Making the Most of Summer

It's official- school ends this week and summer has begun!
And so our thoughts turn to long weekends, lazy nights, family vacations, summer jobs...

I must confess that for a long time I resisted the notion of church "slowing down" during the summer.

• When do people not need to worship?
• When do our neighbours not need love?
• When should we not preach the great news about Jesus Christ?
• When should we not pray, study the bible, give to God?

It took me a while, but I finally caught on to the fact that we don't stop ministry during the summer,
but we need to change the way we do ministry.

For example, I am absolutely convinced that we need to run our home groups (Connection Groups) in light of the "semester mentality" in our culture.
So, as a church, we gear up and get excited to launch Groups each Fall, Winter and Spring.
We get Groups in place with starting and stopping dates and a very clear purpose:
"Here's where we're meeting, when we're meeting, why we're meeting, and what benefit will come from meeting."
Without apology we ask that everyone who calls Connections their church be a part of what our church does, and what the bible commends: people of all ages and stages, meeting in homes under the direction of a leader of the church.  By taking the summer off we can give leaders a break, and actually build excitement to re-launch Groups in September!

But back to the point, 
How do we change our ministry in the summer?
Or to put that in more practical terms, what can we do as a church in the summer?

Here are some thoughts:
1.  Bring your neighbours to worship.  Summer is perhaps the best time for people to actually try something different.  The rest of the year is about so much routine, so why not bring someone on the adventure to visiting our church and talking about God!

2.  Focus on one.  Since we tent to focus groups and events so much of the year, why no focus on the one this summer?  Get together a few times with someone you know, or want to know, and spend some intentional time together in conversation, prayer, or even bible study.  Talk to them at worship, and set a time to meet that week to get it started.

3. Let your worlds collide.  Pick a night, have a party, and rig it with people from work, your neighbourhood, and church.  Make sure you are a good host and introduce peopel to one another, "Hey Bob, meet Joe, he goes to my church.  You guys both like basket weaving right?  You two should talk." (OK, maybe not basket weaving.  How about golf?)

4. Plan an event for Connections.  We are a very fluid church.  Got an idea for something fun or that might meet a real need in our community?  Write us!  We make no promises,  but if it seems like a good idea, maybe we can help you pull it off.  We'll never know until we try!

5.  Lastly, try out a volunteer role: greeter, usher, cafe, nursery, roadies... we have a whole slew of jobs to be done!
So, in the past I looked at summer with some sadness as many ministries would stop.
 
Now I say BRING IT ON!
We can do ministry in ways, and with impact, that we can't do any other time of the year!