The hardest thing about the Sunday after Easter is seeing upholstery of seats that were occupied 7 days earlier. After more than twenty years of preaching, I have realized that the empty seats aren’t a reflection on the message. But, my response to them is a reflection on me as a messenger.

What do empty seats teach us about ministry and can they actually be an encouragement?

The week after Christmas and Easter seem to be a popular time to take a vacation for many preachers. Lower attendance and exhaustion from holiday services both factor in the desire to take a break. When it comes to the preacher however, the attendance issue seems to be paramount and it is worth asking why that is the case.

Much of the joy of preaching and energy of the preacher is motivated by the audience reaction. In order to keep from the inevitable let-down of lower attendance, it seems time for a vacation. I want to give you a few reasons to re-think that trip.

If we contend that people shouldn’t only attend church during Christmas and Easter, we shouldn’t put so much stock in those dates either. Now, before you say I am devaluing these Holy Days let me define what I believe we, as preachers, may really be putting stock in. It isn’t the day or the worship, it is the value of our ministry. Our sense of self-worth and accomplishment can be tied to attendance, even the peak day attendance.

If this is the case we need to ask if our investment is Christ focused or crowd focused.

The spike in attendance is a rush, a blessing, and an encouragement. Preaching the resurrection is probably a close second emotionally to what the disciples felt when they heard it from the angel. Consider the reality that we get to be the messenger of the greatest news in human history to a crowd! That is incredibly energizing and we can feed on that energy in a way that can leave us more energized by the crowd than edified by Christ. It leaves us open to the same type of crash that accompanies a post Easter chocolate binge.

We have to be wary that the preacher may become a participant in the very thing they decry the other 363 days of the year and feeds into the mentality of the Christmas/Easter attender. We begin to derive our purpose and energy from sermon delivery. Compare that to Jesus’ ministry in Matthew’s Gospel where the sermon is a time when He pours himself out to the crowds, then He heads out to the next group. This pattern may give us some insight into the way we avoid the crash.

If we look at the Gospel of Matthew whenever we encounter the phrase, “Jesus had finished (teaching)…” it is always followed by Jesus going out. Jesus comes down after the Sermon on the Mount and heals a leper on his way to teach people in the Capernaum (Matthew 7:28-8:5). Jesus finishes teaching his disciples and heads out to teach in the towns of Galilee (Matthew 11:1). Jesus taught in parables, explained them to the disciples, and then headed to Nazareth to reach more people (Matthew 13:53). Later we see Jesus heading to Judea from Galilee after teaching and the crowds are following Him as He travels (Matthew 19:1).

If we want to model Jesus’ ministry, we have to seek the lost.

We don’t need to look for the living among the dead and we shouldn’t expect the dead to come to hang out with the living. They are not here, they are dead. So let’s go get them.

Jesus’ promise was to be with us as we GO and just as Jesus went to the towns of those who came to hear him, so should we. We should be going into the homes, workplaces, coffee shops, restaurants, wherever we can set up meetings with the people who just came to church.

Let’s consider the first message delivered on the resurrection:

“He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said. Come, see the place where He was lying. Go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead; and behold, He is going ahead of you into Galilee, there you will see Him; behold, I have told you.” (Matthew 28:6-7)

People have come to hear the story much the same way the women went to the tomb. They come looking for Jesus and they hear the message that He is risen. But, the second part of the message is that they are to “GO and TELL.” This is exactly what Jesus modeled when he preached, drew a crowd, then He went to find more people to tell.

You can’t sit on the stone and expect people to come hear you week after week. You also should not think that Jesus is there with you, when you stay at the tomb. He has promised to GO with us. The time after Easter isn’t when we should shut it down. We need to get out there and continue to tell the story. If we shut it down and coast into the next sermon, we lose the momentum of the Gospel in the lives of the people who are searching.

This requires intentional follow-up plans that extend our view of the Easter season beyond Sunday.

Instead of treating Easter as our Championship Game, we need to see it as a training camp kickoff. We have a building full of recruits who need to be followed up with in order to get their commitment. We need to get their contact information and USE IT! How we contact them in the first few days, engage them in the following week, and give them our witness of Christ’s ongoing ministry in our lives will determine our real effectiveness.

Our follow-up plans to take the Gospel out of the church on Monday-Saturday will not just keep us from the emotional letdown, it will fulfill the Great Commission. In this way God will turn that which has been a source of our mourning into our great joy! Let’s get ready for them to come to us and as soon as they leave, let’s be ready to go get them!

The real work begins after the Gospel is preached on Easter and the rewards aren’t simply emotional, they are eternal.