David’s Dialogues

April- Springtime Activities

Dear Friend,

April is always a busy month, but full of opportunities to enjoy community and God’s creation in the springtime weather. We started the month by celebrating Easter Sunday, along with several events to prepare our hearts for the momentous holiday.  This year, Ally and I had the opportunity to lead a Passover Seder with our Hokie family on the Thursday before Easter.  We also used Holy Week as a chance to teach and challenge our students in the discipline of fasting, an experience many of them had not practiced much before.  We were surprised at how many people tried fasting!  We also held a Good Friday service, and then hosted a campus-wide Easter-Egg hunt on Saturday in order to outreach to our community.  The Easter-Egg hunt was a huge success, as it turned out to be a beautiful day, and we had several passers-by come join us for the cookout portion of the event.  Then, we celebrated Easter Sunday together with our community congregation, New Life, in a combined service.

The following weekend many of our small groups jumped into mission by participating in the Big Event, a campus-wide service project aimed at bringing VT students together in order to complete various service projects for Montgomery County residents.  That same weekend, I hosted the third Life After College workshop which was a time for equipping our seniors with skills and advice regarding living missionally and sharing your faith in the workplace; how to live out the Great Commission in the next season of life.

April also is the time when the staff team travels to our annual church network conference: the Ecclesia National Gathering, this year held in Dillsburg, Pennsylvania.  It was a great chance to network with other missional church leaders and be equipped to continue sharing the Gospel in a way that people in today’s culture can relate to.

This month I had the opportunity to teach twice during our series called “Transformed: How Biblical Hope Impacts Everyday Life”.  All semester we have been teaching about hope, and on April 22^nd, I had the chance to teach about the tricky topic of dating, singleness, and romantic relationships (see video here).

The following week I taught again about how hope transforms our finances; yet another topic that needs a careful approach, yet so important to address (see video here).  This was also the Sunday that I was commissioned as a deacon and licensed minister of our church (see video here)!  I’m excited to take this next step in leadership of our church, and now have the opportunity to perform the offices of the church, including officiating weddings and funerals.

We started wrapping up the school year with another Learning Community; a time of vision casting, celebration, equipping, and goal-setting for our leaders.  With such a strong freshmen class stepping up quickly into leadership, we had ~80 leaders and apprentices at this gathering!  Lastly, we commemorated the end of the year with our annual Servants Appreciation dinner, which is a time to thank our small-group leaders, worship teams, and other servants who have helped make our church activities happen throughout the year.

It feels like just yesterday that we were coming together after a summer apart, starting a new school year back in August.  But here we are, praising God for another year of making disciples.  It is amazing what God can do with what little we can offer.  We strive to do our part and let God handle the rest.  I’m looking forward to a slower paced summer with rest, professional development, prayer, and seeking God as plans develop for the 2018-2019 school year.  Stay tuned for next month’s updates on our NLCF summer rhythms!

In Christ,
David

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