Spiritual Rhythms

As I watch the days slip by on the calendar, I wonder where the time has gone. I’m not ready for the approaching fall just yet—especially when I think about my oldest child leaving for college in just a matter of days. I’ve attempted to “stay in the day” and enjoy each moment of summer. The respite from leading a small group and Bible study and the absence of an overcrowded calendar full of kids’ sporting events, church activities, and meetings has been glorious. The margin has left room to chat outside with neighbors, sit around a fire pit with friends, and get away to make memories on a family vacation.

While in some ways I mourn returning to a more scheduled routine, in other ways I must admit I’m looking forward to it (and not just because the kids will be back in school). Taking a summer break in order to provide rest and flexibility is vital in ministry, but returning to spiritual rhythms can be the key to our personal growth as well as in the lives of those we shepherd.

I don’t usually look forward to exercising or following a healthy eating plan. Similarly, spiritual habits aren’t always easy to implement and execute with joy. However, the results are worth the effort. Here are some ideas that help prepare my heart and mind for the end of summer break.

Remember the reasons for spiritual rhythms. By revisiting the “why” for those things that will begin to fill our calendar, we can find renewed passion and vision. Whether it’s a Bible study group, midweek children’s ministry, or regular committee meeting, we can take a few minutes to remember how these commitments echo into eternity. Women will grow in faith. Children sense the love of their Savior. Missionaries receive support. Even time spent on budgets and facilities serve purposes that ultimately enhance spiritual growth by ensuring adequate resources. When we consider the lives changed, we can look at added responsibilities with excitement instead of dread.

Find joy in God’s plan of balancing rest and productivity. Just as God designed six days for work and one for rest, we also find Him creating seasons of celebration, rest, and times of hard work. During the summer months we find more time for walks, relaxing at the pool, vacations, and reflection. As our ministry, home, and work schedules fill up during the start of a new school and ministry year, we can find great joy in a season of productivity. God designed us for work. It was His plan for us before the curse. When we see work as a gift, we can put our heads on the pillow at night knowing we accomplished much to serve others and bring God glory.

Rediscover the excitement of possibility. The fall kickoff of ministry brings with it new opportunities. As we listen to God’s Holy Spirit we can find new studies or curriculum to implement that will spark interest and curiosity. As leaders, our posture toward the restart of spiritual rhythms will be contagious. If we find it drudgery, others will catch the attitude. When we approach our Bible study, Sunday school class, or ministry with excitement, we can inspire others with a vision to see the possibilities that come with inviting new people, studying new topics, and falling more in love with our God who loves to do new things.

“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” Isaiah 43:19

So while fall might bring a heavier load, it can also bring an opportunity to remember that what we do matters . . . for eternity. God-ordained seasons of work and rest, and endless possibilities lie ahead for us. We may relish summer’s beautiful weather and relaxed schedule, but we can also look forward to the joy that comes with the new spiritual rhythms of fall.

Melissa Spoelstra is a popular women’s conference speaker, Bible teacher, and writer who is madly in love with Jesus and addicted to the study of His Word. Her brand-new Bible study, Joseph: The Journey to Forgiveness, just released!

Gentle, and Occasionally Wild

I recently heard someone describe the Holy Spirit as gentle and occasionally wild. Something about that phrase resonated with me: Gentle, and occasionally wild. Most of the time, I find the Holy Spirit is gentle with me; God takes special care with me, and treats me with gentle grace. But there are those occasional times when the journey with the Spirit feels wild.

My daughter can be that way: gentle, and occasionally wild. She likes to cuddle, wear pretty dresses, and speak kindly. But she also dances in the rain, rides horses, and watches professional wrestling. She laughs really hard and cries just as hard. I know her really, really well, and yet I still find her unpredictable. Some days she wants her hair just right, other days she is hanging her head out the window while we drive. Sometimes her ability to change quickly exhausts me, but most of the time it delights me. She is beautifully alive. She is gentle and occasionally wild.

We are in a season of change in the church. Conferences and conventions have ended, new appointments are beginning, and many of us are reexamining how we do ministry in light of a culture that is rapidly changing. Others of us are on grieving the loss of a beloved pastor, and welcoming a new one into our church. We are in a season of change and it is in these times that the Spirit can feel especially wild. We might wonder, What God is up to in this time? Where is God leading us?

As we experience change in the church—and in the unique contexts in which we live and serve—it is easy to strive for a God we can get a handle on. We desire stability and clarity, so we look for a God who fits neatly into a category that we can easily explain and predict—but we don’t have a God like that. We don’t have a God we can tame. Not a God who does what we want. The Spirit of God is lively, free, and wild; this often means that things change and our surroundings look different. God moves us to a different place, or calls someone new to join us. It also means that we should seek to look at the changing surroundings with eyes of the Spirit, rather than only through the lens of our past experience.

New statistics from the Pew Research Center show that between 2007 and 2014, the number of Americans who identify as Christians dropped by nearly eight percentage points—a statistically significant drop. The report confirmed what many of us already knew; fewer and fewer people are going to church.

The statistics also show, however, that the number of people in America who say they have had some kind of spiritual experience—in essence, something they couldn’t explain, something mystical or transcendent—has gone up. The number of folks who claim that kind of experience has gone up thirty-eight percentage points in the last fifty years. Fewer people are going to church, but more people are saying they have experienced something bigger than themselves, something only God can do. More people are looking to give a name to something outside of what their normal words can articulate: something wild.

It is a reminder, of course, that though the church is experiencing change both locally and globally, the Spirit of God is still on the move. God is still calling out to God’s people. It makes me wonder what would happen if those people—you know, the people who aren’t going to church, but are still experiencing God—knew the church as something gentle and occasionally wild? What if our ministries and our blogs sought not to explain, but to point to a beautifully alive, mysterious, and gentle God? Kind of like at Pentecost, when Peter let a wild happening of the Spirit be an opportunity to tell people about Jesus, and how He had changed his life.

It is natural in these times of transition to feel anxiety and cling to that with which we are comfortable. Instead, I think this is the time to let the lively Holy Spirit give us courage to embrace change, and no longer conduct business as usual. Instead, we ask our new congregation or our new pastor to help us look with new Spirit—eyes at the people and places to which God has sent us. I’m trying to remember that change is part of the journey with God. And I am trying to remember that God is gentle, and occasionally wild.

Jacob Armstrong is the founding pastor of Providence Church, a six-year-old United Methodist church plant in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, reaching twelve hundred people each week. His latest book, The New Adapters: Shaping Ideas to Fit Your Congregation, co-written with Adam Hamilton and Mike Slaughter, is available at Cokesbury.com.