Between Sundays

“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers … And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.” ~ Acts 2:42, 47

Every once in a while, someone will ask me, with genuine curiosity and not a hint of malice, “So, is pastor your full-time job? What is it you do between Sundays?”

I always pause and smile, because maybe it’s a fair question, and because the answer is the whole reason this little column has the name it does. This week gave me a perfect picture of the answer.

This week our program staff, along with our amazing volunteer music coordinator Joyce Summers, gathered around the table in the church office to plan the coming year. Now, those who know me know I love a good calendar almost as much as I love a spreadsheet. What I am not good at, as a proud lefty, is writing on a whiteboard without smearing every word into an unreadable smudge. Thankfully, Amy Stone loves a whiteboard about as much as I love a spreadsheet, so she stepped in and filled the whole thing with color, our mission activities, our worship opportunities, our fellowship events, and yes, even the many meetings it takes to keep the operations of a church like ours running.

Watching that board fill up was pure joy. Square by square, week by week, a whole year of ministry took shape before our eyes. And I sat there thinking, this. This is what happens between Sundays. Someday I would love to teach a seminary class on all the things they never actually teach you in seminary. A whiteboard full of a year’s worth of ministry would be lesson one. Lessons two through ten would cover flood mitigation, toilet clogs, roofing estimates, coaxing a temperamental copier back to life, boiler repair, parking lot potholes, HVAC units with minds of their own, and the ancient art of finding a lighter to light the acolytes’ candle.

But mostly what filled me that day was gratitude, because none of it happens without the people around that table.

Jenn Duthoy, our Youth Ministry Director, who dodges with the best of dodgeballs with our youth. Amy Stone, our Children & Family Ministry Director and, as established, our resident whiteboard artist. Joyce Summers, giving her time and gifts to hold our music ministry with such grace while we are between music directors. Patty Lockard, our Weekday School Director, and Olivia Watkins, our Weekday School Administrator, who care for some of the youngest among us. And our own Office Administrator, Cathy Baker, whose birthday we got to celebrate this week, which was a joy all its own. This is a remarkable team, and I do not take a single one of them for granted.

So, as I look at that full and colorful calendar, let me point you toward a couple of the good things taking shape on it.

The first is right here at home. We are launching 2nd Sunday Potlucks, a standing invitation to linger after worship, share a meal, and actually get to know the people we sit next to in worship each week. There is something holy about a shared table. The early church knew it. They broke bread together in their homes, day by day, and it was in that ordinary act of eating together that the Lord kept adding to their number. Fellowship is not the fluff around the ministry. It is the ministry. So, bring a dish, pull up a chair, and let’s build this family one potluck at a time.

The second takes us out the doors. We will have a booth at In the Streets, and I hope you will come be part of it. When we make our membership vows, we promise to support the church with our prayers, our presence, our gifts, our service, and our witness. That last one, witness, is not about having all the right words or a perfect speech. Sometimes it is as simple as showing up at a booth on a busy street, smiling at a stranger, and letting our whole community see that Calvary is here, that we are glad they came by, and that there is a place for them among us.

Because that is how a church grows. Not by accident, but by a hundred small, faithful acts, a meal shared, a table widened, a booth on a street corner, all of it planned around a table, written on a whiteboard, and lived day by day between Sundays.

We are stepping into a new school year and a whole season of joyous kickoffs. The calendar is full. The team is ready. And I could not be more excited for what God is going to do among us.