A few weeks ago, Restoration member Liz Gray sent me this reflection. It’s beautiful. With her permission, I’m sharing it here. Thanks, Liz! This week I got a very unexpected package in the mail. My mom died about 17 years ago, and sometime shortly before she died she must have sat down one day and […]
Community, Loving Arlington, Outreach 0
Did you know that you help minister to, build relationships with, and care for the immigrant community in Arlandria? (That’s the Arlington/Alexandria border area.) You do, because through your giving to Restoration, you help support Casa Chirilagua, an organization working in Arlandria and dedicated to “learning together to love our neighbors as ourselves.” That’s not […]
Community, Getting Involved, Membership 3
Was Sunday your first visit to Restoration? Have you been coming for a few months and gotten interested in learning more and getting more involved? Have you been here for two years but have never been able to make it to one of those “newcomer dinners”? Have you ever even thought about setting foot in […]
Loving Arlington, Sunday Corporate Worship 0
In addition to trying to wrap my head around the fact that we’re supposed to get multiple inches of snow tonight, today I’ve been thinking about some of the key moments of yesterday’s worship: Being back! I’d been gone the previous two Sundays, and I missed you all. It felt good to be home. Are […]
A post from Matt Hoppe: How can life be so phenomenal in one breath and so frustrating with the next? How are we to respond with both mourning and laughter while recognizing pain and beauty? Sometimes the vastly different seasons happen simultaneously leaving us with the difficulty of lamenting someone’s hardship while being ecstatic about […]
It’s an incredibly bold claim that Elizabeth Fitch made at the women’s retreat last weekend. The disciple whom Jesus loves? That’s the phrase used in John’s gospel, probably to describe John himself. But when Elizabeth made that claim about herself, she wasn’t bragging or being arrogant. She was simply describing the transformation that God has […]
Sunday Corporate Worship, Theology 0
Jesus said a really hard thing about unforgiveness in the parable we studied on Sunday… You wicked servant! I’ll admit: it is hard to hear and hard to say. Jesus only uses the descriptor 5 times in the Gospels (2 of them are from the same story!). So it is not a term He throws […]
A post from Louise Brooks: Forgiveness is a tricky thing. It’s one of those things that we as the forgiven need to offer to others we need to forgive. Sometimes it’s a quick thing this forgiveness of others. And sometimes it can take years. You know those quick things that are easy to forgive – […]
Community, Loving Arlington, Outreach 2
[a post from Connally Gilliam] What if… right where you are, God is moving to draw you, your family, co-workers, neighbors and others into the depth, risk, and reality of knowing Jesus? What if… our role is not to “prove” Christianity but help guide our friends to a place where they and God can meet? […]
Quiet Times, Spiritual Disciplines 1
A post by Andrew Thompson Waffles. Of all the breakfast food in the world, waffles are my favorite. My grandma SeaShell used to make Belgian waffles for me and my brother when we stayed over at her house on the weekends. These were ‘loaded waffles’, with generous heaps of butter, blueberries, strawberries and maple syrup. […]
