Welcome to Ordinary Time. The name has always felt like a bit of an undersell. After Easter’s drama and Pentecost’s fire, calling this next season “ordinary” sounds like a polite way of saying, “Hang in there till fall.” But in traditions that follow the rhythm of the liturgical year, this is the long green stretch after Pentecost until Advent, often labeled Ordinary Time.
The term doesn’t mean “boring.” It comes from the Latin ordinalis, meaning “numbered” or “ordered.” These are the measured Sundays when discipleship unfolds in sustained ways. Growth still happens, even without the fanfare of Easter or the flame of Pentecost.
The Garden Is Growing
On Saturday, June 7, the day before Pentecost, our church grounds will host the first Shedhouse Music Festival. It will be a full afternoon of music, food, and community. The idea came from Ryland Burgin, one of our Youth & Kids alumni. What matters most is the mission. Proceeds from the festival help to ensure that every child and youth connected to our church can attend camps, retreats, and trips, regardless of their family’s financial situation.
Make no mistake, these are extraordinary Sundays masked in familiar clothes. After weekends filled with music, Communion, and maybe a little holy chaos, what lingers is the welcome that stretches into the week ahead. Lately, we’ve seen new faces in worship. That’s always a holy sign that something in our gathered life feels like home.
Planted Here, Growing Now
This summer, our worship series Planted Here invites us to reflect on what it means to grow right where God has placed us. Jesus often used garden imagery because spiritual life isn’t mechanical. It is organic and demands care, patience, and trust. This church is meant to flourish in a world that often chooses speed over depth.
Ordinary Time asks more of us than we expect, so stay attentive, keep tending, and trust that grace still works in seen and unseen places. The Holy Spirit does not take a post-Pentecost sabbatical. You will hear the Spirit’s presence in laughter, in the shuffle of bulletins, in preparing even when nothing dramatic happens.
This is not a timeout. This is the moment when the soil is turned, and the roots deepen for what comes next.
Grace and peace,