August is here. The news is all abuzz with what decisions parents are going to make about school for their children. I recently saw an article that said at this time of year there is usually a surge in sales for all those traditional back to school things. However, this year the surge is in laptops, with parents most likely getting ready for virtual school or homeschooling. In most churches, this is  also usually a gearing up month for a new season of ministry, but not so much this year.

If you can remember back to January 1, which seems like an eternity ago, I said that my first year would be spent getting to know you as a congregation and the seasons of ministry here at First Presbyterian Church in Punta Gorda, FL, to learn traditions, holidays, and special church celebrations.

Then Covid-19 hit. I joked with someone the other day that when Easter rolls around in 2021 I will have been here almost a year and a half but not have had an Easter with the church. I will still be learning the traditions of our church. The virus has certainly created a different kind of first year.

But being different is not all that bad, after all when you, and I, became a Christian, we were made different. In 2 Cor 5, we read: 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;

There is no end to the number of articles being written now on the new normal of the church, how it will be different, which in some ways seems funny to me as we are still in the midst of the pandemic. But we do plan, and set out vision, and look to the future. No matter the differences, our purpose is still the same. We were given the ministry of reconciliation.

 You remember when Jesus called His first disciples, He called them to be fishers of men. They most likely did not have a clue what He meant by that statement, they simply knew there was something different about this man, and they wanted to know more. So, they followed Him.

Before He returned to heaven, He gave them the same mission, Matt 28 records: 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

Things are different, and they will be changing even more. Who knows what the new normal for church will look like? However, our mission stays the  same, even if the way we go about being the  church changes. God has placed our church at this location for a reason. I want to encourage you to put on your thinking caps, and get creative. How will First Presbyterian Church carry out the ministry of reconciliation in the Punta Gorda area? Exciting times await us in this new normal – whatever that may be.