4:00pm is not the ideal time for a church service. Seriously. It’s terrible. It’s “too late” for most church attenders and “too early” for those college and young-adult church attenders who prefer evening services. But that’s when Renovation Community meets, since we share a building with other churches.
A 4:00pm Easter worship service is even worse. Almost half our church family was absent…attending Family Easter lunches that extended into the evening. In my immaturity, a low-attendance worship service still wounds my selfish pride.
This morning, I suddenly thought to create a Facebook event for our Easter service, and then pay to advertise it. My ad didn’t get approved until around 11:30am – A hastily-assembled ad with 4.5 hours of air time before service. Not good marketing plans, huh?
After our service began, a single mom and 2 of her 4 children walked in.
During our potluck dinner after service, I learned the mother’s story…divorced from an abusive marriage and had spent 6 months in a “safe home.” The mom works nights at a homeless night shelter (translation: her job doesn’t pay much).
She had recently started attending church. But then her job schedule changed- she now works Saturday nights and Wednesdays nights. So attending Sunday morning or Wednesday night church times won’t work.
The mother went to bed when she got off work this morning. She had hoped to attend the last afternoon Easter service at a large nearby church. But she just couldn’t get out of bed in time. When she woke up this afternoon, all Easter services were over.
At home, she began crying in front of her children (and in front of me when recounting her story) . After all her recent efforts to “get back in church,” they had missed Easter Sunday.
And then, she saw a Facebook ad for a 4:00pm Easter service…
——
1 Almighty Father of all things that be,
our life, our work we consecrate to thee,
whose heavens declare thy glory from above,
whose earth below is witness to thy love.
2 For well we know this weary, soiled earth
is yet thine own by right of its new birth,
since that great cross upreared on Calvary
redeemed it from its fault and shame to thee.
3 Thine still the changeful beauty of the hills,
the purple valleys flecked with silver rills,
the ocean glistening ‘neath the golden rays:
they all are thine, and ceaseless speak thy praise.
4 Thou dost the strength to worker’s arms impart;
from thee the skilled musician’s reasoned art,
the grace of poet’s pen or painter’s hand,
to teach the loveliness of sea and land.
5 Then grant us, Lord, in all things thee to own,
to dwell within the shadow of thy throne,
to speak and work, to think and live and move
reflecting thine own nature, which is love;
6 That so, by Christ redeemed from sin and shame,
and hallowed by thy Spirit’s cleansing flame,
ourselves, our work, and all our powers may be
a sacrifice acceptable to thee.
–“Almighty Father of All Things That Be,”
Ernest Edward Dugmore, 1884