What After Easter?

As pastors and church leaders experience the excitement of the seasons of Christianity, there are ups and downs in our emotions. After Easter, we are tired. We have been so busy and it has been so intense. After the Easter pressure, we feel we deserve a break. We do! There is nothing wrong with taking a break. Yet when the local churches program takes a break – we do less ministry or provide fewer opportunities for learning or fellowship – then a people begin to think that it is only worth going to church at Christmas and Easter. We sometimes gripe about having only a Christmas and Easter crowd but one of the reasons is that is when we do our best ministry and programming and so people tend to think that is the time to attend church.

Lots of churches across America have come to realize that Christmas and Easter are an opportune times to launch new programs and new ministries in order to encourage people to return the following Sunday. When Sundays are a letdown with less emphasis, programming, ministry, and care, we tell the congregation that it is less important.

Some simple guidelines that I have learned through trial and error: first, if I am going to be off a Sunday or two after Easter or Christmas make sure you have the best substitute you can find. You need someone as good or better than yourself to preach the Sunday that you are gone. Second, you need a new emphasis: start a new sermon series or ministry, using the excitement of Christmas or Easter to launch it. Use the Lent and Advent season to really plug the new ministry. Third, we need to be sure that the ministry of the church continues every week through the entire year. The work of God is year-round work.

People are creatures of habit. The church work does not have a vacation. The need for the Gospel is always there. Members as well as visitors participation oftentimes flow with the excitement of the program and demand of the involvement with the church. Years ago, my friend Lyle Schaller did research about churches that are growing and wrote some significant explanations comparing what he called “high-demand” churches and “voluntary associations”. The high-demand churches were the ones that were growing, people respond positively to the challenge, the demands and opportunity. If we want to reach more people for Christ and have people becoming more fully devoted disciples of Christ, then the church never takes a vacation. The Christian community is always open, responsive, helpful, active, and demanding.

My exhausted friend, after Lent and Easter says “I need to take a break”, and the answer is – you deserve a break today and some time off but our task as a leader is to see that the quality and excitement of the church goes on whether we are in town or on vacation. That is not hard to do at all!