The One About Habits, Hype and the Sunday After Easter
Dear Church Family
What a brilliant Easter weekend we had together. It was fun to see a full auditorium (and a couple of overflow rooms), baptisms (including some spontaneous ones), a choir singing their lungs out, people hanging out in the courtyard afterwards, and a sense of the reality of the resurrection of Jesus that felt palpable and tangible. Grace was just on display everywhere you looked. There were nearly 9000 people in attendance across our six congregations and that is a number that we haven’t seen since 2020. It was a lot of fun to get to be a leader in the church.
But (why is there always a but?), here’s the thing. I have served as a paid leader in the church for 16 Easters and I know a thing or two about what comes next. It isn’t lost on me that the most discouraging Sunday in church ministry is often the Sunday after Easter, as auditoriums and parking lots return to normal and as people’s sense of the reality of Christ’s resurrection seems like a distant memory.
Part of this discouragement is because we do measure the wrong things and I know that. We usually measure number of attenders, which is an interesting metric, but not a real gauge on the impact that the gospel is having on a group of people. But, part of this discouragement is the nagging sense that we know that if we were all really paying attention to the reality of the resurrection, then every Sunday would feel like Easter Sunday. The fact that it doesn’t just shows what a distracted group of people we are.
I was thinking about this all during a traditional Easter Monday round of golf as it became abundantly clear that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead was not available to fix my chipping. God continues to use my golf game as an agent of sanctification through suffering in my life, but I continue to hope that one day this fallen body will manage to get up and down from a green-side bunker. We all have different dreams. As I was thinking about it though, my mind went to Hebrews 10 and I began to smile. You see, the writer to the Hebrews, knew that the flourishing and perseverance of the church was going to be established off of unglamorous holy habits far more than off of irregular hype-filled moments. I love his encouragement to that community.
23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. (Heb 10:23–25.)
Gosh I love these exhortations. They are so great and so helpful for people like me who long to pay attention, but struggle to pay attention, to the realities of Christ in the everyday cut and thrust of non-Easter weeks.
Hold fast to our confession of hope - Christ was raised from the dead.
Find some others who you can stir up towards love and good deeds. Remind them of reality.
Don’t neglect to meet together.
Encourage each other, especially in the last days.
That’s it friends. That’s the unglamorous but unstoppable work of church community, and I would love it if you would commit to that work with us. Hold fast to hope, walk with some friends and remind them of their call in Jesus, keep attending services and small groups, and remember to encourage others.
That is what I will be looking to do this Sunday as we gather. I have no idea how many people will come. It won’t be nearly as many as last week. There won’t be balloons, or a choir, or a coffee vendor, or a fancy video, but there will be a supernaturally empowered community of faith trying to pay attention to the realities of God together. And that is my favorite thing in the world.
One more thing. The song this week is from a collaboration of my friends and was recorded at one of my favorite places on the planet, LIV Village, which is an orphan village in South Africa. Pray for their ongoing work, especially as they face the devastation of the floods that have recently ravaged that area.
Come Holy Spirit (Uthando) Lyric Video - LIVE at LIV
See you Sunday,
Ross
