I’m of the thinking that a Church calendar puts ‘rules’ about what happens in church before the inspiration of the Holy Spirit – that it limits our ability to respond to the Holy Spirit’s.
Is this true at Pentecost?
As we are now around the time of Pentecost many of us are hearing the story told at the beginning of Acts. So can being taught about the Holy Spirit get in the way of the intentions of the Holy Spirit???
I’m tempted to think ‘yes it can’!!!
a calendar is functional. I have a birthday one to remind me… it doesn’t mean that those people on it lose significance in any way during the rest of the year… it simply reminds me.
We need a calendar to remind us of the stories. we need to hear the stories to give us an opportunity to remind, refresh, revisit our past and think to the future.
You are right in one way that teaching on the Holy Spirit doesn’t get folk in the way of the holy spirit (whatever you mean by that). However, the history exists and if we fail to use it we deny it’s true relevance to the Christian community.
Perhaps the true sadness of postmodern culture is it’s search for significance in new stories and the fact that many Christians don’t think the history of faith is relevant there. I guess folk can be choosy as to what they remember and the feel that a calendar which provides a reminder is “limiting”.
Don’t even get me started on saints days…
Hi disgruntled! Yes, good point. We mustn’t forget our history. What we need to be free of is a sense that ‘because it is day x we must spend time thinking about y’.
As you say, in September I can be benefit from thinking about Christ’s ressurection, in April I can benefit from thinking about Christ’s birth. When we have a relationship with God we can’t forget these things.
I think that to say we ‘need’ a calendar is perhaps a bit strong when we have the Holy Spirit regularly (if only it was continually) in conversation with us.
Perhaps the problem with postmodern culture is a reliance on stories rather than relationships???
I grew up with the church year and found it restricting; however now i am in a church that lives outside the church year, and (after 10 years of this) am starting to find it somewhat one-dimensional. I think there is a wholeness in the discipline of following the yearly themes, including covering the more difficult Bible passages, that would benefit many churches. Maybe there is a case for choosing to stick with the ecclesiastical calendar for 12 months every so often; perhaps once every 5 years or so?
Hi Mark CE, your comment highlights the apparent conundrum of trying to figure out what to do, what would be right and what would be wrong. I wonder if the answer is “we can’t figure out what to do”?
Perhaps the only way to know what to do is to hear it, be told it?