Dear church family,
Ordinary Time is here. This is the season of the church calendar that begins on Pentecost and lasts until Advent, some six months later. We might think it’s an uneventful time — after all, there are no major church holidays to celebrate — but it’s a season full of meaning and growth, should we have the eyes to see it and the hearts to receive it.
For instance, ordinary time is when we will have Vacation Bible School, one of my favorite weeks of the year. This summer, we are partnering with three other downtown congregations (First Baptist, First United Methodist, and St. John’s Episcopal) to offer fun, fellowship, and faith formation for children at Bridge Park. We’d love to have you get involved! You can find more information and register by clicking here.
Ordinary time is also when we welcome our seasonal members and visitors back into our midst. Our brothers and sisters in Christ from Florida, South Carolina, California, South Korea, and elsewhere call Sylva “home” for the summer months, and we are delighted to have them as a part of us while they are here.
And ordinary time is when we have fun together. Not that we don’t have fun the rest of the year — we do! — but this season affords us even more opportunities to cook out, hang out, and reach out to the community that’s buzzing all around us. (Just come to our Fourth of July celebration or September campout to see what I mean.)
In her wonderful book Liturgy of the Ordinary, Tish Harrison Warren reminds us of this simple truth:
“The new life into which we are baptized is lived out in days, hours, and minutes. God is forming us into a new people. And the place of that formation is in the small moments of today.”
I like that — “the small moments of today.” Being a Christian doesn’t have to be any bigger than that.
I am so grateful to have a church family to be “ordinary” with, and I hope you will join us for worship and life together this summer as we keep following Jesus, one day at a time.
Yours in Christ,
Blake
