We’re just days away from our Eve Eve Services. I can’t wait to see how God is going to move and for us to experience what He has in store. With great anticipation toward this service, I think it’s important to take a moment and ask, “What is the win for the Eve Eve Services?”
The environment on Sunday will be fun and uplifting. We’ll have songs you are familiar with and even a new one or two. Candles will be lit at the end. Coffee, hot chocolate, and doughnuts will be available. You’ll have opportunities before and after each service to take some fun photos with friends and family. Based on our attendance trends lately, we’ll probably have a lot of people attending both services… All of this to say, if we check all of these boxes, does that mean we’ve had a successful Eve Eve Service?
Here’s my thought… These things above are great, and I hope each one happens, but if we do these things, the songs are great, and sermon is spot on, will that be what matters most? I believe if we aren’t striving for anything other than these things, then the things listed above will be our only metric of success. Again, these aren’t bad metrics at all, but are there better ones?
I want to challenge us to consider two different things that will gauge our level of success…
Was God’s Spirit present and active?
We cannot manufacture this. We need God to show up and move in our midst. I believe God will send His Spirit and move in our hearts if we do two things…
- Ask for it… He doesn’t “need” an invitation, but we should ask Him to be with us. Begin praying now that God will be with us in a unique way and that He will draw people to know Him more. In reality, as we ask Him to do this, we are essentially preparing our hearts for Him to move in us, which leads to the other thing we must do…
- Anticipate Him… Come expecting God to speak and move in our midst. We need to prepare ourselves to receive what He has in store. Expect Him to speak to you. As I’ll mention next, we need to pay attention to who attends, but as we do that, we must be open to what God wants to say to us individually.
Did we connect with new faces?
No doubt we will have some new/unfamiliar/returning people who will join us at one of the services, but we can’t just be content with the fact they attended. The crowd size won’t matter if we aren’t striving for this win.
If you consider yourself to be a part of our church, then you have a part to play in welcoming and interacting with the people who are come. How can you do this? Here are a few things to keep in mind…
- Look around you. Do you see unfamiliar/new/returning faces? Don’t assume someone else has welcomed them. Introduce yourself or reconnect with them and ask some basic questions such as “Do you live in Halls?” “How did you hear about the service?”
- Pray for the new faces in the room. Pray for the people in your row and in front of you as the Word is shared. It’s OK if you don’t know their name. Pray they would sense God’s presence in such a way that would lead them to return in 2019 and begin taking their next steps of faith with Jesus.
- Arrive early and connect afterwards. We will have a few “formal” greeters in place, but we all need to take on the role of greeter this Sunday. Feel free to come early and just mingle. Don’t rush out afterwards. If you see someone around you who was “moved” during the service (look for tears, running mascara, redness or water around the eyes), then break the ice and have a conversation. Invite them to take a next step as you listen to what God is doing in their life. You may think it’s awkward, but it’s more awkward if we do nothing in response to how God was moving 🙂
I could come up with other wins, but if we all can make an concentrated effort to pursue these two wins, then I think our scorecard will be in line with what God desires. Honestly, these should be our primary wins for every Sunday, but specifically for this Sunday, let’s enjoy the services, but let’s also make sure we steward well the opportunities in front of us!
