Life at Church: Midweek Edition

            Tis the season of holidays.  People slipping in and out for vacation, for visits, for enjoying/beating the heat.  It has been my privilege to come back from ten days in Maine.  It is nice to be a place where 85 degrees constitutes a ‘heatwave’.

            The summer season has also turned into the season of training and prepping.  We have a few things coming down the pike.

            We praise the Lord for our coming confirmation class.  We have the net stretched wide and for the next four Sundays, we will be gathered each Sunday afternoon and evening to prepare our up and coming generation, apparently Gen Zish according to the culture that likes to name these things (I am speaking with the natural skepticism of a Gen X).  The summer season provides the time away from the overloaded schedule of a school year to gather. 

            We praise the Lord for our first Officer Training.  We are offering THE SAME training twice this summer, set for the third Mondays of July and August (July 20 and Aug. 17) running from 6:30 to 8pm.  It is for all Elders and Deacons, newly minted, currently serving, renewing their presence.  It is a very basic overview of our presence and plans for the coming year. 

            We praise the Lord for the coming Sermon Series.  The foundational text for our Sending Statement is a challenge made to Jesus to name the most important commandment.  This Sunday is Mark’s accounting of this.  It is that God is one, which calls for the response of loving God with Heart, Soul, Mind, and Strength and loving our neighbors as ourselves. 

            So…how do we actually do that in life?  Well, that’s what we intend to explore.

            As I reread this post, I find myself questioning my choice to begin each bit of church business by praising the Lord.  We want to praise the Lord for classes and training and sermons?  There is a voice that sneaks in that whispers boring…. at such possibilities.  That’s a personal bit of spiritual warfare that is endemic for me.  The consistent voice that whispers that the church and the world find me and the work of Jesus to be empty and boring.

            However, the reality is that this summer is all about bringing our faith to life in the real and actual practice of our phenomenal faith in Christ Jesus. 

            So, here we go!

Pastor pete