Summer Schedules

Rev. Joshua Patty
Regional Minister and President

Do you make changes in your worship services during the summer?

Some congregations change worship times during the summer. In some churches, the music ensembles take the summer off, which can lead to shorter services.

As a preacher, I usually offered a series of sermons with drawing spiritual lessons from popular movies. These tended to be fun for me to prepare and often created a more relaxed mood in the congregation. (Sometimes we even organized trips to the movie theater to watch films together.)

In many congregations, worship has been unusual for more than a year and many people are craving some sense of normalcy. However, I would also suggest that it has been an unusually stressful year for everyone, including worship leaders like you. And summer offers a built in excuse -- opportunity -- to relax some things.

So it might be the perfect time to shorten your worship services for the season, lightening the planning work. It might be a perfect time to look for "fun" sermon topics. It could be the perfect time to have some "theme" Sundays -- perhaps focused on some of the less well known holidays or just on things people have been missing. And there could be opportunities to even skip the preaching and live out the sermon through shared mission work.

And, if you try to lighten things up this summer, email me to let me know about it. In the coming months, I'd like to share more of your stories in this space in Worship Together.

Invite the Regional Minister to Worship

By the end of May, my COVID vaccine will be fully effective. So I am now accepting invitations to worship with congregations in person, especially to celebrate important congregational events (anniversaries, installations of pastors, etc.). And, if I cannot attend in person, I'm happy to share a video message or note for the occasion.

For worship planning purposes, you should know that I am always happy to preach. And I welcome the opportunity to have time to meet people in the congregation, share ideas, and answer questions.

To make arrangements, please email me (josh@uppermidwestcc.org). Usually, these visits will be planned weeks in advance, so extend your invitations early. Also, so that I can visit in person with more of our 117 congregations each year, I would especially welcome invitations for non-Sunday morning activities.