This year Mother’s Day falls on Pentecost Sunday. Which should a pastor prioritize? If we are Pentecostal, I believe we should recognize Mother’s Day. Why? Because, Pentecost is about evangelism. It is about proclaiming Jesus to the spiritually lost. For many Christian mothers, Mother’s Day may be the only Sunday of the year their unsaved son or daughter will attend church with them. 

Help your congregation know that if the Holy Spirit can enable them to worship God in a language they do not know, He can certainly enable them to proclaim Jesus in the language they do know.

Beginning at the birth of the Church on the Day of Pentecost and during the days following, the early Christians’ message was simple and clear. They proclaimed Jesus. Today this same message—Jesus—must be clearly communicated to the spiritually lost.

The Fellowship’s leadership has encouraged local churches to conduct a Holy Spirit Emphasis each year, preferably during the Pentecost season. This year, with Pentecost Sunday falling on Mother’s Day, many churches will likely have a Holy Spirit emphasis at a different time. The month of June generally seems to be the most advantageous time for most churches, but some have an emphasis later in the summer or even in the fall. 

This year’s theme focuses on the evangelistic purpose of Spirit baptism. The Evangelism Commission is releasing a seven-day devotional study on how a person can enter into the Spirit’s work in evangelism. Two videos are designed to be shown on consecutive Sundays, with the seven-day Response Evangelism devotional study in between. The first video communicates how the early Church proclaimed a Christ-centered message following the Day of Pentecost. The second video offers Biblical instruction concerning how every believer can clearly and simply share Christ through a two-point evangelistic presentation based on the Apostle Peter’s preaching.

The Holy Spirit is working in nonbelievers’ lives, and He allows us the privilege of entering into that work.

The apostles Peter and Paul taught the early Christians to be effective witnesses by being responsive to nonbelievers. Peter wrote, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” Paul wrote to the Colossians: “Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.”^[1]

We are all responsible to share our faith, to share Jesus—the message of Pentecost. 

Read the theme Article

All Scriptures are from NASB, unless otherwise noted. Italics mine.