Special emphasis Sundays and promotional weeks on the denominational calendar are a longstanding tradition for Baptists.
With so many special emphases holding days designated specifically for them, we aren’t sure there are many (if any) Sundays left to claim.
A large number of the special Sundays are part of the official Southern Baptist Convention calendar while others are specific to individual state conventions.
And then there are the days celebrated within particular associations and those meant only for the church family in which they were established.
Lots of options
With so many days each year earmarked for the various special emphases, how do church leaders decide which ones to observe?
In fact in this one issue of the paper we’ve noted three upcoming dates — July 28 (Southern Baptist Media Day), Aug. 4 (Social Issues Sunday) and Aug. 18 (Read The Alabama Baptist Day).
This past Sunday (July 21) was Children’s Ministry Day and a few weeks prior to that was Citizenship and Religious Liberty Sunday.
Missions focus
The weeklong emphases tend to be related to missions — international missions in December, North American missions in March and for Alabama the Myers-Mallory State Missions Offering in September.
The list of options truly is nonending and they all are important topics to be acknowledged.
Still we are curious about which ones are most promoted and what types of activities are paired with those promotions?
Tell us about how your church decides which special emphasis days or weeks will be observed each year and what types of activities are used for the observation.
Does someone in church leadership review the church, associational, state and national calendars annually to select specific emphases to schedule or has the routine been established for a long time and thus is already pretty much set?
Do special Sundays include something noted in the church bulletin and maybe a video or slideshow presentation of some type?
Do guest speakers share during part of the services?
Will the children’s activities be customized to match whatever the special emphasis is?
Share your story
There’s really no right or wrong way to go about celebrating and observing these special days and promotional weeks, but it would be interesting to know what is the most popular among the options.
And there are likely some unique or surprise elements that made a particular special emphasis day one that will always be remembered by your church family.
Share your story with us at news@thealabamabaptist.org. (TAB)
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