June looks like a quieter month at church as some of us will be traveling—however, this summer, whether you’ll be present each week or not, you’ll have the opportunity to pick up a devotional booklet that’s perfect for summertime. Beginning in mid-June and through the whole summer, we’ll center around the theme: Anything but Ordinary: the movement of the Spirit is anything but ordinary.

What a beautiful theme for the season after Pentecost that we sometimes call ordinary time. We’ll gather around the stories of people featured in Genesis and Exodus—the fathers and mothers and siblings—all their ups and downs and the ways that God’s Spirit never left them.

The Sanctified Art Creative Team–Lisle Gwynn Garrity, Sarah (Are) Speed,
Hannah Garrity, Lauren Wright Pittman—who created this beautiful series say this about the theme this summer:

We measure time with alarm clocks and days off, in cups of coffee and sunrises, and through birthdays, snow days, and the ordinary passing of time. Life has a natural ebb and flow—like shadows climbing the walls with the sun to tuck us in when night has begun. We live one day in, one day out, through the ordinary and the extraordinary moments of life.

This summer, we’ll follow the family narratives of Abraham, stories that make the title “ordinary” seem laughable. These stories are potent with drama and disappointment, punctuated by a God who keeps showing up, persistently, creatively, and lovingly. In the mess and
the mundane of family life, God works in ways that are surprising, transformative, joyful, reconciling, and unifying. The movement of the Spirit is anything but ordinary.

Everyone will have the opportunity to take a journal with you into the summer. We hope it will create space for reflection, study, and intention as you move through both the busy and slow moments of life. While the journal extends over the course of 12 weeks, we invite you to complete it at the pace and order that best suits you. Each week focuses on one of the Abrahamic family narratives, inviting you to dig deeper through art, visual and written reflections, and prayer. Planning pages at the beginning of the journal will help you add a touch of organization to the events that fill your days. We invite you to take your time with these resources, returning to them at home, on vacation, in worship and in study groups.

May we open ourselves to the surprisingly persistent grace of God which will always be anything but ordinary.

So join in this summer whether you are in town or at the lake, join in on Sunday mornings and join in through your own prayerful reflection. God is continuing to create in this community and is helping us become new in this green and growing season.