Pastoral Letter for a Distributed Church                                      April 9, 2020

Dear friends,

The above graphic is a good reminder of the season we’re in.  It’s Thursday of Holy Week as I write this, and I don’t know about you, but it doesn’t feel like Holy Week.  The reality of not being together seems to have sunk in a little more this week.  We finished filming our Good Friday service this morning, but it felt a little sterile (hopefully, it won’t look that way!), void of the energy a preacher draws from his congregation.  I’ll film the Easter message tomorrow.  And one thing I know is that this Easter will be remembered for a long time. What has traditionally been one of the highest-attended services in churches worldwide will be remembered as part of one of the most challenging situations the Church has faced in this generation.  “Oh year, Easter 2020, that was the one where we worshiped online, at home, in our pajamas.”

This is the fifth pastoral letter of the coronavirus pandemic and I hope it still finds you healthy and safe (and sane!).  You need to know that your Session continues to meet together and pray for you.  So, here’s some things you need to know…

1. As I wrote in yesterday’s “Heart Prep for Sunday” message, we will be having three services this weekend, starting with a traditional Good Friday afternoon service that will look at “The Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross.” It will be a shorter service consisting largely of Scripture readings and prayers, followed by a Good Friday evening service, with further meditations on the “Seven Last Words” from Pastor Charles Biggs of Ketoctin Covenant OPC.  All the links for both services can be found on www.potomachills.org.  And then we’ll have our Easter Sunday service.  Everything you need can be found on the website and on our YouTube channel.  Please subscribe to our YouTube channel.  Go to YouTube and search for PHPC or try this link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYgRYaRNvD3ueqIQgZ0v6mA

2. We really want to focus on prayer. We’ve joined the rest of the PCA in 30 Days of Prayer for the month of April.  We’re posting each day’s reading, items for prayer, and a link to a short video on our Facebook group as we pray for our churches, our nation, and the world.  We’ll be emphasizing prayer in our Community Groups and Sunday School classes as well.

3. Our Adult Sunday School class continues on Zoom with great interest. We had 36 folks join us last Sunday and hope that number will continue to grow. Much thanks to Elders Frank Pugh, Tom Gardner, and Jon Thompson for teaching us during this time.  As I said in the last letter, we’re going to make every 4th class a dedicated time of prayer, so please join us for that.  The first of those prayer meetings will be on Sunday, April 19th.

Additionally, we’re posting the Sunday School materials for the younger elementary children.  It comes with a video too.  You can find those each Sunday on our website (www.potomachills.org) – just click on the latest sermon and go to downloads. 

Part of our ministry to kids is having Katherine Culver post a Children’s Bible Story Time video on our YouTube channel every Wednesday.  This is be a short (5-10 minute) song and Bible reading from the Jesus Storybook Bible.  It’s a fun time designed for our preschoolers.

And starting on Sunday, April 19, Rev. Frank Wang will be starting a Teen Sunday School class on Zoom for our High School and Middle School students.  They will pick up in their study of Isaiah.  Frank is also hosting Office Hours on Zoom for our teens every Tuesday and Thursday.

4. Our now online Community Groups will be meeting weekly with the additional bi-weekly meeting devoted to prayer. The Session is hopeful that we’ll all be very intentional about praying for one another.  Last year, we started the practice of taking one of our Session Prayer Meetings and opening it to the congregation. At this time, we’re going to do that next as an All-Church Night of Prayer on Thursday, May 28th.  None of the Community Groups will be scheduled that week so everyone can join together on Zoom to pray.  We’ll have a special prayer guide that night to follow along.  We hope you find this special night of prayer to be helpful.

Furthermore, since we have no idea how long this stay-at-home order will remain in effect, we’ve decided to continue the meeting schedule for as long as we’re quarantined.  Each Bible Study, Small Group, Joy Group, Community Group, and whatever other groups are meeting can decide for themselves if they want to keep meeting or not, but the Session is encouraging everyone to stay engaged with each other during this time of being apart, so we hope your group will decide to continuing meeting together and will keep on checking in with each other.

Here’s the updated schedule:

Potomac Hills Group Schedule for the Days of Quarantine

April        

4/5-11        Session and Diaconate Meetings

4/12-18      Bible Studies & Community Group Prayer

4/19-25      Community Groups

4/26-5/2     Bible Studies, Meetings, & Community Group Prayer

May

5/3-9          Community Groups

5/10-16      Bible Studies, Meetings, & Community Group Prayer

5/17-23      Community Groups

5/24-30      Bible Studies, Meetings, & All Church Night of Prayer on 5/28

June

5/31-6/6     Community Groups

6/7-13        Bible Studies, Meetings, & Community Group Prayer

6/14-20      Community Groups

6/21-27      Bible Studies, Meetings, & Community Group Prayer

5. We’ve made some changes to our 2020 Budget and we may have to update it several more times as we move through this strange season. But real quick, here’s a snapshot of the changes:

• Decrease rent.
• Adjust payroll to account for worship leaders and administrator.
• Increase equipment & computer expenses.
• Increase music to cover CCLI license upgrade, enabling us to stream copyrighted music.
• Increase support for Tree of Life from $200 to $300/month.
• Increase Strategic Planning and Future Projects.

Overall, the 2020 Budget has been reduced by nearly $17,000 for a new total of $528,238 (down from $545,200)

6. Please don’t forget to support our church. We know that things are getting financially tighter for all of us, but everything we do has a cost attached to it. You may give in 4 different ways – Billpay, mailed checks, through Realm, or through PayPal.

Billpay service is provided by most banks through their website. Just have the checks sent to the church office:                               Potomac Hills Presbyterian Church

You can also mail your checks                       2 Cardinal Park Drive, SE,  Suite 101A

to the church office at this address.                Leesburg, VA 20175

If you have a Realm account, you can give through the “Realm Connect” app on your phone, or through the “Giving” tab when you’re logged into Realm. 

Even if you’re not in Realm you can give by going to this link,: https://onrealm.org/PotomacHills/-/give/now  or by texting PHPCgive to 73256.

Finally, we accept PayPal payments to the account give@potomachills.org

7. A number of previously scheduled events have been canceled, including the Officer’s Retreat (which we hope to reschedule for the fall) and our Memorial Day Picnic at Fox Ridge Park (which we hope to reschedule as an Independence Day Picnic). Essentially, every event we had scheduled for April and May should be considered as “likely to be postponed.”

In light of having so many events canceled or postponed, the Session has decided that our first Sunday back worshipping together will include the Celebration of the Lord’s Supper.  By mid-June, we will have missed taking the sacrament together three times and so we want to begin meeting together by celebrating together.  We really hope to make our first service back really special.  More to come as we get closer to that day and begin planning for it.  In addition to that, if we’re able to, we hope to have a Fellowship Lunch that same day.

So, let today be a day of gratitude to God: gratitude for breath, life, family, food, safety, shelter, and provision.  Thank Him for healthcare workers.  If you are able to shelter in place, thank Him for ordinary workers at ordinary jobs that are going in to work to keep things going so you can stay put.  If you are like us and can still exercise and go into your yard, thank Him for that.  If you have a Bible, thank Him for that.  If you have someone you can call, thank Him for that.  If you have books to read and things to do, thank Him for that.  If you have children to care for today, thank Him for that.  If you have someone to watch your kids while you work, thank Him for that.  If you found toilet paper at the supermarket, thank Him for that.  A thoughtful Christian cannot run out of things to thank God for.  We always have reasons for prayer.

Dr. David V. Silvernail, Jr., Senior Pastor

Potomac Hills Presbyterian Church