Guard the Good Deposit

46 • Guard the Good Deposit: The Great Tradition for the Whole Church

Living in the Way: Our Spirituality The goal of our spiritual life is to be more like Jesus (Rom. 8.29). God’s way of forming his people in the Old Testament was to outline a calendar that reminded them of his mighty saving acts (see Deut. 16.1–16). Based on Israel’s calendar the early Church formed the Church Year around God’s might saving acts in Jesus Christ.

The Church Year is “an ancient means by which the Church through the ages has identified itself with the Story of God in Christ. Through the rhythms and observances of the Church Year, believers through history have remembered, reflected upon, and participated in the life of Jesus Christ.” 4

Why Do We Need the Church Year?

We need the Church Year so we keep the main thing the main thing. One of the great challenges in the Christian life is to stay focused on Christ and his Kingdom. The Lord is at work in every area of our lives and our world. The Gospel has implications for how manage our time, how we parent, how we use money, how we work, how we speak, how we relate to society, and so on, until we list everything! It is easy to get side-tracked into one area or another and lose sight of the bigger picture. How do we stay focused? How, over the course months and years, do we keep the main thing the main thing?

4 Davis, Sacred Roots , p. 104.