What I am about to say goes against popular thought and also against how I planned worship for many years…but here goes anyway. We go out of our way not to make Easter Sunday worship something special.

Here’s why: like many churches we have a great number of guests on Easter, in fact this year our attendance went up by over 30%. We want these guests to come back. When they do come back we don’t want them to be disappointed. It would be terrible for us to overhear a guest the week after Easter say: “this is nothing like it was last week.”

It is exciting to see an Easter guest come back the week after. For believers ever week is a chance to celebrate the Risen Life of Christ. When a guest does come back we get another chance to introduce them to the Christ we know. For us we strive to put the same planning, preparation and prayer into each week not just Easter.

So I have said it and it probably goes against how many worship leaders think. Do we set up our Easter guests for disappointment on the Sunday after Easter? I would love to hear what you think.

Here was our Sunday Setlist for Easter 2011.

Glory To God Forever

Christ Is Risen

All Because of Jesus

It Took A Lamb by Geron Davis

Worthy is the Lamb

In Christ Alone

A couple of other comments:

We came back after the sermon and repeated the song In Christ Alone adding the refrain from The Solid Rock (On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand.) It was a great way to end the service tell the whole story of Christ from birth to resurrected life.

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This post is my participation in the blog carnival Sunday Setlists which can be found at The Worship Community.