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In teaching yoga and attending yoga classes I've seen how the mind of the student gives out before their body does. By getting everyone to work together and having this dialog Bikram Yoga is very effective in controlling the minds of the students.

Similarly, in your preaching programs you need to have a seamless flow of presentation to keep the crowd.

I did the Sunday Feast program in Melbourne while I was there. Aniruddha prabhu knows what to say to inspire me. He said: "It's a real challenge". He and Tri Yuga explained that it is a very distracted environment with people walking in and out all the time.

I had back-up - Aniruddha arranged for the brahmacaris to come to the program and I lead the 4.30pm arati with a harmonium. Under normal circumstances harmoniums are not appropriate in arati kirtans, but for a Sunday Feast afternoon opening it can be nice to engage the people.

By Sita-pati das
Originally posted at www.atmayogi.com

Recently I visited the Loft in Auckland, New Zealand (I've been based in Brisbane, Australia for the past few years), and I attended the Sunday Feast program there. Afterwards the devotees asked me if I could give some pointers on things that could be done to improve their program.

The Sunday Feast has a been a particular interest of mine for some time, and even an almost exclusive focus of late; as Sunday is the only day I get off work it's the only program that I can really put my time and energy into.

The first time I ever went to a Sunday Feast program was in the mid-90s in New Zealand. A friend of mine took me to the Gopals restaurant that was then open on Queen St, the main drag in Auckland. The meal cost $2, and he offered to pay for me in order to overcome my reluctance to go. Trudging up the stairs behind him, I was curious to see what it was all about. Without his personal influence I would not have been inspired to go so far outside my comfort zone. The smells were exotic, as was the food on offer. I picked up a flyer for the program at the counter that promised dance and drama. When I questioned a staff member about this I was told that that program had recently been discontinued (my wife to be, Param Satya devi dasi, whom I had not yet met, and Krishna loka devi dasi had just opened the Loft in Newmarket and moved their Sunday program there). I enjoyed an interesting meal, but was a little disappointed that the promised cultural experience did not materialise.

“Think Steps, Not Programs” is how Andy Stanley and the crew at Northpoint summarize the concept that I spoke about in the article People are the Focus.

The idea is this: instead of having a strategic vision that focuses on programs, you have a strategic vision of a people-process - a pathway that takes people from where they are now, to where you want them to be. You then make sure that you have all the programs you need along that pathway, in easy, obvious, and strategic steps that take them from point A to point B.

Literally - here’s our new stage:

We bought this stage this past week. Param Satya and Madana-Gopal lead that one up. This next week we’re going to get another one just like it and then we’ll turn that one sideways and put the other one next to it, to get double the space. You’ve got to build things for growth. This way the guests can sit on chairs, and we can do kirtan sitting down where they can see us. Nothing more boring than staring at the back of someone’s head for half an hour.

One of the implications or complications of the expansion to the new facility, is the issue of the Krishna Kids Club - our program for children on Sundays. We have this program for a number of reasons:

1. To enable the teaching to go on in the main space without the interruption of children in the audience
2. To enable people to come to hear, even when they have children they are responsible for
3. To enable us to give the children an appropriate experience of Krishna Consciousness, targeted to their needs
4. To encourage children to drag their parents along

It has actually become a very popular program, and part of the drawcard for many parents. I know that for many months Param or I would walk the streets outside with Prahlad during the teaching. Once we got the Loft facility next door to Govinda’s restaurant, where the Sunday feast is held, we had a space to go with Prahlad during the program, and we knew there were many others in the same boat as us. So we launched the Krishna Kids Club program under the leadership of Channell.

Ladies and Gentlemen, an excerpt from my upcoming book “Preach on Purpose” - a rough draft of a chapter about the Sunday Feast. Really it needs to be made into a section of the book, and the different parts made into chapters. The information density is really high. Anyway, you might get something from it.

My usual disclaimer applies: please be a hamsa and take whatever nectar is there and neglect the nonsense. Whatever good and valuable that is to found is the result of some unknowing service that I have rendered to great souls. Whatever is useless or incorrect is the product of my own frailties.

by Kaunteya das

A guide how to improve ISKCON's traditional Sunday Love Feast, which has been published as a series of essays in our printed publication Congregational Development Journal. (At that time it was still called Congregational Preaching Journal.)

On Sita-pati prabhu's web site there is a whole category of articles dedicated to this subject. Namahatta.org subscribes to the RSS-feed and you find his latest posts on this topic here.