Several weeks have now passed since Easter. My hope is that by now, church leaders are scratching their heads and wondering if it was all worth it.
Easter mayhem?
A lot, LOT, of churches consider Easter to be a day for growth. For church marketing types, it is Super Bowl Sunday. With the highest attendance of the year the attitude seems to be “Since lots of people are coming let’s do something awesome and maybe those visitors will come back!”
And boy do churches go all out. They alter the schedule. They plan a special service. The kids ministry is amped up. There are meetings about the big day. There is a special marketing plan for the day. There are mailers and prizes and flowers and bands and rehearsals and... then it’s over.
Somehow in the middle of this we try to be somber and remember that Our Lord was crucified and three days later resurrected! But the truth is that staff at those churches are hyped up on adrenaline and hope that this is the year that they will reach a new attendance record.
Easter mayhem is the 2000s version of Vacation Bible School which was the 1980s version of Sunday School
I don’t know how it all got started. But somehow Easter went from a holiday we solemnly celebrated to a day where people can win a car for showing up to church.
Easter, in some churches, has become less a religious holiday and more a church growth opportunity.
Easter is the highest attended weekend of the year in most churches. But the weekend after Easter is one of the lowest attended weekends of the year. Followed by the month of May– where church attendance and program enthusiasm typically murmurs out as the school year comes to an end.
What’s the point?
The point is exactly my point. While attendance is typically at an all-time high engagement is at an all-time low.
And when you look at the return on that investment– Easter mayhem is as effective at reaching people as Vacation Bible School. There may be a whole lot of people there for the event, but does it translate to long-term attendees?
Not in my experience.
What translates to long-term attendees?
Neighbors loving neighbors. Finding a community where you belong. Community service. And other things that aren’t as sexy as giving people a car on Easter Sunday or shaving a pastors head on the last day of VBS.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPtltbBH6cg
We were just finishing up a glorious Easter supper when we all said, “Do you feel that?”
I looked to my right to see the chandelier rocking back and forth. It was about that time when Kristen and I both realized we were having an earthquake.
It wasn’t violent. Our house swayed back and forth. It literally felt like we were on a ship, rocking back and forth in the waves. And it lasted a while.
This was our first real earthquake experience since living in San Diego. For our kids, it was the first one they felt.
Paul– having finished supper and roaming the house in boredom, rode out the earthquake laying on our bed. He thought it was a blast. Megan, slightly more logical, grabbed her stuffed bunny and went outside. Paul giggled and Megan was freaked out.
Twitter lit on fire. Within 2 minutes of the quake, 35,000 tweets were posted with people saying they had felt it. People up in the Los Angeles area, people in Palm Springs, people in rural California and Arizona, and people as far away as Phoenix felt it. (5 hour drive)
Scientists later confirmed that the quake was centered south of Mexicali, about 100 miles from our house, and measured 7.2.
No damage at our house. Within about 10 minutes we went back to Easter as usual.
Aftershock city! Just like when you get off of a long boat ride, it felt like the earth kept moving. Some were real aftershocks and some were our imagination.
Our friends south of the border faired much worse, I’m afraid. CNN is reporting that 2 people were killed and lots more were injured. Additionally, tons of homes were seriously damaged.
It was an Easter to remember. And an Easter to be thankful for building codes.
That’s what many visitors are wondering today in churches across the country.
It’s my hope that churches around the country spent more time answering that question today than anything else.
Jesus tore the veil between us and God. His death eliminated the need for a High Priest to represent us to God. Jesus looked at a hodgepodge group of sinners, tax collectors, political nut cases, prostitutes, and fishermen and said to them… “on you I will build my church.” That’s hope for you and I. A church is a community of messy people.
We aren’t very priestly. We aren’t entirely seperate from sin. But what we are is atoned for and stumbling towards faith. Two steps forward, one step back.
Do I fit in here? That is the question visitors want answered.
If your church communicates that on Easter. Those visitors will come back. Roughly 79% of adults in America believe in the literal resurrection of Jesus. Don’t convince them in what they already believe.
Convince them in what they don’t believe…
