Our confirmation classes are wrapped up; senior Sunday was celebrated; we’ve passed Memorial Day; and now our church’s summer Wednesday evening services are on the horizon!

Did you hear that sigh of relief that leaked out of your congregation in the past couple weeks? … I did. At least from my church. 

Not a sigh of, “Oh good heavens, we’re done with church for the year!” … (Well, OK, who am I kidding! Maybe that was what our confirmation students were thinking when they sighed contentedly!)

But rather a sigh of, “Ahhh, that familiar, languid summer pace is back again!”

I’m not going to lie: Summertime at our church has a different feel. Not better; not worse. Just different.

In 2021, coming out of the pandemic shut down, we threw tradition aside and launched Wednesday evening services in the summer. It was part reluctantly acknowledging that most of our congregation was gone on Sundays in the summer; part experiment in how to do church differently in a different age.

Five years in, I know there is a range of feelings regarding our Wednesday night services, but I think they are here to stay. And I am OK with it. 

I believe our Wednesday night summer services bring with them a lightness, an airyness, that just isn’t felt during the rest of the church year. Again, not a better, nor a worse feeling. Just a bit more relaxed. As if we don’t have to grip so tightly to the belief … no, the illusion … that our worship services have to be perfect.

It’s a good break, a healthy break, from the breakneck speeds we live most of our lives. I’m telling you, there is much to love about these services!

Faith friends, I pray that you too get to slow down a bit this summer. Maybe take a backroad here and there. Maybe check out of work a little early, or take a Friday off now and then.

It’s no secret that the speed of our 21st century lives continues to quicken, and there seems little room to linger anymore. But that is exactly my prayer for you all: That even for just a little bit, you get some time to linger on a front porch watching a setting sun, or in a boat while you patiently wait for a nibble, or at a kids ball game, or even with a book snuggled into a favorite chair. Wherever you find peace and rest.

Sabbath is an important concept, not just theologically as God intended, but physically, mentally and spiritually. … May you all feel the Holy Spirit’s permission to ease off the gas pedal this summer. Amen.

Devlyn Brooks is the CEO of Churches United in Moorhead, Minn., and an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America serving Faith Lutheran Church in Wolverton, Minn. He blogs about faith at findingfaithin.com, and can be reached at devlynbrooks@gmail.com.