When I heard that the theme for SALT18 was Someone’s Sunday: It’s Never Just Another Sunday, it’s Always Someone’s Sunday I knew this year was going to be a great year for us as the church to evaluate how to make every week something special for our communities. In fact, it reminded me of a turning point for me and my team at Piedmont Chapel where we had our own “Someone’s Sunday” revelation.
It was right after Easter. I was sitting in a post-Easter meeting with the rest of our staff discussing how we could overcome the inevitable slump in attendance through the summer. It seems that there are a lot of competing factors throughout the summer–vacations, events or just amazing weather.
Even before launching, our church dreamed about being a place where it was so enjoyable to be here that you would plan your vacations around our Sunday gatherings. With this dream in mind, as we sat around the table together, we came up with this idea: every Sunday in the summer, we would do something unique to that week to make it stand out. We wanted every week to be special.
[bctt tweet=”every Sunday in the summer, we would do something unique to that week to make it stand out. We wanted every week to be special.” username=”kendallconner”]
The ideas seemed to be all over the place. Some were tame and others were on the extreme side, but we took everyone’s ideas and quickly discovered that we could do a lot to add some excitement to our weekend services! For example, we decided to give away a grill on Father’s Day weekend and provide Bomb Pops on the 4th of July. We even had a character day for kids where we invited Spiderman and Elsa from Frozen to come and hang. (What student or child wouldn’t be excited to come to the church Spiderman and Elsa attend, right?)
The Moment That Changed Everything.
I remember the first Sunday of that summer. We had a plan to give every child a balloon. When this little girl saw that we were doing this, she walked up to me and asked, “IS there something special going on this Sunday?” And though she didn’t intend for it to sound negative, it was tough for me to not be slightly disappointed that she had to ask.
Every week is supposed to be special at Church!
Balloons were among the most inexpensive ideas we had for that summer, one we almost didn’t do! To think that people had the mindset that something had to be special for the Church to give away a 50 cent ballon, blew me away. This single moment with that little girl has been the spark for our team to constantly dream up more ways to make Sunday special… every week of the year.
After Summer
It’s been several years now since we initiated this concept of making every Sunday special. And after about a year of doing this every week, I can tangibly see the impact we are making in our community.
Almost every week, we do our best to make it Someone’s Sunday by making our church a “can’t miss” environment! To pull this off, we had to dedicate both money and people to this idea. So we put a team together called the Moments Team and appropriated a little bit of our creative ministry funds to help make this happen. However, I was constantly impressed by some of the ideas they would come up with that wouldn’t cost that much.
Without a doubt, this has been one of the most impactful things we’ve implemented within our community.
“Special Sunday’s” have had such a profound impact on our families, our culture and the freedom people have felt to invite a friend to church! Our congregation has always been passionate about Jesus, don’t get me wrong, but this one idea seemed to increase their sense of positivity, acceptance of others and a general spirit of goodwill! By simply being intentional about making Sunday a place you want to be every week, we have changed people’s minds on what church can look and feel like. As my pastor said, “Having new life isn’t just something we talk about, it’s something we do!”
This one idea seemed to increase their sense of positivity, acceptance of others and a general spirit of goodwill!
Ideas To Make Every Sunday Special
Here are a few of the “moments” our team has created over the years that have stood out to me and have helped make sure that it’s never just another Sunday, but always a special Sunday!
- Glass Coke Bottles w/ Mustache Straws
- T-Shirt Giveaways
- Caramel Apple Cider
- Pumpkin Spice Latte’s
- Ice Cream Sandwiches (on National Ice Cream Sandwich Day)
- Greensboro’s Largest Selfie
- Bomb Pops
- Sunglasses with our Church Logo
- Family Photo Booths
- Character Appearances (for kids)
- Iced Coffee on First Spring Sunday
- Cupcakes for our Church’s Anniversary
- Encouraging everyone to wear Panthers Gear (before the Super Bowl)
- DJ at Christmas mixing your favorite Christmas Music
And my favorite:
- Free Balloons
Walking into our church on Sundays has become like a breath of fresh air. Not only are attendees excited each week, but our volunteers stay energized to serve. While these special moments could never take the place of a genuine experience with God or the Holy Spirit’s work in our services, we feel that it’s shown to have a valuable place in our Sunday gatherings. These simple gestures often set first-time guests at ease and I’ve seen how they can disarm and break down walls for God’s love to shine in.
How are you making your Church a place to want to attend, making sure it’s never just another Sunday, but always Someone’s Sunday?
