Big Weekends

When I went to work for Willie George at Church on the Move in Tulsa, OK in 1994 the church was already running over four thousand. Today it runs over ten thousand in weekly attendance and is steadily growing. I asked Pastor Willie not long after I arrived what he felt like the key to the growth of the church was. Without hesitation, he answered "Big Days." He told me that since the church began, they regularly host big days that attract large crowds, allowing them to add a percentage of those in attendance to their regularly weekly services.

When we moved back to Lafayette to pastor Crossroads Church, we immediately began to implement that strategy. We do several Big Weekends every year. Two of them are no brainers: Christmas and Easter are our greatest opportunity to get people to church so we pull out all the stops. We put on major productions that highlight the things we do best as a church and then partner with our people to get their friends, family, neighbors and co-workers here to the productions. We create tickets for them to pass out to everyone they come in contact with in the weeks leading up to the Big Weekend. This Easter, over twelve thousand tickets have been distributed so far. We are hoping for attendance in excess of five thousand Easter weekend and it's the distribution of these tickets and our people leveraging their influence with others that will make it happen. In addition to bringing in big crowds for the production, hosting these kind of events creates a partnership mentality within our church. Our people understand that if they get people to Crossroads, we will have effective ministry in place and God will move on their hearts!

This year's Easter production is called "Imagine." It is the Easter story as seen trough the imagination of a nine year old boy named Joey. It is going to be one of the best productions we have ever put on and I can't wait to see what God does!