Message from Pastor Fitting-Snyder

We are now living in ordinary times…at least according to the church calendar.  For everything there is a season, and we tend to highlight the seasons of Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter. But how do we celebrate the ordinary? 

With the current state of our communities, country, and world seeming so fragile and fractured, it is difficult to use the word ordinary to describe much of anything these days.  But as a church body we lean into this ordinary season, where seemingly things are less busy over the long stretch of summer. The name itself, ordinary, doesn’t evoke much excitement, however, as I have grown deeper in my own faith and spiritual life, I have come to find that this time of year may not be so ordinary after all, and perhaps it can be extra-ordinary. 

The earliest Christians gathered on Sundays, the day of the resurrection, to celebrate the new creation made present in Jesus Christ.  And while we may go, what seems like hundreds of Sundays without excitement, it is this ordinary time that invites us to examine our own faith lives and faith communities. While the world and things around us may feel chaotic, the church seems to slow down in a methodical way this time of year, and it is the ritual of it all that provides sanctuary amidst life’s highs and lows.

The thirty-four Sundays in ordinary time become about the immersion of ourselves into this greater narrative of the Bible. This is a time for us to connect where we find ourselves in the midst of God’s big story, and how we embrace that in our daily lives. Perhaps what this ordinary time allows is for us to slow down and answer the question, where do we see God at work in the world?  

One of my joys is being able to be somewhere new every Sunday, especially this time of year because I get to see the way God moves through the faithful people and congregations of this synod. Sometimes it is through ministry to the community, having difficult conversations, or taking the next best steps as Christians in community. Most recently I encountered God through the people of St. Paul in Levelland and Trinity in Clovis. 

So if you get time over the remaining weeks of summer to take that needed vacation, or visit family who live far away, or are just out and enjoying the sunshine, I invite you to take notice of God’s presence in the world around you.  Notice God working through the people you encounter.  Notice God’s presence through the distant flicker of the lightning bugs (or fireflies depending on where you are from) at night. Feel the Spirit in the wind of a storm or in the pleasant calm that follows. Find majesty in looking up at the stars. Make it a practice that as you drive to church, you ask the question how has God been working through me this week, and as you drive to lunch or head home, think about how God may work through you the next.  

It is the ordinary time that makes for an extra-ordinary Christian life.   

Peace,

Pastor Kelsey

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NT-NL synod staff are excited to engage in-person on Sundays for worship. As good stewards of time and travel dollars, we will be utilizing online meeting formats in our new hybrid reality when possible. If you would like to schedule a meeting with the bishop or Synod staff please contact them directly.

Bishop Gronberg:

July 6-11: Family Vacation
July 20: Travel to Camp Chrysalis, Kerrville
July 26-Aug 2: Churchwide Assembly, Phoenix, AZ
Aug 3- Sep 1: Sabbatical

Pastora Bañales:

July 8: Santa Maria, Irving
July 10: ELCA Mission Leadership Conference Planning Team Meeting
July 10: NT-NL DEM Advisory Team Meeting
July 11-13: First Sagrada Familia Annual Women’s Retreat, Galveston
July 14: ELCA Evangelism Network
July 17: ELCA CCL All Staff Meeting
July 18-20: NT-NL Latina Conference Annual Women’s Retreat, Dallas
July 23: ELCA Memorial Response Team Meeting
July 30: Latinx Couples Retreat Planning Team

Pastor Fitting-Snyder:

July 12: Candidacy Committee, Zoom
July 13: Preston Meadow, Plano
July 20: Immanuel, Killeen
July 27: Faith, Flower Mound