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Dear friends, I hope that you enjoyed a Holy Week full of remembrance and reflection on the life and suffering of Jesus, and most of all the Father’s vindication of the Son when he raised him to new life. What a delight it was to worship this year in a more “normal” fashion after two years of Covid existence. Your prayers and financial gifts on behalf of church planting are greatly appreciated and in full use! We couldn’t take up this work without your participation. The last four months have been full of surprises. I suppose that is the way of mission. Each year The Great Commission Committee typically reads something that we hope will spark new curiosity and imagination for our work in church planting. This Spring we started reading Pilgrims and Priests: Christian Mission in a Post-Christian Society by Stefan Paas. This is a wonderful book that surveys the different approaches to mission that have characterized the church in various times and places, and that seeks to stimulate our imaginations for how we might engage a missionary spirituality within an increasingly secular age. Paas is a missiologist writing within the European context, which most see as a little further along the secular spectrum than most of the communities we serve in North America. Still, we all feel the creep of disinterest in the gospel and in church in one way or another. Covid accentuated the experience in many places. Early in the book Paas encourages us to “receive mission as a gift rather than a task…” and he invites the reader to take “a sober, hard look at what it means to live in a secular society.” So, we are trying to do just that. If you are interested, read along with us! Let me mention a few of the surprising developments we are experiencing in our work with church planting. Two lay-led groups are being birthed out of New Creation Hagerstown – lay persons in both Chambersburg, PA and Fredrick, MD have started gathering for evening prayer asking God to start new congregations. The host couples plan to attend the Always Forward Training hosted by Church of the Resurrection in Baltimore. If you have friends or contacts in these communities, please let us know and we will help make the connection. Church of the Ascension in Kearneysville, WV is partnering with Mike Koppola, who was recently ordained a deacon to plant Christ the Redeemer in Dillsburg, PA outside of Harrisburg. Mike is gathering with a group on Sunday evenings for evening prayer. Finally, Church of the Good Shepherd is getting underway in Charlottesville, VA with Robert Cunningham and April Murrie. On Easter, the Rev. Dan Marotta and several Redeemer Richmond musicians joined the Charlottesville group and led them in an Easter Eucharist service. Over 150 gathered for that celebration. The plant is on its way to launching public worship in August. Please continue to pray for all of these planters, lay leaders that are engaging these important works, and pray for their fundraising efforts as well. We are working to streamline fundraising for church plants. Heidi Reichert, our Communications Coordinator has done an excellent job creating space for church planters to tell their stories and improve the process for making contributions. You can access the page here. Finally, Anglican Priest/Poet Malcolm Guite writes, “In Jesus Christ heaven itself is bodied forth, given a local habitation and a name. Everything else follows from this….the risen Christ, free and loose in the World, free to encounter us anywhere, everywhere and in anyone.” The growing disinterest in the church and the gospel are sobering indeed, but have every reason to hope and look for the continued action of the Spirit awakening hearts and minds to God’s great love for us in the Risen Christ as he “bodies forth” into the world in these many new places. You are part of that work. Thank you for joining us in praying and supporting this work. Blessings friends, Tuck Bartholomew
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