Frequently Asked Questions

As a child I always had so many questions. I was the one in class who always had his hand up. With her back turned to me, my teacher would often reply, “yes, Rey,” because she knew I would be the one with a question.


In the church my childhood curiosity was squelched. When I asked questions of my church community, I began to understand that some issues and themes that were off-limits. It was not appropriate to ask about hell, homosexuality, or desire mathematical proofs for God’s existence.

At the cathedral, we want to break the taboo that some issues are off-limits in the church. We want to create a culture where questions are okay, even encouraged! We, ourselves, certainly have questions sometimes (especially me). Faith is not the absence of questions, but leaning into God with our questions.

Thus, we have created the summer preaching schedule with this goal in mind: to create a culture of authenticity with our questions.  The only problem is that we don’t know what questions YOU have and what you want to talk about!

For the next 2 weeks, we are asking everyone to send us a list of their biggest questions regarding God, life, and church.  Nothing is off limits.  If you don’t feel comfortable asking the question, feel free send us questions anonymously (commenting on this blog is a great way to do so).  After we receive the questions we will pray and choose the eight issues that Pastor Tim and I will address each Sunday this summer.

Would love to hear your feedback!

-         

- - Pastor Rey

 ¹ Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. ² This is what the ancients were commended for. – Hebrews 11:1

Top 10 Reasons to Join a Small Group (TLC)

Our summer small group session begins the second week of May and goes through mid-July. We are offering 26 TLCs for you to choose from, each covering a different theme or topic.  You may be wondering why we think it is important to join a small group.  Here are the top 10 reasons to join a TLC: 

10. Receive encouragement from other people doing their best to follow Jesus.

9. Give encouragement to others trying to follow Jesus, each at different points along the journey.

8. Get to know some great people deeply….more than just: “what are your plans for the summer?” acquaintances.

7. Understand the Bible better and learn how to apply it to your life.

6. Share the burden. Benefit from having others pray for you regularly.

5. Feel the freedom to share openly, knowing that the concerns of your heart will not feed into that week’s gossip circle.

4. Experience the joy of serving alongside your friends.

3. Receive loving accountability in problem areas of your life.

2. Get off the “spiritual island”: thinking that you're all alone in the struggle for holiness.

1. Develop relationships that will last a lifetime.

Any one of these reasons is a good enough reason by itself for you to join a TLC.  We are praying for you to experience God at a whole new level these next 10 weeks.  But there are only two more weeks of sign- ups before it is too late and the TLC is closed for the summer! (TLC sessions are different now, you can’t just drop in and out, you need to sign up for a session).

SIGN UP HERE

(On the contact form, list the TLC or the TLC leader that you would be interested in joining).

Following Through with Repentance

Did anyone sense God speaking to him or her this last Sunday when Pastor Tim spoke of "Repentance: the Hardest Part"? If so, what have you done about it? 

If you are just joining us we have discussing the theme “Lord Change Us.” In the first week of this series Pastor Rey encouraged us to “Look Up,” to look to God, the true source of change. The following week he outlined the formula for doing that: complete cooperation.

This past Sunday Pastor Tim continued the series with his talk: “Repentance: the hardest step.”  He told the story of the crippled man who had lain beside a pool for 38 years, hoping for a miracle, wishing for someone to help him into the pool, and that an angel would stir the water and he would be healed. Instead of an angel he met Jesus, who, when learning about the length of his infirmity, asked him: “Do you want to get well?” (John 5:1-14)

The man replied with an excuse, but it didn’t satisfy Jesus. He told him: “Get up, pick up your mat, and walk.” In other words: stop making excuses, leave your old life behind, and step out in faith towards God.

Pastor Tim related it this way: every one of us who doesn't change has an excuse, just as the man did on the mat. But, also like the man, we need to have a conversation with God, so that God can get at the real reason change is not happening in our lives.  

Perhaps many of you are like me and you sensed God speaking to you in this message. What was God calling you to do Sunday morning? And what have you done in response?

To me, the most fascinating aspect of this story is what the crippled man did after he was healed. He began to make excuses again! When he got in trouble with the Pharisees for carrying his mat, he replied: “I’m just doing it because the man who healed me told me to.”

The light of the miracle must have faded in the everyday pressure of 2^nd Temple Judaism.  He was healed, but he chose not to live differently. Jesus would not have it. He came back to him and fought against the crowds to reach and warn the man: “stop sinning, or something worse might happen to you.”

What did God reveal to you on Sunday? And have you followed through with repentance, or are you back to your old ways, leaving the back door open to old habits, old friends, and hidden stashes of the old way of life?

What Happens When You Surrender in Complete Cooperation

Many of us desire change in our lives but we aren’t ready to cooperate fully with God. Well, we aren’t the only ones.

Peter, in the Bible, found himself in a similar situation. When Jesus invited Peter to follow him, he threw down his nets without hesitation. But he didn’t really know what that would entail.

For three years Peter lived and learned from Jesus. He had good moments and triumphant failures. One time, Jesus accused him of speaking for Satan, another time he fell asleep when he was needed most.  Then, when things got heavy, he sliced off a man’s ear and turned and ran like a coward. At one point, Peter even denied he knew Jesus!  After such an awkward turn in ministry, Peter must have been thinking: “I was right.  Jesus made a BIG mistake in choosing me.” 

Many of us find ourselves in the same position. Once we were stirred by a whisper - “follow me.” But after years of mistakes and awkward turns in ministry, we begin to wonder if Jesus was wrong in choosing us. Or maybe we have messed up so badly that God decided to move on to someone else.  But this is not God’s way. God delights in rehabilitation, as we see in Peter’s story.

Three years after they began, Jesus invited Peter to follow him once again. But now Peter had a better understanding of what that invitation meant. To replace the ugly words that had once come out of his mouth, Jesus invited Peter to speak out loud his love for him, three times. And then Peter was ready - for complete cooperation.

For life change to happen, we must cooperate fully with God’s desire to transform us.

When Peter cooperated fully with Jesus, when he gave his whole self to him and threw aside the cares and concerns of the world, he became a changed man. His prayers of “Lord, change me” took dramatic effect when he surrendered in complete cooperation. He became the leader of a movement which was described as turning the world upside down (Acts 17:6).

Where are you at in this journey? Have you surrendered in complete cooperation to Jesus? What is holding you back?

Look Up

By Rey Diaz

I have a guilty secret to share with you. I hate to admit it…and I might deny it in public, but I LOVE musicals.  I have seen every single one that comes to the 5^th Avenue and Paramount theaters. I even like the dorky ones, like “Joseph and his Technicolor Dream Coat.” My wife always makes fun of me, because this love of song and dance and jazz hands just doesn’t go along with my football-playing persona.

My favorite musical of all time (and favorite book for that matter) is Les Miserables.  The opening begins with dramatic orchestra music; then the prisoners come own and sing out their desperation in their baritone voices: “Look down! Look down! You’re here until you die.”

Isn’t that how we feel after years of failure in our attempt to change?  We feel trapped in a prison with no hope to escape.  We feel hopeless and it becomes harder and harder to raze our gaze from our failure, our defeats, weakness, and brokenness.  

But the Bible sings a different song, no matter how long we have looked down and lived in defeat.  In one of the most beautiful poems ever written we find God’s response to our failure to change:  “Look Up.”  It sounds too simple, too easy. But in Psalms 121 the author replies “I look up to the mountains— does my help come from there? ² My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth!” 

I don’t know why this is…but every time I “look up,” a miracle happens…it’s as if God’s hand reaches down to me and a huge smile breaks out across his face…”I’ve been waiting for you to ask me!” And things change.

For all of us who have this nasty human tendency to look down and focus on our failure, let’s look up instead and focus on God’s perfection.  Let’s look up and focus on God’s victory over sin and death.  Let’s look up and focus on God’s righteousness. 

I invited everyone at Washington Cathedral to Look Up and transfer their trust to Jesus.  I make the same invitation to all of you who have never embraced the name of Jesus.  Change is possible.  But instead of trying and stating “I’m going to change,” we need to pray “Lord, change me.”

Have any of you experienced true life change?  I would love to hear your story. Are any of you struggling with believing this incredible news?  Let me know what I could address.  Or let’s talk offline. 
 

Is the Pandemic Spreading?

Searching for a Host...

 ¹ In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple...⁸ Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” (Isaiah 6:1,8)

One of the themes we see in the Old Testament is God’s search for a messenger.  In Isaiah 6, we are invited into a heavenly scene where God asks: “Who can we send?  Who will go for us?”  In Ezekiel, God is looking for someone who would “stand in the gap” but couldn’t find one person.  After reading the Old Testament, we are left with a feeling of unfulfilled potential.  We are left with a feeling that God made an invitation and very few responded. 

In the New Testament the Gospels seem to follow the same pattern of God’s open invitation. The book of Matthew closes with Jesus’ invitation to his followers: “go and make disciples.”  At the end of Mark, the women are invited to share the truth of the empty tomb.  In Luke, Jesus invites his followers to wait in Jerusalem for the arrival of Holy Spirit to empower them to serve as his witnesses.  Finally, in the gospel of John, Jesus invites us into a dynamic relationship with the Father “as the Father has sent me (Jesus), now I send you.”  If we just to read the Gospels (and not the rest of the New Testament), we would be left wondering if anyone ultimately responded to God’s invitations.  

How the Pandemic Spread -

This is why the book of Acts is so important for us today.  The book of Acts tells us how the first Christians responded to Jesus’ invitation.  In Acts we see ordinary people living extraordinary lives because they were infected with God’s love.  These first Christians followed Jesus as their king, learned from him as teacher, and experienced him as savior.  Once they were thoroughly infected with God’s love, they would then in turn infect others. They would become the host for which God has been searching. The early Christians traveled from town to town, city to city, and from people-group to people-group, infecting every willing host with God’s love. The movement was just too contagious to contain (no matter how much the authorities tried). And the world was transformed….it was turned upside down, by a small group of contagious Christians, thoroughly infected with God’s love.

Do you think God’s love is as contagious today as it was 2,000 years ago? If it is, what is getting in the way of its infectious spread to those around us?

Would love to hear your thoughts,

-          Pastor Rey

Happy Easter!

 (as message from Pastor Tim White)

In my opinion, Easter is the single greatest Christian holiday of the year (accept for the week we get an extra hour of sleep). More people try church for the first time at Easter than any other time of the year. I am especially excited for this Easter because of the important activities happening Washington Cathedral this year.

 This Easter our main focus will be the 9 and 11 am services on Sunday. Pastor Rey Diaz will bring a great Easter message that is relevant to our everyday lives. Churches around the country are finding that the best way to reach new people is to have a great service that’s similar to what you will find any Sunday at that church. Easter Sunday will begin a series entitled “Lord Change Us”. Nothing can change the trajectory of a person’s life like the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The music on Easter Sunday will be incredible. Travis Graham and his musicians will pour their hearts out in worship for this service and people have been praying and fasting for it for over a month. Additionally, we will have a 65 voice choir… everybody is bringing their friends!

 The 9 am service will still be traditional with hymns, robes, and liturgy. As always, it will take place in beautiful Spirit Falls. It will also include some contemporary praise music by Travis and the same great sermon by Pastor Rey.

 At 11am you will take part in some of the best contemporary worship you have ever experienced as a church. Watch us raise the bar. Of course, Travis will be there leading the way and Rey will deliver the same powerful message.

After the 11 am service a free children’s Easter egg hunt will follow. This year is extra special because baby animals (lambs, chicks and bunnies) will be there to participate! Also, the children will hear the Easter story in this fun afternoon of lasting memories.

Earlier in the morning Pastor Linda will lead the sunrise worship at 6:45am in Spirit Falls. The music will all be fresh and different. What a beautiful way to start out a holy Easter day. Pastor David is preparing a great breakfast feast for everyone throughout the morning. This breakfast will be served until 11 am.

In addition to the powerful experience of Easter Sunday, don’t forget about our great tradition of Easter pageants leading up to Sunday’s events. Thursday night, Friday night and Saturday night we will have our traditional Easter drama of Christ’s death and resurrection with great special effects. I will share a short, positive message on the Easter revolution and we will invite everyone back to visit us for a new fresh service on Easter.

We are praying that this Easter will be a rallying point for the movement of what Washington Cathedral is becoming. This church has been doing its best to reach the world with the powerful message of Christ for 27 years as it looks toward the future and the needs of both our local community and the world.

Would you like to be a part of this great dream? We really need your help. You will be blessed as you participate in this great day. Consider volunteering to make this weekend come off as a huge win for God’s kingdom work in our area. If you are interested in helping, either as an actor in the drama, a singer in the choir or a greeter in hospitality (for the new people that will visit), please call the church office at 425-869-5433. Another way you can help is by stepping out in faith and bringing a friend. So far I have already invited six new people! Will you step out in faith with me and join the revolution? And last, you can help by simply giving to support the many ministries of the church
during this time of year.

Together this Easter we are going to be used by God to make a very big impact on our world. I am so excited and I hope you can join us in the greatest Easter party imaginable.

Your friend for the rest of my life,

Pastor Tim White