Great Days fade fast

Last Friday's retreat day at National Cathedral was wonderful. I "wasted" a little time recording a podcast that didn't record properly but it was still a lovely day. This week, back to meetings, conference calls, visits, appointments, planning...but not a full sermon for one last week of Community Worship. It has been delightful in so many ways.

To see a full sanctuary each week, to visit a different church and hear a different preacher, to get to know others from our neighbor churches, this is the delight of August in Arlington, VA. So many have told me they want us to continue to do this! and perhaps best of all, the choir! A real community choir of full strength (for small churches) is a real gift.

This coming Sunday (27th) we meet at Lubber Run Park Amphitheater followed by a picnic at the pavilion. Another delight.

Meanwhile there is so much fall planning to do. I'm still struggling to design some meaningful Christian education in a format that works for today's churchgoers. How do I structure time beyond Sunday worship when it is so hard to get people to come any other time? (Unless there is food or a service project involved.) So we are working on some book group ideas that alternate, using Brethren Voices TV, maybe a Bible study where people bring their questions for us to wrestle with, and some engagement with Messenger magazine, our denomination magazine. Planning this (along with monthly "Big Sunday" which is Intergenerational) takes more time than I seem to have. But that's the work of summer's end and early fall. = Always!

For now, memories of a day of sabbath rest, worship, and quiet.
-N

Summer is Different

Summer is 'different-time'. We all know it. I usually expect it to be more unique than it ends up being. But this summer has fulfilled the expectation of different. Three area churches, ACOB, Bethel UCC, and Arlington Forest UMC all met together in August, once at each site. We shared our styles of worship and learned a lot about each other. We had full sanctuaries, an expanded choir, and preachers got to catch up on non-sermon work along with some down-time. The members at ACOB loved it. We did miss being 'home' - just a little.

When we worshipped at 'our house' on August 10, we did a play on the first Brethren baptism, thanks to Robyn Reals research and writing. You see a picture of the 'Schwartzenau eight' in discernment to the side. It was powerful and a great reminder that if we want God's guidance, we need to 'walk' in discernment always. Also a reminder that such discernment may just take us to the 'radical anabaptist' place of acting in opposition to our government as they did. It is a lesson we need to keep in mind as we react to immigration laws, inequality rulings and all the things of the news.

Meanwhile, I've enjoyed my 'summer-time' as a time to visit, and write. I have caught up on some planning but now much put things in place. So it's time to move back to this Sunday's worship which will highlight National Youth Conference, yay Briana! #dunkerpunks and Annual Conference. Come visit us, it's our last 10:00 am worship before Sunday times return to 9:45 classes and 11:00 a.m.