What do you think?
Rate this book
Thank God It's Monday: Sunday’s not enough
"Let’s face this generation is increasingly not waking up Sunday morning thinking, what’s a great church I can go to today?
Part of the problem is that for too long we’ve made church mostly about Christians doing spiritual stuff on Sundays.
Of course, we love our Sundays, but we should be even more excited about our Mondays, because on those days God has positioned us in shop fronts, in salons, in classrooms, in playgroups, on building sites, and in boardrooms where we can engage with those who don’t yet know Him.
Church must be less about us and more about others. We should be empowering Christians to act as Christ in their communities Monday through Saturday. That’s why Christians should be waking up on Mondays declaring, “Thank God it’s Monday!”
In this thought-provoking book, Paul Bartlett encourages us that can have a huge influence in our community, across our town or city, and throughout the nation… and it starts on Monday."
Part of the problem is that for too long we’ve made church mostly about Christians doing spiritual stuff on Sundays.
Of course, we love our Sundays, but we should be even more excited about our Mondays, because on those days God has positioned us in shop fronts, in salons, in classrooms, in playgroups, on building sites, and in boardrooms where we can engage with those who don’t yet know Him.
Church must be less about us and more about others. We should be empowering Christians to act as Christ in their communities Monday through Saturday. That’s why Christians should be waking up on Mondays declaring, “Thank God it’s Monday!”
In this thought-provoking book, Paul Bartlett encourages us that can have a huge influence in our community, across our town or city, and throughout the nation… and it starts on Monday."
202 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 2, 2015
6 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 30, 2018
Paul Bartlett, along with his wife Annette, are the senior pastors of the Lighthouse Church in Wollongong. Paul’s passion is to encourage churches to engage in their communities. He believes churches should be less focussed on their members and be more concerned about those outside the church. The title, Thank God it’s Monday, comes from the idea of being excited about who God wants us to interact with during the working week, rather than being totally focussed on our Sunday services.
Paul writes about community engagement with a great deal of passion, but sometimes repeatedly. When he took over the leadership of Lighthouse, he was concerned about the mind set of waiting for the weekend so Christians could be ‘spiritual’. He wanted to turn this attitude around so the congregation would recognize they can be spiritual in the places where God had placed them strategically during the week as his representatives. This change in emphasis has grown the church and Paul hopes it will also grow other churches. Paul did include some examples from congregational members, however, I found them too general to be helpful.
Lighthouse is a large church in a large metropolitan area, so has many opportunities to be involved in community activities. Smaller churches in smaller towns have less opportunities, but are often better networked. However they face other challenges, such as an aging congregation, lack of musicians, creating a service that newcomers would be interested in attending. All of which makes community engagement more challenging for these churches.
Overall an interesting read, though not particularly relevant to my situation.
Paul writes about community engagement with a great deal of passion, but sometimes repeatedly. When he took over the leadership of Lighthouse, he was concerned about the mind set of waiting for the weekend so Christians could be ‘spiritual’. He wanted to turn this attitude around so the congregation would recognize they can be spiritual in the places where God had placed them strategically during the week as his representatives. This change in emphasis has grown the church and Paul hopes it will also grow other churches. Paul did include some examples from congregational members, however, I found them too general to be helpful.
Lighthouse is a large church in a large metropolitan area, so has many opportunities to be involved in community activities. Smaller churches in smaller towns have less opportunities, but are often better networked. However they face other challenges, such as an aging congregation, lack of musicians, creating a service that newcomers would be interested in attending. All of which makes community engagement more challenging for these churches.
Overall an interesting read, though not particularly relevant to my situation.
October 31, 2020
Full of really great, inspiring and challenging ideas for Christians to get involved in community, to love and to serve. I attended Lighthouse Wollongong, before moving to Darwin 4 and a half years ago. Many of the community engagement initiatives talked about in the book were, therefore not new to me, but the reasoning behind the direction author Paul, and his wife, have taken the church is sound and biblical.
Personally, I love the idea-which is being presented as something radical and new because it is-that the working week should be reclaimed as valuable time, not just passing time to make money. For many years, I've been bothered by the whole 'thank God, it's Friday' thing. I was encouraged further by Paul's book to keep making a difference in my workplace, to think of my work as service, and to continue to look for ways to love people, and if given the chance, to share my faith with them.
I would have enjoyed this book more if it was less repetitive. I think there was a little padding involved.
I loved the real examples, and the simple presentation of a simple idea. Paul's humour comes through as well, although it was obviously a different experience for me because I could 'hear' his voice when I was reading.
A must read for 21st century Christians especially those who only practice on Sundays, and/or those who struggle to feel 'spiritual' during the week.
Personally, I love the idea-which is being presented as something radical and new because it is-that the working week should be reclaimed as valuable time, not just passing time to make money. For many years, I've been bothered by the whole 'thank God, it's Friday' thing. I was encouraged further by Paul's book to keep making a difference in my workplace, to think of my work as service, and to continue to look for ways to love people, and if given the chance, to share my faith with them.
I would have enjoyed this book more if it was less repetitive. I think there was a little padding involved.
I loved the real examples, and the simple presentation of a simple idea. Paul's humour comes through as well, although it was obviously a different experience for me because I could 'hear' his voice when I was reading.
A must read for 21st century Christians especially those who only practice on Sundays, and/or those who struggle to feel 'spiritual' during the week.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews