New Year, New Beginnings

We have a lot of ways to mark a new year in the church. The liturgical calendar official starts right after Thanksgiving with Advent. Easter marks another kind of celebration of new starts. And of course there’s the celebration of a new calendar year just a week after Christmas.

But the rhythms of church life at Joy really do seem to be driven as much by the academic calendar as anything else. Sunday school classes and choirs often scale back or take an extended break during our hot Oklahoma summers. Labor Day is, ironically, a signal that it’s time to get back to work!

We’re trying some new things around here. Well known in the community for our family art nights, we had our first paint party for adults and are planning another soon. We’re soon going to have our first pool party in a very long time, and probably our first for all ages.

And next month we’ll try our first Sunday morning pet blessing, to coincide with the feast of St. Francis, lover of animals. We’ll do this on the patio adjacent to the Fellowship Hall so long as the weather cooperates. It should feel a lot like worship last summer when broken AC on hot days forced us into the Fellowship Hall, but outdoors and with lots of furry friends underfoot.

We’ve also been invited by our community partners, Jenks East Elementary, to help out with some after school gardening they’ve cooked up. All of this is recognizably Joy while at the same time we’ve never done any of it exactly this way before. Let’s see what else the new (school) year brings!

Pastor Jon