What Are Your Sunday Morning Rituals?
It’s Saturday night.
For almost 13 straight years I had to get up at the butt crack of dawn on Sundays to go sing, setup, and swear.
Tomorrow I’m going to sleep in and head to Buckhead Church for the 11 o’clock service.
Ahhhhhhh.
None of this going on tomorrow.
My Day Yesterday – My Sunday from Carlos Whittaker on Vimeo.
But I’ll be back leading it the next Sunday.
Knowing there is a good mix of people on this blog…
What your Sunday morning rituals?
Do you work at a church?
Do you sleep in?
Waffles?
A certain restaurant?
The paper?
Sunday morning…
Share.
Los
RAIN IT DOWN
Sunday morning rituals usually include a stop at Starbucks for some hot chocolate unless I feel I like I need a kick of caffeine & then there is coffee. I am volunteer at church and so some weeks I get to sleep in & choose my service & others I am there at the “butt crack of dawn” as you put Carlos.
butt crack. yes
I swing by Starbucks for my Single Venti Iced Coffee with no classic. I typed out the rest of my normal routine but my wife told me to delete it. Lets just say I get nervous before I teach.
dude. type it
Depends – we have an 8:00 'traditional' service that I run sound for about once a month, so I'm usually up by 7:00, shower, grab guitar and X3 and head for the church by 7:45 on those days. Most every other week I'm playing electric guitar for our 10:45 'contemporary' service. We have a sound check for the 2nd service at 9:15, so we're usually out the door by 9. We live about 5 blocks away from church now, pretty nice.
nice
up early – 5AM – get to the school where we set up at 6AM – get everything rolling for the 9:30 and 11:00 service – and then sing my heart out leading worship! love it!
5am is harsh. i do not envy you. ha.
yea. that is early
My kids crawl into our bed at about 6:30. By about 7:00 they're asking for breakfast so my sweet husband makes crepes every Sunday morning. Then we all watch cartoons together before we head to church. I love Sundays.
LOVE that too!!!
it depends if i play or not.
if i get to play, i have two celebrations saturday night. i don't go out saturday night after church with friends because i have to be up at 7.30 so i can get to church @8am for sound check. then 3 celebrations on sunday.
if i'm not playing i hang out saturday night then sleep in sunday. i go to the 10.45 or the 12.30 celebration.
Up at 5:45 am (yeah, you heard that right!), out the door at 6:30. At church at 7:15. Grabbing a diet Pepsi and a Krispy Kreme while setting up the coffee for the early service, then warming up with the band at eight. Oh, yeah, praying with the worship team, then cranking up the first part of the worship set at 9 on the dot.
)
Worth every single minute.
awesome
I’m generally up pretty early. I am the minister of music at a small SBC church. We have an early service at 8:30am with a 7:30am soundcheck. I get up, spend some time in the Word, head out the door, and grab a coffee, newspaper, and 2 Toranados (sp?) at Speedway on the way to the church (windows down, weather permitting). Crank up somebody preaching at me on the iPod – like to have church before I get to church! Once there, I power up the board and PC and pray that God will use me!
praying for you!
I feel for ya with the early morning practice. We have an 8:30 service I drum at and we start sound check and practice at 7:00am.
Going to church tomorrow for the first time in many months. Returning to the same church where I converted to Christianity at age 37. The same church where I was falsely accused of something pretty heinous a couple of years ago. The same church where there are still some folks who refuse to say hello or acknowledge me when I meet them on the street even though I was completely vindicated when the elders learned that the accuser had done the same thing at a different church to a different worship leader. But that's where God is leading us to go, so I am going. Will be interesting to see what I am meant to learn.
Um. Will you come back and tell us how it went?
Of course. May blog about it too…if I make it out alive
All kidding aside, I think this God we serve loves us enough to prompt us to be where we need to be in order to forgive and to heal. My guess is that this very uncomfortable leading is that kind of a gift in the making.
alarm at 7. snooze. up at 720ish. church by 8. (okay, 815.) prep for the morning. high school sunday school at 915. worship service at 1030. junior high sunday school at 1145. grab lunch with my husband. LONG nap!
1. Is your photo setup to show @human3rror on purpose??
2. My Sunday – alarm at 5:15, wife kicks me out of bed around 5:30. Sorry honey. At the church by 6:45 after stopping to grab a tea at Tim Horton’s. Get to the church to do the last minute stuff that I’d told someone I’d do but forgot to do during the week. Inevitable. Band and techs arrive at 7:30 – they are a million times more dedicated than me cause I get paid for this stuff. 60 minutes of warmups, run throughs, wrong chords, trying to remember arrangements. Gather the people at 9:00 for worship – forget about all the craziness of life for about 80 minutes and focus on Jesus. Quick bite to eat and do it all again at 11:00. Back at home around 1:30 in time to turn on some football and fall asleep on the couch. Get woken up by my bananas kids who are crazy happy to see me. Not sure what I could add to that day to make it any better.
My Sunday mornings used to be relaxed (our High School group meets Sunday nights). However, starting tomorrow morning I am leading the Junior High ministry at our second campus (opening tomorrow!). Been on staff at the church for a little over 3 years now…lovin’ it.
here’s to energy drinks.
up at 9ish/shower/go to church at the 11 service/ then lunch with the friends.
Not bad.
though sometimes i have to take shifts selling stuff from 8am-4pm. Those sundays are special! haha.
Diana from Venezuela!
I try to wake up at butt crack every day regardless, but having to be somewhere soon after butt crack is not my style. I am a Saturday nighter church attendee and volunteer at the HS service on Sunday. If I wake up before my kids on Sunday it begins with a real quick visit to gmail, google reader, and the bathroom. I then make sure my phone is awake from charging overnight. I spend a little time with Jesus and if I start falling asleep, I find some caffein. Sorry coffee fans, but I cannot drink it. Coke and Mt. Dew would be my chosen poison. Then I begin planning my day, find some cereal. Love the Cocoa Pebbles and Frosted Flakes. I play with my kids a bit and help to get them ready for the day before I roll to hang with some highschoolers. If my kids wake up before I do, it is all about the same only they jump on me in bed and they are a complete distraction to all else that I try to do.
until we moved into our new building we set up and tore down every Sunday. at the time I didn't lead worship, but I would still meet up with our worship leader of the time and load the trailer at 7:30am. Set up at the venue started at 8am, soundcheck at 9, Donuts at 9:45, Prayer at 9:50, Service at 10, tearing down by 11:35, loaded by 12:15pm, then lunch and afternoon nap. As the worship pastor, I still arrive by 8, but there's no setup involved. On the way to the Church though I always listen to worship music. I usually talk to my pastor for a couple of minutes when I first get there, and then spend a few minutes in prayer and listening to worship music in office before the band arrives at 8:30, from there the rest of the routine is just about the same except we start at 10:30. And in the fall football always follows lunch!
Head to the gym around 6:30 then down to Goldbergs for a bagel on the go for the rest of the ride south to Brother’s house where I hook up with his family to walk over to BC 9am service. Sometimes if the whole gang is present, parents and all, we head to the Treehouse or Flying Biscuit for some brunch. Then if on the schedule to volunteer for 6pm service, back at 3:30 for the prod. meeting.
I sleep in, compared to most other ministry folks. Then I get up, log onto live.lifechurch.tv and enjoy 3-4 live Church Online experience with the most amazing rock-star volunteers.
the only common denominator in my sunday is either a nap or ice cream.
Church Online Experiences starting rolling in our time zone at 8:30 CDT. I usually go through a typical morning (exercise, devotion, etc.) keeping an eye on email and Twitter in case I need to help with anything. Then head into our office around 9am to help with the heavier experiences with Live Prayer and just to connect with our team on how the Experiences are rolling and if any changes are necessary.
All the experiences are volunteer lead and run, so a lot of it is just making sure the experiences and the different links, hooks we have all tied for the week are good to go.
Hard part is being so attentive to a computer screen with multiple chats and video for several hours, pretty draining. But amazing to see all the things God is doing through it!
two words – Full Throttle
Thank you Jesus for Saturday night church! Now I get to sleep in on Sunday. My husband also makes blueberry muffins for my kids every week so I've got that going for me. Which is nice.
No ritual. Some Sundays I'm in band rotation, some I'm not. Some I'm on tech rotation, some not. Some Sundays I don't go into Church at all (bc of Sat night service), I'd like to get rid of that. Even if I'm not on schedule somewhere, I should be there doing something.
Sunday evening rituals are different. Have a couples small group in the evening, followed by a men's small group after that.
I get up and get into the church by 7:45AM. I have three boys, and I alternate which one gets to go in early with me. They love going in early on Sunday. I take one in. It’s me and one boy for a few minutes of special dad and son time.
I see it as just going to work. They see it as going to work with dad. Pretty cool.
alarm goes of at 6am
out the door by 7:30
Starbucks or MacDonalds if I managed to get out the door on time.
at church by 8am
setting up for services, usually mixing at front of house.
We have a Saturday night service, so we’ve already got levels set, everything goes pretty quickly.
I try to spend as much time as possible face to face with the tech volunteers. Listening to their stories, and encouraging them. Small touch up stuff from the night before if something didn’t go quite right.
Services at 9am and 10:45.
10:15 run to my office for a diet coke, and make sure everything is ready to go again by 10:45. More face time with volunteers
Service is over by 12:15, and because we have a crack team, we’re wrapped and the room is shut down by 12:30. Time to head to lunch, and probably a nap
Before we moved several states over, my family was there with the staff in the early Sunday mornings for the various ministries (nursery, music, preschool) we were involved in. Although setting an alarm earlier on Sunday than any other day seemed crazy, I loved it. Shouldn't I be giving God the most??
Since our move this summer, we've been going to a church with only one service – @ 10:30 – and aren't yet plugged in to ministries (been there 3 weeks now) so it's no alarm on Sundays… just wait for the kiddies to wake us. It's weird.
I get up before the sun pacific time. Shower, drink some juice (can't have milk, bread, etc before I sing). Head to church (3 minute drive). Set up my gear. Hum with my mouth closed. 10 minutes later the band shows up and the practicing begins. Not many rituals. Sleep as much as possible.
Up hopefully at 6:30 maybe like 7. Go shower, start warming up voice while in the shower. Also start praying depending on how the spirit is leading. Get to church at 7:30 connect with the praise and worship team, sing at 7:45 (ish), be amazed at how God moves, and then listen to the rest of the service.
@9:30 ish go make waffles for the teen Sunday School class. 10:30 re-connect with the praise and worship team and sing at 10:45, again be amazed at how God moves, go sit down. This time a little uneasily, until after the welcome when I duck outside to do a last minute run through and prayer then I duck back in to do the Children’s Story/Sermon. Once that’s over I sit down and listen to the rest of the service and wonder why the sermon at 10:45 isn’t as tightly edited as the one at 7:45.
Eventually get home around @1:30ish, eat a late breakfast. Then very likely take a nap that’s going to go on longer than I intended, wake up and do homework.
My Saturday routine greatly effects the Sunday routine:
Sat @ 8pm I'm at our NightLight Worship Service which runs til 11:30 (depending on discussion afterwards and possible food runs…). Then, I edit the podcast from midnight to 1am (sometimes later if I fall asleep…) Stay up and comment on this junk, read my Bible, pray, fall in and out of sleep until 2 or 3 am. Tomorrow, my morning should go like this: up at 6:00 am to shower and read the Word, meet at my buddies house for breakfast and coffee at 7:30. Head to the church around 8:30 to get kids ministry stuff ready (audio/video stuff). Prayer begins at 9:00. Cafe opens at 10:00 (hang out, mingle, pray with people, eat donuts, more coffee, run interference on random stuff). Worship Service begins at 11 and runs til 1:00 (I lead our kids min, lots of fun!) Around 2pm, we ALL clean the church and pack up chairs. Go home around 2:30 or 3:00 for kids napping and some chillaxin with MacBook, some books, maybe some English soccer highlights. Dinner w/ fam, movie time, bedtime, and then off to Starbucks to plan the next week and maybe hang with some dudes (discipleship). Back home in time to bring my wife a double-chocolate chip frappaccino.
I love this life!
I work the night shift at a local hospital. I get off work at 7:00 AM Sunday morning and head streight to church to set up. We don’t have a building we are meeting at a local school. So there is a lot to do. Setting up chairs, moving tables, setting up sound equipment and class rooms for the children’s ministry.
After that’s done I run the graphics during the 2 services. We offer a 9;30 and 11:00 service. Then we have to tear it all down and pack it back up. I’m usually one of last people to leave. I’m out of there by 1:00 PM. Then it’s off to bed to get a few hours sleep before I head back to work again that night.
Sundays are a little rough on me, but I love serving.
I’m up just after the butt crack of dawn on Sundays. As a matter of fact I’m getting ready to head out to grab a coffee on my way to church right now. I lead almost every week – but I love it!!
Up at 7:00… 7:15… crap its 7:30!
Coffee.
Bloglines & email.
Shower.
Drive to church (SR 67 to Mooresville, IN).
At church by 8:45/9:00.
Help Assistant Pastor set-up video projectors and get them rolling.
Worship team run through at 9:30 (sometimes).
On the platform to sing at 10:15!
Lunch. Nap. Sunday night service at 6:00.
Up until July, our family had to be up and out the door by 9:15 AM, to drive 30 min to church. In July, after much prayer, we started serving at a church 5 min from our house. Service time starts at 10:30. We gained an hour of our morning, which helps us rest.
So we wake up around 7 or 7:30, drink some coffee, the kids ease into the morning with some bkfast and a little TV.
I read a couple of devotionals and catch up on tweets/blogs.
Thankful for Sundays!
Blessings to all
I worked loads on Sundays last year. I was a youth worker, and ran sessions in various churches around Scotland, sometimes in series but mostly with new churches each week. Then, my routine was head to the train station around 9, grab a Venti Starbucks for the journey and read over my session on the train journey. Lunch was invariably spent with pastors/ youth leaders/ on a train journey again.
Now… Postsecret & a coffee at home, then my own church (usually).
Usually I'm just getting home from work at about 4am. The wife tends to the 3kids until the last min. when she wakes me up and we head to our 1130 service at "SANDALS." Then we rush away from church as soon as its over, grab some fast food on the way home and I barely make it to work in another city by 130pm.____My new favorite joy on Sunday's is my 4yr old son dividing up his .50 cents into tithe, savings and speding jars. Over the past few weeks he has chosen to give more to Jesus then is required because "I love Jesus!"
My routine USED to be waking up at the buttcrack of dawn, getting coffee for myself and the band, rushing to band practice, running the media slides for practice, printing our fliers and bulletins for the service, pray with the band, 2 services, clean up and tear down, lunch with the students, nap, leading face to face groups, family dinner, bible study, sleep.
I got layed off from my church that i’ve attended for over 8 years. NOW, I just sleep in and drink coffee/read the paper with my dad.
It makes me feel a little guilty that I can’t decide which is more rewarding.
I direct our Sunday morning services, so my Sunday mornings pretty much shape up like this: I wake up at 5:45, get dressed, eat a quick breakfast, and arrive at the church at 6:30. After making Communion for the band and tech team, I join them in sound check. Then I direct dress rehearsal and lead the band and tech team in Communion. Then, I direct the services (actually our teams are so good that once we get started, the services generally run themselves pretty smoothly).
Up at 5:45 trying to keep quiet so I don't wake the kiddos. Then pass church on my way to Starbucks – usually a quad venti caramel macchiato. Then back to church for setup and rehearsal/sound check. Prayer time with the team and 1st gathering at 9. That's been the routine here (more or less) for a little over 4 years.
Wake up at 5:15 am. Be to church by 6:00. Grab a Caribou on the Way, and get Simulcast and control room functioning. Worship Leader Slide Check at 6:30, Rehersal at 6:45. Pastor Slide check at 6:45. Production Meeting then Full Service Run through at 7:30 minus the message. Then 9:30 service and 11:15 service.
It's a very long day like you!
We go to Saturday night service at our church. So our new Sunday morning ritual is sleeping in!!!
So good. We love it.
Not being a morning person I’m uber blessed to be on staff at a church where worship is Sunday evenings. Allows my Sundays to be relaxed and flexible (perfect for this introvert at heart who will spend the evening being extroverted and pouring energy into people) before heading to church no later than 3:00 to get the a/v ready for worship. No energy drinks or coffee needed here
This was last March http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoPmnnPUQ14
Still about the same. Wake up at 6:15, Starbucks. Get to church by 7:30 for our 8:00 traditional service that I usually don't end up sitting through because the sound board is so bored by it that it practically runs the 2 mics it needs to in it's sleep. Then my volunteer team takes over the rest of the morning services at our main campus (9:00, 10:10, 11:15) and I make the long trek 2 blocks south on the same road to our Celebration campus. That's where we have our 10:00am "Rockstar Church" as I like to call it. The stage is much more awesome now than it was in the above video. (picture here: http://twitpic.com/hl97w) That's the end of morning worship.
Then I have a couple hours where I can grab lunch with friends before heading back to Celebration for our youth programs. This is my 10th year being a Jr. High mentor for Confirmation and my 2nd year being a Sr. High mentor. Those two programs sandwich our Sunday night worship service at 6:00 which is student led.
I leave home around 7:15am and get back around 9:30pm on Sundays.
Wake about 7:00 when the kiddo decides he's ready to be freed from the confines of his crib. Get some breakfast ready for him. When the wife comes down an hour later (her day to sleep in), I head out for my long run of the week. 9:00 or 10:00 depending on the run, I get breakfast, shower, play with the boy while my wife cleans up, then we head off to the grocery store. It's nice to go while people are in church, since the lines are shorter.
Of course we go to church and lead a class on Saturday nights, so this might not be the discussion you were looking for….
i play guitar and my brother plays drums for both worship services 8:45 and 10:45, so the day goes basically like this. wake up at 7, give my brother a pre-wake up wake up shake, get myself clean, wake up the brother for real, make coffee, toast then butter corn muffins, hopefully get to church around 8 for run through, play first worship service, head over to kitchen to eat now cold corn muffins, play second service, sit in on sermon, go home where we nosh on some cheese and crackers, put a sporting event on tv, take a nap.
I look forward to having a morning ritual. Not this season of life I suppose. But here's what I'd LIKE for it to look like when I get to a season with less variation in weekend schedule:
Wake up around 8, wake up slowly, still comforted by the sheets and blankets but feeling the breeze of the ceiling fan.
get up around 8:30 and enjoy a morning devotional or just getting ready with roommates or (perhaps by that time) a husband
finishing breakfast/devotional/morning prayer/chat by 9:30
heading to church un-rushed and in my right mind by 10:30 to attend an 11 o'clock service.
But maybe that's just my "amERICAn dream" lol.
Sunday mornings are pretty much the same for me…
-Wake up: 6:00am
-At church by 7:00am for worship band practice (practice ALWAYS starts late and drives me crazy, but I'm always on time)
-8:30 drumming during 8:30 service
-10:30 drumming during 10:30 service
-Noon trying to figure out where to eat for lunch
-12:15 giving up on trying something new and going to the same Mexican food restaurant we go to every week
Sometime after that…a mid day nap if I'm lucky.
Up at 4:15, leave home at 5:15, run through sound check, band rehearsal, cue to cue, and two services. Leave at 12:30, grab lunch with the family, and take a nap. Used to have set up and tear down every Sunday. Don’t miss that!
I get up earlier on Sundays than I do during the week for work! Everyone at work thinks that I’m nuts.
I’d have to agree!
….it’s about a 20-year old ritual with me – up at 6, lots of coffee
I have to sit quietly for awhile and wake up slowly – I need to get in the frame of mind for worship, and think through the morning. Then it’s off for playing the organ and directing the choir followed by jamming with the band in the 2nd service. Home or out to Culvers for lunch, grab a nap then off to praise team practice (which is sometimes preceded by SundayPM leading worship if the youth band leaders have decided to flake)
Usually home by 8, mostly useless until Tuesday when the cycle begins again.
Up at 5am, pray, look over the message, go through the whole “this sucks, I’ve got nothing useful here” pyschosis that most preachers experience. Out the door by 6:25am, Stop at supermarket for a pair of protein shakes to keep me going through the morn. At the building by 6:40am, unlock for our set up crew, set up til 8am, watch the band run through and marvel at their talent, fix any tech issues (yeah, our sound gear loves the temperature extremes!) then pray as a team at 8:40am, launch at 9am, do it again at 10:45am, come home by 1:30pm after tearing down feeling like a zombie.
there is very little sexy about being portable, but I love what I get to do.