Ordinary Time is more than marking the weeks until the next big event. It is a way of walking with Jesus and growing into our faith as we are making and being made into disciples. This Ordinary Time, you are invited to look at where you are – as individuals and as a community. We want to do that in two parts. We begin with what is familiar, what we see every day, and what we do week by week—the familiar, and maybe the over-familiar. We need to look at what we’ve seen so much that we don’t see it anymore. But we need to look; we need to see because this is where we are.
What Concern is That? (January 19. 2025)
Where is our mission field? That’s the question behind this week’s theme for Ordinary Time. And the quick answer is, right where you are. Sometimes we are called to the wider world, to venture out into unknown places to make disciples. But most of the time, we are called to be at work in the community that surrounds us. We are called to be witnesses to the grace and goodness of God where we live, work, and play.
As Was His Custom (January 26, 2025)
Why do we do what we do week after week? There is power in ritual; there is presence in repeated action, in habits that build up. We often talk about habits as bad things, things we need to curtail or quit. But there can be good habits too, holy habits, we might call them. Certainly, attending gathered weekly worship is one of those habits to celebrate.
In Your Hometown (February 2, 2025)
For some, worship is withdrawal from the world around them, a sanctuary into which all that they wrestle with throughout the week doesn’t enter. Certainly, there can be a need to clear one’s mind and heart to properly be present for worship, which is one of the purposes of the prayer of confession at the beginning of worship. We do not, however, worship in a vacuum, cut off from the cares and concerns of the wider world. So, how can worship prepare us to engage in the task of transforming the world?
Originally published by Discipleship Ministries. Republished by ResourceUMC.