My daughter came out of Sunday School last week holding, among other take-homes, a large green construction-paper leaf. In my confusion I noticed that she had been practicing her cutting skills around the edges, creating a fringe. On one side the teacher had written "Palm Branch" in black crayon.
I wanted to smack my forehead. Of course! It was Palm Sunday! In the business of that morning and, honestly, of just life in general it had completely slipped my mind.
I didn't even know until a year or so ago that some denominations follow a liturgical calendar. Not having been exposed to that either growing up in my particular church or now in our Bible church I wasn't aware of such a thing until I saw it mentioned on another blog.
While I appreciate having the freedom in Christ to worship Him outside a structured system of days and seasons I can also see how following such a calendar year after year would be beneficial - creating discipline and focus. (And perhaps I wouldn't be so prone to forget things like Palm Sunday.)
What do y'all think? Did anyone grow up in a church that followed a liturgical calendar? Opinions? Just curious :-)
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I've always attended "mainline" protestant churches (lutheran growing up and now presbyterian) that typically follow a liturgical calendar. Outside of the bible belt, I'd say the majority of congregations follow such a system. The most obvious feature is that scripture readings (and in the protestant model usually the topic for the sermon) follow the revised common lectionary. If we were to go this week to a lutheran church, next week to methodist church, and the week after that to a catholic mass, there would be consistency of what scriptures are read. At least in the churches I've been a part of, following a liturgical calendar is not a restrictive characteristic. For me, the strength is that it keeps us from forgetting parts of our story, be it new testament stories or old, and reminds us of the seasons in our lives and the various spiritual needs that we have. One of the issues I'd see, is that after some time, the various seasons can seem routine and some of it causes it to lose its meaning. In a sermon-centered worship service, I'd think its quite a burden to keep things fresh.
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