Summer Siesta Brings Fall Fiesta
As I’m sure many of you recount – life with a newborn is a strange state of being. Emily and I were out for dinner on our anniversary this past week chatting about the curiosity of how Lucy is now two months old and time has literally warped itself this Summer. It’s amazing how sleep deprivation does that to you. Without rest, life begins to drift and blur together.
Of course – this is simply life with newborn babies. But I believe there’s a lesson here for all of us. Rest is a good gift of God – and we desperately need it for keeping focus in our pursuit of God-likeness. Seasons of rest are valuable if they’re done intentionally to set us up for a deeper and greater enjoyment of God as we get involved in the work that He has for us.
At EBC, we intentionally scale ministry events back during the Summer for this very purpose. We believe that a season of rest is valuable for the larger church body to catch their breath SO THAT when ministry events kick off during the school year, we don’t walk into them with blurry vision and stumbling feet. And there’s no shortage of ways for you to jump into ministry with all that’s kicking off in the coming weeks. To name a few things:
- Women’s Game Night – THIS Friday (8/26 at 6:30pm) at the Farness home.
- Men’s Breakfast – THIS Saturday (8/27 at 8:00am) at EBC.
- Youth Group Kickoff – Wednesday, September 7th at 6:30pm.
- Women’s Retreat – September 30 – October 2.
- Men’s Life Group Kickoff – Monday, October 3 (stay tuned for details)
- AWANA – Tuesday, October 4 at 6:30pm.
- Phase II Fundraising Meetings – October 7, 9, and 16 (more details to come, but plan to attend ONE of these 🙂)
All of these things are happening within the next month or so, and as you can see, they are aimed at getting everyone in our congregation involved in some way – from children to adults. And yet, even with all of that kicking off, there’s still more ways to involve yourself!
- Life Groups – Many life groups take a break for the Summer months and will be starting back up this Fall. If you’re not already connected to a life group, there are many to choose from on different nights of the week in different pockets from Vancouver to Battle Ground. Please reach out to Pastor Ryan Donovan and he would LOVE to help you find a group to get plugged into.
- Thursday Prayer Group – Every Thursday we encourage you to join us to pray for the needs in our church body, in our community, and in our world. We spend an hour from 7-8pm committing ourselves to seek the Lord in worship in prayer, aiming to be Scripture fed and Spirit led as we do so.
I don’t write all of this to overwhelm you. There’s A LOT going on, and life can get full very fast. But I do want to encourage you that part of being a church family is to get involved and invested in the lives of others: to be known, and to seek to know others. A fantastic way of doing that is to get involved in the things that are happening here at EBC beyond weekend services. The aim of these ministries is not to fill your calendar, but rather to help breathe life into your week by fostering connection and opportunity to open the Word of God in community. All of these things help us to engage with our coworkers, our neighbors, our friends, and most especially our families with our eyes on the mission of proclaiming Jesus in word and deed.
Looking forward to launching from the Summer season of rest (which I sincerely hope was restful for you) into all that God has in store for us in the Fall and beyond.
In His Mercy,
Pastor Ryan Aufenkamp
Categories: Evergreen Connection