Is this ordinary time? Each year, following Pentecost, the church calendar enters into a period affectionately referred to as “Ordinary time.” It is that season of church life for which there are no major liturgical holidays and it lasts until the first week of Advent. Although Advent is still a few weeks away, for some reason we seem to be in a state as a church that is anything but ordinary!
This is an extraordinary time! This fall we have seen new faces every Sunday with some Sundays’ visitors making up nearly a quarter of our congregation! Even more remarkable is that we are not seeing them only once! The people who visit our congregation on Sunday mornings and through our ministries throughout the week have clearly recognized the unique community that makes up this church. Being a part of this congregation at this particular moment in time is indeed extraordinary.
For such a time as this! This is a moment when we start to see some changes within the life of our congregation and are starting to get a sense of how God is calling us to be in the world. For the first time, we are blessed to have two very talented and enthusiastic field education students from the seminary, McLane Stone and Bryan Miller. Already, they have begun to dream and implement new ways of connecting members of our congregation with the ministries of love to which we are called.
It’s time for mission. One of our areas of focus for the year is formalizing our partnership with the newly formed Urban Promise Trenton. A few weeks ago during worship, Carl Clark, UP Trenton’s managing director, spoke to us about the way in which his organization is working to change the lives of kids in Trenton. They are sponsoring after school programs for younger kids and providing older kids with much needed jobs working for their program. We have already collected school supplies for the children of Urban Promise and will be working with them later this fall to begin to tutoring some of the children after school.
It’s time to be creative! We are trying our best to be creative with the resources and ideas that God has placed in our midst, but not everything that we are doing at this time is new. On November 13, 2025 we will be holding our Fall Arts Night. This is an event that we do twice a year (once in the fall and once in the spring) during which we invite people from the surrounding communities to come and share their artistic talents. There will be place for both the physical arts as well as performing arts. If you are interested in bringing in some art to be displayed (photos, paintings, bowls, knitting, pottery, etc.) or would like to participate in the live performance part of the program, please let us know as we would love to have you.
It’s time for visioning. In the last newsletter, we shared how the conference has designated us as a “teaching church,” and has begun to find ways of financially supporting us in our mission with young adults. Those conversations have continued to move forward and we have even managed to secure our first grant from the Sommers Foundation for next year. If you are interested in serving on the vision team that will help us keep our mission in focus as we make decisions about new ministries, please let me know as we would love to have all voices at the table!
Time is on our side. We believe in a timeless God who is with us in both the extraordinary and ordinary moments of our lives together. We have been around for 132 years and have found ways of continuing to serve God in the world during all of that time. Our hope is that in the years ahead we might continue to listen for God’s call and pay attention to the time!
Grace and Peace,
Stephen
