Resources For Holy Week at Home

Holy Week is the week between Palm Sunday (yesterday) and Easter. It’s the week that we remember the last week of Jesus’ life, his death, and resurrectiong. It’s often a week full of special church activities and gathering with friends and family. But for all of us, this will now be another week at home, so I wanted to share with you some ideas for Holy Week specifically and then some more for staying close to God in general in these challenging times.

  • Remember the story: Matthew 21 tells of the Triumphal Entry (Palm Sunday). If you read that on Sunday and one more chapter each day of the week, you'll read Matthew 28 and Jesus' Resurrection on Easter Sunday. Even if you didn’t start yesterday, you can catch up a chapter and finish out the rest of the week!

  • Maundy Thursday Table Liturgy: Maundy Thursday is the day we remember Jesus’ last supper with his disicples and his new command to “Love one another as I have loved you” (John 13:34). As you eat that night, you can use this simple table liturgy to remember the events of that night (courtesy of our friends at Covenant Presbyterian Church of Chicago)

  • Prayer and Fasting on Good Friday (April 10): The leadership of our denomination (the PCA) has joined the leaders of several other denominations in calling all our members to join together in Prayer and Fasting this Friday, in recognition both of the long tradition of particularly remembering Jesus' death on Good Friday and calling out to God in the midst of our current crisis. More details to come on how to do this and a virtual gathering that day.

  • Listen to music: I've been listening to and loving the Resurrection Letters series of albums from singer Andrew Peterson. They take you through the darkness of Good Friday, the joy of Easter Sunday and the effects of Jesus' Resurrection for us. 

  • Keep Easter special: While many Easter traditions of gathering with family and friends will not be possible, I would still encourage you to mark Easter Sunday as special as possible, with whatever special food, gifts, and activities that are still possible. And of course, joining together in our virtual building!

This will be a Holy Week unlike any other for most of us and there is great sadness in that. At the same time, we can remember that the first Holy Week was an awful time for Jesus and His followers, but Easter still came! And the hope of Easter is that an even greater celebration is yet to come, when Jesus will come again!

Blessings,
Pastor Jimmy

Resurrection Relief Fund

UPDATE: If you would like to apply for support from the fund, the application is here

In Acts 11:27-30, a prophet announces that there will be a famine throughout the land. The young church in Antioch responds by taking up a collection to send to Judea for the relief of the Christians there. And throughout the centuries, Christians have followed their example by pooling their resources to help others in times of crisis.

Today, we don’t have a prophetic word from God to tell us that trouble is coming, but many are predicting the likelihood of significant economic fallout from this coronavirus, including much potential loss of income and jobs. At the same time, our federal government is in the process of passing a large economic stimulus bill that will send checks directly to many Americans.

The way this is likely to work means that some of us will get checks even though we have not suffered any loss of income. Others will get checks, but it won’t end up being enough to cover their needs.

In response and preparation, the oversight commission of Resurrection Community Church has approved the creation of the Resurrection Relief Fund to help those who have been affected by the whole coronavirus situation and whatever continues to happen in the coming months.

If you are expecting to receive a stimulus check but reasonably expect your income to remain stable, would you consider donating your stimulus check or a significant portion of it to the Resurrection Relief Fund?

Distributions from this fund will be managed by a newly-created relief team of Resurrection members. They will distribute money first to those in need in the Resurrection family, and secondly to neighbors in Virginia Beach known to members of our community. Since the impacts of this current situation may well last for quite some time, we hope to collect enough money to keep the fund going as long as it is needed.

If you already know you need help, we are still creating the relief team and application process, but go ahead and let us know that you are in need. (UPDATE: Apply here!)

If you would like to make a contribution to the fund, please use any of the options on our giving page.

If you have any questions, please ask away!

Virtual Church Building

As we head into a period of even greater uncertainty in our country and world, some things haven't changed. Humans desperately need connection with God and each other. Of course, "social distancing" makes connecting with others particularly difficult.

To help us maintain "face-to-face" community in a time of social distance, we're going to try out a virtual church building for our Bible studies and Sunday worship, until we're able to return to actually gathering face to face.

What is a virtual church building? It’s a Zoom videoconferencing room that allows us all to see one another and see and be seen and talk to one another. You can connect to it from any computer, tablet, or smartphone. All you have to do is click the link: Resurrection Virtual Building and go from there (more technical details at the bottom).

While it’s not really the same as actually being face to face, my hope is that this will help carry us through as we seek to love our neighbors well (by keeping distance) and obey our civil authorities. All VB rec centers have closed for the next two weeks and state and local officials are strongly discouraging any type of gatherings.

We’ll have three “open” meetings in the virtual building:

  • Monday night Bible study at 7 PM – studying Joshua

  • Thursday night Bible study at 7 PM – studying Mark

  • Sunday worship at 11:15 AM

It may be that for some of you, this is the chance to try out Bible study or Sunday worship when you haven’t been able to make it in person before. Anybody is welcome at any of these times, and even if you can’t make it right on time, feel free to join in late.

In addition, I *think* that you should be able to click the link and get into the building at any time, so if you want to use it to “meet up” with others at other times during the week, feel free! Just call or text a friend or two to suggest a coffee date at the church, make your own coffee, and click the link.

The strength of our church community is really not in the quality of our “programming.” Rather it’s in the reality of our care for and connection with one another. That’s why I’ve chosen a virtual platform that emphasizes us connecting with one another rather than focusing on one or two people “up front”.

I hope you’re able to join together as much as possible and even invite others in to experience this taste of our community while we look forward to gathering truly face to face again as soon as we are able.

Blessings,
Pastor Jimmy

Technical Details

  • Click the same link for all meetings: Resurrection Virtual Building

  • This may seem new and strange for some, but I actually use Zoom frequently to teach test prep classes online and it really works quite well

  • If you’ve never used Zoom, it will ask you to download a launcher. However, you do not have to download. If you can’t or don’t want to download anything, you can join directly in the browser

  • That said, it works better and you have more options if you do download the launcher

  • When you enter the room, your microphone will be on but video will be off by default. Look for the button to turn on your video; also make sure your own volume is up so you can hear others.

  • The best Zoom experience is on a decent-size screen in a quiet room so you can easily hear and be heard. However, I encourage you to join in whatever way you can.

Flashlight Easter Egg Hunt April 4th!

What’s better than an Easter Egg Hunt? A FLASHLIGHT Easter Egg Hunt! Come join us on Kenwood Ct in Redmill Farms for a fun evening of celebrating Easter and connecting with others. Festivites start at 6:00 PM with a pizza picnic, followed by hunting for candy-filled eggs by flashlight at 7:30 PM, and then a campfire with s’mores and hot chocolate. Anyone is welcome for this fun-filled community event. RSVP here so we have the right amount of pizza, eggs, and s’mores!

SB2W Registration is now open!

If you have kids rising into K-8th grade, make sure to check out our summer camp page! Summer’s Best Two Weeks (SB2W) is a transformative camp experience and registration is open now. Campers are introduced to a variety of sports, develop their skills, and learn to honor God and respect others as they compete in sports and all of life. SB2W 2020 is July 13-24, based in the faciliites of Cornerstone Bible Church in Strawbridge Marketplace, right next to our Sunday worship location at the Princess Anne Rec Center. Visit the SB2W page for all the details!

Fellowship Lunch this Sunday - CANCELED

UPDATE: The scheduled fellowship lunch has been canceled. See this week’s ResurrectionWeekly for details.

This Sunday, March 15th, plan to stay after worship to have lunch together in our normal room at the PA rec center. This is a great opportunity to spend a little more time meeting new people and connecting with one another. We’re providing BBQ and drinks. If you’re able, please bring a side or dessert to share, but if you’re not able to bring anything, make plans to stay and eat anyway! For more info, contact us or RSVP here.