Summers Are For Mission

Summer is a time of changing rhythms.

Many of the normal activities of the school year cease. Ministries slow down. Families often get out of town to vacation.

For many, it’s an important time of respite and renewal.

However, I’ve found one of two things typically happen in the lives of people of faith during this time. Some take the summer to not only vacation from work, but also to vacation from discipleship. Others, however, recognize that summer is a uniquely strategic time for living on mission.

These people don’t step out. They lean in.

We have found that during the other three quarters of the year our lives often consist with lots of connections with lots of different people for short periods of time. Summer on the other hand often lends itself to more time with fewer people.

Therefore summer is often a season for deep connection and relational breakthroughs. Things that pay dividends throughout the rest of the year.

Each summer all kinds of new spiritual ground is plowed. New seeds are planted, old seeds are watered and many of both are grown around campsites, grills and bonfires. Slowing down with a few makes space for soulful conversations that can be otherwise hard to come by during other parts of the year.

Of course, these connections can’t really be planned, only prepared for. And unhurried conversation around the table is half the work.

This means summertime has the potential to be a relational goldmine.

What if instead of vacationing from church life during the summer, we instead leaned into being the church as we go?          

What if traveling with family became more than simply getting everyone from Point A to Point B and instead became an ongoing adventure of looking for opportunities to bless others as we go? What if our kids were to join us in looking for opportunities to step into the lives of others?

There’s no place that is off limits to what God might be up to at any given moment - on the road, in an airport, at a hotel, on the beach, at a routine gas stop, around a campfire – it all counts!

When we shift our perspective in this way with those around us, I think we will find that:

Summer isn’t a throwaway season for ministry. It’s prime time for some of God’s most exciting work.