Called to Serve

"Are You Being Served" was a British sitcom  that aired in the United Kingdom from 1972-1985 that lives on in reruns on American Public Broadcasting Networks.  Set in the fictional Grace Brothers department store in London, Captain Peacock, Mrs. Slocomb, Miss Brahms, and Mr. Humphries, among others, dutifully assist customers, addressing them consistently with the same question..."Are you being served?'  These quirky characters found themselves in challenging circumstances in dealing with customers, management, and their colleagues, always with hilarious results. Their focus was the customer, always seeking to serve.

Service is a quality of human character that marks one's willingness to give of him or her self, most often to help others.  This stewardship of time, effort, and resources is a quality of faith for the follower of Jesus Christ who recognizes that he or she is called to serve others. 

One of our own, Eric Morrison, will be offering himself tomorrow (Saturday) in service to our community of faith as he leads work efforts around our grounds in fulfillment of his Eagle Scout project.  Eric, in consultation with Dennis Milam, has planned a day of service projects at Westwood that will exercise this gift of service and leadership as he guides those present in completing a variety of tasks.  You have an opportunity to join Eric and others who work alongside him in this important service project.  Come by anytime between 9 & 5 tomorrow to lend a hand and join in this meaningful service project.

Join us Sunday morning as we participate in the ordination of Skip Fee as a deacon.  Skip will be sharing his testimony and we will observe the ancient practice of laying on of hands as we set him apart for service.  In addition, we will observe communion. 

 

This weekend will be a celebration of service.  Thanks for sharing in what promises to be a most meaningful weekend.

Jim Abernathy

Good For Us To Hear

Having spent time in the Trauma ICU unit at Fairfax Hospital with Clay Nettles over the past 48 hours, I have been reminded of the importance of competent, compassionate care.  I have witnessed this care and have also heard Clay remark about how well he has been treated there.  We live in a world of critics, (you and I are some of the harshest, no doubt) where voices of complaint often seem to drown out voice of encouragement.  Now, I know that there are those who will not give competent, compassionate care in such a situation, but my sense is that there is a lot more of the good kind of care than bad, and many of us have been blessed as a result.

Our blessings are many, and yet, we seem too often to take them for granted. Spend some time in a hospital waiting room, sit with a hurting friend, or open the pages of a newspaper or watch the evening news and you will be reminded of struggle, but also of stories of grace and hope.  Perhaps the challenge of the Psalmist is good for us to hear today, whatever we are facing..." I will extol the Lord at all times; his praise will always be on my lips.  I will glory in the Lord; let the afflicted hear and rejoice. Glorify the Lord with me; let us exalt his name together." (Psalm 34:1-3 TNIV) In a world of complaint, that is good news to hear and repeat.

 

Glorify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together....good words for us all.

 

Jim Abernathy

Welcome!

Using the term welcome as a noun, dictionary.com defines the familiar word in the following manner:

a kindly greeting or reception, as to one whose arrival gives pleasure. This definition is very fitting as we celebrate the beginning of Andre Towner's ministry among us this Sunday. His arrival will indeed bring great pleasure as we expect that God will do great things in the days to come. Westwood is known for its welcoming spirit. Andre has already expressed to me his appreciation for the warm welcome you have offered him.

The apostle Paul encouraged the Philippian church to receive Epaphroditus as he once again came among them, writing, "Welcome him in the Lord with great joy..." I know that our Westwood family will do the same as Andre joins our ministry team.

Join us this Sunday as we give a warm WBC welcome to Andre Towner and his family.

Jim Abernathy

Remembering 9/11

"Welcome to Westwood." We had heard and experienced that warm greeting in many ways during the first three weeks of our ministry here. Having begun that ministry on Sunday, August 19, 2001, I had been Senior Pastor here for little more than three weeks when I sat at my desk on a sunny Tuesday morning preparing for staff meeting. It was another new day...of course, everything was new and fresh in those first days as Cindy began her new job at Navy Elementary, Clayton entered the second grade in a new school, and all of us were finding our way through that process of acclimation to many new things in our lives. Little did we know that the narrative of our and every American's story would change on that September 11 morning.

How does one prepare to witness and absorb all that happened on that day? The scenes of exploding planes, falling buildings, the burning Pentagon, and the smoldering remains of a commercial airliner cut deep into a Pennsylvania field seemed more like the frames of a motion picture than the reality of a late summer morning, but the harsh reality of these cruel events soon gripped our bodies, minds, and spirits with a collective grief and anger that had no parallel in our nation's history. Much of our time at Westwood that morning was spent trying to track down the whereabouts of church family members who worked in the affected areas, and to hastily prepare for a prayer service at noon, and then again at 7 that evening. It was a moment of utter disbelief and certain belief. Questions of who, how, why, and what's next were heard again and again that day. There was no explanation, no resolution it seemed. Yet, there was faith, and the belief that inhabited our songs, prayers, and scripture readings that day that kept us connected to a hope beyond ourselves.

I remember Pat Close and B. R. McDonald singing the old hymn "Precious Lord, Take My Hand," at one of our services that day. When my way grows drear, Precious Lord, linger near... it was that lingering presence of the Holy Spirit that empowered our help in brokenness, our strength in uncertainty, and our hope in those dark moments of grief. In the decade since that day, we have experienced this lingering presence again and again, finding the assurance of God's presence to be enough in the midst of life's uncertainties.

September 11, 2012, if forecasts hold true in our area, will dawn perhaps a lot like that 9/11 morning...a beautiful day, seemingly full of promise. You and I do not know what this day will bring, and yet, the same assurance from Thomas Dorsey's old hymn text still rings true...Hear my cry, hear my call, Hold my hand lest I fall, Take my hand, precious Lord, lead me home.

As you remember this difficult day in our nation's history, hold tight to the precious hand of your Lord, the One who lingers near.

Jim Abernathy

In All My Experience...

One of my students at Leland began a question the other night with these words; "In all of your experience..." Something about those words made me suddenly feel a bit older. Perhaps the recognition I received at IHOP recently when told that I now qualify for the senior menu made me a bit more sensitive to the student's words. Or maybe it's the passage of time now marked by our "empty nest" that has made me more aware of my "maturity." It could be the occasional inquiry that comes from time to time these days about where and when we might retire.

I suppose I would have to admit that there are days when I feel a bit older than others; days when I recognize the signs of aging in my face or in the sounds of my occasionally creaking, stiff joints. I've had gray hair for years...of course I'm glad to have hair of any color. Perhaps the student's words caught me at just the right moment, you know, that intersection between reality and insecurity where something said at any other time wouldn't have hit me that way...but in that moment, it gave me reason to pause.

Some of you may be chuckling right now, thinking I'm too young for such thoughts, and I guess you are right. I'm in reasonably good health and have an otherwise positive outlook about life and living. I have always subscribed to the familiar adage, "You're as young as you feel," because I've always felt young, certainly younger than my years. But time now seems to slip by more quickly. Yes. I know there are still the same twenty-four hours in the day now that there were thirty years ago...perhaps I simply mark them in a different manner.

Irish playwright, Oscar Wilde, once said, "The old believe everything; the middle-aged suspect everything: the young know everything." Perhaps my middle-aged suspicions are simply running amok. The words of another middle-age man are appropriate for my season of suspicions. "I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation... I can do all this through Christ who gives me strength." Paul's admonition to the church at Philippi is good medicine for my and your suspicions...no matter our age or circumstance.

In all my experience...I realize how blessed I have been in so many ways. Thanks be to God!

Jim Abernathy