Today my wife and I celebrated our 48th anniversary. It was a quiet celebration. We went out for dinner tonight at Olive Garden. The restaurant even helped us celebrate by giving us a free slice of cheesecake topped with strawberry sauce. It was yummy. During our celebration, we reminisced over a delicious Italian meal and dessert about our early life as a married couple. (That's food for another blog post, but don't look for it anytime soon.) As I write this, I am once again reminded about the importance of celebrations in the life of the church. Read on to find out more about celebrations in your church or church plant.
Some churches are known for celebrating their birthday and anniversaries. A church's birthday is the day it launched as a new church. It signifies much-answered prayer and hard work. More than that, the church's birthday is the birth of a new baby, a baby church that is. It marks the expansion of the Kingdom of God, one church at a time. What a cause for celebration! New churches do well to remember how God has worked in them from day one.
Once a church has grown and matured, it's time to celebrate birthdays. Again the idea is to remind the people in the church and its neighborhood of what God has been up to over the past year. ("Remember" is a command in Scripture (remember or remembrance is found 259 times in the Bible). Remembering what God has done is especially important, and the things we have done or haven't done is very important for the believer and the church. Celebrate what God has done in times of remembrance.
What are some other things are worthy of celebration in the life of the church?
Celebrating when someone comes to faith in Christ for salvation is always a time for a holy party. The Lord has designed believer's baptism for such a time as this. And the more salvation celebrations we hold in a church, the better. On the day of a salvation celebration, consider how else the church can celebrate such good news. After all, when we do so, we are partying with the angels in heaven (Luke 15:10).
Celebrate as a church when your church reproduces and helps give birth to a new church, church plant, site church, or congregation. Hold a party worthy of the angels who live and serve in the presence of Jesus. No quiet celebrations here.
Celebrate when your church commissions and helps send missionaries or church planters into God's harvest fields, at home or far away. Add to commissioning a harvest celebration after the worship service.
Turn your church's annual meeting into a celebration of mission and vision accomplishment. Do church business if you have to but get excited together about what the Lord of the church has done and wants to do by faith.
Celebrate the graduation from one class to the next. And, do this also for the start of a new church year with its new ministries. Be sure to recognize all those in your church who make this possible.
Celebrate when God provides. It may be joyfully sharing with others the achievement of ending the year in the black or reaching a capital fund initiative goal.
What about anniversary celebrations of your pastor or his associates' ministries at the church?
Be creative, joyful, and have fun. But in all things, give God the glory for He deserves your praise.
What other celebrations can you hold?
[Photo by Ambreen Hasan on Unsplash]