I remember telling our Minister of Christian Worship Phil Mitchell nearly five years ago that one of the things that was so important about his ministry was giving us a little taste of heaven on earth, so that we would know what it’s like. Last Sunday he, and the choir, and accompanists Becky Payne and Eunice Kim, did exactly that. They brought the Kingdom of Heaven to Richmond, Virginia, through a piece of music by Johannes Brahms called, “How Lovely Is Thy Dwelling Place.” I hope you will take the time to close the door, quiet your thoughts, turn up the volume, and lose yourself in the beauty and power of this anthem. Or maybe you’ll plug your earbuds into your iPhone at Starbucks, and just let the music wash over you like ocean waves.

It’s glorious.

On a run with my colleague Wallace Adams-Riley this morning we were talking about how some statisticians and sociologists have almost given up on the church. They say Sunday morning worship is on its way out, and will soon be a thing of the past. I don’t think they were in worship at either of our churches last Sunday. I don’t think they recall that the first and greatest commandment, according to Jesus, is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. What better way to do it than through corporate worship? And what better place to do it than in church on Sunday?

I say that partly to remind you that this Sunday, March 10, we “spring forward” by setting our clocks ahead one hour when we go to bed on Saturday night. I wouldn’t want you to get to church on Sunday and find that everybody had already gone to Sunday brunch. So, do it: spring forward. And then get up, get dressed, and make the effort to participate in the most important event of the week—Sunday morning worship.  If you can’t come, then tune in on Channel 8 at 11:00 in the Richmond area, or join us by webcast at http://www.fbcrichmond.org.  It’s not the same as being there, but it’s the next best thing.  Either way…

…I’ll see you in church.

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KOH2RVA: Day 147

Today’s ministry fair at First Baptist Church is a perfect opportunity to “get off the bus” and onto the mission field. If you haven’t yet found your way to bring the Kingdom of Heaven to Richmond, Virginia, then find your way to the dining hall and gym at First Baptist anytime this morning. I feel sure that something there will catch your eye, capture your imagination, or hijack your heart. 

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KOH2RVA: Day 106

It’s Sunday, everybody! And I’m pretty sure the Kingdom of Heaven is going to touch down at Richmond’s First Baptist Church today. If you can’t join us in person, please join us for the live webcast online at http://www.fbcrichmond.org/webcast or for the live telecast on WRIC, channel 8, Richmond, both airing at 11:00 a.m.

We’ll light the fourth Advent candle today, the last one before Christmas. Lacey McRoberts will sing “How Far Is It to Bethlehem.” The children’s choir will sing “Wrapped in Light, Wrapped in Love.” And we’ll all join in on “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.” Eventually I will preach a sermon called “Oops!” (which you might have to hear just to figure out where the title came from).

It’s going to be a great morning and then, this afternoon, several of us are going over to Essex Village Apartments to bring a little heaven to earth there. Steve Blanchard says:

Festivities will begin at 3pm at Building 117 with refreshments, the 25 cent Christmas Yard Sale, and One Accord singing. The afternoon will be very informal but help is needed to set up items, monitor and collect during yard sale, help set out food, mingle with guests, pack and clean up, etc… If you can be there, it would be appreciated. I know it is a busy time and most of you volunteer a hundred other places but if you can, or know of someone else who can, volunteer, I look forward to seeing you there.

If you’ve been looking for a chance to experience heaven on earth, or to help bring the KOH2RVA, this could be it. Hope to see you in both places—first at church, and then at Essex Village!

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KOH2RVA: Day 78

It’s Christ the King Sunday.

One of the ways we can bring the Kingdom of Heaven to Richmond, Virginia, today is to go to church (or tune in to the webcast at 8:30 or 11:00) and crown Christ king. We can remember, as I plan to say in today’s sermon, that he didn’t have to be elected to his office (thank God). The world didn’t give him his kingdom and the world can’t take it away. And, as the choir will sing this morning, “He shall reign forever and ever. Hallelujah! Hallelujah!”

Coming to church on Christ the King Sunday is a good reminder that this year-long, every-member mission trip we’re on is not, ultimately, up to us. We can’t bring heaven to earth without help–without Christ’s help. When he taught his disciples to pray he taught them to pray that God’s kingdom would come and God’s will would be done on earth as it is in heaven, but right there at the end of the prayer, just in case they began to have some success, he teaches them to pray: “Thine (not ours) is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever.”

So, let’s get up, get dressed, and go to church this morning. Let’s praise God for the great things he is doing in Richmond and beyond. Let’s remember that the kingdom, the power, and the glory belong to him…

…not us.

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Preacher Camp

For six years now I’ve been getting together with a group of colleagues so we can plan our preaching for the year.  It was Amy Butler’s idea.  When I was at First Baptist, DC, she was at Calvary Baptist, just a few blocks away.  We would get together at Starbucks on Monday mornings with a few other preachers to talk about what we were going to do the following Sunday and one day she said, “You know what we ought to do?  We ought to do this for the whole year!”

And so we sent out some invitations, and a few months later six of us spent several days at a big house in the mountains of West Virginia, looking over the lectionary texts for the following year. 

Each of us had an assignment.  I was supposed to bring some good ideas for preaching through those Sundays after Christmas and before Ash Wednesday.  Others in our group had the seasons of Lent, Easter, Advent, and that long stretch of Sundays after Pentecost, often called “Ordinary Time,” which we divided into two parts. 

We talked about a lot of things in those days.  We talked about our lives and churches and ministry, but we also ended the week with a pretty good sense of what we would be preaching in the year ahead, and that felt good.

We’ve been doing it ever since.

Last year we had the idea to do it in the summer instead of the fall, and to bring our families along.  We got the use of a big house on Lake James in North Carolina, and Russ Dean brought his ski boat.  So, we planned our preaching each morning and then, each afternoon (sometimes after naps), we went down to the dock for swimming and sunbathing, skiing and tubing.   In the evenings we would sometimes share our favorite sermons with each other.  One night we sat on the front porch telling the stories of how we met our spouses.  Another night we ended up in a free-spirited dance party in the living room.  The kids loved that.  And so did the grownups.

On the last night we gathered around the campfire to sing songs and make S’mores and it really did feel like we had been at camp for a week.  We all felt a little closer to God and a little closer to each other.  Plus, I had some idea of what I will be preaching each Sunday from now through Advent 2012. 

You don’t have many weeks like that in a year, and when you have one you just want to thank somebody for it.  So, thanks to the family who loaned us their lake house, and thanks to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, which gave us some funding for the event, and thanks be to God for colleagues who have become such close friends: for Russ Dean, and Amy Butle,r and Don Flowers, and Dorisanne Cooper, and John Ballenger, and for our time together at…

…Preacher Camp.

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