#15 TRANSFIGURED IN THE MOUNTAINS

This is what a mountain church should look like!!

WHERE I WENT AND WHY
After a hectic week of eldercare with my dad, I took a respite and visited our new vacation home in Black Mountain for the first time since we closed!  I pass by The Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration on my way there.  

WHAT TO KNOW IF YOU WANT TO GO:
The location is 106 Saylor Lane, Bat Cave, NC (You can see it from Hwy 9).    Worship is at 10 am.  Parking is "up the hill" when you enter the driveway.  Dress was church casual, with EVERY woman in pants! There was a nice laminated card in the pew explaining the service to newcomers.

REFLECTIONS ON WORSHIP

MOOD:

I found this to be a very friendly congregation.  Wendy greeted me and immediately offered help in following the service.  After the service several folks made a point to come by and introduce themselves.  I am such a newby to the area, I couldn't tell them where our house is ("its off a road that begins with an "s"... lol  Thank you God, for GPS!!)

MUSIC:

The music was very traditional and the organist was competent, playing the SIX (!) hymns at a nice pace.  The choir did not sing an offertory or anthem.  The congregation used both a hymnal and Book of Common Prayer (for the liturgy).  

MESSAGE:

This was Stewardship Sunday, and instead of a sermon, several folks gave "temple talks" about why they are pledging and give to the church.  Churches often shy away from talking about money and I thought this was good stewardship.  Jo Ann was perhaps the most articulate.  She talked about how the church feeds her hunger for scripture interpretation and using her faith in the community and world; it feeds her Spirit with Holy Communion, her soul with music and her heart with friendship, compassion and caring.  Finally her body gets fed during the coffee hour!  Mike (?) talked about all of the congregation's recent accomplishments, mostly building and ground improvements plus the vestry wants to start a health initiative.  The pastor just recently bought a house, so they are figuring out what to do with the adjoining manse.  Jack spoke about joining with the Church of the Advocate in Asheville and starting a clothes closet for homeless and disadvantaged folks.  Wes, the pastor finished with talking about looking for opportunities to join together to do God's work in the world.

Since Sunday I have exchanged emails with the pastor, Rev. Wes Shields, and he pointed out that not only did the church devote a Sunday to parishioners' "temple talks", but that he had preached a stewardship sermon the week before.  I went to the link on the website and listened to it.  The sermon while not "firey" was excellent!  His delivery style is much as I expected, very folksy and low key... but he had some real zingers on stewardship if you listen.  He talked about "time, talent, and treasure" and emphasized that it is not one at the expense of the other.  In talking about tithing, he stressed that it is about setting ourselves free from the weight of our possessions.  God loves us and wants us to know the joy and freedom that tithing brings (God doesn't need the $$!!)  He also talked about the church's journey to tithing 10% to outreach.  You can view Wes' sermon at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcFgeTUc3h4&feature=youtu.be  So many churches shy away from talking about money.  If this is you, or you want to see stewardship in action from the pulpit (tho he didn't use it!! lol), I invite you to view his sermon.

I was reminded of an experience David and I had early on in our marriage at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Raleigh when a speaker at a stewardship dinner and an "every member visit" taught us how to  tithe.  Start where you are and add 10% a year.  Within a few years we were tithing and it hadn't "hurt".  This was a discipline we needed as a young married couple and it set the tone for both our giving and spiritual life for the last 43 years of marriage.

OUTREACH AND OBSERVATIONS

• The mood and message touched me today.  I applaud the congregation in devoting a Sunday's message to stewardship.
• Prayer shawls and Bare Necessity kits to Haiti were blessed today.

I loved this picture from their website.  I think this is the same baby that received a prayer shawl today.
They did the baptism at Lake Lure.

• The congregation cleans the church without hiring help. During the announcements they acknowledged a man named Carl who had taken on this ministry.  Unable to continue, they are setting up a cleaning rotation.  It reminded me of Advent's early years.
• The bulletin was printed with just page numbers listed for the various components of the service.  This required a good bit of "book shuffling" and searching for pages.  I told my husband later that I felt sort of lazy and a little frustrated being about a verse behind finding my place.  Lazy because this is exactly how the bulletin was structured when I was growing up, but I've gotten used to everything being printed out.  His comment was that this is a function of the advent of computers and printers which do NOT eliminate paper, but make it easier to print and copy.  However we agreed that we do not miss the old mimeographs!!

THIS WEEK'S FUNNY:

  I thought about several cartoons that mixed politics and religion, but since the election will thankfully be over when you read this, I decided to look up stewardship cartoons:

THE BULLETIN: