Easter is not about us!

OK, of course Jesus rising from the dead is for us. Maybe I should phrase it this way; our Easter service is not for us! Why? Because it is the biggest opportunity that churches have each year to share the hope of Christ with the greatest amount of people. It is by far the day when churches are most highly attended; often by people who are not yet followers of Christ. So churches have a wonderful opportunity and a responsibility to maximize this special day.

I am convinced that in order to maximize this day, those of us that are followers of Christ have to embrace the idea that the Easter service is not about us; it is about our guests. That doesn't mean we cannot enjoy Easter or celebrate Christ's resurrection together, it means that we must be willing to be sacrificial that day (especially at our church service) in order to serve our guests.

This includes a financial sacrifice as money is invested to promote the Easter service and to provide tools (electronic and printed materials) for regular attendees to invite friends and family. It includes the sacrifice of hard work to plan a great service with unpredictable content (you can't keep preaching the same resurrection message every year) that seekers will find interesting and compelling. It includes the sacrifice of prayer as you ask God, to bless all of your efforts and do the part only He can do. And it includes the sacrifice of service from a body of believers who are willing to recognize the need to be servants instead of being served that day.

All of the above can be hard and there may be one or more areas in which individual people and some churches as a whole would rather not sacrifice. But here is where we have to take our attention off ourselves and put it onto Jesus and the guests that he will entrust to our care this Easter. We are praying and planning for 500 people at our Easter service this year. What if they come?!? Will we be ready to care for them? Will they have a supreme or sub-par experience as they hear about the hope of Christ? Will we maximize the opportunity or will we squander it? It all depends on the extent to which we as Christ-followers individually and communally embrace or reject the idea that Easter is not about us.