This is the question many pastors ask themselves as guests on Easter greet them coming out of worship. Will they be “one and done”? Were they here out of obligation, duress? We all trust the Holy Spirit’s leading in this. Of course, we pray that a seed was planted. We pray that our message was “guided out of the park” (as in a home run). We hope that we didn’t overdo it in welcoming and greeting, making them uncomfortable.

More than anything, we pray that the resurrection story, the Good News that changes everything, will be carried forth. Our world, our nation, needs the message of salvation and deliverance. We need everyone to know that the empty, fleeting pleasures we have crafted for ourselves are not the “be-all, end-all.” We pray that everyone would come to know Jesus as Lord and Savior. We pray that whatever we might have in us, a fraction of Billy Graham’s crusading passion and fervor for the sharing and proclaiming of the Gospel, will stir something in church visitors.

Although the church is many things, it is not intended to be the “lonely hearts club”, nor is to be a shield from and against the sinful world. We point beyond this perceived reality with its limitations. God ushers in a new creation, and we are His ambassadors, his missionaries. The mission is His kingdom, not a church’s survival. Some of the most amazing acts conveying the love of Christ come from declining, even dying churches. New life is always breathed into the world. As followers of Jesus, we have the glorious opportunity to let this good, perfect love permeate our culture that thrives on adversarial positions, taking sides. It is the devil’s “toybox.” He throws out the latest dividing tactics to get under our skin, to make us point fingers at everything and everybody that is “wrong.” He delights in divided houses and families. Any square of the quilt that makes up the fabric of God’s good plan for creation, Satan likes to take a pair of scissors to.

I beckon to you readers of this blog to “hide the scissors.” Seize this miracle of Christ’s resurrection and allow it to inform your life and lead others to its transformative power. Any given day, any blessed moment, is a present, a gift from The One who loves you unconditionally.

Pastor Art