April Kennedy Abundant Community, Staff

Feeding Our Neighbors in a Time of Growing Need

If you’ve read the news lately, you may have noticed that food insecurity is rising across Virginia—and we’re feeling it here too. As a food pantry leader, I can tell you this work is both deeply meaningful and, right now, deeply stressful. We’re seeing skyrocketing trends at nearby pantries that open weekly. At Tabernacle, our Saturday numbers are climbing steadily, and we’re seeing more people stop by during the week in search of food or support.

We’ve also noticed a change in the variety of food we receive for TEFAP (The Emergency Food Assistance Program). To help fill the gaps, I’ve been purchasing additional food through FeedMore, prioritizing items that allow neighbors to continue choosing their own groceries that meed their specific needs and wants. We remain committed to being a choice pantry, where shopping happens with dignity, and continuing to be place of community and belonging.

The State of Virginia has said it will maintain SNAP benefits for now, but the strain on households is still very real. In addition, we are seeing the effects from the government shutdown—neighbors who have missed paychecks or are worried about what comes next. 

How can you help?

  • Add a little extra to your cart. The next time you’re grocery shopping or ordering online, consider picking up a box of cereal (or two!) to donate. Amazon Wish List

  • Give financially. This is in addition to, not instead of, your regular giving—because your financial support of the church is also what keeps Tabernacle a place of hope, support, and relief for our community. Through FeedMore, we can purchase food for nine cents a pound, including high-need items like fresh meat.

  • Show up. Join us in serving on Saturday, November 8 or November 22, as we continue this important work together.  Be ready to help us welcome community members who are looking for ways to give back. 

Note of gratitude: Thank you, thank you, thank you for the cereal that is appearing daily.  It was heart warming to see the cart overflowing when I returned to work on Monday morning.  You have collected 109 boxes so far in October! We are on track to exceed our 125 box goal, which is amazing because the need has increased.  This is certainly a miracle of abundance, thanks be to God!

April Kennedy Abundant Community, Staff

The Miracle of Abundance, Rev. April Kennedy

More than once in recent weeks, a volunteer has walked into the pantry, stopped short, and let the surprise show on their face as they look at shelves that used to be full of food. 

We’re feeling a different kind of stress in the pantry these days. Visits are climbing as families feel the ripple effects of cuts to SNAP benefits, rising food and rent costs, and job insecurity. Fear and uncertainty are shaping daily life for many of our neighbors. FeedMore is receiving fewer corporate donations, leaving less for us to purchase at discounted rates, and access to USDA food in the coming months remains uncertain.
Our shelves aren’t empty, but they don’t hold the cushion we’re used to. And that cushion, it turns out, has given us more comfort than we realized.

So what do we do when that cushion disappears? When we start to feel the weight of “not enough”?

In the Gospels, when a crowd of thousands gathers to hear Jesus, the disciples see hunger and panic sets in. They say, “Send them away so they can go to the village and buy themselves some food.” But Jesus answers, “You give them something to eat.”
All they can find are five loaves and two fish, a small offering from one person in the crowd. It isn’t much, but Jesus takes what is given, blesses it, and shares it. And somehow, there is enough for everyone.

That story reminds me that God’s abundance often begins with what someone is willing to place in God’s hands. The miracle happens not in the storage room, but in the sharing.

When the shelves feel bare, maybe the invitation isn’t to hold back until things look secure again, but to bring what we have — our boxes of cereal, our prayers, our volunteer hours, our imagination, our faith — and trust that God can make it enough.
The miracle of the loaves and fishes isn’t just that there was suddenly more food; it’s that people risked enough to share. It’s a story about community and trusting that when we each bring what we have, God multiplies it in ways that our minds can’t anticipate.

We may be feeling stretched, in our pantry, in our budget, in our own lives, but we’re also surrounded by signs of God’s faithfulness. This is a moment to keep bringing what we have, to keep trusting that God will make it enough, and to keep our eyes open for the quiet miracles that happen when a community chooses generosity over fear.
When the crowd was hungry, it wasn’t the disciples who had the food, it was a boy who offered his small lunch, trusting it could help. Jesus took that small act of generosity, blessed it, and used it to feed thousands. The disciples simply carried it forward, passing along what had been placed in their hands.

That’s our work, too— to keep offering what we have, and to keep passing along what’s been entrusted to us. Because in God’s hands, even what feels small can become abundance.

Where might God be inviting you to trust there will be enough? What do you already have—time, prayer, or resources—that God might multiply in ways you can’t yet see?
Sterling Severns Life of the Community, Staff

The Gift of Participatory Worship

This past weekend was a gift.

On Saturday, we gathered for April’s ordination. It was a beautiful, Spirit-filled celebration, with a rich mix of people from our church family, our neighborhood, and others who have walked with April in different seasons of her life. The same was true on Sunday, as we gathered to celebrate Adah’s baptism, her public profession of faith. In both services, the presence of many voices leading us in worship reflected the kind of community we are becoming, one where worship is shared, personal, and rooted in the movement of God among us.

One of our core values as a church is worship.

“WORSHIP: We strive to be a congregation rooted in the participatory worship of God, where personal relationships are nurtured and all persons are encouraged to creatively and meaningfully express their unique gifts and stories in the worship experience”

This has been true of Tabernacle for many seasons, and we give thanks for all the ways that value has been faithfully lived out across the years.

What makes this particular season distinct is the way we are now structuring worship services around those who have already said yes to leading. Rather than designing a service and then inviting individuals to fill specific roles, we are beginning with the people and gifts God has already stirred. This approach allows us to invest our time in walking closely with those who step forward, helping them feel prepared and supported. Our hope is that every person who participates in leading worship will come away feeling grateful they said yes.

Since June, it has been beautiful to see people of all ages and backgrounds come forward to read scripture, lead prayers, serve Communion, and share their gifts. Of course, the rhythm is still uneven. Some Sundays are full, others more sparse. That is to be expected as we learn and grow. We are leaning on one another. We are leaning on you. Leaders in the life of the church are reaching out within their small groups, classes, and teams to encourage others to participate. And many are going one step further by inviting someone personally.

Adults are inviting youth and children to lead alongside them. Adults are inviting other adults. That kind of shared experience is not just helpful for worship planning. It is a form of discipleship. It strengthens our relationships and deepens our faith. When we lead together, we grow together.

We give thanks for April and for Adah. We give thanks for the God who is shaping all of us in and through worship. And we give thanks for the many people who are saying yes to helping lead us week after week.

If you are drawn to our shared value of participatory worship and feel ready to step in, we invite you to sign up here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/3Q2Z5Z9

If you are still discerning, we honor that too. Together, we are learning how to follow Christ more faithfully by showing up, stepping in, and offering our gifts in the ways God is calling us!

Gratefully Yours,

Rev. Sterling W. Severns

Pastor

April Kennedy Ordination Service
tbc Staff, Worship & Fellowship

Celebrating a Call: April Kennedy’s Ordination Service on Sept. 13

The Deacon Board is delighted to share that the Ordination Council has unanimously affirmed April Kennedy’s calling to vocational ministry. This decision came after a life-giving conversation on August 13 with a gathering of Tabernacle members, local clergy, and trusted voices from the wider Tabernacle community.  The depth and honesty of April’s sharing:  her story of faith, her call to ministry, and her openness to life-long learning, created sacred space for discernment and affirmation. 

Now we invite the entire Church to gather in worship and gratitude. April’s Ordination Service will be held on Saturday, September 13 at 11:00 a.m. in the sanctuary and in the Virtual Acre. A reception will follow. All are welcome!

We give thanks for the Spirit’s movement in our midst, for April’s ministry, and for the hope and possibility that lie ahead for Tabernacle and the Church Universal. This is a day for celebration, reflection, and renewed commitment to the work God is doing among us.

Sterling Severns Devotional, Devotionals, Life of the Community, Staff

When the Door Doesn’t Budge

When the Door Doesn’t Budge
By Rev. Sterling Severns, Pastor

Life has a way of surprising us with change. One day everything feels familiar, and the next we’re in territory that’s suddenly unrecognizable. It might be a diagnosis we never expected, the loss of a job we thought was secure, or a shift in a relationship we counted on. Or it might be more subtle—realizing that something which once made perfect sense no longer feels like it fits. Moments like these can freeze us in place. We don’t know how to move forward, and we can’t go back. So we wait. And wonder. And wrestle with the weight of it all.

In my own experience, there have been more than a few seasons like this—times when the path ahead felt uncertain, and the world around me felt both familiar and foreign. Everything on the outside may have looked the same, but something inside had shifted. And without exception, each time, it’s taken its toll. The waiting. The weariness. The wondering if anything is actually changing at all. There’s a deep vulnerability in those moments, especially when we’ve asked God for help, when we’ve prayed for direction, healing, peace. We show up to our lives the best we can. Still trying. Still hoping. Still doing our thing. But the silence lingers, and the door we’ve been knocking on stays shut.

The longer we walk in faith, the more we come to see the real change comes not when the door swings open, but when something inside us opens instead. Not suddenly, not dramatically, but slowly, quietly, over time. God doesn’t always remove the stuckness, but God meets us in it, reshaping our hearts, softening the places that have grown hard with fear or frustration. Sometimes, when the exhaustion finally gives way to surrender, we discover that the door was never locked after all. We were just too weary to see how close we already were to grace. We lean against it for support, and somehow, we find ourselves on the other side.

God doesn’t wait for us beyond the threshold. God is with us in the hallway, in the waiting, in the ache. In the quiet work of transformation that begins long before the breakthrough. That is the mystery and mercy of the God who answers, not always by changing our circumstances, but by being unshakably present within them.

So wherever you find yourself this week, whether you’re waiting for the door to open, or wondering if it ever will, may you know you are not alone. May you be reminded that presence itself is a gift, that transformation often begins before we even recognize it, and that grace has a way of meeting us right where we are.

Sterling Severns Life of the Community, Staff, Worship

When We Gather

On Sunday mornings, I have the privilege of sitting up front in the blue fabric chair just behind the pulpit before worship really gets going.

For over 20 years, I’ve settled into that chair nearly every week, watching the congregation arrive for worship. Some of you walk in quietly, take a bulletin, and slip into a pew for quiet reflection, while others of you move through the room greeting one another. And then there are those of you in the Virtual Acre doing something similar in your own way—settling in with coffee, saying good morning in the chat, making space for worship wherever you are.

One of the things I’ve come to love about sitting in that seat is that it gives me such a clear view of what happens next. I get to see the slow, quiet convergence as you arrive from all over, carrying the week behind you, your burdens and joys in tow, and gradually our voices begin to join together.

There’s something beautiful about those first notes of the gathering song. It’s one of those sacred moments when our gathered bodies become The Gathered Body—when the many individual parts begin coming together as one.

As worship continues, that sense of shared space only deepens. When some of you stand to share your testimonies—each one unique, rooted in your own lived experience—there’s this mystery where your stories begin to resonate with all of us. When others of you lead us in song, guide us in prayer, or serve in so many other ways, your offerings invite us deeper into this shared experience of worship.

We start to hear our own questions, struggles, and hopes echoed back.

It’s in that sharing, both spoken and silent, that we remember we’re not just a collection of individuals, but brought together by the Spirit of God, learning again and again to share our lives, lift our voices, and find grace in the faces around us.

It’s one of those times when our scattered lives find a shared voice, drawn together by the Spirit, ready to sing grace into the world.

Rev. Sterling Severns, Pastor

Sterling Severns Devotional, Life of the Community, Staff, Worship

Pastoral Reflection: No Turning Back

Sterling Severns

“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.”

– Annie Dillard

No Turning Back

There’s something unflinching about Jesus here.

Luke says he “set his face toward Jerusalem.”
It’s the moment he stops wandering and starts going.
Not drifting. Not hedging.
But choosing the road ahead—come what may.

He’s honest about it.
Bracingly so.
He says following will cost you.
He says you’ll have to let go of “but first.”
He says you can’t plow straight if you keep looking back.

And it’s not cruelty that makes him speak this way.
It’s love that refuses to lie.
He knows the road leads through suffering.
But he also knows it’s the only road that leads to life.

I think there’s mercy in that clarity.
A grace in being told the truth about what matters most.
Because when you know the cost, you get to choose freely.
And love that’s chosen freely is the only kind that lasts.

I imagine us standing there together in that moment.
Hearing his voice.
Not with shame. Not with fear.
But with a holy honesty that says:
“Yes. Even this. I’ll follow.”


I wonder:
I wonder what “but first” you’re holding onto these days.
I wonder what you’d have to lay down to follow more freely.
I wonder what you might gain on the other side of that choice.

Looking Ahead

As we prepare for worship next Sunday, I hope you’ll take time to read ahead in the Gospel—Luke 10:1–11, 16–20.

Jesus sends seventy others on ahead of him.
He doesn’t weigh them down with baggage.
He sends them lightly, with trust and purpose, to bring peace and healing wherever they go.
He tells them to say: “The kingdom of God has come near.”

If this week is about choosing the road,
Next week is about walking it—together.

And there’s hope in that.
We don’t walk alone.

I wonder:
As you read and pray this week,
I wonder what it would mean for you to go lightly.
I wonder how you might speak peace into someone’s life.
I wonder where you might notice God’s kingdom drawing near.

May God grant us the grace to see clearly,
the courage to choose freely,
and the love to walk this road with one another.

Yours in Christ,

Rev. Sterling W. Severns
Pastor