Even though there is still a lot of snow on the ground and at times it seems like winter will never end, the staff and leadership team have been looking forward and making plans for springtime and Easter. Did you know that:
- $2.6 billion will be spent on Easter candy,
- 1.5 billion marshmallow Peeps will be consumed (this is one of my favorites),
- 81% of parents will steal candy from their kids’ stash,
- More Americans search for “church” around Easter than another time of the year, and
- Easter is the highest attended worship service of the year followed by Christmas and Mother’s Day.
One of the challenging things to do as a church leader is to try to predict what will happen on a particular day at church. If this winter has taught us anything, it’s that weather forecasts can and will be wrong, snow, cold and dangerous road conditions will keep people away from church, and we must be prepared for any contingency.
The past several years, we have seen an increase in attendance in our Easter worship services by over 71%. This growth is AMAZING! It tells me that you are inviting friends and family to join you which is excellent. It tells me that more and more people are aware of our church and decided to check us out on Easter Sunday. And it also tells me we are getting very close to running out of space for everyone on this important day.
To help us make sure we have room for all who want to worship with us on Easter Sunday, April 21, 2019, we will be making a few changes. First, this year we will offer THREE WORSHIP SERVICES on Easter Sunday. Offering three services will require all hands on deck; people will need to stick around and make sure our kids’ areas, worship teams, etc., are covered. It will require a lot of energy, but I am excited about what three services mean for our church: we are a growing church and the presence of God is here!
To facilitate these three services, we will also make the following changes. The Classic Service will be moved to 8:30 AM. Sunday School will stay at 9:30 AM. We will offer TWO Modern worship services, one at 9:30 AM and one at 11 AM.
I know change can be difficult and adjusting the schedule can be inconvenient, but don’t miss the big picture – by expanding to three services, we increase our ability to tell more people about Jesus on a Sunday morning at Ashworth than ever before!
So mark your calendars with the worship changes. We will be sharing more about this in the days ahead.
(Stats from http://www.churchmarketingsucks.com/2015/02/easter-stats-superbowl-church/ and https://wallethub.com/blog/easter-facts/19776/)
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