November Pastor's Letter

Dear church family,

On Wednesdays night this fall, I’ve been reading a book called Learning to Disagree, by John Inazu, and discussing it alongside a small group at church. It’s led to some beautiful – if difficult – conversations about this important and timely topic.

One section, in particular, stood out to me as especially relevant for November, which we usually think of as a month of gratitude (since Thanksgiving Day is soon to arrive). In that section of the book, John describes his grandparents, who were Japanese immigrants to the United Stated forced into an interment camp at Manzanar during World War II. Inazu describes the pain and injustice of this imprisonment on his family, all due to the fear and ignorance of the larger culture. Yet he also describes how his grandparents were able to find reasons to be grateful – and to show gratitude – throughout.

It's surprising, isn’t it? On the one hand, we might wonder what these folks had to be grateful for. Hadn’t their lives been needlessly disrupted and disrespected? Why on earth would they be grateful? On the other hand, we might wonder why these folks would want to be grateful. Wouldn’t that gratitude in some way validate this unfair situation? Why on earth should they be grateful? And so, their story shocks us.

Yet John tells their story nonetheless. He tells it, having asked these questions and wrestled with these complexities, because he believes that his grandparents’ gratitude is a sign of God’s grace at work. What is grace? It is a free and undeserved gift – yes. It’s also the light that shines when everything else is going dark; it’s the sweetness of mercy when one expects only bitter punishment; it’s the emergence of joy when hope was given up and left for dead. This is what John’s grandparents discovered, and their response to it was gratitude. This gratitude, of course, doesn’t mean they were happy about their circumstances. It doesn’t mean they excused the actions of their captors or of the United States government. But it does mean they were able to see those actions in the context of a bigger story.

I wonder if that might be an invitation for us this November, as well. There’s been a lot of stress and strain in Western North Carolina lately due to Hurricane Helene, and we in Sylva are not exempt from feeling the weight of it (even if we were, indeed, “spared” the worst of the destruction). And there will continue to be a lot of stress and strain as we move past Election Day on November 5, regardless of the outcome. What will our attitude be? How will we respond? I suggest we take a cue from John Inazu’s grandparents and find reasons to be grateful – grateful not for the sin that so easily entangles us, but for God’s grace that is sufficient all along the way.

See you Sunday,
Blake

Hurricane Helene

On Sept. 27, 2024, Hurricane Helene ripped through the southeastern United States. Portions of Western North Carolina were hit especially hard, leaving a wake of destruction from which it will take years to recover.

Our members are safe and accounted for, thankfully, and there was no damage to our church property. Most folks reported interruptions of cell service, WiFi, water, and/or power with no other major impact. There is, however, significant damage in other parts of Jackson County and beyond — especially towards, in, and past Asheville. So, we are grieving and bewildered, even as we remember the words of Psalm 46: “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea.”

How you can help:


Please PRAY for all who are in need.

DONATIONS of bottled water, cleaning supplies, nonperishable prepackaged food, diapers, and hygiene products can be delivered to our church Fellowship Hall for distribution. You can also bring them to the old Western Builders building in Dillsboro (198 WBI Dr., Sylva) daily between 8am and 8pm. You can also drop off sliced bread, peanut butter, and jelly to The Community Table (23 Central St, Sylva). We are not currently taking donations at the church.

You can provide FINANCIAL GIFTS to the Presbytery of Western NC’s emergency fund (write “PWNC relief” in the memo line of your check), or give to our ministry partners:

Click this link to VOLUNTEER with Jackson County.  You can add your name to their list and they will contact you when needs arise. We are also working on specific work projects as a church, and will have more information posted about these soon.

Thank you!

July Pastor's Letter

Dear church family,

As I mentioned in a recent sermon, I’ve been reading Wendell Berry’s acclaimed novel Jayber Crow. It’s a bit slow-going, but it packs a punch. And I think that’s the point: Berry describes life in a small town in which simple, mundane exteriors often reveal profound encounters with eternity. Take, for instance, this passage:

“As I have read the Gospels over the years, the belief has grown in me that Christ did not come to found an organized religion but came instead to found an unorganized one. He seems to have come to carry religion out of the temples into the fields and sheep pastures, onto the roadsides and the banks of the rivers, into the houses of sinners and publicans, into the town and the wilderness, toward the membership of all that is here. Well, you can read and see what you think.”

Berry is describing, through his narrator Jayber, what John Calvin called common grace: the power and presence of God in ordinary things – such as fields, sheep pastures, roadsides, and riverbanks – that we often fail to notice due to our hurriedness, distraction, and preoccupation. Indeed, this sentiment reminds me of the documentary film Godspeed, which many of us watched and studied at the church several years ago. “There is no place without the potential for unearthing holiness,” the film declared, and I think Berry would agree.

As summer continues and we make our way through Ordinary Time, let’s slow down and pay attention to the holiness that surrounds us – whether at a Fourth of July cookout, a baseball game, or in casual evening worship – so that we might catch up with ourselves, one another, and certainly with God.

Yours in Christ,
Blake

The Season of Advent

We invite you to join us for Advent worship this year as we watch and wait for our coming King!
See below for various events, services, and opportunities to celebrate this special season.
Questions? Email the Church Office or call 828-586-4256.

This year’s Advent Devotional Guide is from Christianity Today. Copies are available in the entry hallway of the church! Suggested donation: $5 to the church.

Join us for a Pizza & Salad dinner with the Gieser family on Dec. 15 at 6pm! We will hear more from Jim & Julianna, and their children Timo, Mattias, Hawk, and Ruth, about the good work God is doing through them in Cape Town, South Africa.

Our Advent music program, “Care for the Stranger,” will take place Dec. 16 at 6pm. There will be a potluck finger food celebration following the program. The suggested donation is $5 but we will take any amount you can give. We would love your presence!

The Advent season is not always "merry and bright." Join us in the Sanctuary for a simple worship service of music, Scripture, and prayer as we walk through the darkness together and renew our hope in Jesus Christ, the light of the world.

All are welcome to this family-friendly service of worship on Christmas Eve! A reception will follow in the Fellowship Hall.

October Pastor’s Letter

Dear church family,

Every year I have the privilege of meeting with seven other pastors for study, conversation, recreation, and prayer. These retreats are sponsored by the Foundation for Reformed Theology, which was established by the late Dr. John Leith, a longtime professor at Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, VA.  Dr. Leith was devoted to the training and nurturing of pastors, and his Foundation ensures that this legacy continues for generations to come. 

As part of the Foundation, our group has to select a bibliography to read from each year.  (We don’t just get to hang out!)  This year’s topic was “Reformed Piety,” which refers to spiritual formation and faithful living as followers of Christ.  Our list included writings by John Calvin, Karl Barth, Howard Rice, Donald Bloesch, and Belden Lane, all of whom helped us think deeply about the difference Jesus makes in our everyday lives. 

Perhaps Calvin summed up this theme the best:

“We are not our own: let not our reason nor our will, therefore, sway our plans and deeds.  We are not our own: let us therefore not set it as our goal to seek what is expedient for us according to the flesh.  We are not our own: in so far as we can, let us therefore forget ourselves and all that is ours.  Conversely, we are God’s: let us therefore live for him and die for him.  We are God’s: let his wisdom and will therefore rule all our actions.  We are God’s: let all the parts of our life accordingly strive toward him as our only lawful goal… We are consecrated and dedicated to God in order that we may thereafter think, speak, meditate, and do nothing except to his glory.”

Do you hear the refrain?  “We are not our own… we are God’s.”  May that be the basic witness of our lives and our congregation as we move into October and a new season of life together.

Yours in Christ,

Blake

Fall Book Study

Join us this fall for a study of the book A Walk Through the Bible by Lesslie Newbigin!
We will meet in the Fellowship Hall on Wednesday Nights from 6:00-7:00pm, starting Sept. 27.
Books can be purchased at City Lights Bookstore for $12.
Please contact the Church Office if you need childcare!

Schedule:

  • 09/27 – Week 1 – Ch. 1: A Unique Account

  • 10/04 – No Meeting (Family Night Supper)

  • 10/11 – Week 2 – Ch. 2 & 3: Chosen by God

  • 10/18 – Week 3 – Ch. 4: Judges, Kings and Prophets

  • 10/25 – Week 4 – Ch. 5: Return and Renewal

  • 11/01 – No Meeting (Family Night Supper)

  • 11/08 – Week 5 – Ch. 6: God’s Kingdom and Jesus

  • 11/15 – Week 6 – Ch. 7: Sacrifice

  • 11/22 – No Meeting (Thanksgiving Break)

  • 11/29 – Week 7 – Ch. 8: Future Revelation

“What is there within the Bible? What sort of house is it to which the Bible is the door? What sort of country is spread before our eyes when we throw the Bible open? The answer is a strange, new world – the world of God.”
— Karl Barth

Pastor’s Letter

Dear church family,

Over the summertime, my family and I have enjoyed taking Saturday trips to forested spots near Sylva.  Our favorites thus far have been the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest near Robbinsville and the Cradle of Forestry in America near Brevard.  Both locations have afforded us beautiful picnic areas, intrepretive knowledge of history and landscape, and long, peaceful walks in the woods.  I highly recommend you visit them, even if you’ve already been there before.

There’s something special about trees, isn’t there?  They offer us shade and fruit and lumber.  They’re a haven for pollinators and other creatures.  They purify the air around us.  They direct our eyes down – towards the earth – and up – towards the heavens – and in this they reorient us to the things of God.  As Joyce Kilmer himself wrote, “I think that I shall never see / A poem lovely as a tree… / Poems are made by fools like me, / But only God can make a tree.” 

Is it any wonder, then, that Scripture talks a lot about trees?  There’s the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in Genesis 2; the tree of wisdom in Psalm 1 and Proverbs 3; and the new tree of life in Relevation 22.  Remember that the cross of Jesus is often called a tree throughout the New Testament (“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.’” – Galatians 3:13).  And then, remember how Jesus described himself as a vine (very similar to a tree!), and his followers as his branches, in John 15.  So, yes, there is something special about trees.

This doesn’t mean we worship trees – we Christians aren’t pagans or pantheists.  But it does mean we see them as signposts of the Kingdom, reminding us of God’s goodness in creation and of our call to be stewards of that creation.  In this last stretch of summertime, I hope you spend some time among the trees.  And, as you do, give thanks to the God who made them.

Yours in Christ,

Blake

Hymnal Transition

This Sunday we will say “goodbye” to our well used and much loved church hymnal, The Worshiping Church, and say “hello” to our new church hymnal, Lift Up Your Hearts. We hope you will join us for worship as we learn more about our new hymnals and allow them assist us in our worship of God!

All copies of The Worshiping Church have been pulled from the sanctuary and placed on tables in the Fellowship Hall. Church members are welcome to take one of these hymnals for themselves. Below is a list of hymnals and dedications, in case you would like one given by, in honor of, or in memory of, a specific person:

  • To FPC by Joe & Charlotte Cowan

  • To FPC by Dave & Terry Dornberg (3)

  • To FPC by Jim & Sylvia Smythe (2)

  • To Mrs. Clyde Law by Lyn Davis

  • To Jimmy Lane by Lyn Davis

  • To FPC by Bob & Martha Vodak

  • To Jimmy Lane by Constance Miller

  • To FPC by David Noland

  • To Malvery Botner by Taft Botner (75)

  • To various by Bob & Mildred Thutt (27)

  • To FPC by Lewis & Dorothy Farmer (7)

  • To Mrs. Clyde Law by Elizabeth Cope

  • To Jimmy Lane by Elizabeth Cope

  • To Mildred Lane by Jimmy Lane (17)

  • To FPC by Dave & Terry Dornberg (3)

  • To Jimmy Lane by Norma Fulk

  • To Jimmy Lane by Bill & Bobbie James

  • To Jimmy Lane by Kathleen Stewart

  • To Jimmy Lane by Judge & Mrs. James Stephenson

Pastor's Letter

Dear church family,

Spring is an active time time in Sylva. It always is! Ask almost anybody in our community – landscapers, college students, rafting or fishing guides, or families with young children – how they are doing these days and the answer will likely be, “busy.” Busy with work, study, soccer games, or social events. Busy with chores or doctor’s appointments. Busy with keeping up with the Joneses or keeping up with the world.

And, of course, not all of the spring shuffle is bad. I can certainly relate to the satisfaction that comes at the end of a full day. But there is a difference between work and toil, between God-ordained service and stewardship, and sin-distorted labor and drudgery. The challenge is determining which is which – even in the church. Because congregations are not immune to busyness. If anything, we pride ourselves on bustling gatherings and packed calendars just like any other organization, only we do it in the name of Jesus.

Thankfully, we have a Lord who is patient with us, a God who walks at three miles per hour. When we’re prone to hurry our way through things, I imagine he says, “Slow down and take your time.” When we fuss and stress over our many duties and obligations, I picture him smiling and saying, “Look at the birds of the air and the flowers of the field.” When we worry that we’re not relevant or successful enough, I wonder if he simply says, “Remain in my love.” Take some time this month to think about what the Lord might be saying to you.

One of the best books I’ve read on this topic is John Mark Comer’s The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry. We have a copy in our church library, if you’d like to take a look. In page after page, Comer makes the case for a less hurried and more mindful, thoughtful, and prayerful life, and he offers many helpful steps for putting this into practice. Here is one of my favorite lines: “The solution to an overbusy life is not more time. It’s to slow down and simplify our lives around what really matters.” And what really matters? Perhaps our congregation’s mission statement says it best: loving Jesus, loving his curch, and loving our neighbors as ourselves. Can we slow down and simplify ourselves around that?

Yours in Christ,
Blake