Speaker 0 00:00:00 Mother's day is one of the most important days of the year for your church. Your church needs to do something to honor moms. Well, in today's episode, we have nine mom approved ideas to honor moms. This mother's day, we hope this conversation helps your church reach more people and grow. This is the reach right podcast. You're listening to the reach, right podcast, the show dedicated to helping pastors and church leaders reach people the right way, hosted by me, Thomas Costello, and with me as always as my co-host Ian Hyat, we're here to help your church see more visitors and grow, Speaker 2 00:00:51 Ready to get. Speaker 0 00:00:57 Hey guys, welcome to the reach right podcast episode number 95. I am your host Thomas Costello. And with me as always is my co-host Speaker 4 00:01:06 Ian Hyat. What's up Thomas. Speaker 0 00:01:07 Hey, not much, man. Uh, excited to chat with you today. We have a good fun topic. I think today, I think, uh, when I kind of thought through this topic and I, we had put this on our calendar a while ago. Um, it was, uh, I thought that, um, you know, it just is kind of snuck up on me. The topic today, right. Is nine fun and heartfelt mother's day ideas for churches. Yeah. Uh, mother's day is, um, I guess from when this actually airs it's a week and a half away, uh, from when this airs, uh, this year it's Sunday, may the eighth is when that is happening there. So you already got a gift for your wife? Speaker 4 00:01:45 No, no I don't. And I, and as I've told you may though, is our most expensive month of the year. It not only is mother's day. It's my wife's birthday. It's our anniversary. And then my daughter's birthday is June 3rd. So I always have to buy something on June in June's first. So it's, it's a very expensive month mother mother's day is one part of that. So, uh, I should have all of that done, but I don't of course. Speaker 0 00:02:08 Yeah. Just skip it this year. I'd say then probably so no, we don't wanna do that. That's for sure. So Speaker 4 00:02:13 No, Speaker 0 00:02:14 No, but I, as we were prepping for this, I'm like, oh my goodness, I have to, I have to get going on this. I have a, a, we have a may anniversary as well. And, uh, so it's the, the same kind of thing. It's gift season here in the Costello household. Uh, so anyway, uh, but today we're gonna be talking about nine, uh, ideas that churches can implement to make mother's day a success. You probably need to be thinking about these right away, because, uh, kind of that week leading into mother's day, you'll be doing some of that planning and yeah, you do always wanna to make mother's day something special. I will say this, uh, that Stephanie from the reach right team, she was part of the, uh, creation of this, uh, podcast episode. She's a mom, uh, it, she is a mom. And so it is mom approved. Speaker 0 00:02:58 She helped us in kind of thinking through some of these, and this is directly from what a mom would like to see on mother's day. Uh, so don't take this as a couple of guys telling you what moms need, right? We're not trying to mansplain, uh, mom mother's day. And how used to do that. This is a mom approved nine ideas that we're gonna go through here. So yeah, I think it's just gonna be something good. So I'll start us off here. Uh, and this one's kind of obvious it's includes something special, like a special element in your service. Yeah. To honor mothers, this is a no brainer. Uh, most churches probably are doing something like this already, but I think it's just important that you plan on some kind of an element in your service where you're gonna honor moms there. So at a bit of, I Speaker 4 00:03:42 Don't know if there's, is there a church that just doesn't say anything, uh, or honor any mother on mother's day that'd be because Speaker 0 00:03:47 I, I hope not. I mean, I'm, I'm sure that that, that does happen now. I don't recommend that you get up there and make moms do a little dog and pony show and dance and come up to the front or something like that. It's not you, you don't need to do all those things. Yeah. But I think having a place where you at least take a time, a, a few minutes in between worship and sermon time, is you where it's usually gonna go, where you're gonna spend some time to actually honor moms pray for moms. I think that's something that we did as a church that we always thought was a, a, a great benefit is taking a time. If you have a mom next to you or you're with your mom or a mom in your life, is there, put your hand on her and I'm from a laying on of hands tradition. Speaker 0 00:04:28 So put your hand on her shoulder and let's pray over the moms of our church and take some time to honor those women in our lives that are so important. So I think, yeah, just, uh, making sure that you, you have some kind of an element, your service, some other ideas might be like, uh, you know, having a, a video there's lots of video people, uh, companies out there that do little promo videos for churches that you can take a look at. There are dozens and dozens of mothers day specific ones that you go for. Um, some churches may do special music and, you know, some of those kinds of things, there's lots of ideas. Uh, you can be thinking about out there, but make sure you dedicate some time in your service to the honoring of mom. Speaker 4 00:05:08 Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I think that's, that's the key thing is just that, you know, think creatively about it too at yet. Think actually, when you were just saying that it reminded me of what we did while back at our church. Like, we didn't necessarily put moms on the spot, but we said, if you're the kind of mother that likes this, like stand up, if you're the kind of mother that, and it was basically like putting the pressure on the husband to buy that or do that, you know, for the mom. Uh, and so, uh, yeah, so, you know, it's just, it is it's, you know, this is what, one of the highest attended services. I know it's Easter first. It's Christmas Eve. Second. I know for a while, I haven't looked at the data recently, but it used to be mother's day third. Speaker 0 00:05:47 Yeah. As far as I've seen is its mother's day would be the second Sunday service, uh, of the year. So, and then the, the famous story is that always, that father's day is the least attended. Right. <laugh> because it's a, it's a dads would rather be Speaker 4 00:06:00 Else. Speaker 4 00:06:01 Right. And the mom's the one that drags the family to church. I know that's just kind of sad, but true, right. It is the stereotype, but, uh, well, good. Well, I'll get the second one. And that's, uh, I think what, something that all moms like is brunch lunch or treats or something after the, uh, the service, you know, whether or not it's, uh, something baked to go or a, um, little mini pies or whatever, or if you do a brunch thing, uh, make sure you let people know ahead of time. Um, you know, that's something that you're investing a little bit more in to make it an actual meal. Um, but if you don't want to go that far, you know, some sort of treat something chocolate, right? I mean, I, most moms, I think like chocolate, um, I know we've done chocolates and flowers to go before, uh, at, uh, at our church. So can't go wrong, I think with some of that stuff. Speaker 0 00:06:50 Yeah. No, I think those are good ideas. I think, uh, I mean, I, I think a brunch might be overkill. I think there's a certain subset of, of moms that would be willing to stay around for us. Speaker 4 00:06:59 They, they, they, they actually probably prefer they have their restaurant in mine maybe already. Speaker 0 00:07:03 Right. So they're probably they're ready for you to make dinner for 'em at home. So I don't know if a church potluck, brunch, especially if you're gonna make mom make something <laugh> for the, I know for the Speaker 4 00:07:12 Brunch, my wife would be ready for me to make something at home as, as you know, I'm still challenged on my grill, so we we're getting there. So yeah, Speaker 0 00:07:19 No, it's, I think that, uh, yeah, but some kind of food, I think, uh, I'm here in Hawaii, we have these treats called malasadas, uh, which are Portuguese donuts. Basically. They're really good. I, them when, but, um, I think that, you know, that's a perfect example. They kind of hot treats. We have a Masada truck right by our church and we could do MAA for moms, you know, or something like some kind of a, something just to kind of let people know they're special. I love the idea of chocolate's uh, little disclaimer. I know, I don't wanna make this about dads, but dads like chocolate too. Just so we're oh yeah. That's clear on that. That's right. Come father's day. We won't be doing an episode like this. I'm sure. But, uh, just a little disclaimer on that. So that's good. Uh, number three, have a special gift for moms. Speaker 0 00:07:59 So in addition, we talked about brunches and treats, but having some kind of a gift, you mentioned one that I see often is flowers here in Hawaii. Again, that's a very small subset of our audience is Hawaiian churches, but lays for mom makes a lot of sense. And Hey, I think even in North Dakota lays for moms would be kind of a cool gesture to do something like that. If mom's got nice flower lays, but yeah. Flowers, uh, flowers from kids, those kinds of things I think are really, yeah, they can be meaningful, but it can be go beyond that. I don't know if maybe you make a special, uh, mother's day 20, 22 coffee mug or something of that effect, but some kind of a gift for moms just to honor them, I think really would go Speaker 4 00:08:40 $5 Starbucks card or something, you know, and that could get expensive depending on how many women you have in your church. But, uh, uh, but yeah, something like that, for sure. Um, no self-help books though. Probably on the way out. Speaker 0 00:08:52 Yeah. I'd avoid that. Uh, I've learned over the years, you probably ought to avoid things like kitchen gadgets and that kind of stuff, uh, for, for mother's day, you know, you want something that doesn't, uh, remind them of work typically is what I'm, I'm told with these kinds of things. So there you go. Speaker 4 00:09:08 That's good. Go, I'll get the next one. That's uh, I like this one actually have a craft table or something for kids to make something special for moms. And even if you don't have the craft table, I know that, uh, at our church, uh, it usually, because we have children's church kids, church, youth, you know, they have their breakouts, um, you know, maybe that's when they do it, um, you know, something special, um, and a cool, you know, not just maybe them doing a hand note, but I, I like the idea of like a craft table where they can make it a little more creative and meaningful. So something like that mom's love of course. And, um, you know, makes them feel appreciated for sure. Speaker 0 00:09:46 Yeah. I mean, so who, I mean, I, I know that it's kind of cliche, but who, who doesn't love when their kids make them something or especially when they can involve photos and things too. Yeah. I know lot of times when we have crafts that involve, uh, a photo of, uh, a mom's little one. So it, for moms that have kids that are in kids ministry, especially when they're kind of in that nursery preschool age, how cool is it to get a little handmade craft or a photo or a card or something like that from your kids, something you can hang onto. I know even to this day, uh, my wife and I, we will sometimes get nostalgic or we'll be moving something around and open up that box that she has of all of these old preschool cards and things that were made for back then. Speaker 0 00:10:28 You just cherish these kinds of things for a long time. So I think doing that kind of stuff would really make a big difference on, on mother's day. Good idea with that, Ian, so, yeah. Good. Next one up is, uh, have a mother daughter or, uh, mother son event. Um, I have been to daddy daughter dances. Yeah. Um, it's been a while cuz I, my daughter is a junior in high school and generally they don't like to go to daddy daughter dances when they're at that age. But when she was a of the, she had the time of her life at a daddy daughter dance, um, this is not something for maybe Sunday morning. You're not gonna have that happening in your service church. You know, maybe the day before or around mother's day, having something for, um, you know, moms and their kids to be able to go out and have a really good time and enjoy themselves, you know, is to tickles the kids. They really love doing that kind of stuff. And I think it's just a good way to again, to honor moms and give them a chance to just really, uh, um, have a good time with their kids and have a memorable moment for moms and kids to be able to be together. Speaker 4 00:11:32 And it might be a good opportunity too, if you, you know, maybe if it is a dance type thing or something to have a little, the, you know, video short sermonette type thing or a guest speaker or something like that, you know, you can, you can do different things there. But, uh, yeah, we have at our church around father's day, we did that and then our, uh, our neighborhood HOA put one on. Um, and I like you, uh, have a daughter that's getting a little bit older now. She will be, she's not a junior yet, but she'll be in ninth grade. And I think we've just moved past that, but she still does like the daddy daughter dates because that involves me taking her somewhere and buying her stuff. So anyway, so <laugh>, but it's special too for whenever I, that when you mention the, when we mentioned the mother son, you know, whenever I do something like that, my, my boy does always ask, uh, his mom, okay, now what can we go do, can we go on a mother Sunday? Speaker 4 00:12:23 So, you know, it goes both ways, but, um, yeah, it's good, right? Yeah. He's, he's, he's gonna learn well, hopefully, uh, later than sooner, but, uh, but yeah, so he's 11, so we're not quite there, but <laugh> so, all right, good. So the next one I'll get it's uh, have a, this is, this is creative. Have a mother child look alike contest. Um, now that could be really cool. You know, you take pictures, you put em up on the, the screen or, uh, on social media, um, you know, and, um, you know, the, which one wins. I know some, some sons or daughters are, uh, are spitting image of their mother. So, uh, you know, that would be a fun kinda generate some buzz, maybe on social media and, uh, again makes it fun and special for the moms too. So Speaker 0 00:13:09 When I, when I, uh, we were talking to Stephanie and she mentioned this one here, when she wrote this one out, basically as an idea, I, I didn't know, I'd never seen this at a church before, something like that. I know these kinds of things exist, uh, but I'd never seen a church do some kind of a mother, mother, daughter, mother, mother, child look alike event. Yeah. Uh, so, but I, you know, the more I thought about it, I guess that's kind of, uh, fun. I think when you're, you're going the right direction, I think for media, I don't think like kinda coming in and parade them in front of the church is part of your service. That might be a little bit excessive or overkill, but I think a social media thing where put a picture up where moms and sons or moms and daughters look alike and, you know, kind of, you know, kind of, it gets people to share some of that kind of stuff, build some buzz around it. Speaker 0 00:13:53 You make a hashtag for it. I think that could be really cool. Uh, as an idea, just again, to kind of lead up to mother's day, that's one of those things I think that would really be great that week of, uh, yeah. And that kind of goes into the next one just is yeah. Highlighting moms on social media. So that's one idea on how we can do that, but yeah, I think starting next week, that week leading up to mother's, uh, you should make it your mission on all of your social platforms in every single post to be honoring moms, uh, to do something to honor the roles of moms, highlight some, maybe there's moms on your staff, um, or, uh, people on your team there that are moms highlighting them, highlighting moms who have, uh, um, I don't know, times you see newest moms or oldest moms or moms who have the oldest kids, some of those kinds of things, all kinds of ways that you can do this here. Yeah. But finding ways on all of your social platforms, uh, to be honoring moms. I think that really is a good idea for this mother's day, week. Speaker 4 00:14:52 Yeah. Put up do maybe a little bit more than just Proverbs 31. Uh, but uh, not that there's anything wrong with that. Uh, but, uh, but yeah, that would, uh, it it's good to get creative for sure. Speaker 0 00:15:03 I think one of the things that we get stuck in in churches is a lot of times we do the same things every year. And so, yeah, and I, I'm not say that like Proverbs 31 isn't, uh, isn't valuable this year as it was last year, it's just as valuable. But when we do the exact same things, every single year, every year we give the same flowers and we do this. That's just what we do on mother's day. I think there's some, some people would find that there's like some kind of, uh, um, liturgical value to repeating the same process. But I think in general you would be better off doing something creative and thinking about new things you can do each year, even if you don't do all nine of these, if you implement one of them, I think it's something you can, you can start to incorporate into your service and, you know, it'll start to play a bigger party. Speaker 4 00:15:49 Yep. Yeah, for sure. So, uh, I got the next one, right? So this will be, uh, have host a mother's day photo opportunity. Um, so this could be as simple as I know we do this all the time at my church. We, we just have a backdrop, you know, and sometimes, uh, the party favors where you put on the little masks and you goof off, we, we, you know, we've done that for, uh, Christmas, uh, you know, and maybe it is a photo booth as well. Um, so maybe, uh, I know one of the popular things now there's people that actually rent out photo booths, you know, or they have that as a business and you can have that a actually set up digitally at your church or any other event you may do. And, um, and that's always good again, having a picture to, uh, remember the at, or at least a backdrop where people can line up at the church and take a picture with their cell phone of mom and the kids and the husband or whatever. So Speaker 0 00:16:41 I know at our house, that is one of the things that mom always, uh, always remembers. Is that like, oh, she, I, I think she feels this weight of, Hey, we haven't done for family pictures in too long of a time. I don't know if you hear that at your house or Speaker 4 00:16:57 Not my yes. Uh, we actually, uh, we, we have not, we need to do new photos. Speaker 0 00:17:02 Right? Exactly. And I, I just had this conversation with my wife just the other day that, you know, we, we have been, it's been so long since we've done family photos, you know, why not? And, and I, I get, you can't do a one hour session and with each mom at church probably right. That's not gonna be, uh, but I think you can get something pretty close. If you have your church probably has a great photographer in there. You have someone who does it at least kind of semi-professionally or takes pictures of people, or they have a good camera and they do these kinds of things. You could probably work something like that out, but even if it's just on a cell phone and they take own pictures with a really cool background, we just came outta Easter. And I know that's the most recent thing I posted on social. Speaker 0 00:17:41 Um, lots of people in our church. I saw so many people from our church with that same background because yeah, the photo booth was there and, and they took that opportunity. Everybody was in their Easter best on Easter Sunday. And so you get that nice family picture there. So I think that is a, a huge opportunity. And it has so much, it has this potential to be a kind of a viral thing. Not that yeah, millions of people are gonna share it, but everybody takes these pictures. They all put it on media. And if you have a few friends that have the same background, someone's gonna start to ask, Hey, where were you with that background? Or what, where did that take place? Or that's a great quality picture. How did that happen? And you can start talking about your church and getting word out there. So I think it's a really good, good idea there. Speaker 4 00:18:23 That's awesome. Awesome. Speaker 0 00:18:24 Yeah, I'll wrap it up with number nine, uh, which is, uh, moms with special treatment. Um, this is, should be obvious, but I think thinking about how we can go above and beyond on these kinds of things here. So one idea that we heard was what if you hosted again pre Sunday, uh, but what if you hosted a mom's, uh, car wash? So if you're a mom, we wanna honor moms, and this is something you could even do as like an evangelistic type of opportunity. Yeah. Like where you drive into the church parking lot or someplace, wherever it would be and get a 100% free car wash or that's Speaker 4 00:18:59 Cool. Speaker 0 00:18:59 Uh, we'll do, uh, you know, you have some, some guys in your church that are good at this kind of stuff. We'll do free mom oil changes, uh, or, you know, whatever it would be. There's all kinds of idea of things you can have. Speaker 4 00:19:11 We did that. The, I like that you mentioned the oil change one, not to interrupt you, but we did that at our church for single moms, uh, be, and that was a huge thing. And, and, and it ended up being a really good ministry opportunity cuz we had a lot of mothers that, you know, single moms, that's, that's a tough job, tough place to be in and uh, and ended up, um, you know, blessing the, their socks off and get, you know, providing a time to minister to them and get them connected to the church. And so, yeah, that's worked great for us, Speaker 0 00:19:39 Those random acts of service. I think that's what it's all about is just finding a way that something that would bless everybody or all moms, every mom would, who wouldn't want a car wash or, you know, a, an oil change or something like that. Finding idea is like this. Yeah. Uh, and just running with it and making sure that it's something that everybody knows about, not just people that are, you know, certain moms in your church or a few people, but just make it out there and you know, you'll probably get more car washes than you could possibly handle, but you know, giving out these kinds of things, some churches, I, we even thought about the idea of giving out like a, a car wash coupon on, on mother's day where yeah. You know, on, on next week's Sunday after service, we're doing a free car wash for moms. Here's your coupon. You can use it or give it to somebody or do whatever you want. So yeah. Lots of ways you can do that, but just do something special for moms that's what's important. Speaker 4 00:20:25 Yeah. And I think one other thing to, to make sure we mention too, is just that this can be a sensitive time of, of, of year, uh, for some, some moms like the single moms, maybe it's the divorced mom. Uh, not every mom at, at the church is obviously gonna have a, a healthy family situation. And so I think, you know, it is a good time of ministry for, for mothers in a tough place, mothers that have lost children, uh, you know, mothers that, you know, so being sensitive to them and, and addressing their situation in a, in a loving, biblical way, uh, is also something that we shouldn't forget for sure. Speaker 0 00:21:02 Yeah. I I'm totally with you. And I think that that's one of those things that I, you have to be sensitive of. And, and I think sometimes the pendulum can swing the other way. So I know one thing that I got feedback on is that when I was, uh, pastoring that, uh, mom or women who were experiencing fertility challenges right. Or having a hard time becoming moms, uh, people that lost babies, like you said, um, yeah, that is really, it can be a hard day, uh, for mother's day. So I think you certainly need to be aware of this. You need to be, but at the same time, we cannot let, like, we don't want to just like minimize this cuz it is a really important day to where moms can be celebrated. So we don't want to take away from the celebration. And at the same time you can kind of honor everybody that way. And yeah. I mean, I use it as a time for ministry. I think you're exactly right with that. Speaker 4 00:21:51 It's good. Awesome. Speaker 0 00:21:52 Awesome. Good. Anything else before we wrap up today? Speaker 4 00:21:56 I don't think so. We just appreciate any mothers listening to our reach right podcast and that follow us, you are definitely appreciated. And uh, we're glad that there are many moms and ministry, uh, that are, uh, doing the work of the kingdom and uh, yeah, no, that's I think a good close. Yeah. Speaker 0 00:22:13 If you guys have any other ideas too, about what your church does for mothers on mother's day or around mother's day, let us know in the comments below, we wanna make this something that's useful for everybody and yeah, we'd love new ideas. And uh, if you have any questions on some of our ideas or any other ideas for reach right podcast episodes, you'd love to see, let us know about that down there below as, as always, we ask you, if you, if this has been helpful to you rate review, subscribe, uh, that means the world to us. And it really helps us to get this message out there to more and more church leaders. Thank you guys so much for partnering and being a part of our reach right family. And we will hope to catch you next week. Thanks for listening to the reach Wright podcast. We hope this episode will help you reach people the right way, looking for more resources for your church. Check us out online at reach Wright, studios.com. If this episode has been helpful to you, it would mean the world to us. If you would rate, review and subscribe on iTunes or wherever you get your podcast. Thanks again for listening. And we'll see you next week. Speaker 2 00:23:21 Ready to.