The often-missed evangelism and ministry opportunities of Mother’s Day

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.

This is a great evangelistic opportunity for your church. Following are some ideas on how to make the most of it:

1. Acknowledge the visitors who came today to please an earthly parent and affirm it was a commendable thing to do.
2. Follow that commendation with a lesson/sermon about how they have a heavenly parent who is longing for them come home in faith even more than their mom wanted them to come to church.
3. Be honest that one of the greatest pains in a mother's heart is that her child does not know Jesus. To be apart in life is hard even as a normal part of life as child grows up, but to contemplate an eternity without those you love-one Sunday in church won't make up for it.
4. In addition to the times of conviction, have fun also with visitors and make them comfortable in church-schedule a "Welcome to Our House Brunch for Moms and Adult Children" or an "Visit Your Parent's Sunday School Class Open House" and do a sort of spoof on Open House days at school.
5. Schedule a very upbeat, outreach oriented Ministry Fair for that day so visitors can experience and explore what your church does on a regular basis. For example, many single adults (the unchurched adult children who come to church only on Mother's Day) often don't have any idea that many churches have fantastic single adult ministry programs. A table with literature, food, and fun people might be just the thing to get them to attend on a regular basis.
6. Challenge visiting adult children to make this Mother's Day the most memorable one ever for their mom by giving her the gift of faith in Jesus-the one Mother's Day gift that will give her joy forever.

Be sure you have a clear gospel presentation in your bulletin and as a handout to take home. If you don't have them, check out the American Tract Society web site for some excellent ones.

The opportunity to challenge for spiritual parenting

Many women who attend your church on Mother's Day are not moms. The reasons for that pain are many: they may have lost a child; they may be unmarried and with little prospects of a future marriage; they may be infertile; they may not have had enough money for adoption or fertility treatments. The reasons are many, but the pain felt daily by many of these women is deepened significantly on Mother's Day. Often this pain is intensified by unintentionally unthinking and unkind actions of churches on Mother's Day.

One church for example, asked women as they entered, "Are you a mother?" if the answer was "No" they were informed the flowers were for mothers ONLY.

In some churches only Moms are clapped for, receive a free brunch, acknowledged as significant or given other public affirmations. If a woman has spent many private hours crying over her inability to have children, imagine her feelings at this time.

Again, these reminders are not meant as a warning not to honor mothers, but honor can be done sensitively and with the feelings of the childless women in mind.

One additional idea might be to focus perhaps briefly on the joy of physical children but then to shift into a challenge for spiritual parenting. You cannot take away the pain of childlessness, but that pain can be transformed into a vision for ministry if, in addition to special actions done for moms, the pastor actively presents some of the following ideas.

One more note: though directed to women, in this article and for this day, mention should be made of the men who are not fathers and for whom often the pain is even more deeply hidden. Include them in the challenges listed below.

Remind all of the women in the church that the option to be a spiritual parent is one that is open to all women

As the prophet Isaiah said in Isa. 54:1

"Sing, O barren woman, you who never bore a child; burst into song, shout for joy, you who were never in labor; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband," says the LORD.

Remind them that though they may not have physical children and truly insurmountable obstacles may prevent that, that nothing can prevent the birthing and raising of many spiritual children.

Remind them that to be childless does not mean you do not have God's favor. Jesus never had an earthly child. Consider what that may have meant.

He was fully human. Most likely all his childhood friends had children when he left home to wander around Israel and teach. I have wondered if the human part of him didn't feel pain, perhaps sometimes wondering what it would be like to have lived quietly in Nazareth and had a son who would have grown up beside him in the carpenter shop or a little daughter who would bring him water in the middle of a hot day. We know he struggled with God the Father over the cross.  I wonder if in some lonely early morning prayer times he struggled with the wish that a child, like the children who loved him and clamored to be on his lap as he traveled and taught, that someday he would have one who was truly, humanly, physically his.

But Jesus had no physical children and neither have many of the great leaders of the church, including the Apostle Paul. Yet because they had no physical children, does not mean they did not have spiritual children. Paul called Timothy, "His dear son," and Jesus often referred to his followers as children.

You must be honest in your challenge that embracing spiritual parenting is not easy

It requires all the commitment, patience, and life-long support of physical parenting if it is to be done well. Like physical children also, spiritual children will learn far more from what they see than what they are told. Spiritual parents must live lives of holiness, discipline, and love for Jesus if that is the kind of life they want emulated by their spiritual children.

In addition, there are many spiritual orphans in every church-those who perhaps started a relationship with the Lord in college or another place, but who have moved and have been wandering spiritually since then. Challenge the potential spiritual parents in your church to help raise to maturity those around them who are young and weak in the family of God.

Finally, remind prospective spiritual parents that in addition to the commitment, work and possible pain of the words of the apostle John, who said near the end of a long life of ministry adventures and trials: "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth (3 John 4)."

The challenge is worth it

Mother's Day isn't simple to celebrate if you determine to make the most of it in evangelism and in challenges to spiritual parenting. It presents an incredible opportunity for those of you ministry communicators: pastors, teachers, church administrators who are willing to make this day, not only one that honors a precious group of people in the church, but one that expands and matures the kingdom of God.