Dear sisters and brothers in Christ I pray you are well and have had a safe and happy summer. In this article, I would like to discuss one of the great myths of our faith: that not much happens at church over the summer.

As one would expect, we worshipped each Sunday morning and most Wednesday nights. The office was open during the summer, as it always is. Yet to say that not much happens at Reveille in the summer? Pish-posh!

Let’s look back, shall we? Since June:

We celebrated the ordination of the Rev. Kelley Lane, our minister of adult ministries, who was ordained by Bishop Young Jin Cho at Annual Conference in Roanoke, and we said farewell to Executive Pastor Katie B. Gooch who has taken a new appointment as the Director of the Pace Center for Campus Ministries at VCU.

We hosted baccalaureate services for Midlothian High School and Maggie Walker Governor’s School. We sent members of our fellowship on two international
and one domestic mission trips (Honduras, Costa Rica, and New Orleans).

Gave children a week of missions via KIDz C.A.M.P.

Gave children a week of education at Vacation Bible School.

Hosted the Virginia Conference Kaleidoscope Camp, which is a music and arts camp for children that came to us when their previous site closed.

Speaking of music and arts, we sent a team of youth and adults to a music and arts camp at Lake Junaluska, North Carolina.

We said farewell to our director of youth ministries, Kate Rhodes, who is taking a job with the West Virginia Annual Conference, working with The House of the Carpenter in Wheeling.

We welcomed Tammy Tipton-Nay to our church as our new director of children’s ministries.

From a pool of 27 applicants, we chose our own Terri Edwards to be our first director of administration.

Held Listening Sessions to discern God’s call for our church in the short and medium-term.

Removed the rest of the asbestos floor tile in the upstairs of the education building.

Rearranged almost all of the offices in Reveille House, so that staff can more easily work alongside those with whom they collaborate, and so that I could be on the ground floor and more easily interact with the congregation.

Continued Wonderful Wednesday through August 3 with food trucks, worship, and a study of the Chronicles of Narnia.

A task force met several times to renew and recreate The Point contemporary service.

Held a picnic with members of our partner churches in Swansboro, Koinonia Christian Church and Love Center of Unity.

Were selected to host the Service of Welcome for Sharma D. Lewis, our new bishop, on September 17, and began preparations.

And to think, autumn is coming, when we really get busy!

It is such a blessing to work with such dedicated servants of Christ. Without the people, there is no church, and without the church, the world loses the means God has designed for making God’s love known in our world.

I give thanks to you all, excited about all that is to come.

Grace and peace,

Doug

You can read the full Reveille Window Newsletter and learn about all this stuff in greater detail here.