A church here in our community (not pictured above) advertises “Ashes To-Go,” a drive-thru exercise in minimalism when it comes to approaching Lent. I am not criticizing our neighbors in the least, they are observing the season according to their own custom. I just won’t be emulating them. Lent is an ancient tradition observed throughout […]
As a part of our current message series on “Life with Family”, we’ve acknowledged that families come in many different shapes and sizes. They are continuously changing as seasons of life unfold. Even nuclear families change as kids get older, go off to college, and, eventually, leave the nest to start their own families. Increasingly, […]
Our current message series is looking at families…specifically our families and their relationship to our faith. God created the family and wants our families to be places where we come to know him and learn to love and serve him. When we refer to “family,” of course, we recognize they come in every flavor. Perhaps […]
We are fast approaching the end of January, the time of year when the new resolutions and routines we started are beginning to seem just a little bit tedious. Maybe you just started noticing a little dust on the new exercise bike you got for Christmas or your wallet is feeling a little lighter even […]
We just started a new series for this new year about something that shapes a huge portion of our behavior and identity – though we don’t always know it. Our habits operate below the surface, quietly automating our lives, sometimes unbeknownst to us. It’s an especially timely series, given the multitude of resolutions we make […]
This week brings the decade to a close, and that brings reflection on what has passed. Such reflection is especially worthwhile for us at Nativity because this has been such a consequential period. While I could easily fill many lists with the important reasons for such unprecedented health and growth at our parish, here are […]
This year marks our 15th celebration of Christmas Eve at the Maryland State Fairgrounds. Each year has looked a little different but, over time, a true tradition has emerged from what was once an audacious experiment. A tradition that many of our parishioners have grown to cherish. There are many dedicated devotees out there who […]
This week we begin one of my very favorite seasons of the year. To mark the season we are launching a new message series called “Light,” all about … light, which will also be the theme of our Christmas Eve celebration this year. As an Advent gift to our parishioners, we are distributing a little […]
Let us come before the LORD with thanksgiving. Psalm 95 This week we celebrated Stewardship Sunday, reflecting on the blessing our parish is to our members and in the life of the community. As part of the celebration, we invited members and “regulars” to make a financial commitment to the parish for 2020. And I […]
We usually say that “Kick-Off” weekend is the best weekend of the year, but “Stewardship” Weekend is a close second. That’s right, one of our staff’s (and our parishioner’s) favorite weekends of the year is the weekend when we ask for money. This coming weekend is Stewardship Weekend, the only weekend of the year that […]
