My social media feeds have been full of Easter family photos since yesterday. Pastors I know have been posting about all the Lord did in their church services and I have been rejoicing with them at the lives changed and Gospel seeds planted.
As a pastor, I can tell you that we look forward to Easter Sunday.
We look forward most of all to celebrating the empty tomb and worshipping the Risen Savior with God’s people.
We look forward to being a part of the worship service that we, our staff, and volunteers have spent so much time planning and preparing for and we pray it makes much of Jesus while making the Gospel crystal clear.
We look forward to seeing all the guests, family members, and friends that will visit.
We look forward to seeing faces we haven’t seen since last year.
What I have heard many pastors say is that we do not look forward to the day (or even the week) after Easter. For many of us, seeing a full church service makes our hearts full because we want as many people as possible to hear the message of Jesus. We rejoice not only in our local church being full, but in the countless churches across the country who experienced the same thing! Then we wake up Monday morning to the reality that more than likely, this coming Sunday we will see “normal” church attendance again.
In the past, I have internally (and maybe a little bit out loud as well) been frustrated with the many who only choose to attend church on Christmas and Easter (sometimes referred to as CEO Christians). However, this year I was personally convicted about that grumbling spirit. Not because I think it’s okay for a Christian to only gather with God’s people for worship twice per year, but because I found that I was more willing to complain about them than I was to pray for and continue seeking to minister to them beyond Easter Sunday.
What if we didn’t view Easter as simply a Sunday where we see a spike in attendance, but an opportunity to identify those we should be seeking to reach? If someone was willing to come to church on Easter, doesn’t that mean that there’s at least somewhat of an opening to share the Gospel? How many of us follow up with the people we invited to Easter? How many of us see Easter, not as our “one chance” to get them in church for them to hear the Gospel, but as a day where the Lord blesses us with a chance to “cast the net of the Gospel” wide? A day where we can be on the lookout for those we need to be more intentional with in the coming days? What if our focus was not on how far our attendance will drop this Sunday and was instead on how many people gave us an invitation to continue praying for them and sharing the Gospel with them?
I hope my ‘Monday morning after Easter’ ramblings are not only making sense, but challenging you as they have done to me. Who did you invite to Easter Sunday? How will you continue sharing Christ with them? Who did you see at church on Easter that you haven’t seen in a while? What if you bought them lunch to see how you can come alongside them and encourage them to come back to church? How can we see Easter, not as the final fruits of our labor, but the beginning of our ministry for the rest of the year?