down days?

In the church world we talk about "down days". What is a "down day"...a holiday, spring break, fall break, or many summer Sundays. These are days we tend to see attendance slip because people are busy or traveling or have plans. I am beginning to wonder if we should ever let "down days" get in the way of planning our environments. Every Sunday is somebody's first Sunday...will we be ready for them, strive for excellence, go the extra mile for them when they show up? This past Sunday was July 4. In the "down day" theory we should have just planned an average day or a less than average crowd. The thought never crossed our mind as we planned last month. We tried every way possible to step up our game and make July 4 a great Sunday. We landed on a plan and wow this past Sunday we had an amazing day. 15 people got baptized. Our preschool ministry had an amazing day with our little kids. Families gathered together in all three of our services and experienced one of our best services of the year. We had tons of first time guests. (one that was asking where our traditional service was but that is for another post!) All of that went down on a "down day". THERE IS NO DAY THAT IS A DOWN DAY WHEN IT IS SOMEBODY'S FIRST SUNDAY AND WHEN LIVES ARE CHANGING!