Be Transformed - Ordinary Time 2026
Ordinary Time, also known as the Season after Pentecost, is the long stretch of the church year outside the major seasons. The word ordinary does not mean unimportant. It comes from the idea of “ordered” or “counted” time - the counted weeks in which the church learns to follow Jesus in the ordinary patterns of daily life.
This year, we are walking through the liturgical calendar with the theme Be Transformed. The Christian life is one of ongoing formation - the slow, gracious, often hidden work of the Holy Spirit renewing us from the inside out. Ordinary Time reminds us that this transformation does not happen only in dramatic moments or special seasons. Much of our growth in Christ happens slowly, steadily, and quietly through repeated rhythms of faithfulness.
We are always being formed by the world around us. Hurry, distraction, busyness, and constant digital noise shape us more than we often realize. Ordinary Time invites us to resist passive formation and step intentionally into rhythms that help us abide in Christ and be formed more deeply into his image.
During this season, we want to learn how to follow Jesus in the ordinary places of life: our homes, work, relationships, schedules, habits, conversations, and rest. God is not only forming us in moments of intensity, but in the daily and weekly patterns that shape who we are becoming.
For Ordinary Time, our personal discipline is creating a Rule of Life.
A Rule of Life is a simple, intentional pattern of practices that helps us abide in Christ and live with God in the ordinary rhythms of life. It is not a rigid checklist or a way to earn God’s favor. It is a gracious structure that helps us make space for what matters most.
In many ways, a Rule of Life is a system for integrating spiritual practices into your daily, weekly, monthly, and annual rhythms. It helps us move from being passively “conformed to the pattern of this world” to being intentionally “transformed by the renewing of our minds” in Christ.
To help you create your Rule of Life, we encourage you to use the Prayer & Practice Book. This book is designed to help you proactively resist hurry, lack of margin, and addiction to digital devices by creating simple rhythms of prayer, Scripture, reflection, rest, and intentional discipleship.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES : PENTECOST 2026
GROWN-UP RESOURCE
The Common Rule: Justin Whitmel Earley
In addition to using the Prayer & Practice book to help you form a rule of life, you might consider using this book as a resource. Below is the publisher’s description.
The modern world is a machine of invisible habits, forming us into anxious, busy people. We yearn for the freedom of the gospel but remain shackled by our screens and exhausted by our routines.
The answer is a rule of life that aligns our habits to our beliefs. The Common Rule's four daily and four weekly habits transform frazzled days into lives of love for God and neighbor. Justin Earley provides doable, life-giving practices to find freedom and rest for your soul. This expanded edition now includes questions for individual reflection and group discussion.
KIDS & FAMILY RESOURCE
This Is the Church by Sarah Raymond Cunningham
An elaborated version of the classic children’s rhyme, this book helps teach children about the life of the church and the truth that the church is its people, not its physical location.
YEAR-ROUND RESOURCE
Prayer & Practice Book - A City Church book of common prayer.
With short daily liturgies, planner pages, and collections of breath prayers, blessings, and more, this is intended to be a daily resource to help us integrate the many pieces of our lives.
Download PDF here or email us for a printed copy.
LITURGICAL YEAR
The liturgical calendar follows the life of Christ and, in its cyclical rhythm, invites us to enter the movement of his life on a yearly basis. As we observe each season, we can observe Christ. We pray that as you allow the seasons of the church year and anchor your life to the life of Christ, you’ll discover that a fuller joy and vitality marks your days.
Lesslie Newbign writes, “the business of the Church is to tell and to embody a story, the story of God’s mighty acts in creation and redemption and of God’s promises concerning what will be in the end. The Church affirms the truth of this story by celebrating it, interpreting it, and enacting it in the life of the contemporary world.”
Each Sunday we see the arc of God’s story rehearsed and embodied (God is Holy, We are Broken, Jesus Saves Us, Jesus Sends Us)... but how do we “enact it in the contemporary world” of our homes, where we can create culture and habits that form us.
The church calendar, much like Sunday Service, moves us through a story. Specifically the story of Jesus with his incarnation in Advent all the way through the sending of the church in Pentecost.
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ADVENT - the future hope of Christ
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CHRISTMAS - the joyful birth of Christ
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EPIPHANY - the perfect manifestation of Christ
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LENT - the temptation and death of Christ
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EASTER - the world-changing resurrection of Christ
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PENTECOST - the renewing Spirit of Christ