The year may run January to December, but something strange happens in the summer. Time slows down (or speeds up if you’re on vacation) and life becomes a little less predictable as we try to find time in the sun. In climate like Edmonton’s, you need to get your Vitamin D when you can…

Over July and August, the plan will be to generally meet at Mount Carmel Bible College starting at 11am, unless indicated otherwise below.

• Sunday, July 2: In light of it being a long weekend, we’re going to be taking it easy and having pancakes together on Sunday. The plan is to meet at 11am at Mount Carmel. Feel free to bring whatever you think goes with pancakes!

For a bunch of the summer, we’re going to be shifting gears during our main service and just breaking into smaller groups to discuss the Bible. Specifically, we’re going to be picking up our loosely defined, somewhat wandering “series” on the Fruit of the Spirit and reflecting on specific passages together. Feel free to read ahead! Someone will guide our discussion through questions, and we’ll have communion together as usual. There will also be a lighter Sunday school program for kids in Grade 6 and under, where they’ll be working their way through the What’s in the Bible series.

• Sunday, July 9: Week 1 of FUN (Figuring oUt biblical kNowledge) — We’re going to be reading 1 John 4:7–21 and talking more about how God is Love.
• Sunday, July 16: Week 2 of FUN (see above for the iffy acronym) — We’ll be looking at the topic of “God is joyful” with a focus on John 15:1–11. Communion to follow, and there will be Sunday School for the kids.
• Sunday, July 23: Week 3 of FUN (you get it now, I think) — This week, the focus is on how God is Peaceful, with Psalm 23 as our guide. If you’d like to go a bit deeper prior to our time discussing, I’d encourage you to check out this short video from the Bible Project folks, all about Peace. They do a great job capturing how the word (in Hebrew and Greek) is used across the Bible. We’ll have communion to follow, and there will be Sunday School.
• Sunday, July 30: Week 4 of FUN — This week, we’re thinking about how God is Patient, and we’ll be looking at 2 Peter 3:1–18 together (although Nils suggests that we focus on vss 8 and 9). The hope this summer is to spend some time wrestling with scripture as a community and … this one is a bit of a doozy!
• Sunday, August 6: Sabbatical Sunday! That means no church!
• SATURDAY, AUGUST 12: Instead of getting together on Sunday, the plan is to meet on Saturday, August 12 at Jay and Margie’s at 3 pm, to make many, many lunch bags, which some of us will take early the next morning to Inner City Pastoral Ministries in downtown Edmonton. We’ve been doing this for a couple of years now. ICPM would love to have a couple of us stick around to hand out the lunch bags to people, which lets the folks who work there actually visit with the people who come for help. (Talk to Jay if you want to lend a hand). We’ll follow the sandwich-making with a 5 pm potluck bbq in the joint back yard of Kings/Gurnetts. Plan to bring your own burgers and a side or dessert to share if you want. We will have buns and hot dogs around.
• Sunday, August 20: We’ll be resuming our FUN times, looking at passages relating to two of the Fruit of the Spirit: God’s Kindness and God’s Goodness. How do they relate? Titus 3:1–8 and Psalm 145 (specifically v. 5–9) are the focus.
• Sunday, August 27: This week, we’re talking about God’s Faithfulness. Exodus 34:4–7 and Deuteronomy 7:7–10.

If you’re interested in being on the email list for more details on what’s happening from week to week, send Jeff a note.