“Where did everyone go?”
asked the new Christian. They had come along to the church earlier in the year, accepted Jesus as saviour and got involved in the life of the church. Then we came to the summer holidays. Quite a few of the younger families headed off on holiday. Youth clubs, ESOL classes and other ministries stopped. People wanted to take a break from life groups and leaders put their energy into helping on summer camps.
It felt to this person like the church had shut down. It had all gone quiet and she felt left behind. We realised that she was not alone in that. We had a programme that ran on middle class presumptions, that hugged tightly to term times. However, for a lot of our church family, there wasn’t a summer get away. They still had to work and many couldn’t afford long breaks away. Mind you, we also forgot that we had students returning from University, not to mention older retired people who were around having taken their own holidays when it was cheaper.
Of course, there is a benefit to adjusting with the seasons. We can’t run at full pelt all the time. I think the importance there is to think about how you can do things differently, summer don’t have to be same as Autumn. A different style, different events and a different tone and pace can be beneficial.
In our case, we made sure that there were events and activities on in the summer. We put the same time and energy into planning summer teaching programmes for adults and kids as we did for term time. We brought our life groups together for special series such as a summer seminar series on church history. We organised day trips out. Other churches have run things like holidays at home. One elder organised for a group to go camping at the Keswick Convention. These were in the main, people who might not have had a vacation and probably would not have accessed Christian festivals and conventions.
We resolved not to leave people behind for the summer again. How can you make and keep that resolution this summer?
Faithroots 