Most important Sunday of the year?

I work at a church. If you don't care about a local church then you can skip this post. If you do I think you will at least have some thoughts to consider afterwards.

Which Sunday is the most important Sunday of the year for a church?

Most of us would naturally say Easter Sunday, right?

I would agree if I'm asking the question from a Theological perspective then yes, Easter Sunday is the most important.

What if the question is asked from a Missional perspective? Which Sunday is most important in a Church's effort to do what Jesus asked us to do..."Make Disciples"?

I would venture to say that the Sunday After Easter is more important in the life of a local church than Easter is. I have to give credit where credit is due. I didn't always believe this, but after spending a few years around some fantastic church leaders especially Don Wilson (ccvonline.com), I have come to understand this principle

If you work at a church and just finished a Good Friday, Sunrise, and extra services you probably don't want to read this. Go ahead and go back to Facebook it will be OK. My timing isn't that great on this one- most of us just spent so much time and energy making Easter AWESOME we can't imagine next weekend much less a weekend with energy and excitement. Trust me I know I took a nap yesterday and another one today...Easter makes me tired.

But what about all the people who came to your church this Easter?

What if they come back?

Will they find the JV team on display?

What are you doing this week to make them want to come back?

Too often as I interact with church leaders, both paid and volunteers, who look at the week after Easter as a coast week. Let's do the minimum and hope no one notices. I completely understand that you can't run the engine of your church at 7,000 rpm week in and week out, but trust me when I say that the weeks after a huge effort like Easter are not the weeks to let the engine idle. Next year do this for me, actually for the people far from God in your community, figure out the lowest months for Church attendance in your community. Let's say it's, February, then that should be your idle month. Not April. April seems to be a universal and natural growth period for churches. The trick is to figure out ways to make April even bigger, not February, the key to church growth is maximizing the big months and making them bigger.

This week at the church I serve we are kicking off a new series called The Story. Easter was a preview for The Story. Our hope and prayer is that some of the folks who dropped in for Easter are compelled to come back this next week and experience God in a powerful way surrounded in a welcoming environment. You can get some info on The Story here:
http://thestoryflag.com/
http://www.thestory.com/home

If a middle aged father of two who hasn't been to church in 4 years came to your church Easter weekend, how will you get him to come back this week?

If you define success as making all of your church people happy on Easter then you probably won't prioritize the family that only comes 2 or 3 times a year. What if at Easter you did things in such a way you actually motivated them to check out what happens at your church the other 48 weeks a year? The way I look at is that we can't really gauge the effectiveness of our Easter efforts until next Sunday when we see who comes back.

What will you do this week to capture the momentum God granted you yesterday?

Proverbs 11

Proverbs 11 is one of those speed chapters. You know what I mean right? I typically read it as fast as I can. In the past I would have told you the basic message is it is better to be good than it is to be bad.

That's not a bad summary, but not quite the thing I apply throughout my day. I think if  you and I speed through Proverbs like its a list of camping locations in Numbers 33 then we will miss what it has to offer each of us.

Here a couple of lines from Proverbs 11 that are resonating with me. Not the only ones but the ones I'll discuss here.

When the righteous prosper the city rejoices...Through the blessing of the upright a city is exalted...A generous man will prosper he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed...A kindhearted woman gains respect...

When you and I are righteous...truly righteous...our neighborhood is a better place to live.

When we live the way God intended for us to live the people around us are blessed. They city rejoices and is blessed through the blessings and prosperity of the righteous. I didn't say Christians, because Christians aren't typically respected or celebrated in our communities today. (Christian has become a label we put on ourselves regardless of our morals and behavior. Righteous is a universally accepted standard of morals and behaviors, that in fact are displayed by some folks who also call themselves Christians.) Now some of you will read that statement and start booing the world and culture we live in. I read it and start booing the Christians.

Imagine this situation: Your church receives a donation of $10 million. OK if you are a pastor you need to take a deep breath. Your church just received $10 million. The local paper, the TV channels all show up and ask questions and report the incredible news. How will the average single mom in your community react?

How will people who don't come to your church react?

Would they celebrate the blessings your church received or would your community greet the news with skepticism? Proverbs says, "when the righteous prosper the city rejoices". If our cities and friends wouldn't celebrate a great blessing in our life then we aren't righteous, truly righteous. If the believers in Jesus Christ would make their neighborhoods and communities better places to live then the world would respect our women and celebrate our prosperity and blessings. The solution lies with us.

What can we do to make our communities a better place to live? What are we actually doing? Let's take the Wisdom of Proverbs 11 and start to engage our neighbors in ways that bless them.

Photo by Justin Capp