Life can sometimes be terribly confusing, especially when I try to figure out which calendar I should follow for planning worship, activities, and programs at the church. Should I follow the calendar that's on my desk, the "normal" one that starts on January 1 and ends on December 31? Or should I follow the Liturgical calendar that begins with the first Sunday in Advent, and ends with Christ the King Sunday, both movable Sundays that fall at the end of November or early December? Or should I follow the school-year calendar, which starts after Labor Day and runs 10 months through June, with a break in July and August?
The answer is of course, all of the above. But if I were to rank them in importance, I would start with the school-year calendar, followed by the Liturgical calendar. Much of our planning and most of our activities follow a September through June cycle. Summer is supposed to be a slower time, a time to take vacations, relax, and renew ourselves. Summer is, for most of us, though, busy as can be, but it is nice to take a break from schedules that fill much of the year.
Even our governing body, the Session, takes a break during July and August. We meet if we need to, but otherwise our next scheduled meeting is in September. The 15 Elders we elected to serve on the Session have earned a respite after a busy year going about their work of governance and leadership.
We had a particularly busy meeting in June as various Ministry Teams brought recommendations and proposals before the Session. The Early Learning Center Board asked Session to confirm the hiring of Chris Fox as the Director and Amy Simpson as Assistant Director, which we joyfully did. The Property Team sought approval to blacktop and re-stripe the entire parking lot, which we also agreed to. We heard plans for the Fall Stewardship campaign and heard updates from other teams.
Christmas is six months away, but the Worship & Music Ministry Team works that far ahead. We approved their recommendation that we change our Christmas Eve worship schedule by adding a 5:30 pm service of Lessons and Carols, and dropping the 11:00 pm service. We have many young families in our church who had no option for worship on Christmas Eve, with the 8:00 pm service too late for young children. And we had seen attendance at the 11:00 pm service drop each of the past three years; last year the number of participants in the service exceeded worshipers. We know there are some who like the traditional "midnight" service to welcome Christmas, but we also want to make sure we provide an offering for our young families, so Session readily approved the change.
Elders will not be idle over the summer. We will be reading a book together: The Will of God, by the Reverend James C. Howell, a thoughtful book that raises excellent questions. We'll discuss the book and its lessons when we meet again in the fall.
All of our Elders serve God and our church faithfully and they deserve our praise and thanks. And they also deserve a few weeks off this summer!
Grace & peace,
Pastor Skip
