You would never have believed that the program you are watching on this hot summer evening is a rerun you have already seen at least seven times (to use a good biblical number!). Stop for just a moment. Look around you. Is the scene in which your life has been momentarily captured also a rerun? Is this summer becoming a repeat of last summer, and the summer before that? My advice is not to waste a perfectly good summer by turning it into a rerun.
Near the end I'll get to a few sage words for the pastors in my association, so be warned you non-pastoral readers. Before then I intend to point my finger at myself and tell me what I had better do to keep my own summer from being a boring repeat. Some reruns are both entertaining and enlightening which explains why I like to rewatch The Lord of the Rings (all twelve hours!) ever so often. Likewise it never hurts me to read the same passage from the Bible over and over. However, as time grows short for me to experience every item on my bucket list, I cannot afford a rerun summer.
1. Learn something new. No, I don't mean how to keep from getting lost while driving in Raleigh or Charlotte though that is helpful. I do mean taking advantage of the internet, the local community college, or visiting one of the many fine local museums to gain knowledge on a subject in which you have an interest but have never taken the time to study.
2. Read a book, and not just one book, but at least one each month, and at least one of which will have nothing to do with my ministerial vocational career. History and archaeology, biography, writing and literary classics, and politics are all subjects that grab my interest.
3. Meet a community leader. Living in a community as I do, there are lots of them around. Every one of them knows something I don't. Every one of them has a perspective on this community different from my own. Every one of them can enrich my life by spending even a little time with them.
4. Grow something. Sure my garden is already well under way, but there is plenty of time to grow something else and experience the wonder of life increasing. This need not be a plant. If blessed, I can find the opportunity to help an individual grow by investing some time in that person's life.
5. Invest quality and quantity time in those people most important to you. Do it during the summer and every other season!
Each of these ideas is as applicable to a minister as it is to anyone sitting in the pews on a Sunday morning. The first step is always the hardest. Change is not always intentional, but it can be a lot more productive if it is. Deciding to make this summer different is that important first step. As for you pastors,
1. Meet your church members. I mean meet them somewhere other than at church or at a church function. Meet them on their terms on their turf. Let them show you how they live when not in Sunday best, either clothing or attitude.
2. Meet the administration at the public school closest to your church. They are a part of your community. You should know each other on a first name basis.
3. Celebrate a community group. Begin planning this summer to have a special recognition service this fall in your church for one of those public servant groups: police, firefighters, social services, emergency medical team, military units, local school administration and faculty.
4. Volunteer for a community project. Habitat for Humanity, a local thrift store, or a free medical clinic always needs volunteers in the summer when so many of their regular helpers are taking vacations. Such an experience sets an example for your church members.
5. Innovate. Give yourself some time to consider completing the question: "What if..." Dream beyond the normal, the average, the expected, or last year's events. Don't limit yourself to material resources as you dream. Let reality spoil the fun after you have dreamed, written those dreams down, outlined their purpose and the good they could do, and then think about how they could still be brought into reality with the resources you have in hand. Perhaps God will show you that you have more resources at your disposal than you had considered. God can do that with dreams.
Summers only come once a year. Don't waste it when it does.
