The Great Summer Spiritual Explore

I’ve been invited, no more like strongly nudged by circumstances to take a close look at how I personally view and engage worship and summer Christian Education experiences. In this experience I have found both great blessing and great discomfort. The blessing has been in the freedom I have found in doing the not expected and getting creative. The discomfort from my own awareness of my inner reaction being the classic but that’s not what’s expected/done/how I grew up doing things mantra. What quickly followed was the wave of clergy-mommy guilt.

The old that’s not what’s expected and guilt stuff came on strong just as summer hit and I realized this clergy parent was not sending her daughter to church camp or VBS.  Yes I know – OH THE SHAME OF IT! The reality was that our summer schedules were just not aligning right. Also my daughter really, REALLY wanted to go to the familiar county parks and rec day camp she attended last year and had so much fun at. I honored her choice, because it was her choice to make. We could have done a VBS, but wisdom and child choice once again prevailed and we let her choose to not go and keep the summer schedule much simpler. 

Then hit the guilt – what good clergy mom lets her kid skip all the summer Christian formation experiences available?! A wise mentor stepped in and set me straight saying so what – do it differently, do it yourself at home. What freedom in those words. And so began our journey together figuring out what Christian formation topics she wanted to explore in the living, breathing community of the world she engages on a daily basis.  VBS became not just a one week adventure, but a summer long daily exploration.

As our summer formation began our church also changed where it was meeting, the day and the time.  We have temporarily combined with another congregation of a different denomination helping them start an alternative worship. With this has come a worship experience that is different from her norm. Some things are the same and yet some things are very different to accommodate the traditions of the congregation our church is partnering with.  All of this put together, I am finding, is very good.

I have been blessed to be forced to put aside my personal and perceived public expectations and create something that has become life giving for my family.  We have become freer to say no to things that just complicate the schedule.  We have become freer to say yes to serving and mission opportunities that we are excited about. Life has slowed down enough that I feel room to sit down and read, study and discuss the bible with my child giving her space to ask her own questions and give voice to her own thoughts.

Being in a combined faith community has opened me up to experiencing new faith traditions, to helping my daughter to see that there is more than one way to experience and do worship. I am excited about what this summer holds for us spiritually and where the journey might take us.  So like Winnie the Pooh, we are going on an explore, not knowing exactly where we are headed, but trusting blessing is waiting at the end and that God is present in this entire adventure.