Thoughts on Easter 2009

All of the area churches were buzzing last week as we all talked about their upcoming Easter worship services. Seemed like we were all excited. I know I was. It's not that this one day is more important than any other Sunday, but that many nominal Christians and relatively unchurched individuals show up at our worship on Easter. Some are coming for the right reasons, some for the wrong, but for a variety of cultural and spiritual reasons most of our churches have higher attendance numbers on Easter than most other Sundays. And this exciting.

But I think we can easily get confused. It's not exciting simply because attendance is higher. And it shouldn't be exciting because we put on a big show. It isn't about the big band, the cool music, great choir, or whatever else we are tempted to exalt for a big show.

It's exciting because worshipping our risen Savior is exciting. It's exciting because as we make much of Christ, many more have the opportunity to hear his story and his words, and by God's grace many will believe! And, it is in many ways just like any other Sunday-- the gospel is preached and people need to live a cross-centered life in the power of the resurrection. Now after saying all that....I thought the Easter sunrise service at Lake Avalon was amazing with the fog over the lake and the sun peeking through right at the end of the service. I also liked the format we used during the 9:30 service at Cambier of 4 messages with four songs. We will use this same worship format during the Christmas eve service. The music was phenomenal but the greatest part of the service to me (as it is every Sunday) is the massive amount of dedicated and enthusiastic volunteers who show up so early each and every Sunday morning to basically build a church in the park.