Easter Recap

At the risk of being way behind here, I didn't want to let Easter squeak by without saying a couple things about how things went at STORYCHURCH.

First of all, I couldn't be more proud of our team. Many people worked very hard in order to make it a really special morning. We had a really great celebration of Resurrection. We kicked off a brand new series on Easter, called EPIC. It's basically an exploration of the story of God and our role in it. Easter Sunday proved to be like one of those movies that starts with the pinnacle scene of the story, and then the rest of the movie is spent showing the build up to that moment. Resurrection is the pinnacle scene of the Story. It changes everything, and it's the filter through which we interpret everything else in the Story.

We promoted the heck out of Easter. We did a huge mailer in the community, spent several hours out hanging door hangers, had signs up all over the place, and ran Facebook ads like crazy. Despite our efforts, we didn't see the huge number of visitors that we had anticipated. For me it was just one more reminder that you can't manufacture the movement of God. I'm certainly not anti-marketing. I think it's important to let people know we exist as a church and that they are invited. But the fact is, that God doesn't need a mailer to build the church. And for me it was just a gentle reminder that He is in control, and this thing is in His hands. It's so easy to get caught up in the belief that crowds equal success or God's favor. It just isn't true.

The most exciting thing for me about Easter was the growth we DID see. Not numerical growth, but growth that took us deeper as a community. After the service we did an egg hunt for the kids and one for the adults as well. I know, kind of silly. But this wasn't your average egg hunt. It turned into a giant community building day. Aside from the hunting of eggs, people were laughing, playing, joking, and seriously having a great time. I was really proud of our leaders that put it together and even more excited by the relationships I'm seeing form. Community doesn't happen in the hour on Sunday mornings when we gather for worship. I mean, it's part of it, but sometimes it takes a crazy egg hunt to get people to begin to open up and do life together. And that happened on Easter for us.

Posted in: Community,Durham,Easter,Story Church