City Church Announcements, 3.10.10

All new announcements this week…

Daylight Saving
Don’t forget to move your clocks forward one hour this Saturday night/Sunday morning!

Loaves & Fishes, 3/21
Our monthly opportunity to prepare and serve a meal for the hungry will take place on Sunday, March 21. We will be meeting at the Conrad Center (1400 Oliver Hill Way) from 11am to around 2pm. If you’re interested in helping, please email Kira Disse at kmdisse [at] gmail.com.

RISC Opportunities
RISC is a Richmond area justice ministry partnership among congregations. City Church is assessing its involvement with RISC and looking for a couple of people who might be interested in leading the way. There are two upcoming RISC events that would offer an opportunity to learn more about the organization: RISC Rally on Monday, March 22nd and the Nehemiah Action on Thursday, April 22nd. If you are interested in attending or want more information, please contact Erik (erik [at] citychurchrva.com).

Sound Volunteers
We are looking to add a couple of people to the sound mixing volunteer rotation. If you are willing to serve in this capacity please contact Sean Rhorer (seanrhorer [at] gmail.com). Training will be provided.

Thinking About. . . Fitting In

I’ve been thinking about fitting in. It’s an idea with which most of us can identify. We are people desperate to ‘fit in’, to belong. We go to great lengths (through the stuff we watch, the clothes we buy, and the things we do) in order to fit in. If you’ve ever been in a group of people talking about a latest movie or a trendy band you’ve never heard of, you have longed to fit in. If you’ve been around a bevy of bleary-eyed, neck-bent iPhone users blathering on about a technology you don’t get, you have wanted to be ‘on the inside.’

Purity

I’ve been thinking about fitting in because it’s come up as I’ve preached through the book of Mark. Mark doesn’t use ‘fitting in’ language, but he frequently mentions cleanliness and purity. When Mark talks about cleanliness, he’s describing what we know as ‘fitting in’.

That’s why Jesus’ confrontation with his contemporaries over purity issues is poignant for us. Jesus dared tell the self-assured of his day that they defined fitting in improperly. They defined it from the outside in. Their lives spoke: “If we do the right things in our external life, if we look right, we will secure our spot within society and with God.”

Inside Out

Jesus exploded their assumed paradigm. He said that people could never ‘fit in’ on the basis of their self-modified behavior. Instead, Jesus said that ‘fitting in’ would come from the outside, from hearts transformed by the power of God. Jesus said people ‘fit in’ (first with God and then with others) when they are made right (that is, clean and pure) from the inside out.

Deeper Ache

The social ache we feel to ‘fit in’ will never be met by the right clothes, hip mastery of the arcane, owning an iPhone, or conversing knowingly about Vampire Weekend. Nor will it be met by mastering a set of shared moral behaviors or ethical practices. That ache to fit in with others itself signals a deeper ache—our longing to fit in with God, to belong to a heavenly Father, to be reconciled to our Maker. And the only remedy for that deep ache is faith in the One who brings us back to God by changing us from the inside out.

City Church Announcements, 3.3.10

*NEW*

Invisible Children film screening – Thursday, March 4 at 8pm
There will be an Invisible Children film screening tomorrow evening at The University of Richmond. They will be showing, “Roseline,” which is a story of an AIDS victim and an installment in their Bracelet Campaign films. Following the film, there will be a Q&A and a presentation of up-to-date information on the always changing conditions of the previously war-torn area and the status of the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act (S.1067) bill that is currently sitting in Congress. The screening will take place this Thursday evening at 8pm at the University of Richmond in the Alice Haynes Room (located in the Tyler Hanes Commons). Admission is free.

Hymns for Haiti—A Benefit Concert – Saturday, March 20 at 7pm (doors open at 6pm)
Alex Mejias (and some special guests) will be giving a concert to benefit Compassion International and Partners in Health on Saturday, March 20 at West End Presbyterian Church (9008 Quioccasin Road). 100% of proceeds will benefit the cause. Tickets are $10 in advance, $15 at the door.  All ages are welcome. Kids 12 and under are free. Tickets will also be sold at WEPC before and after Sunday church services until the show. Advance tickets can also be bought at www.ticketstobuy.com.

*REMINDER*

The Movies and America: What the Academy Award Nominees for Best Picture Tell Us About Ourselves – Friday, March 12 at 7pm
The Richmond Center for Christian Study presents… “The Movies and America: What the Academy Award Nominees for Best Picture Tell Us About Ourselves”, with Dr. Drew Trotter of the Consortium of Christian Study Centers.  Friday, March 12, 7pm-9pm.  Sycamore Presbyterian Church (510 Coalfield Road, Midlothian 23114).  Advance registration is $10 ($15 for couples/families), $15 at the door ($20 for couples/families).  Refreshments will be provided and childcare will be available.  For registration and further info, goto http://richmondstudycenter.org

City Church Announcements, 2.23.10

All new announcements this week…

Mercy Fund, 2/28
On the final Sunday of each month we take up a special mercy fund offering. Whatever is given will be kept separate from our general budget and will be used to aid those in our congregation, and in our community, who have emergency needs. Please prayerfully consider what you might give. The current balance is $844.16.

Vespers, 2/28
All are invited to join us for our monthly Vespers service this Sunday, immediately after our regular church service. This is a time for us to share a meal and discussion about various events and opportunities within the church. This month we will be meeting at the Bonkovskys’ (21 N. Granby Street). Please bring a dish to share and folding chairs if you have them as seating is limited.

The Movies and America: What the Academy Award Nominees for Best Picture Tell Us About Ourselves, 3/12
The Richmond Center for Christian Study presents… ”The Movies and America: What the Academy Award Nominees for Best Picture Tell Us About Ourselves,” with Dr. Drew Trotter of the Consortium of Christian Study Centers.  Friday, March 12, 7pm-9pm.  Sycamore Presbyterian Church (510 Coalfield Road, Midlothian 23114).  Advance registration is $10 ($15 for couples/families), $15 at the door ($20 for couples/families).  Refreshments will be provided and childcare will be available.  For registration and further info, go to http://richmondstudycenter.org.

Have a great week!

Thinking About. . . The Winter Olympics

I’ve been thinking about the Winter Olympics. At the risk of alienating those of you who don’t follow sports I make back-to back sports-related posts. Although, in my defense, the Olympics are games not sports. There also is anecdotal evidence that the Olympics have wider appeal than traditional sports. In fact, that appeal got me thinking: What is it that makes the Olympics compelling?

Rarity

The first thing that the Olympics have going for them is that they only take place every four years. It’s basic economics: scarcity drives value. It drives interest. Guys, be honest for a second. If curling were on every weekend, would you watch? This is the same idea that motivates Disney to ‘lock away into the movie vault’ certain titles. If it’s rare then we’ll find it more valuable and more compelling.

Novelty

The Olympics–especially the Winter Olympics–offers exposure to sports (okay, games) that are novel. Such uniqueness raises questions for us:

• What exactly is the difference between ice dancing and pairs figure skating?
• What does all that brushing during curling actually accomplish?
• What other sports might become awesomer if we added ‘cross’ to their names (like snowboard cross and ski cross)? Is luge-cross or bobsled cross a possibility? Because I definitely would watch.
• Why don’t more Olympic sports follow the lead of biathlon and add riflery?

Its novelty is part of the split personality of the Olympics that at once intones an old established gravity (hence the voice-overs: “The Games of the 21^st Olympiad”) but also presents bewildering new games (like remember when trampoline was a summer Olympic event?).

The Not Rare Gospel

These two factors that make the Olympics compelling are partly why the gospel is dismissed as not compelling. There is nothing rare about the gospel. Since Jesus’ death, his followers have proclaimed far and wide the freely available gospel of God’s love. The gospel is not a message that is limited to a rarified or select audience. It is good news announced to the whole world, to every tribe, nation, and tongue.

The Not Novel Gospel

There is also nothing new about the gospel. For the last two thousand years, the message of the gospel has been the same; for many, disappointingly the same. The gospel is the simple message of Jesus Christ crucified for broken people.

For millennia, people have tried to trick new ideas out of the Bible, to develop a more sophisticated understanding of God, to churn out new truth. As the apostle Paul warned his protégé Timothy: “People will have itching ears; they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions.”

What is so compelling about the Winter Olympics is disappointingly absent in the gospel. But in considering the gospel we must see beyond rarity and novelty. The gospel may not be rare, but it is good. The gospel may not be novel, but it is, and always will be, good news.