Mother's Day Sunday is the third highest day for attendance in churches in North America, running slightly behind Christmas and Easter. Though most churches know this and work hard to make it a special Sunday, many miss significant evangelism and spiritual growth opportunities for that day-because of the day's exclusive focus on mothers.

Please don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying churches shouldn't honor mothers on Mother's Day. They should; it is an important time to praise mothers and to thank God for them. What I'm recommending is that churches not make mothers their exclusive focus, but that they take advantage of the additional ministry opportunities made possible that day because of mothers. These are primarily in two areas and they are:

• The unchurched child and/or spouse outreach opportunity
• The opportunity to challenge for spiritual parenting

Let's look at these two ministry opportunities in more detail:

The unchurched child and/or spouse outreach opportunity

The reason that churches are so full on Mother's Day is not because it is the only time of year mothers come to church. Most of the mothers at the church are regular attendees. The reason so many people come to church on Mother's day is the unchurched people in the lives of many mothers rarely, if ever, come to church, but they will come on this day to make mom happy. [Read more...]