Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 1, 1990 TAG: 9006290163
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV8 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Frances Stebbins
DATELINE: NEWPORT LENGTH: Medium
I was looking for the church served for the past four years by the Rev. Anna R. Jarvis because I had been told both numerical and spiritual growth is occurring there.
Though Disciples congregations are found in many mountain villages of Western Virginia, the denomination as a whole has lost members. This has been blamed on everything from liberal attitudes toward Bible interpretation to allowing women to fill pulpits.
Population is declining in Giles, especially in the rural areas. As Jarvis told me later, there's limited potential for growth.
Yet an air of optimism is evident at this church, one of several in the New River Valley where ordained women are sole pastors.
I was recognized at once as a stranger and warmly welcomed even before the men and women elders knew who I was.
A small flock of sheep and goats grazed in a steep meadow just across Virginia 42 from the church, a cool breeze ruffled the trees and the sun brightened the new timbers in Newport Christian's addition. It was hard not to rejoice in God's mountain scenery.
Yet things weren't all happy in the little church. I was told at once that a longtime member was terminally ill and his clan, which makes up a sizable portion of the congregation, would not be at worship. Hence attendance was down from its usual 50 or so to about 30.
Caring for an extended family is typical of small churches and a major reason why people join them. As one man said, "We all suffer together."
The addition, shown off as one would a new home, will cost about $90,000 and is designed by a Blacksburg architect. Members are doing some of the work to save money. Jarvis said it should be ready by September when the regular education program begins its season.
The addition is Phase 2 of what eventually may be four units. The first, a combined worship area and fellowship hall, went up 20 years ago as part of the merger of several tiny congregations. Although it contains the essentials of a rural church, it is being outgrown as the congregation has taken in about 20 new members of all ages during Jarvis' tenure.
The addition will have a youth room and several spaces for small children as well as a conference area and offices for the pastor and part-time secretary. And, despite Newport's hilly terrain, worshipers in wheelchairs can easily get around the building.
In her welcoming remarks, Jarvis noted that the summer program for children would be that afternoon at 5. It's an innovation held every other week for the kindergarten to third-grade crowd. A nursery for preschoolers runs through the summer.
As is standard in Disciples congregations, Communion is received each Sunday. The minister, who wore a white robe and a stole with the embroidered red chalice and Celtic cross symbolic of the denomination, consecrated small square wafers and plastic cups of grape juice. Three men and three women then passed these among the worshipers, who sat on folding metal chairs. The sacrament is open to all.
Music was from a brown Voices of Praise song book issued by the Baptist Broadman Press more than 40 years ago, although newer Disciples hymnals were in the chair racks. The three congregational hymns, "Leaning On the Everlasting Arms," "More Love to Thee" and "Footsteps of Jesus," were singable Protestant favorites in which the people in the chairs joined the eight-member unrobed choir. Another familiar hymn, "Count Your Blessings," was the choir's offertory anthem.
Jarvis offered several prayers, remembering the sick and troubled by name as well as the victims of the Iranian earthquake and those trying to help them.
Five small children came forward for the pastor's brief remarks to them on the individual beauty of a rose and how they, like the flowers of June, are precious to God.
She based her 22-minute adult sermon, "Why God Won't Bargain With Us," on the Genesis story of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his only son, Isaac.
Had Abraham not had total faith in God's promises, he could not have gone so far as to raise a knife over the boy's head before being assured that he had passed the test of fidelity, Jarvis said. At the last minute, God did not require the faithful father to sacrifice his most precious treasure.
At best, a Christian or a Jew can only trust in the goodness of God as recounted in Scripture even when feelings and experience do not seem to justify hope.
It is human, Jarvis said, to bargain with God by making promises that cannot be kept. The pastor cited as examples vowing never to grow angry with a loved one or to be perfect to avoid divorce or loss of job.
God also rejects the kind of bargain that would delay facing a situation that needs attention, Jarvis said. It is better for the Christian to focus on God's willingness to make good come of every bad situation whenever people turn to him for guidance, she said.
by CNB