Summer greetings, Centennial! Not only has the season officially changed but the flow of our church family has, too. I’m sure you’ve felt it in one of two ways (or both!). Do any of these thoughts fit your own?
It’s so good to be back for a Sunday! I haven’t been here in two weeks, and I’m missing next Sunday because of our next beach trip.
Where is everybody? It seems like we’re missing half our people!
I hope Centennial’s service is going okay. Now where is my camper? I need to make sure he’s doing okay.
Thirty-four people at Bonclarken this Sunday? Wow!
Now here are the two ways you might resonate with those thoughts: 1) you’re at church when others are not and 2) you’re not at church while others are. Simply put, it is a reality of the summer months that our church family is more transient. There are denominational summer camps that we take a heavy part in, vacations that are planned, and other opportunities for travel that the other months don’t afford as easily. Now I would like to encourage y’all to take advantage of an excellent opportunity (that will seem obvious). I call it ordinary Christian care. Let me explain.
I divide Christian care into two camps: crisis care and ordinary care. Crisis care is when you go to the hospital to visit someone who just had emergency surgery. Ordinary care is when you write someone a letter of friendship. In the summer months, a wonderful opportunity pops up for ordinary Christian care within our church family: phone calls! Haven’t seen Bill in a couple weeks? Check in on him! He might say, Oh! I’m at the beach with my family, but thanks for the call! Even if that’s the full extent of the conversation, what an excellent opportunity to show we care—to show we miss our people!
If you don’t have phone numbers, don’t worry! You can find members’ phone numbers on our website within the password protected portion of it, which is simply found by going to our website and clicking on the “member resources” tab (and then following the instructions).
Here’s the ask: will you help me ordinarily care for our church family? It’s this connectedness, this seemingly silly and simple method, that will help us to grow deeper and deeper as a true representation of the body of Jesus Christ. Summer is fun, and summer is crazy. Summer can leave us feeling a little disjointed by the end of it. Let’s not let that happen at Centennial Church! May God bless all our summer endeavors—both near and far! May your sunburns be few, your rainclouds give you rainbows, and your connectedness to your church grow even now. Blessings to you all,
Jeremiah