Embracing the Rhythm: Our Fall Calendar
Beloved church -
Plans for the fall are in the air, as schedules, schools, travels and weather all shift and turn toward the upcoming change of seasons! At our home we've got Target bags and groceries piling up, and new shoes and backpacks in the entryway. And at church we've been praying, planning, and getting excited for the upcoming fall season and seeing more of our Body back in town after the summer break. All of this rhythm is good and necessary - including the abiding, resting, the vacations away, the time not in town and not in regular schedules before we return to the fall. As we make these preparations, I wanted to share our LSC Fall Calendar that lays out key dates for Sept-Dec, as well as give a bit of the framework behind how we've designed our worship rhythms for this fall.
These calendars are printed out and ready for you to pick up in person in the Sanctuary, or you can take a look online here. You'll see that we're working with our same four worship rhythms this year, with some small changes. Our main goals for this fall were the following: 1) to have a regular, plannable, consistent schedule for worship, kids and families, and classes that we all know ahead of time and don't have to think about too much, 2) to create regular space for formation/classes for all ages two times a month to fit families/everyone's busy schedules, 3) to keep the unique ways both Serve and Sabbath Sundays form us spiritually and have become favorite weeks for some of us, while building out and adding to the intentionality of music/sermons/projects happening those weeks, and 4) to respond to what we've learned about the gifts and challenges of people's time commitments, creative options needed for different ages of faith formation, and the diverse needs within our Body for building community, belonging, and healing.
To those ends, here are some things to notice in this fall's calendar.
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1st and 3rd Sundays are for Belong: each month these will be our full worship gatherings that include worship, communion, and spaces afterwards for adult ad, kids and youth programming, and hanging out/snacks and fellowship time.
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2nd Sundays are for Serve: every month the 2nd week will be Serve Sundays, with a thicker worship/sermon/project experience while also still relying on and centering our kids and youth in leadership these weeks.
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4th Sundays are for Sabbath: the 4th/last Sunday is when we rest with our more contemplative, shorter service, to be enjoyed either in the Sanctuary with others or online at home/gathering with others. These weeks we're adjusting somewhat as well to include new practices, guest preachers, and other creative elements.
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Banquet Sundays will be roughly 1x per quarter: making space for big meals, parties, and gatherings where we get to linger and enjoy food and fellowship together around key holidays, our fall launch, and more!
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A few exceptions to the schedule will happen on months with 5 weeks or for Advent/Easter Season.
We've got some more exciting updates to share soon about our changing worship team, new opportunities for Newcomers and Young Adults, tools and prayer to ground us during this national political season - and more! But for now, add this calendar to your own preparations for the fall and know that we will be sharing more soon as we continue to plan, prepare, pray, vision, and adapt to the goodness and challenges of this season.
Beloved, know that God is continuing to move and speak to LaSalle in the both/and - through both our legacy and our innovation, in both our growing and in our rooting, as we both make mistakes and are surprised by what works, and as we both rest/abide and act/get busy. God is doing more then we could ask or imagine, and I remain grateful! Much love - RevLiz