My first Easter as a lead pastor saw a standing room only crowd. We had to set up chairs in the foyer and leave the auditorium doors open to accommodate the number of people we had that Sunday.
The next year, we were better-prepared…sort of. We decided to do two services on Sunday morning because we were anticipating a similar, if not larger, crowd than the previous year.
This decision, while necessary, terrified me. I was so worried one of our services would be close to empty. To help ensure we had enough people in each service, we decided to rope off several sections of chairs for the first service.
Well, wouldn’t you know it, our early service was packed, and our late service was sparse.
At our next staff meeting, I asked the staff why things were so backward. They politely informed me we are in a rural community and rural folks are accustomed to getting up early on any given day.
I learned a valuable lesson that day, which many call “contextualization.” This was the first time I’d ever served a rural community. I hadn’t done my research to learn about the culture of my city. I’d assumed, based on previous experience, that things were going to be one way. I was wrong. Read More
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