Posted by: littletiger | March 22, 2008

Post Good Friday thoughts

Last night our church had a Good Friday service and our pastor came in character of the Roman Centurion who helped nail Christ to the cross.  It was a really powerful performance and drove home for me the meaning of the day.  Over the years, I’ve examined my beliefs pretty deeply and at times have even walked away from my faith because of my struggles.  But last night, I deeply felt the weight of my sins being carried by Christ for me.

I keep thinking about the sacrifice He did for me 2,000+ years ago and seeing Pat performing as one of the people there, made me think about what it would have been like if I had been there too.  Would I have recognized Him for who He is?  Would I have willingly put aside my things to follow Him?  Would I have seen Him as the son of God?

And now it’s the day before Easter, and one of the things I’m struggling with is the idea of having an easter egg hunt at church … I’m trying to figure out what easter eggs and church have in common.  When did we start to feel that we had to bribe people to come to church?  For me, easter eggs and candy were always a family thing - something you did after you’d gone to church.  Now, I see churches advertising the easter egg hunt and oh by the way, we also have a service too …  something seems very wrong with that concept.

Steve and I have been talking about reconciling being of the world but not in it and the struggles we’re having doing just that … and part of me wonders if it’s even possible.  But then I look back at Jesus and everything He did … and I guess I can continue to do is to try to work out how I can do it too.

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Responses

I feel like the egg hunt is a bait and switch. “Oh, come by, it will be so much fun, and then we’ll make you sit in the pews and feel guilty. But FUN, it will be FUN!”

You’ll never get someone to stay by offering chocolate and then a healthy heaping of guilt. I could go on and on, but suffice it to say I believe we should go out to our communities, not bribe them to come to us.

By: shush on March 22, 2008
at 1:34 pm

Thanks Shush - I agree with you about going out to our communities - fortunately that’s something my church does do a lot of - working with the homeless a couple of Saturdays a month as well as visiting retirement homes and care centers. I just feel that the easter egg thing is not right and it’s something I think the churches need to examine more closely.

By: littletiger on March 23, 2008
at 12:58 pm

My church here (in past years) has done a HUGE hunt. They did it a week earlier at a local park. They invited the community, had a BBQ, an egg hunt, bouncer, face painting etc… They did it as a community outreach. Something fun and hopefully as a way to reach out to the lost. They didn’t do it last year and this year noone told me about it until it was too late. So we had our own egg hunt. It wasn’t publicized (so there was no bait and switch ;). I got some flack for doing it during Sunday school but each class only hunted for 10 minutes - about the same amount of time they usually play games. I went to each class to teach the lesson and I used the Resurrection Eggs by FamilyLife to tie the eggs to the real celebration.
I agree that we can get carried away by the things of this world and by traditions. By being creative we can use these things to illustrate His love for us.
**Just a suggestion - maybe next year you can go color eggs with the homeless. Everyone can bring a couple dozen eggs and supplies to a shelter. I did that in highschool and it was amazing! Children and adults participated and for many of them it was the first time they’d ever colored eggs.
Miss you!

By: Andi on March 25, 2008
at 7:12 am

Thanks Andi - those are great suggestions - I agree it can be a great outreach - and the way your church used to do it - ie earlier in the week - is a good way to reach the community and let people know more about the church and the people in it. It sounds like it would be fun. I don’t want it to seem like I’m against churches doing easter egg hunts - but I saw a church here that didn’t advertise it’s services, it only advertised that it was having an easter egg hunt on Easter day … too much like a bait and switch.

By: littletiger on March 25, 2008
at 7:29 am

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