Easter is not “over.”  Starting with that premise (actually, that’s truth), we can begin a new conversation about how the church can be resurrected. So many other aspects of our lives have undergone radical transformation; why not the church?  Family structures, schools, forms of communication have all become so vastly different than we remember “back in the day.”  I am beating the proverbial dead horse, playing a broken record, etc., but it needs to be repeated and emphasized – the church needs to be resurrected.

Our Lord will not allow his church to completely die. Indeed, he promised it never would. But we should stop clinging to proof-texting, rigid doctrines that put up walls to belief. Give people credit. Just because they aren’t in church doesn’t mean they aren’t spiritual. Our existence as the church of Christ has much more to do with love and the spirit than it does about building funds, attendance numbers and offering count. It is about leading others to a relationship with Christ. Seminars, courses and meetings are all aimed at the “head.” If that really worked, wouldn’t it have by now? Many Lutherans remember the “decade of evangelism, the 1990’s. Many programs, “how-tos”, and what do we have? A church still in decline. How will we capture the hearts and spiritual imaginations of the “nons”?

God already knows His plans for us (Jeremiah 29:11). It is up for us to be prepared, be ready, for the new resurrection thing that is waiting for us to discover. Easter is far from over. The Holy Spirit will continue to breath resurrection life into all who believe and accept. Jesus will continue to speak to us in service, worship and fellowship. I pray that we are able to glean a harvest from the first fruits embedded within each of us. At all times and in all places, God’s unconditional love, will bring us Easter joy, even as we carry the burden of a church waiting for resurrection.

Pastor Art