I know you’re trying not to look, Church Planter, but it’s hard not to notice.
The “multiple services at multiple locations beginning Thursday night at 6:30.”
The 12,000 eggs they’re dropping from a helicopter on Saturday.
The t-shirts they’re giving to everyone they baptize.
The stadiums they’ve rented.
The volunteers they’ve enlisted.
The size of it all.
You remember when you were the one leading those planning meetings, when you were the one deciding on those service times, when you were the one preparing for those crowds…but then your son walks in, hands you a sign for the front door, and you remember that things are different now.
As you rummage through the junk drawer for Scotch tape, you hear Satan mocking your church, laughing at your life. He wants you to believe that Easter is too small now, that the tiny crack God called you to pour your life into doesn’t matter, and that you’re wasting your time looking for tape.
You hang the sign anyway and tell him to go to hell.
Oh, wait.
A year later, as you sift through a box of grommets at Home Depot, he tries to tell you again that your sign is stupid and that no one is going to show up. But they do. And 13 of them give their lives to Jesus.
It’s April again and Easter in your young church still feels small when compared to Easter in an established one, but if there’s anything you’ve learned by now it’s that Easter can never actually be small when compared to…Easter.
“This is the week Jesus rose to his task and split history in two. This is the week he rode on a donkey, cried in the garden, suffered on the cross, rose into glory. This is the week that sinful, broken humans were granted a pardon, justified to perfection and set free. It is too miraculous for words. Songs and sermons fail us; we huddle at the cross, overwhelmed by the punishment that brought us peace…Jesus reigns and we are his. There is nothing else to say.” {Jen Hatmaker}
The size of it all, Church Planter.
Would you look at it? It’s massive and it’s vast and you (you) have been called to tell about it. There will never, ever be anything small about that.
So hang your sign, pour out your life; and, when Satan comes mocking, remind him that Jesus reigns and that Easter is His.