We’ve saved this Faith Milestone until November  as we prepare for Advent and other special Sundays that seem to fall in quick succession in the Liturgical calendar year. We invite the students 3rd-5th grade to attend training with our Pastor to learn the ins and outs of serving in the worship service. These acolytes (helpers) learn what to say, how to give eye contact, the logistics of where to go, and the specialness of serving the Lord in community worship.

We promoted the event through social media, the bulletin, the monthly newsletter, and by individual snail mail invitations. I include a brochure outlining all of the Faith Milestone events scheduled throughout the year to impress our intentionality of our partnership in their children’s spiritual journey.

I opened our time with the story of Samuel. He served in the temple as a young child. He probably did every small job you can imagine: emptied trash, cleaned up after others, dusted, swept, made beds, etc.  He would also know all the secret places in the temple. He’d know all the warmest places in the winter and coolest places in the summer. And when God called him into ministry, he had grown such great relationships with the leaders at the temple, he went to them (Eli) for clarity, knowledge, and direction. This is what we hope for our students: they’d know the spaces and places and grow in such strong relationships they’d be connected to the local church for life.

Then we played a game of tag of multiple items in the sanctuary so they’d be reminded or learn the vocabulary of the worship space: chancel area, organ, mic stand, communion table, back worship table, narthex, piano, keyboard, lecturn, pulpit, flower table, baptismal font, tech booth, etc.

Pastor took the remaining time teaching them the symbolism and logistics, giving ample opportunity to practice, of lighting candles, offering communion, and using a microphone.

Lighting candles: why we light, when we light, when we extinguish, why we bow, where to go, where not to go, how to light, what happens when it goes out, walking too fast, walking too slow, which aisle to travel, which stick to use, etc.  And then we practice.

Offering communion juice: why we use the elements of bread and juice, when we come up, when we finish, where do we look, how do we walk, where do we go, how do we clean up, what do we say to each person, how we smile, etc. And then we practice with a full chalice.

Next, we learn to use a microphone. How to speak, when to speak, when to clear our throats, how to address the microphone, where do we look, how do we hold things and speak, etc. And then we practice with a live microphone.

I jump back in to finish the training explaining the act of hospitality they are doing when serving in the worship services. We address appropriate clothing to wear, shoes to wear, readiness to serve, their freedom to say, “Not today,” when invited to serve, and personal hygiene. When we serve, we don’t want anything we do to be a distraction. So, yes, I went there about brushing teeth, combing hair, taking a shower, and using deodorant. They thought it was funny, but they’ll remember it.

Parents were not invited to stay for this Faith Milestone since we scheduled it right before CLUB345. This gave the students who had never come to CLUB345 a natural ‘in’ to start. This is the night we pack and stack the Christmas shoeboxes. We had a full house!

“Then the Lord called Samuel. Samuel answered, “Here I am.” 1 Samuel 3:4

It wasn’t long ago that my grown children were little people. Being the overachiever that is in my DNA, I practically killed myself trying to do all the things that could possibly be done for Christmas. Think multiple themed trees, white chocolate mix made in a 30-gallon bag, packages wrapped like the magazines, homemade decorations that would put HGTV to shame, family newsletter to 200, decorating the house like we were on the tour of homes, and daily runs to every department store for who-knows-what.

I wanted something different.  So I sat with the family at dinner before Thanksgiving weekend when my little people were in middle school and asked a few questions:

“What if we did the season differently this year?” Heads started to nod in affirmation.

“What if we each chose three things that made the season special this year and did only those?” “What three things would you choose?” Instantly, each one knew what they wanted, and thankfully a couple things made two or more lists: Lemon cake on Christmas Eve, Church on Christmas Eve, wood delivered for a fire in the fireplace, one tree with all the ornaments they’ve made over the years, presents opened on Christmas Eve with stockings on Christmas morning, and gumbo for Christmas day.

We ask the question again each year and it pretty much stays the same.  We set our dates for parties or special events before Thanksgiving and say, “No thanks” to the rest. This exercise, along with a couple of spiritual disciplines, has made the season Advent, and not Christmas for us. We discuss it, we plan it out, and guard ourselves from being sucked into the chaos.

A wise pastor shared a message one year about Advent being a season of readiness and anticipation of Jesus being born. I wondered. What if we lived out the season as if Jesus chose to come back during this time? What would He find in me and mine? Where would He find me and mine? Am I ready for His return or for ‘it all to be over with?’

What three things make the season special to you?

“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.” Matthews 24:42

J. Ellsworth Kalas shares a story in What I Learned When I Was Ten of Gene Palmer, a revival preacher, who came to dinner on his last Sunday in town. In the course of dinner, Kalas’ mom shared with Palmer of Kalas’ call to ministry. Kalas was 10 years old. Palmer took this announcement seriously and asked to speak to young Kalas alone. Palmer asked, “Have you read the bible through yet?” Kalas replied, “Uh-huh, I read the bible.” Palmer pushes, “No. I asked if you’ve read it through?” “All the way?,” asked Kalas. Palmer pushes even more, “All the way! How can you hope to be a preacher if you haven’t read the bible through?”

In two weeks, 10 days to be specific, I will complete a journey that started on January 1, 2011: Reading through the bible…in community.  The community was within a closed Facebook group.

Our senior pastor sets a scripture to give clarity and a focus for our particular body of Christ for the upcoming season. On Christmas Eve 2010, He called us to ‘Let the Spirit of God grow in you” for 2011. Seemed easy enough: be a part of a bible study.

But I had some challenges:

1. I lived 50 minutes away from the church
2. I was on staff, so I could be seen as an ‘authority’, though FAR from it
3. Most of the congregation commuted to downtown Atlanta for work and had little time to carve out one more thing like a typical bible study
4. I had just started at this church the previous April, so I had no real credibility in being a part of a discipleship program…these folks didn’t know me from Adam’s house cat

So I opened a closed facebook group to begin January 1st.  The parameters were…

1. We’d promote it in the church and on facebook
2. Starting in Matthew, we’d follow a reading plan, reading several chapters in the New Testament, in order, each day
3. We’d post our train of thought in a comment each day, though we’d take weekends and holidays off
4. The first one to post started with a comment (November 10: Zephaniah 9: ‘comment’) and others would add their comments to the comment stream

We started with five commenters/members. We found after we read the New Testament that we wanted to continue, but with adjusted parameters:

1. Read one chapter each day beginning in Psalms and through Proverbs, taking the weekends and holidays off
2. Periodically promote it in the bulletin and on facebook allowing others to join if one of the originating members knew them.
3. We’d keep on reading and keep on commenting and if a fellow sojourner wanted to join in who was known by a member of the group, we’d add them in

After finishing the New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs, we completed the first year. But found we wanted to continue this new habit, this new spiritual discipline. So come January 2012, we started the Old Testament, one chapter each day, taking the weekend and holidays off. The first to comment started the stream for that day.

Today, we have thirty members, but typically have only three to five comment, or ‘like’, or view. We have members from all over the country and include both men and women. Members have come in and out in comment activity. Each one perhaps not able to carve hours out of their daily schedule to gather together and study the bible in a typical way. Rather, we have dedicated to start out each morning with reading one chapter each day and commenting what is on our hearts and minds, a simple prayer, keeping it clean of disunifying rants, and just sharing in our pajamas or work suits and over a cup of coffee or tea or Diet Coke.

The accountability has been fantastic. The habit has been transforming. There are now a few folks who know ALL the colors of my rainbow through the lens of scripture…and I remember a whole lot more of what I’ve read. For goodness sakes, just when I thought obeying God was the easiest thing in the world, I read in Isaiah 20 that God asked Isaiah to go around stripped and barefoot for 3 years….naked and barefoot for 3 years! And Isaiah did it! I don’t know how I missed that before.

We’ve decided to continue on through the New Testament again in two weeks. One chapter at a time so to be molded and challenged by the holy word of God as we did the Old Testament, Psalms and Proverbs rather than the chunks of scripture we started out with.  For just about everyone, they accomplished something rare, especially for Christians….American Christians:  They read the whole bible through.

Have you?

“The most frequent excuse for not growing in our spiritual lives is lack of time. Most of us live at the mercy of our schedule, instead of planning ahead and arranging our schedule around our apprenticeship to Jesus.” Rev James Bryan Smith, from The Good And Beautiful Life: Putting on the Character of Christ