HOW | Will Dawn Recess?

This is my first recess at DOWNTOWN CHURCH. 

....And I am excited! 

I've always loved recess. It's the intentional break in the day to go outside in the sunshine and run around. It's the freedom to play outside the lines and invent new games, and to make new friends. As a structured person, I do love the unstructured time. It serves as a reset to my system, a break from schedules and timers and assessments. A time to exhale and breathe.

So, I'm curious and eager to see what "recess" in a church setting will be like for me. Obviously, Sunday morning corporate worship is an important part of my life. I've devoted myself to planning and leading it on a weekly basis. I flourish in the structure and communal aspect of church worship. And yet, I'm excited to stretch some of my other spiritual muscles and encounter God in some other "recess-like" ways.

Here's what I'm planning to do for recess:

(1) Resist the urge to plan. (This is already proving to be difficult, but I'm trying hard)

(2) Be outside. Enjoy the sunshine or the rain. Pay attention to the big picture and the small details of God's creation.

(3) Go to the grocery store or a coffee shop during the worship hour on Sunday and be really kind to the people who are there. Get to know their names, their stories, and how they worship the Holy, if they worship at all.

I'm thrilled to serve alongside a church community that isn't threatened by preserving it's own existence. Our church constitution, the Presbyterian Church (USA)'s Book of Order, says "The Church is to be a community of faith, entrusting itself to God alone, EVEN at the risk of losing its life" (F-1.03).  Recess accomplishes this in a unique and faithful way. It gets us (the community of faith)  out of our comfort zones, out of our routines, out of our commonplace expectations and invites us into new ways of expressing our faith and connecting with God. 

I have a nudge I'm going to miss worship with you, DOWNTOWN CHURCH, on the two Sundays of recess. I know just as I'm excited about my own experiment with recess, I'll be excited to come back!