INTRODUCING OUR NEW "CHURCH YEAR" : A Vision & Plan for Community, Formation, and Discipleship at The Mission
INTRODUCTION
Pretty much every church I have ever been a part of and almost every church who’s vision statement I’ve ever read SAYS they exist to make disciples of Jesus. But I so rarely see churches articulate a plan or vision for HOW this disciple-making process is supposed to happen. At best, discipleship is usually happening but in a haphazard way through one-on-one relationships where some people are deeply invested in while others are unintentionally left out. At worst, no intentional discipleship happens, and churchgoers it seems are left to simply “get” their growth in the Lord by osmosis just through sitting in Sunday worship services and “picking it up” as they go.”
At The Mission Cincinnati, we want to be far more intentional about disciple-making because we believe truly being about the work of making disciples is core to the mission of Christ’s church and SO ESSENTIAL to what it means to live as Christians in our world today.
For these reasons, we are excited to share with you our NEW CHURCH YEAR: A Vision & Plan for how we will pursue community in the church, formation in the ways of Christ, and growth as Jesus’s disciples.
THE CHURCH YEAR AS TIME
Growing in Christ’s likeness is not easy, quick, or simple. Disicpleship takes time, intentionality, and involves lots of different components. It can be overwhelming to try to focus on every way we each are called to grow and live as Christ followers at once. For this reason, our NEW CHURCH YEAR, breaks the year into different SEASONS that can be mapped on the calendar in which we will focus on different things as a church.
THE CHURCH YEAR AS FOCUS
The different seasons and the focuses for each season in our NEW CHURCH YEAR are:
FALL GROUPS & GATHERINGS // September - November // The focus during this season is on Discipleship Community. During this season, we will host Pathways Cohorts, Geographic Small Groups, and Affinity Fellowship Gatherings (Women’s Gatherings, Men’s Gatherings, etc.), and offer the opportunity to sign up to be a part of a Prayer Triad.
ADVENT // December // During the season of Advent, we will focus on rest, and will pause from group activities and will celebrate by gathering together for an all church Advent/Christmas party.
EPIPHANY-TERM // January - mid February // During these 6 weeks, we will focus on teaching & equipping, and will offer leadership training as well as special interest classes taught by our members and/or pastors.
WINTER GROUPS & GATHERINGS // mid-February - mid-May // The focus during this season is again on Discipleship Community. We will offer the same groups and gatherings we offer in the Fall.
HOLY WEEK - During Holy Week, we break from our Winter Groups and Gatherings to make sacred space to observe and reflect on the events of Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection.
SPRING TERM // mid-May - end of June // During these 5 weeks, we again focus on teaching and equipping with leadership training tracks and special interest classes taught by our members, pastors, and/or special guests.
SUMMER // July & August // During Summer our focus is on rest & fellowship. We will gather Dinners for 9, and host one or more retreats for various teams or groups in the church.
THE CHURCH YEAR AS RHYTHM
Our world is seasonal. It makes sense that our life and faith would be the same. Part of the beauty & benefit of spending different seasons on different spiritual focuses is that create rhythms where we are naturally able to exert energy, focusing on loving and growing with others in community, then resting, then taking time to learn and be equipped, then engaging with others, before resting again. This rhythm of moving back and forth between contemplation and action helps us stay spiritually filled and recharged for the work of mission. We move out into the world from a place of rest and we retreat from the mission field and community building into seasons of rest. These spiritual rhythms also provide clarity for how our life together as a church is structured. This clarity increases hospitality as newcomers to our community quickly learn how they can join in. Clarity also helps us empower more leaders as we create new spaces with specific purposes that match up clearly with the gifts of people God has entrusted to our church. The result of all of this is greater fruitfulness and effectiveness for mission as we grow together and labor to reveal God’s Kingdom in our world and share the Good News of Jesus with others!
JOIN THE CHURCH YEAR STARTING THIS FALL !
We will begin our first season operating under these NEW CHURCH YEAR RHYTHMS this Fall, staring in September 2021. We’d love to invite YOU to join us as we begin to engage these new seasons, focuses, and rhythms together! You can get involved by joining a Pathways Cohort (more details on that HERE—> http://www.missioncincinnati.org/pathways), attending a monthly Men’s or Women’s Fellowship Gathering (full schedules coming by mid-August), or joining a Prayer Triad (signups coming soon!). We can’t wait to welcome you into journeying through our New Church Year with us!
For more info on the New Church Year and how you can get involved, contact Rev. Kristen Yates at kristen@missioncincinnati.org.