Hey folks…
Can you picture the swelling, foreboding music on the cable newscast and the “Breaking News!” banners excitedly flashing across the screen? If you’re like me, you’re instantly skeptical of another round of advertising-motivated media hyperbole. Oh…and it is guaranteed to be 100% negative (‘cuz we Americans never pay attention to “breaking news!” about warm fuzzy things like kittens and puppies…). Well… please forgive me… I have some Mt. Hope Church “Breaking News!” that if I had swell music bumper and a bold-colored kairon graphic to share, you’d be getting it. I really want you to tune in on this news… in Deeper Thoughts below… But first… · Please don’t miss THIS Sunday night, 5:00 – 6:30 p.m. for an all-important church vision and prayer night! We have some important (not quite breaking, but super-important nonetheless) news to share with you, get your feedback and reactions, and most vitally to pray about. We have a new proposal about a modest expansion to our physical worship space that is within our reach to responsibly consider. We need to read you in on this, and we want your reactions and ideas shared with the construction project manager who will be in attendance Sunday night. o All are welcome (even newbies to Mt. Hope…please come!)… and you official voting church members (Covenant Partners), this meeting will also serve as our quarterly business meeting. o Snacks and Cider are coming, too, and they must go home inside your bellies. o Youth group is meeting at the same time downstairs, so parents, c’mon out and bring your teens! · Ladies: don’t forget your 2024 Vision Board event tomorrow, Saturday, January 20, 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. at the church. Click here for more details and to RSVP! · Youth: THIS Monday, enjoy your day off from school with bowling! Grades 6-12 (bring friends!) are invited to join Chris Bowen and the youth at The Branch bowling alley in Leesburg, 11:00 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. Cost is $4.00 plus tax. Yep!! How cheap is that?? (Bring some additional money for snacks/food.) Click here to email Chris Bowen to let us know you’re coming—or text him at 240-422-6287. · We have a great snow removal team, so the parking lot will be clear, the sidewalks awesome, the coffee hot, and the heat running on Sunday. So, c’mon out! OK…that’s it for today for you email skimmers and you who would rather dodge important news that might change your life… BUT… Some Deeper Thoughts… Here’s the banner headline: “You are not at all who you think you are.” As the bumper music pounds in the background, your anchor shares the news with somber face: “Reports have been uncovered revealing that everything you have thought about yourself is no longer true, experts say…” And then, in true manipulative ad-selling fashion, we cut first to a commercial break… <<< Cue the Mt. Hope “Breaking News!” lead-story commercial break; read with a smooth, calming, yet enthusiastic voice: You’ve noticed, have you not, that things around Mt. Hope are getting a little crowded? This is a good problem—coming from Holy Spirit-empowered momentum and joy in our church family. New people are coming super-hungry for the community, authenticity, openness, and enthusiasm we are all experiencing here. Many are bringing their doubts, fears, challenges, and needs to the forefront quickly because of the obvious love that our church displays to one another. And best of all, God is meeting these new folks—and all of us—with healing, spiritual strength, freshness, and power. It's a good problem to have. But it is still a problem. This has happened before at Mt. Hope. In 1897 (um…127 years ago for you historians) this little country chapel in the rural farmlands of Waxpool, VA (before it was known as Ashburn) had outgrown its space. God was at work. The original church built in 1853 was bursting at the seams. So, they gathered some humble resources, met for a while in “a grove of trees” out back, and expanded the chapel into what you know today… including those ornate (if not slightly stiff) pews recovered from an old and dying church in Washington, D.C. Following the example of our church family multiple generations ago, we are exploring the possibility of expanding this sacred chapel once again to accommodate the movement of God and to prepare for the future in our now-not-so-rural Loudoun suburbs. BUT…we need your help. We will brief you on the potential project THIS Sunday night, 5:00 – 6:30 p.m., and then ask for your wisdom, reactions, ideas, and desires. Please join us for this super-important vision and prayer night! <<< Dramatic voiceover: “And now…back to ‘Breaking News!’” You. You are not who you think you are, experts say. When it comes to spiritual matters, most of us have a rather dismal view of ourselves. It may be a specific guilt or gripping shame about some dark corner of our past (or present). But more generally speaking, even for those who are living the good life, optimistic, and joyful most of the time, there is this subtle nagging belief that we’re just not that good at spiritual things. When viewed through the lens of more traditional approaches to religion, we hear the fiery preacher and see his boney finger pointed out across the congregation. “Sinner!!” he declares, almost gleefully. We don’t like shame. It is painful. That fiery preacher yelling “sinner” rings in our head—and we instantly see all those terrible things we do (or have done) that confirms the dismal diagnosis. And then we look to scripture and see very clearly that we fall short of God’s ideal in so many ways…and even the scripture declares that “all have sinned” (Romans 3:23), and that “there is no one who is good.” At all. (Romans 3:10). So, it seems the verdict is in. Since shame is painful, our society has decided to just eliminate shame altogether by suggesting that nothing the Bible declares as sinful actually is, and instead celebrates sin under warm ideals such as “acceptance” and “tolerance.” (Tragically, many in the Church have bought into that cultural strategy…something Romans will deal with us in a few weeks…) But God has another solution to shame. He designed shame as a positive inner emotional “nervous system” to alert us to destructive behavior. It was designed to show us our limitations, establish boundaries, and warn us where the dangerous cliffs in life are. But He never intended for that system to define you. Did you catch that? The devil is called the “accuser” who accuses us “day and night” (Revelation 12:10). Being the “father of lies…he speaks his native language” (John 8:44) and tells us shame is not merely a behavioral boundary, but it is our identity. “Sinner!” he defines us—and we own it as an identity rather than a behavioral status. This Sunday, we will continue our study of the Book of Romans taking us into “Uncharted Territory.” We will discover that our success with God is not a matter of keeping up with the "do's and don'ts" of religion, but rather an identity to be understood—a right-standing with God (righteousness) that comes by faith in HIS work, not ours. Operating from this new identity, we can live without shame and condemnation, AND in true right-ness with God and others. Nose around Romans 3 and Romans 8 beforehand if you can. I truly love you all and am looking forward to a great Sunday with much great (breaking!) news…will you join me? Chris Eads Mt. Hope Pastor Friend
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