More time to study and learn together

by Thomas Kleinert

The Wednesday morning Bible study group is about to wrap up its discussion of this remarkable little book, Jesus According to the New Testament, by James Dunn. It is a very accessible condensation of over 50 years of teaching on Jesus by one of the great New Testament scholars, honed in discussions at the university level as well as in congregations. I wholeheartedly agree with a colleague who wrote in a review last year in Presbyterian Outlook, “For all who want to keep going deeper in the knowledge of Jesus: Read this book. Gather a study group in your church. It’s the best.” The feedback from the Wednesday morning Bible study participants has been positive across the board, and in several cases, quite enthusiastic. Frankly, that’s why I decided to invite others to join me for another round!

I have not set a day or time for our Zoom meetings yet, but want to discuss the schedule with those interested in participating, including the option of having two groups, one meeting during the day, the other in the evening. If you are interested, please complete the sign-up form. The study can be comfortably completed in nine weeks (see the contents below).

“Undoubtedly the best Bible book study I have ever experienced. It was moving and spiritually rejuvenating. Thomas does a masterful job of augmenting the text with vast knowledge and background.” Charlie Biter

“I had two excellent adult Sunday School teachers, Marsha Kump and Jack Forstman. Reading together the James Dunn book about Jesus according to the writings of the New Testament with our Wednesday Bible study group has been another rich experience in talking about who is Jesus to me. Dunn’s reflections are relevant, encouraging, and very honest. I appreciate the theology and his personal approach to the reader. Thomas is remarkable as the leader/teacher. I encourage you to get a copy of the book and dive in!” Carol Doidge

“James Dunn’s book … provided excellent background on the New Testament writers. We had many great discussions and Thomas added rich insight. I highly recommend anyone interested in knowing more about the NT to get a copy of this book and join the next study group with Thomas.” Jack Wallace

Worship update: A letter from Thomas

Dear Vine Street disciples,

How are you doing? I trust you and yours are well. Larry Adams told me a couple of weeks ago that folks in Germantown were referring to Nashville’s situation as “Coronado” - a clever combination of “tornado” and “Corona.” I wonder what new names will emerge after Sunday’s “derecho” storm system and the power outages thousands of residents have experienced since! 

Many of us are wondering, “How long?” When will the power be back on? When will the homes be repaired? When will we return to work? When will the businesses be open? When will we leave our homes without worrying about the spread of COVID-19? When will we gather again, all of us together in the sanctuary, to worship God with loud songs of praise? How long until we know we’re on the other side of this?

The hard truth is that there are very few firm answers when it comes to timelines. The bigger truth is that God continues to be at work, comforting and healing, inspiring courage and patience, encouraging cooperation and life-giving research, and moving with us toward wholeness. And as disciples of Jesus, we will continue to serve God and God’s purposes, regardless of circumstances.

Mayor Cooper, in introducing the Roadmap for Reopening Nashville, said, “Our city will be living with COVID-19 until there is an effective vaccine for the virus,” and he continued, “Living with COVID-19 means returning to work with COVID-19.” It also means returning to school, to the playground, to the symphony, to church, to the stadium with COVID-19.

According to this plan, it will take weeks after the Mayor’s Safer at Home order (currently in effect through May 8) has expired, before residents can gather in groups larger than ten. And even in the best-case scenario, those of us age 65+ and high-risk will be asked to stay home. This means that well into the summer our congregational life will follow guidelines for social distancing that have proven successful in slowing the spread of infection.

We will continue to stream our worship service from the sanctuary via Facebook and YouTube, and we will continue to urge those who participate in person to observe social distancing rules.

We will increase in-person worship attendance gradually as Metro Health Department recommendations warrant.

As attendance numbers move beyond staff and other leaders, we will make arrangements for seating and safe partaking of the Lord’s Supper, avoid use of hymnals and pew Bibles until it is safe to do so, and encourage frequent hand-washing or hand-sanitizing.

We will also continue online fellowship activities like game nights, the Sunday coffee hour, and various groups until it is safe to have small group meetings in person.

The fact that we are all more or less homebound now also represents an opportunity to devote a little more time to learning together. Beginning on Thursday, we will roll out various opportunities to gather via Zoom for Bible study, book groups, and topical studies. Look for these announcements in your e-news and on social media.

Starting next week we will invite small groups to gather for Picnic under the Dogwood on the lawn on the west side of the sanctuary. Put on your mask, pack a sandwich, grab a lawn chair, and come on over for a little person-to-person interaction not involving a screen! Look for details in Thursday’s e-news.

And saving a juicy bit of news for last, let us celebrate that the hard reality of not meeting at church also has a huge benefit: construction will begin the week of May 17 with abatement work, and the very loud and very dusty demolition work for the elevator following soon after that! The Administrative Council will meet tomorrow night to finalize work on the construction budget, and in a few days you will receive an exciting update about the scope of this major renovation, the timeline, and the promise of new opportunities for ministry these building updates represent.

In all this, and particularly during the most difficult moments, remember the bigger truth: God continues to be at work in the world, comforting and healing, inspiring courage and patience, encouraging cooperation and life-giving research, and moving with us toward wholeness. And as disciples of Jesus, we will continue to serve God and God’s purposes, regardless of circumstances.

Peace in Christ,
thomas

A Good Friday service for listening

We invite you to participate in this service anytime today. It's a recording, audio only, so you can listen and pray in your favorite chair or while taking a walk. May God bless us, both those of us who pray and those who don't, with the rich grace whose outpouring we recall and receive anew today.

A Call to Makers

Updated on Tuesday, April 14, 1:27 pm

We are very grateful for all the workers who continue to show up in person to do the work that cannot be accomplished remotely: health care workers, grocery store workers, utility workers, truckers and delivery drivers, postal workers, and many more.

As hospitals struggle to find enough surgical and N95 masks for their doctors and nurses, we want to help make sure that any medically certified masks on the market remain available for these workers.

The Metro Office of Emergency Management is in need of simple face masks, the kind we’re all asked to wear now when out in public, for

• workers at 911-call centers

• utility workers with the Metro Water Department

• our homeless neighbors in camps across the city

• city workers who still interact in person with the public

We are calling on makers in congregations and across the community to help provide these much needed masks. There are no specific design requirements, and various templates are readily available online. As of Monday, April 13, the running total of various department requests is at 4,500!

Vine Street Christian Church will serve as a collection point. Please send a text to 615-714-9718 to arrange a drop-off time for masks you have made. The Metro Office of Emergency Management will organize distribution of the masks.

Worship schedule

Vine Street Christian Church will continue to worship online only until at least the end of April. This includes Holy Week and Easter services. Updates will be posted here and shared via social media and email.

We invite members and friends to join us for worship on Sunday mornings at 10am on our website or on Facebook where our services are streamed live via YouTube and Facebook Live; since our services are recorded they can also be viewed after Sunday morning.

We share copies of the order of worship as pdf-documents on our Facebook page, typically as a comment with the invitation. If you would like to receive a copy via email, please subscribe to our mailing list by scrolling to the bottom of this page and adding your email address to the subscription box. We include a link to the bulletin in our weekly Thursday e-newsletter.

Well Done! Thank you!

An update by Carol Doidge about our partnership with West End Middle School

All was set with over 60+ new books purchased by Vine Street folks. The books were delivered to the counselor at West End Middle School (our partner school since October). At least seven Vine Street members were set to help serve pizza at West End Middle on the evening of March 5 for the Reading Literacy Night. Games, building tours, and exhibits of student achievements were ready for the evening to share with the neighborhood.

You know the story of what came next to postpone this terrific event. Early in the morning of March 3 horrific tornadoes caused major damage in Middle Tennessee. The Reading Literacy Night was rescheduled to April 2 since Metro schools closed several days due to the damage to many schools. We now have a worldwide health crisis, and that leaves all plans on hold for now.

We did well as a faithful community to work with our neighborhood school on their special night and we will have the celebration of reading in the future. They know we continue to support them and will return to work with the amazing students, teachers and staff at West End Middle during the school days as soon as possible. Keep our neighbors at West End Middle in your prayers!

COVID-19 response: An update

If it doesn’t feel a little over the top, we aren’t doing what is most helpful right now to protect the most vulnerable members of our community. So here are some additional steps we are taking as a congregation:

Until April 5, we will suspend all in-person meetings, including worship. We invite you and the community at large to join us each Sunday at 10 a.m. for worship at www.facebook.com/vinestreet.

We will keep the number of leaders who gather to lead the service at or below ten, as currently recommended by the U.S. government. Therefore we will limit the non-staff leaders to one elder (the one scheduled to offer the prayer for the bread and cup at the table) and other essential roles such as sound and streaming techs. The role of the liturgical reader will be filled by staff members.

We encourage groups and individuals to take advantage of online tools like Zoom or facetime and other video applications, and to embrace this season of physical distancing as an opportunity to discover and practice other forms of connecting socially and spiritually. In our e-newsletter on Thursday, we will share other ideas for how we can stay in touch.

We will continually reassess how best to participate, individually and as a congregation, in the global, national, and local response to the spread of COVID-19, and we will communicate any updates and changes with the Vine Street community, both on our website and via email and social media.

In these early stages of a season of great economic uncertainty, we are grateful for your continued financial support of our ministries. Please mail your weekly or monthly contribution to the church, attention: Katie McLaughlin, or use the online giving option. This may also be a good time to set up a monthly bank draft; please contact Katie McLaughlin about the details. At the same time, we encourage you to let us know when you yourself face financial difficulties due to loss of income. We’re in this together.

Since most of our communication will be via electronic means, we ask you to update your Breeze profile (our online directory) or notify the office of any changes (address, phone number, email address, etc.). If you are a Facebook user and have not joined our friends group, we encourage you to do so.

Over the coming days and weeks, look for updates about online community art projects and our virtual game night and more in your inbox. If you would like to receive the sermon in the mail each week, please let us know. We’ll be happy to add you to our mailing list.

Our response to the COVID-19 pandemic

Our response is guided by our love for our neighbors, not by fear.

We will continue to follow the recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control, the Tennessee Department of Health and Metro Health Department, particularly with respect to limiting or ending public gatherings.

This is what we are currently doing and ask all who gather at Vine Street to do:

Stay at home when you are sick. Our services are livestreamed on Facebook, and we encourage you to let us know about your pastoral and other care needs.

Wash your hands with soap before you leave home. Washing hands with soap for 20 seconds, occasionally using a brush to clean under your nails, is incredibly effective against viruses such as the common cold, the flu, and COVID-19.

Wash your hands with soap after you arrive at church. We also have alcohol-based hand sanitizer and boxes of tissues available in various places around the church.

Greet others with a friendly wave or an elbow bump. Please avoid hugs and hand shakes, hard as it may be.

Our staff and cleaning crew regularly wipe with antiviral disinfectants all door knobs and handles, sinks, and other frequently touched surfaces, including hymnals, offering trays, and toys at church.

We have made changes to how we share communion. Instead of the one loaf, we will use precut pieces of bread, so each of us will only touch the piece we consume. We continue to have grape juice available in the shared chalice for intinction, but there’s nothing wrong with only consuming the bread. Some of us will observe this “juice fast” out of concern for their own health, others in solidarity with the many who are in social isolation, be it at home or in other forms of quarantine.

At the end of the service, we typically hold hands. Until further notice, we will stand and face each other, but not hold hands for the benediction. We invite all worshipers to cup their hands in a bowl shape, a posture of grateful receptiveness.

Wash your hands with soap before you eat lunch.

If you wish to wipe the steering wheel of your vehicle and other surfaces you frequently touch, e.g. your phone, a simple bleach solution of 4 teaspoons bleach per quart of water (1/3 cup bleach per gallon) is recommended by the Centers for Disease Control.

We will continue the practices outlined above until further notice, praying for those infected and their care givers, and seeking other ways to stay in touch when stricter social distancing measures become necessary.

Stronger Than Hate

We gladly and gratefully extend the invitation by the Community Relations Committee of the Nashville Jewish Federation to this year’s Community Relations Passover Seder on Thursday March 26 from 6:30-8:30pm at the Gordon Jewish Community Center, 801 Percy Warner Blvd. 

This year’s Seder will celebrate the history, culture and traditions, and contributions of Nashville’s Kurdish community — the largest in the country! Guests will experience the Passover Seder by reading from the traditional Haggadah, enjoying infectious holiday music, and partaking in a full Passover meal.  

The evening will close with a call to action to participate in a communal reading and discussion of “How to be an Anti-Racist” by Ibram X. Kendi.

Register for the evening at www.jewishnashville.org/crcseder.

$10 Suggested Donation

For more info contact Deborah Oleshansky Deborah@jewishnashville.org

What we can do

Disasters are stark reminders of the frailty of life and immediate needs, but the needs that existed before the tornadoes still are a need today (see more on how we can help below). One of those is making sure kids have nutritious meals at school and addressing school lunch debt--further living out part of our Vine Street essentials. West End Middle School, where we’re building a partnership, thanks to folks like Carol Doidge, Joan Fleming, and Michael LeBuhn (and everyone who has brought in books and is participating in their literacy night today) has about $2,000 in outstanding lunch debt. As a congregation, we're committing to paying off that debt. If you would like to contribute to this gift and strengthen our partnership with West End Middle, you can donate online or designate it in your gift on Sunday morning.

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How we can help

It's hard to feel so helpless after such destruction, especially so close to home. Here are a few things we can do

• Give to Week of Compassion--they were in contact with Disciples congregations around town early Tuesday morning and are already offering support for folks who were affected.

• Continue to pray and checking in with folks 

• Drop off supplies to New Covenant Christian Church between 11:00 am and 5:00 pm Thursday and Friday. They have specifically asked for canned and dry goods, soap, cleaning supplies, blankets, battery operated flashlights, and detergent.

• Be prepared to jump into action in the days, weeks, and months ahead. Organizations like Gideon's Army are on the ground doing good work. 

• Register with Hands on Nashville for a variety of relief work opportunities.

Please let Allison know if you are interested in a Vine Street service day (probably some Saturday in March or April) or know of relief opportunities and she will help coordinate and organize. 

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Spring plans

The Tennessee Disciples campground, Bethany Hills, has scheduled a work week, March 9-14. There will be all sorts of projects going on from big to small, and all levels of experience are needed. Come out and breathe the fresh air at Bethany Hills! Come for a half day, full day, or all week! Call the Camp Manager, Dee Wells, at 615-952-9184 if you have any questions, or send her an email. The address is Bethany Hills Camp, 1080 Bethany Hills Rd, Kingston Springs, TN. Register here

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Ministry Council Potluck

On Sunday, we will meet for lunch and conversations about our ministry. This month we'll discuss communications and church growth. You can sign up here or on the clipboard this Sunday.

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Building Update 

Our architect, Cyril Stewart, has sent a big roll of drawings to our contractor, Batten & Shaw, for bidding and an application for the permit. The drawings include details on landscaping, engineering work including structural, mechanical, plumbing, and electrical engineering, as well as interior design and finishes. Several subcontractors have already walked through the building to prepare submitting their bids.
 
Electrical engineering plans took a little longer than expected due to concerns about the location of our transformer that powers the entire facility. Thankfully, the transformer will not have to be moved.
 
Thorough testing revealed multiple areas with asbestos in tiles, adhesives, insulation, and finishes, and we are making plans to complete the necessary abatement work.
 
In a few weeks, we expect to have solid cost estimates for all parts of the project. In the meantime, our leadership has begun conversations about fundraising options we may include, both as a means to help offset the overall cost AND as a way to celebrate our bicentennial year and the memory of loved ones (like trees, personalized pavers, and artwork.)

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Livestreaming training

Are you interested in learning how to share our Sunday morning worship with members and friends who can’t join us in the sanctuary? For the past several months, we have been livestreaming our worship service on our Facebook page to extend our reach into the community. If you would like to learn the simple steps for sharing our worship with the world, please join us at 9 a.m. on Sunday, March 29 in the sanctuary. Stephen Moseley and Doug Branson will walk you through how to set up our camera and stream our service live. It’s an easy process and we need several people trained up to share in facilitating this ministry opportunity.

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Don't Forget to Spring Forward!

Don't forget to change your clocks that don't automatically adjust! We don't want to miss you!