Summertime!

If you are anything like me, you love summertime. Summer is different from any other season, and I think it is because after years schooling, we are used to the idea that we are in recess from the time between Memorial Day to around Labor Day. In U.S. Education system, we are trained from an early age that the months of June, July and most of August are a time where we take a break from our regular schedules. For youth it means, “No more school!”.

That feeling carries into our adulthood as well. In summertime, families go on vacation. We spend more time outdoors enjoying God’s creation. It gets dark so much later, so we can enjoy the evenings on our porches and patios. Summer is just an incredibly special time.

Things often slow down a bit in the summer at church:

Youth Groups don’t meet

Choirs recess

Wednesday Night Downtown takes a break

Committees meetings might skip a month

Sunday morning attendance often drops a bit

Isn’t it odd, how we feel that the vacations we became so used to in school, apply to our spiritual lives? We gather each Sunday to worship the God who stands by us and is there for us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year, but we often fall into the trap of assuming our time of worship deserves a break just like the rest of the things we do.

Scriptures are pretty clear that this is not how we are called to be in worship with the Lord:

I will bless the LORD at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. – Psalm 34

Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart. –  Acts 2

Will you join me this summer in continuing to praise the Lord who made us, saved us and continues to redeem us? Come to worship throughout the summer and proclaim what God is doing in your life, see what God is doing in others’ lives, and hear how God is at work in the world around you!

In Him,

Pastor Jon