5.6.2026

Some of my favorite memories as a young minister were around my senior pastor’s breakfast table while we were going through some discipleship training. We would meet at 7:00 AM on a Tuesday, which was great for our youth minister, who led the group, for our pastor’s wife, and for me because we were all morning people. My day typically began at 5:00 AM anyway, so 7:00 AM was prime time for me! 

However, the senior pastor and the children’s ministry guy were not morning people at all and would sit at the table like zombies! 

But the material we used was the best printed discipleship material I’ve come across, and believe me, I’ve read a lot of it. And there’s a lot of it out there. It’s big business. And a lot of it isn’t very good.

But I’m not so sure discipleship happens in these intense sorts of classes. The true work that changes us into the image of Christ takes place over a period of time, not in concentrated fits of fervor.

When I look back at those times around the pastor’s breakfast table, the lasting benefits came from spending time in the Bible, our fellowship, our meal together and our times of prayer. 

Does that sound familiar? 

Two Sundays ago we looked at the four practices that the early Christians devoted themselves to: the Apostles’ teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread, and the prayers.  These are the aspects of discipleship that will, over time, when practiced faithfully, shape us into the image of Christ (if it worked for the early church, I’m certain it will work for us!).

And at Christ Church, we do these things! We spend time in the Word, we partner together to learn from one another and do ministry, we meet faithfully at the Lord’s table as well as the dinner table, and we pray. 

And we do these things in the context of another incredible discipleship tool that you might not have even noticed and one that most people don’t take into consideration when they think about discipleship: the church calendar, also called the liturgical calendar. 

On that Sunday two weeks ago, I also defined a liturgy as a practice that is repetitive, ritualistic, and that shapes our desires, loves, and our ultimate vision of the “good life.” Our christian calendar fits this definition to a “t,” shaping our personalities and values through an intentional approach to the rhythms of the year.

Why a church calendar instead of the secular calendar? The church calendar centers life on the story of Jesus rather than secular holidays or consumerism. It provides a counter-cultural rhythm to our life that resists the frantic pace of secular life by providing seasons of reflection, fasting, and celebration. 

For example, just compare Advent/Christmas to the secular calendar. Advent is  (or should be) 4 weeks of reflection and fasting, followed by 12 days of Christmas celebration (beginning on Christmas Day!). Contrast that with Black Friday, followed by 4 or so weeks of frenzied shopping, 1 day of Christmas, then 3-4 weeks of football bowl season. See the difference? 

The roots for a religious calendar stretch back far into the Old Testament. Starting at the Exodus. God established the Holy Days and Festivals that would determine the annual rhythms of his people’s lives. The surrounding nations also had religious calendars, but theirs were centered around the seasons of harvest and the solstices. 

For God’s people, the calendar was anchored in God’s saving acts, celebrated through Passover (God’s deliverance from Egyptian slavery), Pentecost (the giving of the Law at Mt. Sinai), and the autumnal Festival of Booths (recalling 40 years of wandering). There were other feasts as well, but these were the 3 major feasts, and each recalls a major event in God’s gracious dealings with his people.

Why did God anchor the people’s calendar in these 3 events? So that they would never forget what God had done for them – or as I like to pray, they wouldn’t forget who they were and Whose they were. “Remember that you were a slave in Egypt,” God told the people (Deuteronomy 16:12).  Remember or remembrance occurs some 16 times in the book of Deuteronomy; some 320 times in the whole Bible! 

Our Christian calendar calls on us to remember as we relive the events in the life of Jesus and to arrange our lives around those events so that we can simmer in them year after year.  It breaks up the year into distinct spiritual seasons (Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, etc.) that allow us to relive the events in the life of Jesus in order to produce a flourishing, rooted spirituality and help believers grow. 

We’re in the season of Easter right now! It’s more than just the one day of celebration buoyed by eggs and chocolate bunnies. Each Sunday reminds us of the impact the Resurrection makes on our world – and it's a reminder we experience every year.

Lest we forget. 

Celebrating these seasons year after year keeps our priorities centered on God instead of on cultural trends, producing in us a spirituality that is rooted and flourishing. As the author Constance Cherry asked, “When it comes down to it, the question becomes, ‘Do I want to live my life in rhythm with the activity of God or in rhythm with the activity of culture?'” 

It’s a good question to ask ourselves, and it’s a question I’ll write about more next week as we prepare to celebrate Ascension Sunday. 

Blessings,

Pastor Terry