This coming weekend Christians will celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. There is a whole weekend devoted for Christians to remember the good news that Jesus Christ has conquered death giving Christians assurance that the life He promised, He can give. As retail stores started stocking their shelves in February, churches started even earlier planning their Easter services. Some would call Easter Sunday the pastor’s Super Bowl. This Sunday is one of the more heavily attended Sundays. People want to bring their kids in their Easter clothes or appease family members. Churches have caught wind of this. Each year they are focused on planning the right service that will bring in the most people. Through giving away the best gifts, using the most attractive promo material, or playing popular songs, they feel they can achieve their greatest task: getting people to show up. For this one Sunday service there is more time spent, money budgeted, and pressure felt than at any of the other 51 Sunday services combined. Churches seem to adopt the motto “if you give away free gadgets, they will come”. These churches have even set aside likely thousands of dollars to purchase electronics so people will show up. However, no matter how spectacular their services are, the main thrust of this particular Sunday should be that Jesus has risen from the dead and is alive. But do the hundreds of thousands of visitors all over the United States get this message? No matter how spectacular our church’s Easter service is, it is an uneven match when it comes to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He is the Savior of the Church, not your souped-up Easter service. Here are three reasons why your Easter service may be distracting from the gospel message this Sunday.
The Gospel Takes a Back Seat
The people who will be coming to our Easter services need to gaze at the gospel. But our gifts that we highlight in the ads we place in their mailbox may compete for their attention. In reality, we need the gospel more than anything. The gospel is powerful enough to save the person who we would otherwise think was impossible to save. This gospel which was entrusted to us is what we should be giving out on Sunday not prizes for showing up. In his article 10 Reasons Easter Giveaways Are Unwise Jared C. Wilson exclaims, “When the media takes notice, nobody wants to interview these pastors about the resurrection. They want them to talk about the loot.” Friends, examine your worship service. From the call to worship to the benediction: will people be able to see the gospel clearly? Is the gospel weaved in and through every part of your Easter service? Our duty as Christians is not to sucker people into coming to the church. That has never been the mission of the church. It is our mission to give them the truth. We should not get in the way of the gospel, but too often our good intentions do. The gospel is the only power that leads to salvation. Guests who will come to your service on Sunday need to see someone that genuinely loves them. They’ve already been pestered by social media ads during the week. This coming Sunday will you get out of the way and let Jesus win people with his grace instead of your gimmicks?
Success is Defined in Numbers
The message of the gospel is not deceiving. It’s when we add or take away from the gospel that we deceive others. On Easter Sunday churches will bring in guest speakers who are known for getting people to come forward to respond to the gospel. One of the goals of the church on Sunday has been to get as many people as they can to make an outward expression of faith. It’s turned into something like, “if we put on a show for you, you should come forward for us.” The gospel takes a back seat and people coming forward becomes our standard for success. This happens. It will happen. It will continue to happen for many years. While there are people who come forward and God truly works in their heart to be one of His, this is the minority. I’ve grown up in a generation who is getting baptized for the first time since their conversion because services like these proclaim a deficient gospel that doesn’t call people to repent and believe, but come forward and write your name on a card. In some services a spontaneous baptism is tacked on at the end of the service so that people who make a profession of faith can be baptized. We go ahead and throw them under the water to cake on the confusion that they will uncover once they get older. Instead of looking to Christ as their assurance of salvation they will look to their baptism or to a specific service. What was meant to reflect a genuine work of the Spirit turns into a barrier for the unbeliever’s assurance. There are many who walk around today who are convinced they are saved because someone baptized them or because the work of the preacher to persuade them to come forward instead of a true work of the Spirit.
The Strategy Misses the Mission
The church’s best church growth strategy is evangelism that leads to discipleship. When we pour much of our time and energy into one service we say to the rest of the congregation that we grow churches through appealing to the consumer instead of proclaiming the good news. Evangelism is not reserved for the church leaders or the people with Bible degrees. God’s plan 0f evangelism includes every heart that He has redeemed. The church has not been commissioned to stay in and tell the people about the gospel, but to go. When our Easter services are focused on getting people to come to us we confuse the mission that Christ has called our congregants to go to them. In Matthew 28:20 the command we are given is “go and tell” not “have them come and sit.” I’m not against welcoming guests, but our primary means of growth should not be through people transferring membership from a church across town. The primary way our churches should grow is through the church intentionally sharing the gospel with people in their immediate community. Don’t misunderstand me, I think churches who host extravagant events for their communities like hunting Easter eggs or putting on Easter plays can be helpful, but these events have no place in our worship services. Our goal in worshiping God is not to please man or cater to man. When we develop church growth strategies centered on what we desire then we start down the slippery slope of idolatry. Who are you honoring this weekend? God or your coveted guests?
The Church Member 