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 27

"He who tends a fig tree will eat its fruit, and he who looks after his master will be honored."

I often forget how much the Bible talks about our relationships with earthly masters. The generally accepted equivalent is a boss. Most everyone I know has a boss, not everyone but most everyone. We usually forget the biblical mandate to honor our bosses. We usually forget the biblical examples of people who did so.

Joseph was elevated to run Potiphar’s household, because he understood the Wisdom of this Proverb. He made Potiphar look good. He was blessed because of it, in fact when the bosses’ wife tried to change his job description he still looked after the best interest of his boss. John 12 uses similar language in the relationship between Jesus, his Father (Master), and us. We are honored when we serve our masters.

Then why do we spend so much time tearing them down?

“When I run this place I will…”

“He is out of touch we need a new leader…”

“Our pastor doesn’t, isn’t, won’t…can’t”

You get the idea. I’m just quoting myself, not you I promise, if you have ever said this it’s pure coincidence. ;).

What I realized is that when I question or undercut my leader I am only hurting myself. I am missing out on the blessing of being a good follower. I am deciding against honor. It is arrogance, pride, and or insecurity for those of us who aren’t the boss to commentate on her or him every chance we get.

I do it more than I care to admit. I need to watch very carefully how I speak about my boss, so do you. As an employee or associate we need to be the biggest advocate and cheerleader for our superior(s). As a Christian we have an even greater responsibility, when we are submissive at work we are showing the world the pattern that Christ was showing us.

Think about it this way, when you are the boss what do you want your followers saying about you in the break room, or over coffee at Starbucks. Unless you and I start talking that way about our boss why would we ever get the opportunity to sit in that seat?

The graduate course on this topic is to not just speak well of your boss but to look out for his interest- making him or her look good becomes your main priority.  

Leadership

The last two days I attended the Global Leadership Summit via satellite.
http://www.wcablog.com/
I learned a lot. A couple of the sessions were very inspiring.

I have one lingering thought: Some people are leaders, some people are doers, and most people fall into the second category. Here is the application for me: I need to quit getting frustrated with doers who don't act like leaders. They aren't leaders, God didn't make them leaders, so why am I always feeling so frustrated when they don't act like leaders?

What I'm realizing (and this is for sure a work in progress) is that my frustration is more reflection upon the condition of my heart than it is anyone else. As it was stated today at the Summit the greatest leaders are humble. I realized that my unrealistic expectations of myself and others is based on pride and lacks humility.

I should probably change my thinking in this area. What is challenging your thinking/behavior lately?

Newest book on self-help

I've read a great book recently that is going to change the world.
I went through the self-help section of my local book store and couldn't find it.
I went to Amazon and typed in leadership and it didn't show up there either.
You may have a hard time finding it yourself, so your welcome for sharing about it here.

As I've renewed my own interest in closing the gaps that exist between who I am and who I want to be, I think I've stumbled across a book which will help me in this journey.

The next few weeks, as I take up this blogging thing again, I'm going to focus my thoughts from this incredible book.

During a recent season of reflection I realized that everything I struggle with is addressed in this one book.

I also realized the situations most other people struggle through are addressed in this book as well.

I hope you find this book as helpful as I have. I hope my thoughts and questions lead you in a positive direction.
The book of Proverbs opens with this claim:

"for attaining wisdom and discipline; for understanding words of insight; for acquiring a disciplined and prudent life; doing what is right and just and fair..."

As I've been reading Proverbs I've come to realize that all the things I wish were different, really can be. Join me as I look at this challenging book through the lens of gaps and how we can all close the gap between where we are and where we want to go!