Dear Evergreen Family:
Our worship life at Evergreen these days is like a coin. Yes, it is valuable. Also, though, it has two distinctly important sides.
On one side, we have our outdoor 9:00 a.m. service. Here, we’ve returned to our Methodist roots, completely by accident. Methodism started as a revival movement within the Church of England. Methodism wasn’t about asserting a new belief, reclaiming an old belief, or planting a flag in any other sort of way. It was simply about a desire to see the faith come alive and people transformed. It was about being Christians on purpose.
Part of that energy meant holding worship where the left-out people were: the streets, the factories, the fields. Even the Methodists didn’t really want to resort to this. It seemed undignified even to them. However, their overriding calling from God meant they would bring worship to all these places. And they did.
Do we want to be outside at 9:00 a.m. in the Northern Virginia summer humidity? Not really. The COVID 19 pandemic has forced us out there. However, our overriding calling from Jesus means we will be out there. The good news of Jesus is that important. Come on out and let’s be who Methodists have been from the beginning: folks who will not let the gospel be denied.
There is another side to our worship-life coin. This is our 10:00 a.m. indoor livestream-only worship service. Our ability to use the computer to worship together has become more important than ever before. It may remain important for some time to come. Even while we make our way back to church, step by step, we will need to stay connected with those who simply can’t get to the church building. Actually, this is a lot like worshiping in fields and factories as well. This, too, is being Methodist.
This second side of the coin needs help. Our long-time, faithful audio/visual volunteer will have earned a well-deserved retirement from this position very soon. We are looking to build a rotation of volunteers to replace him, so that no one person has to volunteer more than once a month. Without a team in place, our livestreaming won’t be able to continue. If you can volunteer once a month to run the audio/visual elements of our indoor service, we need you. You don’t need to know anything in order to get started. You will be trained and supported. We simply need willing hearts to keep this ministry going. If the Lord is giving you a gentle nudge in this direction, please call or e-mail us today. And may the Lord grant us all peace as we seek to be true Methodists in this day and age!
May God bless us all.
Your Fellow Minister in Christ,
Mark