The Loop / April 9, 2024
Catch Up with the Current series:
This Week’s Announcements:
BECOME // VOLUNTEER SPOTLIGHT: RANDI BEAVERS!
Welcome to the Revolution Volunteer Highlights monthly column! Each month, we want to showcase a member of our church who is involved in serving in some capacity in our community and find out what motivates him/her and how do they find meaning in their volunteerism. Serving others outside the church is in our church’s DNA! So, to kick off this column, we are introducing you to Randi Beavers who serves as the President of the Cape Saint Claire Volunteer Fire Department. Randi comes from a family of fire department volunteers. Her grandfather was a fire chief, and her mother served as a firehouse volunteer for 25 years. So, it’s in Randi’s blood!
Randi joined her local fire department in 2015 and now serves as the president of their volunteer organization. This requires a lot of administrative skills, including ordering a new fire truck and working on designing and building a new fire station. Her hope is that the new station will be built and ready to move into by 2025. When asked, “What does it mean to her to serve as a volunteer?”, Randi’s face lit up. She loves helping her community and sees the members of her fire department as friends/family. These are “her people,” and she feels like she is living out her faith by genuinely caring for the people who seek to serve the safety of the community.
Randi uses her love of having fun by planning and implementing activities such as the Easter holiday program called “Egg Your Yard.” This fundraiser was just featured in last Sunday’s issue of the Evening Capital. Randi may not be the one who will arrive at your door when your home is on fire!, but she makes sure that those that do feel loved and supported. It’s so neat to see the way Randi uses her unique gifts to bless those in her community. If you see Randi this week, tell her “THANK YOU!” for what she does for this city… and for being the wonderful person she is.
BELONG // FAMILY RETREAT REGISTRATION
Our next retreat will be our Family Retreat on May 17-19 at Camp Harmison in Berkeley Springs, WV. This retreat is open to everyone who considers Revolution their church home, and it involves a “camping lite” experience: a covered shelter, fireplace, full indoor kitchen, and bathrooms/showers are available… but if you would like to stay on-site, you will need a tent or RV for sleeping. If the tent life isn’t for you, some folks also elect to get hotel rooms in Berkeley Springs for the night and visit with the rest of the crew at Camp Harmison during the daytime hours… so that’s also an option!
This weekend is one of our very favorites each year: it’s a great chance to make new friends, play games, share stories around the fire, and find some much-needed space for relaxing. You can sign up today by clicking HERE!
BELIEVE // BAPTISM: APRIL 21
On April 21, WE WILL BE CELEBRATING A BAPTISM! After service, you're invited to head over to Heritage Baptist Church with us to cheer for Maggie Young, who will be taking the next step of baptism in her faith journey. Maggie was baptized into Christian fellowship as an infant, but she has decided to take this public step as a believing Christian adult... and we are eager to cheer for her! Due to restrictions in our lease agreement, we can't do this on Sunday morning at Mills-Parole Elementary... but our friends at Heritage have invited us to use their baptistry, so we will gather there at 12pm for the event. We hope everyone can come!
At Revolution, we believe that the first step of a real, committed relationship with God is making the decision to be baptized. When we are baptized, we are acknowledging the reality of our sins and the pain they have led us to, and then trusting in Jesus to renew our life and offer us living hope. This is an opportunity that is open to everyone who wants to pursue Christian faith, and when someone in our community decides to be baptized, it is cause for celebration! If you have questions about baptism, or if you would like to talk to Kenny about a desire to be baptized, you can reach out to him any time at kenny@revolutionannapolis.com or by calling/texting 803.727.8500. Sending a message isn’t a commitment on your part to be baptized! But it is a commitment on our part to meet with you to answer your questions.
BELONG // WOMEN’S GATHERING ON APRIL 28
Our Church Life Lay Leader, Maggie Young, is organizing a gathering for women in our church community as a follow-up to last November’s Women’s Retreat. The objective will be to talk through how often the women in our church would like to get together (monthly?), what we want to do together (study? Fellowship?), and how we can best communicate and connect (text? email? carrier pigeon?). The meet-up will be at 12:15ish at Emily Heller’s home (she lives in Severn Condos in Eastport; please get in touch with her or Maggie for address). The plan is “Bring Your Own Lunch,” and the vibes are relaxed and encouraging. We are so excited to be growing as a church family in this season, and we are looking forward to creating more ways for everyone to connect! If you have any questions, you can get in touch with Maggie (youngmaggie14@gmail) or Emily (best found hanging out after church!).
BELONG // ONLINE BIBLE STUDY GROUP
The Online Bible Study is a great place to get involved in community and expand your understanding of Scripture… all from the comfort of home! Starting April 15, this group will begin a 10-session study on Christian Community covering what it means to be a part of a local church. This will be followed in June by a study called Faith: Depending on God: this 9-session study will hopefully lead to discussion on how faith works, what happens when we face uncertainty in our dealings with God, and all sorts of other questions. After that (sometime in August), the group will break for a few weeks and then dive into Letters to the Church. You are always invited to jump in with these studies any time! The group meets on Monday nights over Zoom, and for more information about how to get involved, just get in touch with our Discipleship Lay Leader, Dante Griffin, at dangriff67@gmail.com!
BECOME // LAY LEADERSHIP TEAM UPDATES
Every year during our Fall Family Meeting, we announce current openings in our Lay Leadership Team, which is the team that oversees our church (and works as Kenny’s boss!). This past November, we announced that Liz Wheeler was stepping down from her position as the Community Engagement Lay Leader, and that we also had an opening in our Generosity Lay Leader position. Several of you met with Kenny to talk about the roles and how Revolution is governed, and after a search process, applications, and interviews, we are excited to announce not just two new members to the team, but three!
Cathy Miller has agreed to serve as our new Community Engagement Lay Leader. This is her first time on the team, and she is excited to expand the ways we connect our congregation to volunteer opportunities throughout Annapolis! If you would like to get in touch with her to welcome her, to share an opportunity you know about, or even to step in to help her out with this role, you can find her at: cathygrowinghealthy@gmail.com.
Katie Phillips has agreed to serve as our new Generosity Lay Leader. She is the first person to serve in this role, so we are extremely excited to see how it develops! The Generosity LL helps our church live out the same principles of generosity we preach: Revolution gives away 10% of all of our income to a mix of new church plants through our partners at Stadia, local nonprofits and service organizations here in Annapolis, and additional churches/ministries that could use help. We also maintain a fund for meeting financial burdens within Revolution. Katie and her husband, Steve, have been incredible servants in our church community over the last few years, and if you would like to get in touch with her about this role, you can find her at: jhawkphillips@gmail.com… just don’t mention March Madness brackets…
Joe Pfeifer has agreed to serve in a BRAND NEW* role as our Church Care Lay Leader. This is a position Joe and his wife, Monique, proposed to the leadership team that will help organize pastoral care for our growing community and develop courses, workshops, and trainings to help us take better care of one another. Joe is passionate about prayer, counseling, and listening to others with deep compassion… if you would like to learn more about this position, talk with Joe about a need in your own life, or explore ways to help him out with this new responsibility, you can find him at: joe.e.pfeifer@gmail.com.
We will pull these folks up on stage to welcome them officially in a few weeks… but in the meantime, if you see them, please thank them for volunteering their time, gifts, and passions to serve this church family! Revolution is all of us… and it is a profound joy to see what God is building up from this wonderful, humble, earnest, and rag-tag group of friends!
You can learn more about our leadership at Revolution–our staff, our preaching team, and our Lay Leaders–at: www.revolutionannapolis.com/staff
BECOME // AN EASY WAY TO HELP OUR FRIENDS AT MILLS-PAROLE
From our contact at the school, Eboni:
“Mills-Parole has a Terrapin Club! We assign students who apply to be responsible weekly on a rotational schedule to weigh and measure the turtle and to clean its tank. The students in the Terrapin Club have taken care for the terrapin over the Thanksgiving, Winter, and Spring Breaks and hope to attend the release trip to Poplar Island with Mrs. Hammond later this month. This trip involves an hour and a half bus ride and a 20-minute boat ride to get to Poplar Island. We are asking if you are able to donate any funds to help us pay for our bus (the $250 cost) to release the terrapin in its habitat? The projected date of our trip is April 17th”
If you would like to contribute towards this bus trip for the Terrapin Club students, talk to Katie Phillips (our Generosity Lay Leader and connection person for MPES), and she can help you work out the details! Katie can be reached at: jhawkphillips@gmail.com.
BECOME // OUR FIRST “PANTRY PARTY”!
At Revolution, we are always looking for easy and impactful ways to serve our community. The Marshall Hope food pantry was started by a mother of four, and it services about 400+ Hispanic families twice a month. It is located at the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Annapolis (just down the road from the Millers), and besides groceries, meat, eggs and other staples, their pantry includes a baby pantry where clothing, baby equipment and toys are given out to those in need. So how can we help?? Well, we can join others once a month in the evening to organize and prep what is given out. We are calling this a “Pantry Party,” and everyone is invited! Our first party will be held on Tuesday, April 23rd from 7-9. For more information or to sign up for the fun, contact our Community Engagement Lay Leader, Cathy Miller, at cathygrowinghealthy@gmail.com or 717-602-69170.
BELIEVE // COFFEE, ANYONE?
Do you have questions? Doubts? Would you just like to talk through things with someone? Kenny is also always up for that, too! Just send him an email (kenny@revolutionannapolis.com) or text (803.727.8500).
BECOME // SUPPORTING REVOLUTION CHURCH
At Revolution, we believe that our church needs to be a witness to God’s bottomless love and an example of what it means to wrestle and grow with our faith together. Following Jesus isn’t easy! But even in our doubts, if we take the things we are struggling to believe and put them into practice together, we learn to ask better questions and live in ways that are more beneficial for others.
If you want to join us in this mission, you can be a part in a few different ways:
First, you can commit to presence: it is our sincere hope as a church that you find real purpose and meaning in being a part of our services and groups at Revolution. They exist for you! But have you ever thought about what you have to offer those gatherings in return? Your unique perspective, hopes, experiences, and struggles are part of the bigger story of our church. You have an important part to play here, and that part begins by making faithful presence a priority!
Second, you can commit to generosity: we want to imitate God’s generosity by looking for ways we can share what we have been given with others to bring hope, justice, and safety to our neighbors. One way you can practice that generosity is by supporting our ministry here at Revolution financially: we are a non-profit organization committed to maintaining a Christian ministry in Annapolis, forgiving the debts of our neighbors, and financially supporting both church plants and existing churches in our area. Your gifts help keep this commitment going! But we also want to make sure you know that giving is important no matter where you do it: find a non-profit, charity, or aid organization whose cause you support and make a plan to be faithful and generous towards them! God can do more with our resources than we can… and giving is one of the practical ways we put our trust in what He can do.
Third, you can commit to service: here at Revolution, we are in need of all sorts of volunteers to keep our ministry going. If you are available to help out on any of our Sunday morning teams, or with any of our groups or other outreach ministries during the week, we need you! This is a great way to contribute to the church… and to make new friends.
The city of Annapolis needs help, too! If you are able, make time in your week to participate in a routine act of service for our community. There are multiple food pantries we support, all of whom need help, as well as opportunities to work with kids in need of tutoring, care for unhoused residents in our city who need assistance, and serve as an advocate for a variety of justice-seeking non-profits working to make Annapolis a more equitable place to live. For help a place to serve, just talk with Kenny (kenny@revolutionannapolis.com) or our Community Engagement Lay Leader, Cathy Miller (cathygrowinghealthy@gmail.com).
BELIEVE // THERE’S NO WAY YOU ARE STILL READING…
… this is the longest Loop ever. You definitely haven’t made it this far. But if, by some wild chance or fit of fancy, you have, text Kenny and tell him. 803.727.8500. He’ll be delighted.
BELONG // STAY IN THE LOOP ALL WEEK LONG!
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