From the Pastor- April 2006
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Wait a minute. Isn’t that Christmas? Not really. Easter is actually the most wonderful time of the year. If it weren’t for Easter, Christmas would be just another birthday of a child. In fact, the Christian celebration of Christmas is a later celebration. But from the very beginning Christians celebrated Easter.
At the heart of Easter is the resurrection of Jesus, with its parallels and potential for our life. Not just our lives as individuals, but our life as a community of faith as well.
That’s why on Palm Sunday, Curtis Brown, our Conference’s new Director of Congregational Development, will join us after church to introduce us to a new resource called “Natural Church Development.” By exploring the eight quality characteristics that every church must have, and by helping us see which characteristic(s) we have and which we can strengthen, Natural Church Development can help us achieve the new life that is available to us because of Easter. Your Church council would like as many people as possible to be a part of Curtis’ presentation. To help make that happen, they are offering free pizza to everybody who stays for the presentation that day.
Speaking of food, it just so happens that Holy Thursday falls on the very first day of Passover this year. According to the Gospels, Jesus celebrated his very last supper with the disciples here on earth during Passover. It was during that meal that Jesus instituted what we call “the Lord’s supper,” or communion.
As a result, I’m pleased to announce that this year, we will be having a pot luck supper on Holy Thursday (April 13.) at 7pm. Please bring some kind of food to share. It might be a main course, an appetizer, or a dessert. The celebration of communion will conclude our eating together.
I’m also pleased to announce that our church has been asked to host the ecumenical Good Friday service on April 14 at noon. Come join with our Christian brothers and sisters throughout our city as we remember the events of that day.
My favorite service of the Christian year is the Easter Vigil. If you’ve never attended, I would encourage you to do so this year. If you have, you already know what a wonderful, joyous event it is. The date for this year’s service is April 15 at 7pm. If you come, be sure to bring a flashlight.
For the past several years, we have been blessed with an Easter Cantata. This year we will return to the tradition of a sermon on Easter Sunday, April 16 at 10:30am
It is my hope and prayer that this Holy Week/Easter season will serve as a reminder that there is no limit to what you and I can do because of the power of the resurrection.
