Planning the Year Ahead

When the year turns over, there is a ritual that I have come to appreciate: purchasing a new daily planner and putting together a general outline for what I expect for the year ahead.  I break out all of my rainbow highlighters and begin to mark things out that I know happen every year.  Secular Holidays are marked out and then family birthdays. Next comes the Christian calendar: I mark out Lent and Advent, Easter, Christmas, Pentecost, World Communion Sunday, and All-Saints Sunday.  Where holiday weekends pop up, I mark potential joint-worship services in anticipation of these low-attendance Sundays.  Next, I put together a potential schedule for Session, Deacon, and congregational meetings.  Lastly, based on the ebbs and flows of the year, I outline when I might take time off so that I don’t get too bogged down in work.

At the end of this process, I am left with a skeleton for the year ahead.  Even though I have plotted all of this down on my brand-new calendar, there are large swathes of white paper remaining.  This is just a frame of must-do’s that the rest of the year will hand off of.  In those blank space, there is opportunity and space for imagination.  The gaps between highlighted days will be filled with community and solitude, of trial and error, of business and of rest.

This past Thursday, I worked with the Session to do something similar to prepare for the year ahead.  We approved our schedule for Session meetings, Communion Sundays, potential joint worship services, our winter Annual Meeting and fall Congregational Meeting.  In case you want to put together your own calendar for the year with this information, here is what to expect:

Session Members:
Class of 2025: Erin DeFever and Sarah Leight
Class of 2026: Chris Kondak and Joe Turner
Class of 2027: Sue Fish and James Love

Session Meeting Schedule:
Feb 6, March 6, April 3, May 8, June 5, Aug 7 (optional), Sep 4, Oct 2, Nov 6, Dec 4, & Jan 8, 2026 (in-person at 6 pm for a holiday meal).

Northminster Annual Meeting
February 23, 2025 after worship including Lunch.

Northminster Congregational Meeting
November 23, 2025 after worship

Communion Schedule
Jan 12, Feb 2, March 2, April 6, April 17 (Maundy Thursday), May 4, June 1, July 6, Aug 3, Sep 7, Oct 5 (World Communion), Nov 2, Dec 7.

Joint Worship Services
Lenten Services – one to be hosted at Northminster
Ash Wed, March 5; Maundy Thursday, April 17; & Good Friday, April 18

Holiday Weekends – one to be hosted at Northminster
Memorial Weekend, May 25; Independence Weekend, July 6; & Labor Day Weekend, August 31.

Additional Services
Pentecost, June 8 & Christmas Hymn Sing, Dec 28

There are a few things that are still in the works.  In the coming weeks will be our Ordination and Installation service for our new Elders and Deacons but we need to verify the suggested date with all who would be involved.  There are also some additional events that the Session is planning that will be announced once the details have been settled; but the schedule above gives us a framework for the rest of the year - and I am sure that all of the space in between these dates will quickly be filled up with the life of our community.

Blessings for the year ahead,
Pastor Chris