Merry Christmas from Washington Cathedral

by Pastor Tim White

Merry Christmas!  This Christmas is so important to us that a generous benefactor has donated two Great Wolf Lodge passes for two families of four—one night in family suite, family fun in waterpark, good for 2018 (there a few blackout dates).  One pass will be given to the person who brings the most new people who have filled out a contact card indicating who they were invited by between now and Christmas.  The second pass will be a drawing from all the contact cards received between now and Christmas that are filled out for the very first time.  The winners of both of these passes will be announced at the 11:00 am Service on New Year’s Eve Day, December 31, 2017. (Winner does not need to be present.)

I am praying so hard that we will reach many new people for Jesus Christ this Christmas.

This weekend Becca McCary has a powerful message on the Christmas story from the book of Matthew entitled Come Let Us Adore Him.  And we are going to have an extended Christmas sing-a-long in every service.

 Our special Christmas Lights the Night services are: Friday, Dec. 22nd, at 7pm; Saturday, Dec. 23rd, at 5:00 pm; and Christmas Eve, December 24th, at 5:00 and 11:00 pm.  Tickets are available and are being picked up quickly, so don’t delay in getting yours.  They are available online at our website or our Washington Cathedral app.

You can hear our ad on KCMS which tells about the inspirational service we are going to have this year.  Live manger scene, with real animals, choirs, strings, band, ballet dancers and our “baby cherubs” dancing to create a moment where the heavens open.  You will be blessed with one of the most inspirational moments of your life.  Please bring friends.  You can get free tickets at: christmaslightsthenight.com or wacathedral.org.  

On Christmas morning at 9:30 and 11:00am, Dr. Rey Diaz will be preaching, and special Guest Musician Dave Irish will be warming our hearts with his great music.  Pastor David’s wonderful down-home breakfast will be served in the Cafe with spuds, sausage, eggs, and his super-secret Whidbey Island oatmeal. Breakfast will be served from 10:30 to 11:30 - what a great time of fellowship.

At the 11pm late Christmas Eve service, pastor Linda Skinner will be preaching, and Rich Skinner will be using his trained voice to do a dramatic reading of the Christmas story with an incredible slide show.  There will be Candle lighting and I will lead in a very special Christmas communion.

Merry Christmas - Please join us.

Your friend for the rest of my life,

Pastor Tim White

Touched by Angels

By Pastor Tim White

I have been touched by angels. “Touched by An Angel” is more than just a show on the Hallmark Channel in which the late great Della Reese starred. (And by the way, our friend Carolee Mayne wrote and performed music for this popular TV show.)  Yes, I have been touched by angels.  As far as I know, I have never seen an angel, in the flesh, so to speak.  

This weekend, I have the opportunity to discuss the glory of the Christmas story through the Gospel of Luke. I am not ashamed to confess that I need Christmas this year as much as any other time in my life. In fact, the whole world desperately needs the simple truth of the Christmas story.  

This Sunday, after the 11:00 am service, there is going to be a Christmas Cookie Decorating Party.  This is going to be one of those simple, fun events for everyone. A time of building genuine friendships.  Kids get to decorate the cookies and the adults get to eat them -- just kidding.  There will be plenty of cookies for the whole Cathedral family -- singles, kids who come without families and young adults with bottomless pit stomachs.  And even those of us who choose to not sample the cookies.  We will be able to explain why Christmas cookies are not food-- they are friends. 

Enough of my weak attempts at humor.  The point is that the worship leading up to Christmas is a very special season we call Advent. It is life transforming as we study the Gospel of Christmas.  Pastor Becca started with “Christmas Lights the Night in the Gospel of John.” Pastor Linda continued by sharing the Christmas story in the Gospel of Mark by letting us know that every time someone meets Jesus it is Christmas-- a promise fulfilled. And now I get to share with you the bold claims of this beautiful story of Christmas from the Gospel of Luke.  It is my prayer that your faith will be strengthened as we discuss:  

1. The virgin birth of Jesus (what does this mean) 
2. Angels - Are they real? 
3. Why the humility of the manger scene? 
4. The historicity of Christmas. Can a thinking person consider this ancient story as true?

It’s my observation that never before in the history of the United States, have more people doubted the practical truth of Christmas. Can I have 20 minutes of your time to attempt to strengthen your hope, that just maybe, the Christmas story is true?  I promise to consider this while treating those who choose to believe Christmas is just a nice story, with dignity, as we consider the claims of Luke in this incredible world-changing event.

Please join me this weekend as you can tell I am very excited about this message.

Your friend for the rest of my life,

Pastor Tim White
 

A Christmas Promise Kept

by Pastor Tim White

 A Christmas Promise Kept - that is the title of the message by Pastor Linda Skinner this weekend as we continue our series  "Christmas Lights the Night."  It is going to be an inspiring service as Linda brings us the Christmas story from the Gospel of Mark.  Yes, the Gospel of Mark has the Christmas story in it also.  Last week Pastor Becca McCary inspired us by kicking off the series "Christmas Lights the Night" by teaching the Christmas story from the Gospel of John. It is in John that we see the dramatic metaphor of Jesus being the "light of the world." 

 This week Pastor Linda will be sharing the incredible drama that comes when adult disciples, followers of Jesus, discover Him for the first time and experience all the magic, joy and salvation that comes with that personal relationship with Jesus.  It truly is Christmas.  To top it off, we have one of our wonderful actresses playing the part of Anna the prophetess doing a dramatic monologue of her first encounter with the baby Jesus.  We will all learn something powerful as we see how long God has been working on the promise of Christmas -- all so we will be able to experience the true miracle of Christmas 2017.  The prophesy shows the down-to-earth power of the Gospel as told in Mark - I am so excited to experience it firsthand.  Of course, the music will be a real lift to your life.  

I am so proud of Pastor Linda and 30 years of ministry at Washington Cathedral and many years of preparation for her Good News ministry to be at its very best.  Would you make it a priority to be there for one of the three services? You honor us with your presence.

Your friend for the rest of your life,
 
Pastor Tim White
 

Christmas at Washington Cathedral

By Pastor Tim White

Happy Holidays.  What a great time of year! It looks like the holidays outside.  Rain and wind make for a perfect time to sit by the fire, read a book or have a soul-filled conversation over a cup of coffee.  It just feels like the holidays with this kind of weather.  And the joke is that we have this weather almost all year long.  But we don’t care.  It is a great time of the year.  

This Sunday Pastor Becca will be kicking off a life-changing message series called: Christmas Lights the Night.  She is sharing the Christmas story in an expository message from the Gospel of John.  At the same time, Pastor Michael and his elves will begin to decorate the campus with lights getting ready for our dazzling Christmas Eve services with real live animals and a petting area.  (Pastor Michael loves Christmas - he has It’s a Wonderful Life memorized.)  

And of course, we will be participating in all of our special projects to help those who are hurting in our community and around the world.  Every year it seems like Christmas ministries just grow at Washington Cathedral. One of our post-Christmas evaluations told us we needed to do less -- but do it better.  When we met as a staff we asked the question – “What should focus on?”  Every staff member was so passionate about the different areas of ministry that no one wanted to cut anything.  So, as the leader in this movement, I was led to lead the way. Therefore, after 33 years of Santa Conspiracy we are going to take a year off. This was a ministry that was so dear to my heart and you have heard the story of how the Lord started it.  We still have some bears, so we will be sending out a few Santa’s to carry on the good work.  

This year we need to impact our community with the life-rescuing message of Jesus Christ focusing on the impact of Christmas.  We have our ministry to the homeless; to the convalescent homes; the building of a new school in the Patmos slum of Kenya; hospitals, and neighbors who are looking for a faith -- these will continue.  It will be, I think, the most dramatic Christmas we have ever experienced as a church family.   Christmas Lights the Night dramas will be Friday, December 22, at 7:00 pm; Saturday, December 23, at 5:00pm, and Sunday, December 24, at 5:00pm. Our special guest for Sunday morning, December24 9:30am and 11:00am, worship services will be Dave Irish.  And of course, we will have our beautiful Candlelight Communion Worship at 11:00pm Christmas Eve.

Going into Christmas: 

• Washington Cathedral Choir Christmas concert at Redmond Town Center Saturday, November 25, from 1-2pm.
• The Mix Worship with Pastor Helio preaching and international praise including a potluck dinner on Saturday, November 25, at 5:30pm
• Pastor Becca McCary preaching on the Sunday, November 26, at 9:30am and 11:00am, kicking off the series: Christmas Lights the Night.
• Pastor Linda Skinner will preach the following week, December 2 & 3, on Christmas Lights the Night from the Gospel of Mark. Saturday, December 2, is our Volunteer Christmas party at the Café put on by Bill & Millie Porter.
• I will be preaching the weekend of December 9 & 10 on Christmas Lights the Night from the Gospel of Luke.  For the kids (and anyone else who wants to join in) a special Christmas Cookie Decorating time led by Pastor Becca in the Café.
• Pastor Becca McCary will be preaching the weekend of December 16 & 17 on Christmas Lights the Night from the Gospel of Matthew.  Plus - an all-church Christmas Carol sing-a-long with hot apple cider for 20 minutes of the service.  In addition, the youth will be having their Christmas party that afternoon.
• Pastor Rey Diaz will be joining our preaching team at the weekend service on December 30 & 31, New Year’s Eve.

There are going to be a lot of great events and special ministry opportunities as we enjoy a focused - refreshing - incredibly inspiring Christmas at Washington Cathedral this year.

Your friend for the rest of my life,

Pastor Tim White

Friend of God

By Pastor Tim White

I have been following Jesus Christ since I was 10 years old. And, after all these years, I am closer to him than I ever dreamed possible. I am amazed by his words now more than last year. I love the verse where Jesus speaks from his heart and says, “I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me. You didn’t choose me, I chose you.  I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name.  This is my command: Love each other.”  John 15:15-17

I have to admit that it seems a bit presumptuous to call myself a “friend of God.”  I am not alone, in that Paul continued to call himself a slave of Jesus Christ.  But I have to admit that Jesus has been a best friend - more than I could ever imagine.  He certainly is a friend to me and I want so much to be counted on to be his friend.  I want to be the kind of friend who rightly preaches the Word of God; who loves His people with integrity and faithfulness; who is a resource of His grace into a world that is so broken; who invests his life in the people He has assigned me to love.  I want to be a friend of God from the bottom of my heart.

This week I am sharing the vision of Washington Cathedral for this year’s campaign "Love First!”  Last week I began to cast the vision of discipleship. Encouraging the good people of our church family to view their family, friends and neighbors as people who they long to pour their life and faith into creating a circle of influence.  If we could all do that, our church would spread the Good News tenfold.  Isn’t that basically what every one of us wants to do whether we are a grandfather or a grandchild.

This week I want to share the new plan for the empowering organization that will help every disciple become a discipler.  That kind of organization only works through fostering two-way friendship.  I have spent 33 years being at the head of a clumsy organization. No organization is perfect.  They become bureaucratic and political by nature. I wrote my doctoral dissertation on this subject. It is called “institutional entropy.”  But friendship cuts through the Gordian knot that prevents the church from being all that Jesus envisioned.  I have entitled this message – “Unlocking Your Giftedness.” Would you please join me and enter into this all-important dialogue that will shake the world with the love of God and rebirth our church by empowering its people to be all they were meant to be?

Your friend for the rest of my life,

By Pastor Tim White