Come join us next Sunday!

Sharing Jesus Christ is the mission indeed the passion of our community. We believe that Jesus is the word of God, ‘in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the Word was God. All things were made through Him’

We also know that Jesus is the hope of the world for ‘God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself’. Jesus said of himself, ‘I am the bread of life’.

Advent is the season of hope as we think about the ‘advent’ or arrival of Jesus in the three biblical senses of the incarnation 2000 years ago, the receiving of Jesus into a persons life today at conversion and the imminent return of Jesus Christ to be the judge of the living and the dead. Advent is not just about getting ready for Christmas but ready for Christ in each of these three senses.

Therefore Church of the Word in Gainesville, is establishing an extension campus in nearby Manassas to help further our mission. read on…

AFiM is an extension campus of Church of the Word, Gainesville. It is another worship site for that congregation and most ministry is available through our programs there. We are not currently a part on the Anglican Church in North America, though as soon as this option becomes available to us we will be delighted to return home. Meanwhile we are anglican in style and substance, but more importantly simply Christian, as N.T. Wright might say.

We meet at 4pm at the Crossway Fellowship Church location on Plantation Lane near Prince William Hospital, in their side chapel which has easy access from the front parking lot.

For directions and a map

Music: So far we have decided to use ‘Renew’ hymnal, described like this, ‘Born in the worship renewal, this songbook brings together the best from traditional and contemporary worship. Following the biblical and historic fourfold pattern of worship Gathering, The Word, Offering Thanksgiving (Eucharist) and Dismissal.’

Liturgy: Our liturgical worship booklet is drawn from the 2004 Irish Book of Common Prayer because it is the most modern of Anglican Liturgies but yet keeps the integrity of the classical principles of our tradition. We have the service printed on a booklet for easy use. Even if you are not experienced in liturgy you will find this approach helpful in bringing you closer to God in worship.

Participation: Your participation and ideas are welcome. This fellowship is being shaped by those who are becoming involved. Later we will have a more formal launch of the service. We will become more visible in Manassas with local mission projects and fellowship opportunities. look within this website for upcoming events, or suggest one yourself!

We appreciate the invitation from our brothers and sisters in Christ at Crossway fellowship to meet at their excellent facility.

Please feel free to e-mail me Pastor Robin with your questions

To see how ancient christian songs can be given new life check out Glory to God on you-tube a modern setting of the ‘Gloria’ written by our Gainesville team ‘Braeded Chord‘!

To start you thinking an Anglican Archbishop once gave this definition.

Worship is..

the submission of all our nature to God.

It is the quickening of the conscience by His holiness;
the nourishment of mind with His truth;
the purifying of the imagination by His beauty;
the opening of the heart to His love;
the surrender of will to His purpose -

and all of this gathered up in adoration,
the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable,
and therefore the chief remedy
of that self-centeredness
which is our original sin
and the source of all actual sin.

William Temple, 1881 – 1944

i us Sunday April 18th for our next service!

Saul Talks with Samuel’s Ghost – I Samuel 28

Samuel had died some time earlier and people from all over Israel had attended his funeral in his hometown of Ramah. Meanwhile, Saul had been trying to get rid of everyone who spoke with the spirits of the dead.

One day the Philistines brought their soldiers together to attack Israel. The Philistines went to Shunem and set up camp. Saul called the army of Israel together and they set up their camp in Gilboa. Saul took one look at the Philistine army and started shaking with fear. So he asked the LORD what to do. But the LORD would not answer, either in a dream or by a priest or a prophet. Then Saul told his officers to “Find me a woman who can talk to the spirits of the dead. I’ll go to her and find out what’s going to happen.” His servants told him, “There’s a woman at Endor who can talk to spirits of the dead.”

That night Saul put on different clothing so nobody would recognize him. Then he and two of his men went to the woman and asked, “Will you bring up the ghost of someone for us?” The woman said, “Why are you trying to trick me and get me killed? You know King Saul has gotten rid of everyone who talks to the spirits of the dead!” Saul replied, “I swear by the living LORD that nothing will happen to you because of this.” “Who do you want me to bring up?” she asked. “Bring up the ghost of Samuel,” he answered. When the woman saw Samuel, she screamed. Then she turned to Saul and said, “You’ve tricked me! You’re the king!” “Don’t be afraid,” Saul replied. “Just tell me what you see.” She answered, “I see a spirit rising up out of the ground.” “What does it look like?” “It looks like an old man wearing a robe.” Saul knew it was Samuel, so he bowed down low.

“Why are you bothering me by bringing me up like this?” Samuel asked. “I’m terribly worried,” Saul answered. “The Philistines are about to attack me. God has turned his back on me and won’t answer any more by prophets or by dreams. What should I do?” Samuel said: “If the LORD has turned away from you and is now your enemy, don’t ask me what to do. I’ve already told you: The LORD has sworn to take the kingdom from you and give it to David. And that’s just what he’s doing! When the LORD was angry with the Amalekites, he told you to destroy them, but you didn’t do it. That’s why the LORD is doing this to you. Tomorrow the LORD will let the Philistines defeat Israel’s army, then you and your sons will join me down here in the world of the dead.”

At once Saul collapsed and lay stretched out on the floor, terrified at what Samuel had said. He was weak because he had not eaten anything since the day before. The woman came over to Saul and when she saw that he was completely terrified, she said, “Your Majesty, I listened to you and risked my life to do what you asked. Now please listen to me. Let me get you a little something to eat. It will give you strength for your walk back to camp.” “No, I won’t eat!” But his officers and the woman kept on urging Saul until he finally agreed. He got up off the floor and sat on the bed. Right away the woman killed a calf that she had been fattening up. She cooked part of the meat and baked some thin bread. Then she served the food to Saul and his officers who ate and left before daylight.

This is an amazing story from the Bible. It talks about real ghosts and mediums and events which were predicted and which soon came true. What are we to make of this?

First there is a spiritual reality to our existence. This is not simply a material universe we find ourselves in, one which through random happenings has somehow spontaneously generated an astounding diversity of physical life! There is a spiritual reality behind the material world we can see. The spiritual breaks into the material more frequently than we think. A friend from church has this bumper sticker, ‘We are spiritual beings who are having a physical experience.’ No one in King Saul’s day doubted the power of the spiritual world over everyday life. In the 21st century we tend to overlook this principle until we are shocked back into a full awareness of spiritual realities.
Second, there is such a thing as good and evil in the spiritual realm. The spiritual world is divided into the forces aligned behind Almighty God the creator and judge of all things and with Satan a fallen angel who, though inferior to God, is still very powerful and clever and bent upon wrecking havoc in the world. Satan is conducting what our anti terrorist forces call an asymmetric campaign against the rule of the good in the world. We are targets of his activities or, at a minimum, we are caught up in the collateral damage. Sometimes we are willing participants in his schemes and sometimes we are manipulated into taking part. We need to ask ourselves if we have opened our minds to the spiritual forces of darkness and allowed them a foothold into our lives. How have our family, our health, our moral choices been affected by the forces of evil all around us. Have we appealed to the Lord Almighty for deliverance and protection? In this bible story Saul did not think to throw himself on God’s mercy. Why was he numbed into inaction? It was because of the influence of evil spirits which he himself had called up. They were still working on him through depression and doubt to frustrate any ability to reach out to God for forgiveness and healing.
Third, you can’t run with the devil and expect to win. Saul thought that he could leverage this force of evil channeled by the witch of Endor, to his own desires. Saul’s ultimate motive may have been good. He was blocked from getting guidance from the Lord in the usual channels: ‘But the LORD would not answer, either in a dream or by a priest or a prophet.’ But the devil does not keep bargains. Saul may have literally got what he asked for, that is access to his now deceased spiritual advisor Samuel. But the results were a stunning and stifling presence in the room and even greater judgment upon his soul. Note the collateral damage to the poor soldiers in his army.

Notes on the origin of Halloween

Halloween has its roots in Samhain, an ancient Celtic festival. Despite claims by modern Wiccans and Druids to have recreated lost rites, no one really knows what happened during Samhain. It’s likely that Celts repelled the foreboding caused by lengthening nights, falling temperatures, and withering plants, plus serious belief in supernatural evil, with bonfires, human and/or vegetable sacrifices, and scary costumes.

The grisly aspects of Celtic fall festivities were tempered somewhat by the arrival of the Romans, whose harvest-time celebrations of the goddess Pomona emphasized fertility and love. The early church, however, was hardly impressed with this “improvement.” Taking the “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” position that had worked reasonably well with formerly pagan Christmas, eighth-century Pope Gregory III decided to baptize Samhain, retaining some customs but radically redefining their focus. Gregory moved All Saints’ or Hallows’ Day from May 13 to November 1 (which made October 31 All Hallows’ Eve, i.e. Hallowe’en) and instructed revelers to dress as saints instead of evil spirits. Goodies that once had been offered to propitiate wandering devils were instead offered to poor people who, in turn, vowed to pray for the souls of departed relatives.

Protestants, wary of both saints and praying for the dead, have never been too sanguine about Halloween. New England Puritans banned the celebration, along with Easter and Christmas. Though the Catholic Maryland and Anglican Virginia colonies retained some Halloween customs, most of the holiday’s traditional Celtic elements (including nighttime pranks and asking for food handouts) didn’t come to this side of the Atlantic until massive Irish immigration in the nineteenth century.

Mainstream Halloween celebrations in the Victorian era were generally tame and devoid of occult overtones. Instead of pulling pranks or haunting neighborhoods, young people chatted and flirted in festooned parlors. By the beginning of the twentieth century, some towns had gone so far as to make Halloween primarily a civic affair, complete with parades and block parties. When trick-or-treating became widely popular in the 1950s, most participants knew of neither the Celtic nor the Catholic rationales behind the practice.

Luke chapter 16 and hear Jesus teach some remarkable lessons on stewardship.

^“Jesus told his disciples: “There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. ²So he called him in and asked him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.’

³“The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg— ⁴I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.’

⁵“So he called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’

⁶” ‘Eight hundred gallons of olive oil,’ he replied.
“The manager told him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred.’

⁷“Then he asked the second, ‘And how much do you owe?’
” ‘A thousand bushels of wheat,’ he replied.
“He told him, ‘Take your bill and make it eight hundred.’

⁸“The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. ⁹I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

¹⁰“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. ¹¹So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? ¹²And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?

¹³“No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”

¹⁴The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. ¹⁵He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God’s sight.”

This was the text for a sermon on stewardship a couple of weeks ago. I thought it would be helpful to summarize the main points for our readers. You can actually hear the sermon on our AFiM website.

The parable is shocking in that Jesus seems to be commending some very shady financial dealings on behalf of a ‘shrewd manager’. This would be someone working as an executive manager for a wealthy landowner. He would have complete control of every detail of the master’s complex estate and daily intake and outflow of goods, services and especially money. He would be trusted to work independently. In this story he is found to be remiss managing; we are not told if this is incompetence or dishonesty. So in order to protect his position after being fired he allows the master’s debtors to discount their bills from 20% to 50%. His motive is to win friends while he still has this privileged position so that the new friends will take care of him when he is unemployed and homeless. To everyone’s surprise the master commends this cunning strategy!

Jesus makes several teaching points after telling this parable which we are meant to apply to our stewardship.

First Christians, ‘children of the light,’ can learn from the non Christian world about using resources effectively, especially the willingness to invest resources in order to make friends. The Lord qualifies this by stating that our interest is not just friends in this world but in the next where we can enjoy the company in heaven. How can we use our homes and other resources to build healthy friendships which lead people towards Christ?

Second money is a test the Lord gives us. If we can be trusted with little then we will be given much to look after. The resulting blessing is not for the purpose of indulging our selfish desires, but to continue to use them in a responsible way for sowing into the kingdom of God.

Third we can’t serve God and Money. We will always be pulled towards greed unless we are very clear and determined to put God first in every situation. We need to commit afresh to this principle every pay check and every visit to the mall. The desire to protect our interests and feed our greed is so basic to the fallen human nature that it is the default condition of us all.

The religious leaders of Jesus’ time thought you could serve God spiritually and keep personal finances out of the equation of their relationship with God. But Jesus shows us that our financial stewardship is a strong indicator of our spiritual health. Once we invest our dollars in God’s kingdom, our time and talent will follow because we will be determined to see those dollars be as effective as possible.

The best way for a Christian to get serious about this teaching of the master is to begin to tithe (that is giving 10%) to the work of your local church. Then determine to support the local church and other worthy charities with time treasure and talent. Giving 10% means taking control of the 90% remaining. Serious Christians are forced to be good managers of their resources. They are going to have to budget for a lifestyle which used less than 90% of the disposable dollars while our non Christian friends are actually living on 105% and digging themselves deeper into debt and consequently slavery to the world. We have an opportunity to witness to our friends on this very sensitive point of flawed human nature.

Pastor Robin