Are you ready for an ordinary, average, run of the mill Sunday? I am. I can’t wait.
Come this Sunday for ordinary.
Last week was Easter. Man was it good! We had more people at a worship service here than we have had since 2012. Yes. You read that right. It was our largest worship service in five years! Easter is one of those extraordinary days. It’s the Sunday when visitors, extended family and irregular members come out to see what’s going on. And I love Easter! But here’s the thing…
The Church is not all about Easter.
Wait. What?! Shouldn’t we be all about Easter? Isn’t that the most important day ever? Shouldn’t we make Easter bigger and better in a celebration of the extraordinary, miraculous, world changing resurrection of the Son of God?
Yes. But…
We celebrate the resurrection everyday. I don’t know how other churches do it, but here at Fellowship every Sunday is Resurrection Sunday! Everyday is extraordinary, even the ordinary ones.
We tend to find ourselves obsessed over the big days and big events. Maybe you are one of the millions of Americans who gathers to watch the Superbowl every year after not watching a single NFL game. Or have you ever filled out a March Madness bracket after not watching a minute of college basketball all year? Has anyone else ever stayed up until midnight watching musicians you never listen to play from Times Square on Christmas Eve? Or watched an awards show to see movies you haven’t seen win awards? Maybe its just me, but I don’t really think it is.
Big events attract me. Sometimes I get bored with the ordinary too.
When did the movement begun at the resurrection of the Son of God become ordinary? Maybe its because so many of us have grown up in the church, been Christians for years, and just gotten used to the whole story. But literally EVERY ASPECT of what we believe is EXTRAordinary.
So how could a worship service become ordinary? Because we do it every week. When you gather 52 Sundays a year to celebrate the same message, worship the same God, learn from the same book, and interact with the same people it becomes ordinary. That is a good thing.
It is a good thing for the worship of the extraordinary King to become a regular, usual or ordinary part of your life. However, we must make sure we are using the right definition or ordinary. If your worship and obedience to the King is “of no special quality or interest, unexceptional and mediocre,” that’s not a good thing. Nothing done in the name of Jesus is that kind of ordinary. However, if worship and obedience becomes a “usual, customary, or normal” part of your life, that’s a really good thing. That is why I want us to be an extraordinarily ordinary church.
A group of ordinary people, worshipping an extraordinary God, bringing the extraordinary message into ordinary daily life.
So this Sunday we will worship by praying, singing, and hearing God’s word. We will do the same ordinary things we always do, but…
The result of an ordinary worship service is always extraordinary. God always shows up. He always moves in His people. God is not more excited to meet with His people on Easter Sunday, He always wants to meet with His people. We are the ones that get more excited at Christmas and Easter. God always shows up.
In Jesus, ordinary people get swept up into an extraordinary, world-changing movement. We can live in the extraordinary even on the ordinary days.
So I’ll come back to worship this ordinary Sunday and bring the same excitement, gratitude, and expectancy I brought last Sunday.
And one more thing, God will be with us this Sunday. So you know what? I was wrong. There won't be anything ordinary about it.
Everyday is extraordinary.
- Tim Chaney