Living in faith, hope and Love

The question keeps popping up: When are we going to start gathering together as a church?  Great question. Here’s where we are.

Throughout the pandemic and shutdown, we’ve attempted to abide by state and local guidelines regarding gatherings, etc.  Safeguarding the health of our church family is a top priority!  As of today, our county guidelines are as follows:

• We can conduct remote services (a.k.a. live-stream)
• We can hold services in our parking lot
• We can gather in our building with no more than one person/household per 200 square feet.

In light of these guidelines, here’s what we ARE NOT doing:

• We are NOT changing our live-stream. It will continue every week. Yes, even after the shutdown.
• We are NOT going to have parking lot services. We don’t really have a parking lot that would accommodate anything meaningful for gathering.
• We are NOT going to start in-person gatherings at this time. Our auditorium would accommodate about 22 individuals or households at 200 square feet per.  Since our bare-bones QuaranTeam takes at least ten people, that means we could add up to 12 people or households.  We would have to have at least 25 gatherings every week just to fit everyone in.  You can see the problem. ☹

What we ARE going to do is this:

• We are going to continue to serve the most vulnerable and needy in our community, thru neighborhood food drives, thru the Gaithersburg HUB, thru our Grace Fund, and thru the “Thank a Healthcare Worker” project.
• We are going to monitor the guidelines from the county. When they move to the next phase of reopening, it might make sense to start some small gatherings for those who are interested.  We’ll keep you posted with all the updates as they’re available.
• We are going to continue to gather online every week on Facebook and YouTube. We’re taking this opportunity to build up our Sunday live-stream team.  That means more worship team members.  It also means more tech team members for our new live-stream ministry.  If you’d like to find out more about these opportunities, we’d love to talk with you.  Just click here and fill in the online form.

In the meantime, thank you for your amazing participation and support in every area of our ongoing ministry.  We miss seeing you all face to face, and look forward to being able to resume that very soon!

-Pastor Mark

P.S. Parents, don’t forget to check out the resources for you and your kids on the Church At Home web page!

Is watching TV on Sunday really church? Maybe you’ve thought about this. Maybe you haven’t. But is it really church when we’re all sitting in our private homes?

My answer is Yes, and No.

Yes, it’s really church because church is the people of God, the followers of Jesus, the “called out ones” to use a literal translation of the Greek word, ekklesia, that is translated into the English word, church. Whether we’re scattered or gathered, we’re still followers of Jesus. We may feel like we’re exiled, but we’re still identified with him. We’re still men, women, students and children who are directed by the Great Commandment (to love one another), the Great Commission (to make disciples/followers of Jesus) into the Great Community (neither Jew nor Greek, slave or free, male or female).

But No, it’s not really church the way we tend to think of it. If the church is a community, we’re not communing very much. If the church is a body, we’re a bunch of parts flung across the map. If the church is the army of God, we’re individual soldiers stranded at our solo posts. If the church is a family, we’re all sitting in our individual bedrooms watching our screens waiting for someone to call us to the family dinner table.

But two statements from our leader Jesus come to mind in moments like these:

I will build my church.

With God all things are possible.

God is at work even now, even during the shutdown, even during the tensions and turmoil in our country. And yes, even while we’re socially distanced, and relying on Zoom calls. God is at work building his church. His followers are feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and housing the homeless. God is at work building his church which is advancing real justice in the dark corners of our communities. God is at work speaking into the hearts and minds of people just like you and me. With God, all things are possible, even being the church during a global lockdown.

We are moving forward together with God into the opportunities and unknowns of the coming year. This Sunday, at 7PM, we’re holding our annual Seneca Creek Celebration/Meeting. We want to remember and celebrate what God HAS been doing, and we want to share what we believe God is GOING to be doing in and thru this church in the coming year!

You’re invited to join us for this event. Because it’s an online event, you’ll need the Zoom link. Simply click here to register and receive the link. I look forward to joining with you this Sunday. Together we’re redefining what the church REALLY looks like in 2020 and beyond!

-Pastor Mark

In five days from this post, the season known as Lent will begin.  It’s not a legalistic burden, but a life-giving opportunity.  Lent isn’t even about living without something, instead, it’s about experiencing the abundance God offers.  Why do we need Lent in our lives?  Because our typical lifestyle can stand in the way of authentic life.

• Surrounded by noise, voices and information, we cannot hear the life-giving words of our Heavenly Father.
• Driven by the incessant appetites within us, we can’t recognize the deep hunger we have for more of God himself.
• Swept up in the endless demands for our time we can’t appreciate the rich life God is calling us to live in the present moment, even today.
• Distracted by the infinite opportunities for amusement and entertainment, we can’t focus long enough to recognize the deep brokenness, loneliness and emptiness that lurks in the shadows of our soul.

This is why we need Lent.  It’s a time to turn off the noise, ignore the growling appetite, reclaim our precious time, and focus for a moment on what’s really important.

Starting next Wednesday, February 26^th, you can take one or more steps toward experiencing the abundant life you were created for.

• You might choose to drop certain types of food/beverage, and use the absence of that substance to direct your heart and mind toward God.
• You may choose to drop entertainment (like social media or TV) and use that time to squeeze in conversations with God.
• You could choose to drop conveniences and/or luxuries in order to squeeze God into those spaces.

As for me, I’ll be cutting out “road noise” (no music/radio in the truck), and TV time during the week.  This way I can listen to my Heavenly Father better, and focus on what he’s trying to do in my life.

And as in previous years, I’m encouraging our entire church to take a few minutes each day to read and reflect on God’s words to us.  There are many reading plans designed just for Lent. This year I’m using one called “Lent Through African Eyes,” based on the Africa Study Bible.  It’s available online, and thru the YouVersion Bible app on your smartphone.  If you do choose to make this a Lent practice, be sure to check out the Seneca Creek online Bible study Facebook group.

Lent begins next Wednesday, February 26^th, which is Ash Wednesday.  You have five days to figure out what works for you.  Then begin to experience abundant life in a fresh way.

-Pastor Mark

P.S. If you weren’t able to join us last Sunday, we kicked off a new series called, “Finding Clarity in a Confusing World.”  It’s an exploration of the book of 1 Corinthians in the New Testament. If you’d like to read thru it, it’s only about a one hour read.

That’s how it feels with the current state of the nation.  If I was to give a “state of the union” address I’d have to say there’s not a whole lot of “union” going on.  No matter what I say I’ll make enemies.

You probably have some strong opinions about the events from earlier this week.

• The Super Bowl halftime show
• The State of the Union address
• The Senate’s vote on the impeachment trial of the President.

Any one of these three could have agitated the population by themselves.  Together it’s like a witch’s brew of public poison.  We’re gulping it down by the gallon and blaming the other side for making us sick.

The safe thing to do is keep my head down and my mouth shut.  Oh, and stay off social media.  But I’m not afforded that luxury as a pastor.  (I mean I CAN stay off social media, but that’s not likely to happen.)  Because while all the vitriol is being slung around, the people I’m called to pastor are being wounded.  Those inside the church, and those outside.  People like you.  Wounded by the demeaning and dehumanizing words of others.  Wounded by the nurturing of old grievances.  Wounded by believing the lie that the real enemy is another person instead of the Enemy of God.  Wounded by gossip and half-truths.  And it grieves me.  And it grieves the God who made us all.  And to keep my head down and my mouth shut feels like malpractice.

The gospel is good news, but in times like this we’re capable of forgetting it.  The good news gets lost, which may be an indication that we’ve lost sight of what makes it good.  We’re capable of turning on one another and acting out of fear and anger.  All the while, we’re called to be the ambassadors of reconciliation.  We’re restored in order to reconcile people to God, and to one another.

Some may read this and think, “Pastor, you’re out to lunch.  These are important discussions in our nation.  They impact our safety, our personhood, our morals, even our country.”  I’m fully aware of the significance of these discussions.  But I’m also aware of the toll they take on real people.

• When the followers of Jesus can’t worship together because they hold different views on what is or is not appropriate entertainment, that’s a problem. Maybe it’s our culture we’re worshipping more than our Creator.
• When Christians on opposite sides of the political aisle resort to name-calling and shade-throwing instead of pursuing the hard work of reconciliation, that’s a problem. Maybe our first allegiance is to our nation instead of our Savior.
• When you begin to unfriend and unfollow brothers and sisters in Christ on social media because their feed is so annoying, that’s a problem. Maybe our view of the Body of Christ is that all the parts should look and work the same, instead of the diversity we find in the New Testament.

This is exactly the kind of situation that calls for a radical new type of community, a community of Jesus followers, who are not followers in name only, but with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.  This is exactly the kind of situation in which wounded and discouraged people all around us are looking for someone to bring good news, to bring a message of hope.  This is a situation that screams out for the HOPE of Christ.

I don’t know what Jesus would say about the Super Bowl halftime, or the SOTU address, or the Senate’s vote to acquit.  I have some ideas, based on what he has already said about grace, and love and justice and hypocrisy.  But I do know that he was very clear about how his followers were to live:

• Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.
• Love your neighbor as yourself.

If those inside the church and outside are not seeing the good news of Jesus lived out in his followers, then we’re not doing the love thing very well.  As Paul put it:

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.  (1 Corinthians 13:1)

Is the sound of your life more like gong/cymbal?  Or is it like the sound of hope to a wounded world?  Are we, the followers of Jesus, the bearers of good news?

Now excuse me while I go look for my asbestos suit. 😊

-Pastor Mark

Recently I listened to someone talk about their frustration with God.  They had prayed and prayed and prayed. And yet God hadn’t changed the situation around them.  Perhaps you’ve been there.  There’s a name for this syndrome.

I call it the TRGS, or Transactional Relationship with God Syndrome.  It goes like this. We approach God with a specific need (or needs), believing he’s going to help us out.  If he does, we’re excited, and we give him something in return (like attending a church, praying, giving, etc.).  We’ve conducted a transaction in which goods, services, or money are exchanged in return for something else.  It’s a reciprocal, interacting relationship.  It’s a transactional relationship.

We continue to bring our needs to him, initiating more transactions.  As long as God keeps providing what we ask in a reasonable time frame, all is good in the relationship.  Until it isn’t.

Once we don’t receive what we requested/needed in the time frame we need it, we feel like God isn’t holding up his end of the deal.  There’s a breach of trust.  The transactional relationship is in trouble.

There’s trouble in the fact that none of us would want this kind of relationship for someone close to us.  If your friend/child/neighbor/buddy only valued you because they received what they needed from you on their timetable, would you enjoy that relationship?  Not for long, right?  God is not a vending machine, he’s our Heavenly Father, who desires a genuine relationship with us.

But the real trouble is the nature of the relationship in the first place.  The idea of entering into a transactional relationship with God is deeply flawed, for we have nothing to bring that God doesn’t already have.  And despite certain passages in the Bible that seem to indicate otherwise, God doesn’t ever commit himself to doing everything we ask in the time frame we request it.  A quick glance at the many characters in the Bible reveal that God interacts with them in ways that cannot fit a transactional relationship.

• How long did Abraham and Sarah pray for God to give them a child? It would have been easy to think that God couldn’t be relied upon.
• How long did Joseph languish in an Egyptian dungeon because of false accusations piled on top of treacherous sibling rivalry. Surely during that time Joseph could have wondered if God was holding up his end of the bargain.
• Moses spent the prime 40 years of his life literally out to pasture. How many long, hot days in the wilderness might he have wondered why God wasn’t doing what he asked him to do?
• Job, described as a righteous man, surely felt he had done his part, and yet God didn’t seem to be reciprocating. He lost his possessions, his children, his wife, his reputation and his health.

The stories go on and on, even to include Jesus’ disciples.  These people understood something that we often miss.  The relationship is not primarily transactional.  It’s primarily transformational.  What I mean is that God is transforming his followers into more beautiful image-bearers.  And sometimes that process takes a lot of time.  And sometimes refining.  Or “pruning,” as Jesus describes it in John 15.  There’s always an agenda, but it may not always be MY agenda, or YOUR agenda.  It’s God’s agenda, and his agenda is to transform you and me.  However long it takes.  However difficult that process is.  And if we can come to grips with that, then the Transactional Relationship with God Syndrome will begin to fade away.  And what will emerge in its place is something that is exceeding, abundantly more than all we can ask or imagine.

If you’re wondering which relationship you’ve established, consider which of these prayers you’re more likely to pray:

“God, please help me”

OR

“God, please change me”

What kind of deal are you making with God this year?

-Pastor Mark

Last October we celebrated our 30^th year at Seneca Creek by launching our Kindness Bomb campaign.  We plan to blanket our community with 30,000 kindness bombs over the course of 12 months.  Here’s what we know so far.

There are some kindness bombs going off.  And some of them actually register on the kindnessbomb.com website.  Here are a few of the responses:

• I was sitting in the parking lot and a sweet angel put a flower on my windshield. God bless you all
• Thank you for the apples🙏💯💕
• I was Kindness bombed today after a kind gentleman helped jump our car in the cold. I am generally a kind person regardless but I will make sure I do better.
• My friend picked up my brother for me while I was about to die from a fever. I love her
• I took a book from the library and among the pages there was one dollar bill. I know it’s not much but made me smile and I’m definitely passing it along.

What’s even more interesting is how this idea of kindness keeps showing up in the strangest places.

A study shows that kindness slows the aging process.

Performing small acts of kindness for as few as 7 days will make you happier.

Acts of kindness are contagious, increasing the likelihood that others will also act with kindness.

It can help little kids with their executive function.

It can bring sustainability to the workplace and combat workplace woes.

Kindness helps with peer acceptance among adolescents.

Parents who focus on kindness help their kids succeed.

And the list goes on.  It’s almost like Jesus knew what he was talking about when he called his followers to act this way.  Who knows, maybe if we push hard on this kindness bomb campaign, we’ll begin to transform our world with the HOPE of Christ.  Which is actually our vision as a church!  😊

Can I be honest?  I carry one of the cards with me, but rarely use it.  Of my 30 original cards, I’ve got about 25 left.  I’m committing to dropping at least two a week for the next five weeks.  And I’m inviting you to pick up those kindness bomb cards, and launch your own carpet bombing campaign.  Try to do at least two a week for the next five weeks.  It could be the most important resolution you make all year!

-Pastor Mark

Sure, you probably remembered to get a gift for your family, loved ones, co-workers, delivery people, neighbors, and more.  But did you think about a royal gift?  You know, for the king?

Isn’t it curious that on the “birthday” of Jesus we give gifts to everyone BUT Jesus?  The magi set the example, with gold, frankincense and myrrh.  But what about us?  Before you write this off as a silly exercise since Jesus isn’t here physically, let’s remember that Jesus said at one point that, “whatever you do for the least of these, you do for me.”  (Matthew 25)

May I suggest a gift that

• Will actually be useful
• Won’t break the bank
• Will create a lasting memory
• Won’t create jealousy from others who got something different

That gift is the gift of kindness.  That’s right, the type of kindness we’ve called “Kindness Bombs.”  If you don’t have any of the kindness bomb cards, don’t worry. It’s okay to drop a kindness bomb without the card.

The gift of kindness just may be the most significant gift you can offer this Christmas season.  So as you head out the door to work, or to school, or to shop, or to a Christmas party, don’t forget the most important gift.  Don’t forget the gift fitting for a king.

-Pastor Mark

P.S. As we wrap up 2019, we’re also coming to the close of a chapter at Seneca Creek.  One of our long-time staff members will be leaving our staff team next year (though not leaving the church).    I want you to hear in Dave’s own words what’s next for him.  See below:

Hi Seneca Creek family,

I want to say “thank you” for being such great friends, collaborators and creative ministry partners over the past fifteen years!

After 30+ years of serving vocationally in ministry, I’m embarking on a career transition to partner with my wife, Jen in her Startsong Studio business.  I’ll be offering guitar, bass & piano lessons (private, online & group), short-term classes & ensembles opportunities, recording production services & creative team consulting. Jen will continue offering private voice & piano lessons, group classes, ensembles & community events.

We’re launching our Startsong Studio website startsongstudio.com this month to help get the word out about what we’re offering and to help you stay connected with us.  We’re excited about investing our next season of life into further equipping & developing emerging musicians, artists and teams!

Please be praying for wisdom and success in the staff search process while “being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:6

Dave Hawley

Pastor Dave will go part time in January, and then step off staff completely at the end of March. We’ll give him a proper sendoff at that time.