Mother’s Day can be a challenge when it comes to service programming because it sneaks up on churches just after Easter. Nevertheless, church creative teams usually start planning with questions like:
* Should we get a guest speaker for our Mother’s Day services?
* How can we make moms feel honored?
* What do we do with people who had moms who messed them up?
* Do we have time to create a cute video of kids talking about their moms?
* How can we use pre-existing videos to help support our Mother’s Day services?
While these questions are important to ask at some point in our creative processes, they shouldn’t be the first questions we ask. And that’s because nowhere in those questions is God even mentioned. And if we’re not careful, we can unintentionally give God the weekend off, and just highlight moms.
I wonder if a better and more basic question to begin with is this one: How do moms uniquely display the character of God?
HOW DO MOMS UNIQUELY DISPLAY
THE CHARACTER OF GOD?
Here’s what I mean…
By nature, moms are protectors. You already know that the vast majority of mothers are fiercely protective of their kids. And I think they’re protectors because when they protect, they display a God who protects us. And that God-display is hard-wired in them, by God, for His glory.
I will protect them like a bear robbed of her cubs.
Hosea 13:8
By nature moms are comforters, not as an end, but as another means of displaying the God who comforts people at their deepest levels of hurt and heartache. And the world watches, and knowingly or unknowingly experiences God in some way that God intends.
As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you.
Isaiah 66:13
These aren’t just random roles that moms play, but actual characteristics of God Himself, highlighted in Scripture, using the metaphor of a mother. It’s gorgeous like that.
Jerusalem, Jerusalem… how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings.
Luke 13:34
It’s worth noticing that Jesus is expressing himself using soft language, all the while using the metaphor of a mother hen. He isn’t embarrassed or worried that people will get the wrong perception of God. Instead, He seems to embrace it.
So as you build your Mother’s Day services, what if you begin by asking two questions, in this order…?
1 – How do moms uniquely display the character of God?
2 – How can we creatively communicate that?
Practical Service Plan for Mother’s Day
Intro + Worship
Program your first 20 minutes as usual, with a proper nod to Mother’s Day. Then…
2 Pre-Sermon Options
Option 1
Have children read (live or on video) the three verses mentioned above (or other verses you discover). It might be fun to get little kids trying to pronounce the words on video, then leave the mistakes in the final version. Or…
Option 2
Run our mini-movie “Moms: Portraits of God”.
Sermon
Preach about how God demonstrates His character into the world through moms. Include real stories of moms in your congregation (video, as a sermon illustration, or as a live interview).
Worship
Fierce (Jesus Culture).
I hope this post spurs your church to experience something far beyond the normal on Mother’s Day 2017. It’s such a gift to display the heart of God AND to honor moms with the same brushstroke.
I think it’ll change everyone who has the pleasure of attending your church that day.
Gary Molander is the co-owner of Floodgate Productions which has a vision to create great media for anyone who is willing to be stirred. Floodgate Productions Producer Page. Gary is also the author of Pursuing Christ. Creating Art which explores what it means to be a Christ-Follower and an artist.
