My wife and I attended a terrific Easter service yesterday at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa, California.
Thousands of people attended. We sang praise songs to the risen Christ … witnessed a multi-sensory video/dance presentation … heard a biblical message on the resurrection followed by a moving testimony … and witnessed baptisms when the service ended.
Because most churches expect they’ll have a larger-than-normal crowd on Easter, everyone goes all out. There’s an organized clean-up day on Saturday … people bring Easter lilies on Sunday … the worship team plans a special song … the pastor spends extra time on his message … and the congregation leaves feeling upbeat and hopeful.
But ironically, the following Sunday is one of the worst-attended services of the year … presumably because many people have now accomplished half of their annual Easter/Christmas assignment.
But what if a church acted like every Sunday was Easter?
Theologically, most of us know that the early Christians changed their day of worship from the last day of the week to the first day because Jesus rose from the dead on a Sunday.
But too many churches – as I have witnessed during recent visits – put little effort into planning their regular services.
It’s 3 praise/worship songs for 15 minutes … followed by a greeting time/announcements/the offering … followed by the pastor’s message and a final song/benediction.
This is the basic order of service in about 75% of the churches I’ve visited over the past 40 months.
On Easter … Christians pull out all the stops. On the other 51 Sundays, it’s business as usual … with the possible exception of a special service around December 25.
No wonder some people only come to church on Easter and Christmas! Those are the only occasions the average church tries to do anything out of the ordinary.
How can a church make every Sunday Easter?
Let me make four quick recommendations:
First, the pastor has to become integrally involved in the planning of every service.
A pastor can’t delegate worship planning to someone else … and he can’t plan a worship service by himself, either.
There was a time 25+ years ago when I planned all the services at my church unilaterally … then I led the entire service myself, including the singing, testimony time, prayers, and sermons.
I was too lazy or busy to consult with others about the service week-after-week. But I would work with others on Easter Sunday … and those were always the best services.
Hmmm.
The pastor may be a trained “professional,” but he needs input from others to offer services that will reach both men and women … young and old … and believers and unbelievers.
And he has to learn to value people who think differently than he does.
While pastors need to have the final say on every element in a service … and the congregation expects that he will … this kind of planning requires getting key leaders together several times a month … and it’s essential if a church wants to make every Sunday Easter.
Second, the service has to be rehearsed.
No, a church service isn’t a show … but Jesus Christ deserves our best efforts … and that means working out the bugs before going prime time.
For the first 1/3 of my pastoral ministry, the churches I served didn’t rehearse any of their services. If someone was going to sing a solo, they’d meet with their accompanist privately, but no provision was made for handling transitions (where to sit, when to come to the stage, how to hold the microphone, where to walk off). Consequently, many service elements ended up being handled awkwardly … causing the congregation to cringe.
I remember the day it all changed for me.
I met with the leader of our worship band to plan the Easter service. He had great ideas. Then a few days before Easter, the entire service was rehearsed … from beginning to end.
After my message that Easter, three people prayed to receive Christ … an unusual event at the time.
Afterwards, a young teenager came up to me and said: “That was the best church service I’ve ever attended! If I lived around here, I would go to this church.”
Bingo! I realized that we needed to take our services up about five levels … and the best way to do that was to plan and rehearse every service.
That will make every Sunday Easter.
Third, the topics have to relate to people’s everyday lives.
I know a church where they offer a traditional service and a contemporary service.
The traditional service is aimed at seniors … and the place is fairly full.
The contemporary service is aimed at younger people … and the place is largely empty.
Why? Because the pastor preaches through entire books of the Bible … and he doesn’t do it well enough to capture the interest of people under 40.
Many pastors … and I include myself … were trained to be expository preachers. We delight in preaching through Deuteronomy or Ezra or Ephesians or Hebrews.
In fact, the more challenging text, the better!
During the week, we study the text … gather our commentaries … scratch out an outline … and put together our message. On Sunday, we stand up to preach.
But let’s be honest … very few pastors are great expositors.
I once preached through 2 Chronicles. I found it fascinating … and emptied out half the church in the process.
I have a pastor friend who can take a Bible chapter, a single verse, or any topic and hold your attention for a solid hour … but he’s a rarity.
In my view, most pastors should speak topically … just like Jesus did. While Jesus gave biblically-based messages, most of his sermons were topical … like the Sermon on the Mount. He dealt with contemporary issues in the culture and the religious sphere – holding the attention of His hearers – and constantly brought them back to Old Testament texts.
And Jesus constantly told stories … and yet my guess is that about 1/3 of the pastors I’ve heard preach recently didn’t tell one story.
There’s a time to go through books of the Bible – maybe in a small group, or at a midweek study – but fewer people than ever are going to church in this country.
Maybe we need to change the way we teach before they’ll even consider coming … just like we do on Easter.
Finally, we need to speak in a language our culture can understand.
My wife and I attended a Good Friday service last week. While the pastor conducted the service, he didn’t preach. Instead, the “message” was a monologue presented by the centurion who stood by the cross when Jesus was crucified.
While I would have preferred at least a dialogue … the centurion could have been interviewed on a first-century talk show, for example … I give that church an “A” for understanding how to speak to our culture.
Most churches in our day have a band … and the pastor uses PowerPoint in some form … but we can do so much more with our services to draw lost people toward Jesus.
In my view:
*We need more testimonies (in person or on video). These can be done as monologues or as interviews.
*We need more presentation songs. I can’t understand the aversion that churches have to asking gifted vocalists to sing solos. Yes, it’s a lot of work … but it’s worth it. (Our home church in Arizona still does 1-2 presentation songs every weekend.)
*We need more creative Scripture reading and more meaningful times of prayer (don’t we believe in the priesthood of all believers?).
*We need to produce more in-house videos. I know a church full of seniors where they’re more advanced in using video technology than most churches filled with GenXers!
*We need to move people both spiritually and emotionally. (I cried my way through “Don’t You Hear the Mountains Tremble” at yesterday’s Easter service because it’s the first time I’ve ever heard that song done in a worship service.)
And friends, let’s be honest: strong left-brained pastors … and I include myself … aren’t very good at moving people emotionally.
This is why pastors need to work with more creative right-brained people.
Reaching people for Jesus starts with presenting Christ in a creative, authentic, relevant, and excellent fashion.
But too often, we’re just talking to ourselves … and not making a dent in fulfilling the Great Commission.
But if we’ll make the effort, we can turn every Sunday into Easter.
And people will come. People most certainly will come.
And they will find Jesus Christ … who can make every day of our lives Easter.
As an attendee, I recognize what you are talking about and it’s a really good read. Yesterday Umago Dei, my ‘second’ church in Portland, di d a really deep Easter service. It included baptisms but before them, each person–mostly young people–gave a recorded video short testimony. It really lit up the morning…then my day ended watching the final installment of History’s Bible series…I thought the series very good excep t for the ruished and unexplained ending where they showed the Earth undoubtedly meant to be ‘the new Earth’ but not explained as such..or how Christianity would take hold as Rome’s ‘religion’ 200 plus years later. Sometimes church services are like that..stuff thrown in and not explained, to fill out the sermon……and I agree that testimonies, even short ones, can be really edifying to most congregants…Most of all, each week, in some way, the spiritual has to be made into a ‘living’ thing!
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Thanks for your observations, Don. As someone who specializes in communication, you’re well aware of how to connect with both churchgoers and the culture. But in my view, way too many pastors just don’t connect with the culture at all. We’re talking to ourselves. I just don’t see Jesus nor Paul acting that way. They spoke effectively both to believers and to unbelievers. The pastors who put together meaningful services don’t just lead churches that grow … they also reach people without Christ. We need many more of them!
Take care, Don.
Jim
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I miss those days sitting down and thinking and processing how we were going to present the service in a creative way leading people to salvation. I believe the church needs to put in more effort on Sunday mornings presenting the gospel in a relevant and authentic way. I visited a very large church recently and was sitting with their staff…about 20 people in a meeting. At the very end of the 2 hour staff meeting the leader stood up as people were leaving and said, “Oh, by the way, what does Sunday look like…we will do some songs etc.? Lots of talk before about things that were somewhat important…but little to no talk about the one day (Sunday) the day a person comes to church for one hour during the week. What gifts do we have for these people who are lost, needy, lonely and hurting. God has given us gifts at the time of our salvation, I would love t see the church utilizing these gifts to their max for the salvation and edifying of people who come for one hour every week for the glory of God!
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Amen! I agree with you wholeheartedly, my sister in Christ. So often, we are just talking to ourselves … and rarely in a language that impacts people without Christ.
From what I know, you’ve served the Lord with distinction and creativity in the past. Is that correct?
Your Humble Servant
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