Stewardship Corner:

Building Pohick for Today & Tomorrow

Building Pohick for today and tomorrow – what does that mean? Well, to understand that, we need some common points of reference. First, what is Pohick? Is it a big, square, brick church building listed on the national register of historic places sitting on land surveyed by George Washington? Is it 40 acres of prime, developable land in the southern most part of Fairfax County? Is it a shrine to colonial forbearers? Or, is it a vital, welcoming community of Christians intent on sharing the love of God with each other and with the neighbors?

Well, perhaps there are elements of all four questions. Pohick is a community of faith coming together for worship and fellowship in that brick building on those acres of real estate linked through a common teaching and a common Eucharist to all those Christians who have gone before. Ok, but what do we mean by building Pohick – isn’t it already built? In a way, yes. The community of faith certainly exists, but we are a very mobile and somewhat transitory flock. In the past two years, dozens of our parishioners have been transferred, retired, and moved away. It is really true of churches anywhere, but especially in Northern Virginia, that you must either grow or die. Thus building, in one sense, is refreshing the existing community of faith. In another sense, it is growing the future generations of Christians - providing our children and (praise the Lord) we do have our share of children at Pohick, with a firm underpinning of faith in their lives.

Ok, what does it take to build Pohick? That one is easy - and hard. It takes time, talent, and treasure - mine and yours. That’s where stewardship comes in; and we are all stewards, every one of us. Christ is quite clear that he expects us to return to him a portion of what he has given us. We enable the engines of growth by stoking the furnaces. We render to God a portion of the bounty he has provided us. We sacrifice a night out once a month to increase our pledge so we might have a sexton to keep up our buildings and grounds. We give up our Thursday evenings and Sunday mornings so there will be music in our 9:00 and 11:15 morning services. We forego a ball game to show up for work days, and to make apple butter. We rise early and work until our backs ache selling books and plants and barbeque at the Pohick Fair. And, we do those things because we love God, and we love our fellow parishioners, and because if we don’t, no one else will. And then, the community of faith will shrivel and die. That is building Pohick for today and tomorrow. You can learn more about helping to build Pohick at the Spring Activities Fair. Please join us.