Month 1 — Wake Up the Congregation
Pulling the four Month 1 themes from growth-plan.md into a concrete preaching/worship arc. Goal of this month: create hunger, not pressure. The congregation is not asked to do anything yet — they are asked to feel God again, ask the right questions, and remember why they are here.
| Sun | Date | Sermon | Core Move |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2026-05-03 | Growth Starts with God, Not Hype | Reset the source. Not strategy, not branding — encounter. |
| 2 | 2026-05-10 | Health Before Numbers | Change the question. From “how do we grow?” to “what is blocking life among us?“ |
| 3 | 2026-05-17 | A Church Becomes What It Worships | Worship sets the spiritual tone. Identity is formed by what we sing and Whom we behold. |
| 4 | 2026-05-24 | Patience Is Not a Strategy | Trust does not equal stalling. Active waiting, deepening devotion, moving with God. |
Week 4 already has an outline at 2026-04-12-patience-is-not-a-strategy.md. Rename to
2026-05-24-...when locked, or leave the file date as written-date and use the worship folder for the delivery date.
Series Through-Line
“God is calling us to wake up — to remember who we worship, why we exist, and what season we are actually in.”
Each week answers a different objection in the room:
- Week 1 — “We need a plan.” → Plans serve encounter; encounter is the source.
- Week 2 — “We need more people.” → Growth is the fruit; health is the question.
- Week 3 — “Worship is just the music part.” → Worship is the soil from which everything else grows.
- Week 4 — “We’re trusting God’s timing.” → Trust without action is the buried talent.
Notice the order: only after God-encounter (1), self-honesty (2), and worship recalibration (3) is the congregation ready to hear the urgency call (4). Preach (4) before (1) and it lands as guilt; preach (1) without (4) and it lands as comfort.
Worship-Leader Application
This is a four-week opportunity to lay down a tonal foundation for the whole 12-week arc:
- Week 1: Awe and reset. Strip the room. Less production, more presence.
- Week 2: Honesty and longing. Songs that make space for diagnosis without despair.
- Week 3: This is the meta-Sunday. The set itself preaches. Choose songs you would want forming the congregation’s theology for the next year.
- Week 4: Active hope. Move out of introspection into commissioning energy without it feeling like a campaign.
See 2026-04-11-songs-are-theology-delivery-systems — the songs are the sermon people will remember six months later. Choose accordingly.
Cross-References
- growth-plan.md — full 12-week arc this is drawn from
- map-sermons.md — sermon MOC
- 2026-04-11-mnfc-worship-ministry-vision — overall worship ministry frame
- 2026-04-08-mnfc-healthy-church-is-rooted-outward-sustainable-family — ROOTED / OUTWARD / SUSTAINABLE / FAMILY decision filter