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Hey, Beloved… The next two months will look a little different around Mt. Hope, but God is at work, and this will be super-valuable to us all. As a part of our Elder Team’s efforts to ensure the highest levels of healthy ministry, connection to God, and sustainable leadership habits, we are incredibly grateful that the Elders are sending Sherri and me on an 8-week sabbatical to begin after THIS Sunday’s worship service. There’s a bit you might want to know and understand about this time. Let’s talk in Deeper Thoughts below…
But first… a bunch of things to tell you…
OK… that’s it for you email skimmers and those who hate long emails… BUT… Some Deeper Thoughts… A pastoral sabbatical could be misunderstood as a super-long paid vacation. It is much more than that, and the activities of a sabbatical have far more important dimensions for the health of spiritual leadership than just taking extra time off. Several professional lanes—such as academia, ministry, and some medical, research, or law professions—have practiced sabbaticals for centuries as a means of sharpening their leader’s skills, preparing for seasons of heavy-lift, renewing and refocusing the mind and spiritual habits of the leader, and preventing professional fatigue or burnout. Among many great informational resources out there, click here an excellent article published by Focus on the Family that details the history, purpose, and uniqueness of pastoral sabbaticals. In our context, Mt. Hope Church has long had periodic pastoral sabbaticals as a part of our organizational by-laws. Benchmarking with several local churches in Northern Virginia and the Northstar Church Network that Mt. Hope is a member of, our Elders have researched and developed with me and Sherri some important goals we would like to share with you. First, we are breaking our time into three distinct goal-sets. They are:
Secondly, to properly accomplish the rest, refocus, and development goals of the sabbatical, it is important for us to fully unplug from our ministry, which includes committing to no contact and involvement with our Mt. Hope family during this time. While this will be incredibly difficult for us to be disconnected from you whom we love dearly for this length of time, it will allow us to reset our rhythms and focus all our attention on growth and renewal.
Finally, we ask you to join with us in prayer for God’s vision, His fresh word in our lives, and clear guidance and wisdom for the next chapter of Mt. Hope’s ministry that we are excited to see unfold this fall. We return to be with you on Sunday, August 30. I will be teaching THIS Sunday at our 10:00 a.m. worship service and then begin our sabbatical after church. We will continue our study of the prophets with Micah. Don’t be late… bring your Bible and a pen!! Much love to you all… Chris Eads Mt. Hope Pastor Friend [email protected] Mt. Hope Summer 2026: A Ten Week Journey with the Prophets God’s people had been given a land and a name: “Israel,” which means “Struggles with God.” Century after century, the Israelites struggled to keep their faith and commitment to God. They abandoned the Lord and turned to idols, worldly ideology, and false religion. So, God raised up prophets to call them back to Him. These men of God offered both warning and promise, challenge and blessing. If we will hear their words as the Word of the Lord for us today, we too can receive the promised blessings as we stay faithful to our God! Our Summer Sundays Teaching Line-up: As Pastor Chris and Sherri Eads are away on sabbatical for rest, renewal, and refocus, we are blessed with a tremendous line-up of gifted teachers who will lead us through the Word of God each Sunday:
Our Summer Teaching Pastors Pastor Chris Campbell – Born and raised in central West Virginia, Chris Campbell spent several decades as a youth pastor and teaching pastor, to include four years as co-pastor with Chris Eads at CrossCurrent Ministries (now Acacia Church) in Ashburn, Virginia. Today, Chris Campbell serves as a licensed therapist and founder of Resolutions Counseling in his hometown of Bridgeport, West Virginia. Pastor Will Cravens – For many years, Will Cravens pastored Bridge Community Church in Ashburn, Virginia, before moving to Florida to serve full-time as a missionary and founder of Endurance Leadership. His wife, Sandra, revitalized our Mt. Hope children’s ministry while serving as interim director in 2023. Pastor Phil Holliday – The Holliday family led our own Pastor Chris Eads to faith in Jesus when he was a teenager in Vienna, Virginia. Phil had a long corporate career as an executive with Mobil Oil before “retiring” to serve as Executive Pastor and leadership consultant to several Northen Virginia churches. Pastor Randy Richardson – His greatest passion being relationally driven spiritual growth, Randy has served as pastor of small group discipleship and lead pastor for multiple churches in Massachusetts and Virginia. Today, while his vocation is in the corporate cyber security world, he and his wife, Debbie, continue to powerfully lead small groups at Mt. Hope Church and beyond. Pastor Samuel Sierra – Married to his beloved Evelyn, Samuel Sierra has a powerful story of healing and redemption as he found Christ and overcame profound addictions in his young adult years. Today he serves as an Elder at Mt. Hope and founder of Real Life Counseling, providing pastoral care to scores of individuals seeking a healed life. Elder Jameson Zoller – Son of our retired Pastor John Zoller, Jameson and his wife Kristie have been pillars of our church for decades, leading in multiple ministries throughout the years such as youth, children, and worship. Jameson is a high school English teacher in Loudoun County and serves as an Elder at Mt. Hope Church.
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Hey there, Beloved… Why is freedom so important to you? Is the impulse you have to both celebrate and defend your freedom simply something political, or does it have roots in your spiritual life as well? I want us to see and know God’s heartbeat on this and how our Christian faith demands something of us in response. Let’s talk in Deeper Thoughts below…
But first… a few quick notes…
OK… that’s it for you email skimmers and those who hate long emails… BUT… Some Deeper Thoughts… This is a big year to celebrate freedom. We are within just a couple of weeks of the 250th anniversary of our nation’s founding upon the principle that all men (and women) were created equal by God, and that the free pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness without the control and coercion of political tyranny is the God-created design of our humanity. (BTW… Fun note: I am a direct descendant of one of the men who signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. William Whipple of New Hampshire put his own neck on the line to throw off the tyrannical British monarchy. I have some of his family’s personal books on my shelf at home.) On the federal holiday of July 4, my wife and I plan to walk down to the city park with our close friends and neighbors to watch the Town of Lovettsville light off some airborne explosives to celebrate our freedom. The fireworks are not just intended to be entertaining, even though they certainly are. I love the bright colors, the thump in my chest as they explode, and the silly “oooohs” and “aaaahs” everyone makes when one of those shells proves to be creative. The fireworks have a deeper meaning. They are meant to remind us that freedom from tyranny never comes without a struggle. Usually war. Lovettsville’s [insert your town name] explosives are harmless (and pretty) reenactments of the harmful and deadly shells used in the Revolutionary War of the 1780s and the War of 1812 where we painfully fought to gain and maintain human freedom. Today is another federal holiday, and we would do well to reflect reverently on its meaning, too. While most signers of our Declaration of Independence believed in their hearts the biblical truth that God has created all men and women with equality—formed in the image of God to bear the likeness and design of the Creator—they also were afraid to let that equality to be enshrined in our original, unamended Constitution, bowing to the pressures of culture to separate out women and slaves as unequal in their human rights. In cowering to political pressure, these Founding Fathers—half of whom had biblical theology degrees or served as pastors—violated the revealed truth of Galatians 3:28: “You are all sons [daughters] of God through faith in Christ Jesus… There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ.” It took another war, and more exploding shells, to force and confirm this God-created freedom. In 1861, the United States of America and the newly declared Confederate States of America had it out at the expense of 750,000 American deaths to once and for all settle the freedom of our African American brothers and sisters. In 1863, during this horrifically bloody conflict, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation to declare this freedom complete. But it was not until June 19th, 1865—some 71 days after the Civil War ended—that this message of freedom reached the slaves of Galveston, Texas. Today, our nation has set aside this day to commemorate the good news of freedom and to honor the sacrifice and struggle necessary to secure it. We should all join in this thankfulness. There has been yet another war—and this one perhaps the greatest—to bring to you the personal freedom you enjoy. This freedom is in your interior, in your emotions, in your thoughts, in your desires, in your love, and in your spirit. It is, in fact, the source of our Founder’s belief that God has indeed created equality and freedom as a matter of Divine authority, and any man who opposes such freedom should be overthrown—even by war, if necessary. The war that has been waged against your interior soul has been fought against the greatest tyrannical despot in universal history. His names are many: Satan, the devil, Beelzebub, the Accuser, the evil one. And much blood was also shed to win this war. This war started not with the blood of 750,000 Americans, but rather the blood of the sovereign Lord of the universe, Jesus the Almighty Christ. And then, over the next 2,000 years, best estimates put the number around 71 million Christ-followers who accepted their death as martyrs to bring news of this freedom to every slave to sin throughout the world. Would you pause for some gratitude today? Would you be grateful that the foundation of our political freedoms was laid on July 4, 1776? Would you express great thanks that the message of freedom was confirmed for all Americans on June 19, 1865? And would you worship with great joy that freedom for every soul was purchased by Jesus Christ in 33 A.D.? And what does this call for from you and me? Just like it took the Union Army to enforce the physical freedom already won in Texas, it takes every Christ-follower to enforce by faith in our own lives the spiritual freedom we possess. Stand firm in your resistance to the devil (see Ephesians 6:10-18). Consider yourself no longer a slave to sin (see Romans 6:1-14). And believe and respond to this: “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by the yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1), not only physical and political freedom from tyranny, but from the spiritual oppression that holds us down when we do not stand by faith in emotional, spiritual, and interior freedom. Let’s meet at 10:00 a.m. Sunday! We will continue our study of the prophet Hosea. He speaks, too, of a deliverance from evil that we do not want to miss. Don’t be late… bring your Bible and a pen!! Much love to you all… Chris Eads Mt. Hope Pastor Friend [email protected] Hey everybody… What’s your favorite Bible story? Would we be surprised? Maybe one of the super encouraging miracles? Or a character who did mighty exploits for God? Or one of Jesus’s compassionate encounters with a struggling sinner? I bet you my favorite Bible story will in fact shock you. It’s one of the worst stories in there. But it makes me fall in love with God. Curious? Let’s talk in Deeper Thoughts below…
But first… a few quick notes…
OK… that’s it for you email skimmers and those who hate long emails… BUT… Some Deeper Thoughts… So, we can all agree that God is into morality, correct? Would God ever lead us to do something really bad? Something immoral? The Bible is pretty clear on this one: “God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone” (James 1:13). But what about God leading us to love someone who is caught in deep immorality? Would He ever do that? Check this one out: One time, God told a pastor to marry a prostitute. Yep… you read this right. God led a man of God—a prophet—to marry a woman who openly and publicly sold herself. The preacher was told to build his life with a woman of tremendous unfaithfulness, brokenness, and pain. “When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, ‘Go, take to yourself an adulterous woman and children of unfaithfulness…’” (Hosea 1:2). So, Hosea married Gomer. (A rather unfortunate name, don’t you think?) And then they had kids. And they weren’t all Hosea’s. And they got unfortunate names too: “Not-Loved” was their second kid’s name—the one who likely came about… well… um… through her day-job. Talk about needing therapy when you grow up… “yeah, my mom and dad named me ‘Not-Loved.’” Are you mortified right now? First that I am telling this sordid story in the first place, but then secondly that I am telling you this is my favorite Bible story? “This is all kinds of messed up, Pastor.” Indeed. But it has a purpose. God is not into immorality. God is not into ruining preacher’s lives. God is not into affirming self-destructive behavior. But God is into love. Way into love. God had a personal problem. He wanted to expose the problem to the people He was having the problem with. So, the Lord asked a preacher to live out a lifelong illustration of both God’s problem and God’s solution. God’s problem was that He was in love with a very unfaithful people. “When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, ‘Go, take to yourself an adulterous woman and children of unfaithfulness, because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the Lord.’” (That’s the rest of Hosea 1:2). You see, God’s beloved people were selling themselves into great unfaithfulness, chasing after other gods, other ideologies, other pleasures and pursuits, abandoning their one true God in favor of the shallow lovers of worldly idolatry. And yet, God loved these people as His only wife—His beloved for whom He would do absolutely anything. And before you decide this story is just too gross and click on out of our email, you gotta hear what God… um… I mean what Hosea… I mean what God modeled through Hosea. When Gomer had thoroughly destroyed the heart of her godly preacher-husband, Hosea relentlessly pursued her to return to him, to stay with him, and to love him. He just would not give up. And neither will God. Standing in line at an auction block of slavery where Gomer was being sold by her evil human traffickers, Hosea clung to his thirty pieces of silver and waited patiently for his chance to buy her back [**insert the word “redeem her” here] from her slaveholders so she could be his bride once again. Oh friends… do you see it? “God demonstrates His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). While Gomer was destroying herself and being ravaged by wickedness, Hosea gave up everything he had for her. While we ravage and destroy our hearts by loving worldliness and sin, God gives us everything He has to redeem us back to Him. God called a preacher to marry a prostitute not because He thought that this would be the model for a healthy marriage. Hosea and Gomer did not go on to lead Old Testament marriage conferences. No, God called a preacher to demonstrate through his undying love for a crooked, wayward woman just how much God loves us—we who are also wayward in our own manner. This is going to be an amazing Bible study on the limitless love of God and His scandalous grace towards every single human being. Read Hosea chapters 1-3 beforehand and then let’s meet. 10:00 a.m. Sunday! Don’t be late… bring your Bible and a pen!! Much love to you all… Chris Eads Mt. Hope Pastor Friend [email protected] Hey friends… Do you know the great and joyful promise that God will work out everything in your life for the better? (Hint: check out Romans 8:28.) This may not square well with our perceived reality. Sometimes hardships last for years and might even get worse as we age. But God is not going to leave us to our suffering without also blessing us greatly. Let’s talk in Deeper Thoughts below…
But first… a few big things happening…
OK… that’s it for you email skimmers and those who hate long emails… BUT… Some Deeper Thoughts… Sometimes pain just happens and God has nothing to do with it. We live in a “fallen world,” a reality where good and evil, sin and righteousness, free will and all manner of stupidity dwells unabated. In many cases, the sufferings we encounter in life are simply the result of living in this unideal, sinful, broken world. Illness is most often just our turn with the failing bodies guaranteed to come upon us all. The death rate among humanity is running right at 100% these days, so an illness that captures our end is simply inevitable. When it happens, God is not surprised, as “all the days ordained for me were written in His book before one of them came to be” (Psalm 139:16). But this does not mean He arbitrarily “took” us or our loved one in cruelty. Unemployment or financial hardship is usually just the result of world or local economies. Greed, fear, and politics that manipulate business decisions and market values flow unchecked from the sinful nature of man. God is nowhere in our politics, fear, or greed. Betrayal from others, interpersonal wounds that sting, and all manner of abuse and atrocity are 100% the free will choice of people who select evil as their course of action. God has nothing to do with these terrible choices. Tornadoes, earthquakes, wildfires, and house fires are most often simply corrupt nature doing its thing—a brokenness that beset all of creation when good and evil was introduced outside the Garden of Eden (see Genesis 3). While God has control over the forces of nature (see Psalm 135:6-7), in most cases it seems clear that He is letting the broken forces of nature run as they are. God may not be in the storms whatsoever (see 1 Kings 19:11-13). BUT… sometimes, hardship is indeed a direct intervention of God. Read Hebrews 12:7-12. The scripture is clear. Sometimes discipline is necessary to lead us to the right relational space with God: living in abundant love as sons and daughters of our loving heavenly Father. Sometimes our hardships are God’s created reality to lead us to repentance. When they are, we should repent, not get fussy with God. I’ve met many a person who acts as if God is to blame--somehow unloving and uncompassionate—for the hardships we encounter. But this simply is not true, and it dishonors everything God has revealed to us in scripture. In the cases where our troubles are the simple outcomes of our fallen physical bodies, the corrupt choices of evil people, or the autopilot throbbing of a broken planet, God is not to blame. You can thank Adam and Eve for introducing evil into our experience, and you can be deeply angry at the evil choices of your sinful neighbor. In the cases where God’s discipline is the cause, we can thank ourselves--not blame God—for having an unrepentant heart that leads a loving and merciful God to place some pain upon us to catch our attention and return us to Him. “Even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning. Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate” (Joel 2:12-13). Did you read that last phrase? “He is gracious and compassionate.” Period. Always. Every time. The prophet Joel wrote during a season of God’s discipline. A horrific infestation of locusts had beset the land of Israel as a judgment designed to lead a wayward people back to God. But this was not the end of the story. God promised boldly, “I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten” (Joel 2:25). This is a clear and present promise. God will restore us from the years of pain involved in bringing us back to Him. Every. Single. Time. Let’s meet… Sunday, 10:00 a.m. sharp… and study the wondrously gracious promise of God to leverage His discipline and restore us to something so much better. Take a little time in advance to read the prophet Joel. This will be encouraging. And then we’ll party outside for our summer kick-off celebration. Don’t be late… bring your Bible and a pen!! Much love to you all… Chris Eads Mt. Hope Pastor Friend [email protected] |
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Jesus said, “Love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, & with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.” - Matt. 22:37-39
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