Pastor’s Perspective – September 2025
Does Your Calendar Own You?
School is back in session and with it we launch a new Church season at First Baptist Church. It is strange to realize how much the school year sets the agenda for our society and Church. Things like summer Bible schools, children’s camps, and family vacations are all synchronized to the school calendar.
The structure of a school year did not descend from Mount Sinai engraved in stone tablets. It was created out of cultural boundaries and communal expectations. Summer vacation was essentially a gift to rural America, who still relied upon the children to help in the farms and fields that sustained their lifestyles. The vacations and breaks are gathered around cultural holidays and governmental rhythms. Spring break was once called Easter break and may be rebranded once again to meet the religious or cultural demands of future generations.
While many people believe that the calendar is an objective structure imposed on us, it might be better to see the calendar as our way of prioritizing and creating meaning out of the deep tapestry of life and time.
Even within the objective confines of Western life, not all of us follow the same rhythms of life. We use many different calendars in the modern world. We have a fiscal calendar to guide our business cycles, a political calendar to guide our local, state and national elections, a Church calendar that begins each year with the celebration of Advent, and our Gregorian calendar system that begins with the celebration of New Year’s Day each January 1st.
The Chinese have a calendar, so did the Mayans, the Egyptians, the Muslims, the Byzantines, the Hindus and the Sikhs. Some of them are religious, others ethnic and some (like the Revolutionary Calendar created by the Jacobins in France) are based on the desire to rebel against the structures of the past.
Outside of the various religious and nationalistic calendars, there are also many cultural calendars, including what we might otherwise call “seasons.” Television shows and sports leagues create seasons where fans can enthusiastically organize their lives around games and episodes that are structured with clear expectations of beginnings and endings. While seasons are not understood by all people, you might notice that when football season begins many of the people in your life have decreased availability surrounding game days.
Calendars order and organize our complex lives into bite sized pieces and while many of them are in fact imposed upon us, the most important ones are the ones we intentionally establish. Times for family, days of worship, or seasons of prayer. All are important and all deserve to have a place of priority in your life.
As we prepare for this new year, take the time to carve out space with God, for worship and prayer. Give your family time for dinners, active listening, and play. Schedule a date night, take the time to attend your kid’s games, concerts, and shows. Make time for community participation and visiting with neighbors and friends.
The diversity of priorities in our world can mean that if we are not careful then someone else’s calendar will end up running us. Value every moment of your life and live it in the way that allows you to prioritize the things in life that have eternal value. Mark your calendar so that you can make a mark in your world.
May every season of life be blessed.
Pastor Dan
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