are there now, and those that will follow us those walls are just walls. We are participating in something that is bigger than us, not only in our own Church, but in all of Christianity. When we utter the ancient words of the Nicene Creed or receive communion we are participating in the same stuff as the first Christians and all that came between and everyone that will come after us. Come and do this God stuff with us. See you Sunday.

Blessings,
Fr. Nick

The Heart of the Church, November 2016

This past month has flown by! It seems like yesterday when Leandra and I stuffed the rest of our belongings, along with two dogs into our cars and drove up to Martinsville. The ride was torturous. It seems that around every corner there was another traffic jam and a seven-hour drive turned into a ten-hour drive. On top of all of the delays the anticipation was killing us. Being a rector, settling into a new town and moving into a huge beautiful house was all so much to take in, and we could not have gotten there quickly enough to start our new lives. We arrived late in the evening, and I was expecting Sue Rosser to just drop off the key and head home so she could get some sleep. Instead Sue, Debbie and Ben Lewis met us with sushi, dog treats and goodies for the house, and we spent the next hour going through the house, laughing and enjoying good food and wine. On the drive up all we could think about were the physical things, but when we arrived it was the welcome we received that reminded us why were so drawn to this wonderful place. The Church, the house and the town are all great, but they are only the setting to this stage of our lives. The people that we fell in love with and have shown us love in turn are going to the substance of our lives here.

The Church is beautiful, the house is elegant and the town is welcoming, but the reason we are here is to be with you, and this will be the foundation of everything we do here. Scripture tells us that when two or three are gathered together in the name of Christ, God is among us as well. Gathering together is not just something that we do, it is something sacred and powerful, and if we are going to grow the Church this is where we need to begin.

Christ Episcopal Church has something special going on. We could feel it when we first arrived here to interview, and we can feel it whenever we are around you. Your welcome and your faith feel real, and believe it or not this is not that common. You have something to offer Martinsville that is authentic and powerful, and something that people are craving; you can welcome people home to the home that they did not even know they were missing. You are the greatest asset to this Church. I can preach engaging sermons. I can go around and introduce myself, join rotary, hand out business cards (which look great! Thank you Cari!), but you coming to Church on Sunday is what we need to grow the Church in numbers and depth of faith. You are what brought us here, and you are the key to growing our Church and to making us a deeper, healthier and happier Church. You are the heart of this Church.

Blessings, Fr. Nick

Greetings CEC Folks, October 2016

Leandra and I are officially residents of 325 East Church St. Martinsville Virginia! I feel like every day there is some sort of new surprise of generosity. When we came back on Monday, we were delighted to find two dog beds, dog treats and toys sitting by the fireplace, which was especially well-timed considering we had discovered the night before that our dog beds are not safe to put into the washing machine. Around the house we kept finding things to help our transition. Cleaning supplies and cooking staples were in the pantry, washing detergent was in the laundry room, and wine was in my office! We cannot thank all of you enough for everything you have done for us. These gestures mean so much and have already made us feel at home. We can see how much all of you have done for us, and your warm welcome reaffirms our conviction that this was the right move for us.

My official start day is October 10th and my first Sunday will be the 16th. I cannot wait to meet all of you and become part of your community. Thank you again for all of your love and support.

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An Important Message from Father Nick

VOTE!!

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Donate to Loaves and Fishes

Doing Dishes and Being the Church Without Walls

We are Still in the Wilderness

Graduating in The Midst of Crisis

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The Church Deployed

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What Makes Us Unique

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A Snapshot

Sacred Distractions

It Is the Best Medicine

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Things Left Undone

On the Loss of a Prophet

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Marking Our Days

Love Transformed and Opportunities Lost

No Guilt Attached

The Ministers of the Church

How did they live without AC?!

I am a Material Priest Serving in a Material (Sacred) World

Marking Our Days

The Journey to Easter

For Whom the News Scrolls

Pray With Everything That You Have

Surprised by Hunting

Advent Message, Part II

The Heart of the Church

The Body of Christ Church

Home

Generous Giving

On the Eve of Rooster Walk

Great Expectations

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Lent Prepares Us for the Wilderness

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Celebrating Christmas 2016

Happy Advent, December 2016

Prayer Soaked Walls, November 2016 E-News

The Heart of the Church, November 2016

Greetings CEC Folks, October 2016

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