Inhale, Exhale…. Get Ready for a New Program Year!
Reflections by Rev. Kevin Porter
When I was a child, I used to hate to go to sleep. I was always afraid I was missing something fun or important that my older brothers or parents were doing. Besides, I was never tired when my bedtime came around.
Last week, I was at an event where I watched a first-grader so filled with energy that even when she tried to stand still long enough to tell an adult something, she found herself jumping up and down in place in spite of herself. What I wouldn’t give to have that kind of energy today!
When I was a child, I didn’t appreciate the value of rest and renewal for my growing body, mind and spirit. And now, I have to watch that I don’t allow rest and renewal to become ends unto themselves.
Just as inhaling and exhaling are equally important in the enterprise of breathing, I believe the disengaging we experience as we spend time in sleep, recreation, and vacation should be preparing us for reengaging the vocations to which God has called us in our work, school, families, community, and yes, church.
September marks the beginning of a new program year. And just as each morning offers us the opportunity to greet a new day with more energy than the night before, each program year provides us with a new beginning of sorts; a time to ask ourselves as a congregation, "For what purpose has God given us another year of life as a congregation in such a time and place as this?"
I'm sure our minister, Reverend Nancy E. Muth, will have much to share from her perspective as she reengages the life of FPCG fresh from her sabbatical beginning with worship and a celebratory "welcome back" barbecue on September 12th.
I Invite you to check out the "What's Ahead" insert in the Windows mailing this month. Check the literature table at the church for extra copies. It lists the dates of programs and events that are tried and true traditions of our congregation as well as new things God is doing in our midst; even an overview of new organization, the Creative Germantown Initiative, as a means of strengthening and expanding our ministries.
Please read it carefully and prayerfully and determine how engaging in ministry here can be both a source of renewal for you and an outlet for the energetic gifts God has given you.