Easter's Coming

I have had the opportunity to go to Café Caturra here in Midlothian for lunch today with some great people. We have been discussing Easter and this has really made me think about Easter. We are still almost two months away from this time of year, but as believers we need to start preparing ourselves.

What exactly do we need to prepare ourselves for? I believe that we need to prepare ourselves to be real. I started thinking about Easter and what we think as believers will happen on Easter. This is the way I see it, we get to Easter and we think about all the people who do not typically go to church and the fact that they will be in our seats on this very important day when we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. Here is what I think goes on in the mind of a lot of Christians about Easter and the loads of unchurched people that don our doors.

I think that too many times we think that because we are going to talk about the resurrection and tell about what Jesus did for us, that we will see multitudes get saved and start coming to church. I believe that this is a myth. I believe that we really would never even know if those people that said they gave their lives to God really did. Sure we will know by their fruit, but at the same time that decision is a very personal one between them and God.

Here is what I think about Easter and how as a church we should be. We should be real, we should talk about the resurrection and what it means, don’t get me wrong there, but we should also try to show people who we truly are. Instead of trying to go for the salvations and possibly never see those people again, maybe, just maybe we should try to find ways to invite people into our communities so that then we may get the opportunity to see their lives transformed.

Too many times we are so concerned with the salvations in the church, when we really need to be looking for the transformations in people’s lives. In essence we are not inviting people into salvation during this time of year, we are inviting them into our community of people who are trying to live their lives for Christ. Because of that, maybe people will see the realness in us and want to be a part of that community, then given time we will see the transformation that we long for to make us look good for a weekend.

I am not trying to say that we do not need Easter or the message that is contained within, what I am saying is that we need to rethink how we package it in order to see more people get involved in the local community we call a church. If we do that, we will see growth and transformation. This year, let’s be real and show people that visit our churches what it truly means to be a part of our community. Don’t dilute the message, but make it come across in a way that shows them what we are all about.