Rally Sunday
On Sunday, September 11th, Ebenezer will be hosting our yearly, “Rally Sunday”. As you know, it’s a Sunday to kick-off the church year where many of the church programs such as Sunday School, Youth Group, Confirmation, Bible Study, and various other ministries begin. This year, we’re hoping to make Rally Sunday particularly attractive to those in our Northwood community who are looking for a church home. We’re also hopeful this special service will inspire our Ebenezer members who have gotten into the habit of missing Sunday worship to join us in this service and renew a commitment to Sunday worship.
To do our best to make Rally Sunday an outreach success, we’re going to need the support of all our Ebenezer faithful. Consider the following three steps we have planned.
Step 1: Create a Special Service
The first step we’ve taken is to make Rally Sunday a morning to get excited about. We’re making an effort to create a unique service by (weather permitting) conducting the service outdoors on the grass facing the bell tower. We’ll be pulling in a trailer for a stage and are planning a simple service of music and message. Families with children will be encouraged to bring a blanket for their children sit on as the service is conducted. Hopefully, this casual outdoor service will be attractive to many and encourage them to attend. Following the service, a barbeque is planned with hamburgers, hot dogs, baked beans, and ‘Rally Sunday Sundaes’ for desert. The Ebenezer family is encouraged to bring a dish to share, but we’re planning more than enough food and do not expect our guests to bring a dish. For the children and youth, inflatables will be set up outside to bless families with children. Believing there will be newer people attending on Rally Sunday, we are setting up an information table with brochures and materials explaining our church ministries. Leaders of various ministries also be stationed at the information table to answer questions, and give our new attenders a clear picture of what Ebenezer has to offer their families and where they can fit in.
Step 2: Invite Our Friends
In the movie, Field of Dreams there is the famous line, “If you build it they will come.” It worked in the movie, but doesn’t in church functions and outreach. Just because we “build it” and put together a Rally Sunday to get excited about doesn’t mean people will come. There is a second step we need to take and this step is where we all must take a part. Together we need to become an invitation voice inviting our neighbors and friends to join us in this special service. We have 200 folding chairs reserved to set up outside on the lawn. But to fill them, we’ll have to get the word out! Let me offer you two numbers given by researching polling: The first number, (in general) 20% of people in our community on any given Sunday are in church that morning. This means there’s a lot of potential invitations to be made. The second number, (in general) 62% of the people who do not go to church would go to church if a friend or relative invited them to come. In other words, it’s not: “If you build it they will come”, but “If you invite them they will come” ! Thus, we’re calling all our Ebenezer members to make an concerted effort to personally invite a friend, relative, neighbor to this special service. Think of who is new(er) in town who doesn’t have a church home as yet and invite them to Rally Sunday. Or invite an Ebenezer member who has gotten out of the habit of attending church. Make a real effort to make people feel welcomed and wanted as you invite them.
We are grateful to the Gleaner for writing an article about our coming Rally Sunday and will also put an advertizement to promote the event. However, there is nothing more effective than a friend inviting a friend.
Step 3: Ask for God’s Blessing
All the effort to “rally” the Ebenezer faithful and invite our community to fill the seats of this special service is an empty effort without this being about God and His Gospel. Remember there is a high purpose in this effort as we’re inviting people to introduce them to the life-changing person of Jesus, our Savior and Lord. Certainly, we’re not making Rally Sunday about filling seats, this is about inviting our community to Ebenezer so we can introducing them to Christ! With this very spiritual goal, a vital need is for all to pray and ask the Lord to come and be entirely present as we meet. Ask Him to protect the day from the enemy and allow His Word and Spirit to fill all things we do. The worship team will lead us in song. I will lead us in a message from God’s Word. We all will reach out in love to each other. Yet, it is the Lord alone who must reach into our hearts and move us to Himself. The Psalmist writes, “Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain.” (Psalm 127:1) Our human efforts only succeed with divine blessing. So the third and most vital step we must take is to pray and ask our Lord to come and meet us in this service and show us His Gospel.
Will you join us to make Rally Sunday a success? The plans for this special outdoor service with BBQ and more are pretty much in the works as a number of key leaders and wonderful volunteers are making it happen. But we need all of our Ebenezer members to take a part. Would you commit to pray for the service asking for God’s abundant blessing and also invite a friend to come with you?
“Philip went to look for Nathanael and told him, “We have found the very person Moses and the prophets wrote about! His name is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth.” “Nazareth!” exclaimed Nathanael. “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” “Come and see for yourself,” Philip replied.” (John 1:45–46)
Pastor Mark
Leave a Reply