Easter Sunday--a day to remember the resurrection of my Lord and a day when many unsaved/unchurched come and visit a church for one of their two yearly visits. This is a great opportunity for Christians to interact with people that rarely take the opportunity to visit. Many churches will add an extra service, extra chairs, and squeeze people close together in the pews to accommodate the visitors. My church decided to add extra chairs and to squeeze people into the pews.
As a Christian I am excited each year when Easter rolls around because of what Christ accomplished on this day. Now I am able to join Him in Heaven when I die. In addition, I am excited on Easter that many visitors will attend and get to hear the Gospel. This year I heard of a disturbing trend from some of my friends (who attend different churches). Some churches were adding additional services to accommodate the expected surge in visitors and asked their regular church members/attendees to go to an earlier service or to sit in a different room and watch the service by video. One of my friends who sings in her church's choir told me that her church asked the choir members to not go into the auditorium and sit with their families/friends when the singing was completed but to go to a different room. This was done to make room for the "C & E" crowd--Christmas and Easter only crowd.
I enjoy the Easter services. I love going and singing some of the great Resurrection hymns, listening to special music and Scripture reading, and hearing the Gospel preached. My pastor spoke from Romans 14:9 on the fact that Christ is both the Lord of the dead and the living because
He is the
only one to have conquered death (which allows us to join Him in Heaven). I also enjoy going to church and seeing visitors because this allows me to pray for them and to meet them.
This brings me to the point of this discourse. I disagree with what some churches are doing. I think that Christians must attend and be encouraged to attend their regular services. Jesus commanded us in the Bible to go into all the world and to preach the Gospel and to make disciples. He also went to where the sinners were to minister to them. When He was teaching, healing, and walking, He never asked people to move along to allow others to listen (in fact, the Bible tells us that is was completely opposite as there were crowds everywhere). In addition, typically the unsaved/unchurched rarely step into the church and this is the Church's opportunity to minister to them. Christ also showed this by allowing people to never be turned away, but ministered them when they came to Him. The church has the same opportunity and responsibility.
Now I know that some may disagree with me and of course you're fine to do that, but why must the Christian change their regular habits on Easter. Some may say that everyday should be Easter--they're right. To follow this logic, then why do we celebrate our birthdays, Christmas, or our Independence on a certain day? We do this because this is the day that is important for a certain reason. Easter is important because this is the day that Christ conquered death and provided salvation for the world and we must celebrate it on this day. Christians must welcome and minister the visitors when they come to their church.
I understand the real problem that many churches have because of limited facilities and their desire to allow as many people as possible to enjoy the services. I do want you to know that I have no problem with having an additional service, but to
encourage people to change their worship times and to not be in Sunday School (because of the changed worship schedule) I believe is wrong. If the majority of people in the service are unsaved/unchurched, then who is going to minister and connect with them? What reason do they have to come back and visit if they only meet others that do not attend the church?
Well, I think I've rambled on enough, but what do
YOU think? Do you agree or disagree? I'd love to hear your comments.
