Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:17, “If Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!” The resurrection of Jesus is a big deal. It validates everything that we believe to be true about the Christian faith and life. I am grateful to serve with a church that is willing to think outside the box and make Easter Sunday a big deal for our community.

This year, we moved our Easter worship service off campus. We didn’t go far—just across the street—but it was far enough to be inviting to a community that is more familiar with the stadium than it is with Parkview’s worship center. During our Lent season, we prayed for God to do a great work through us and that we would be able to share the gospel with 1,000 people from our community on Easter Sunday. While we didn’t reach our numerical goal, I believe God anointed our efforts and gave us some “wins” that I hope will encourage us to continue to think about creative ways to share the gospel of Jesus.

Win #1 – Parkview mobilized more member volunteers for this event than any other in my experience here. We had over 150 members volunteer for prayer walking, hospitality, greeting, parking, ground transportation, and first aid. We had about 60 people involved in the worship service itself. I am grateful for a church family that responds to the call of the Great Commission this way.

Win #2 – Prayer walking put us in our community and reminded us that what we do is not for the benefit of other churches but for the people who have yet to come to church. The church needs to pray for the community it has been called to serve and we did just that. I believe that the spiritual impact of our prayer walking is yet to be fully realized.

Win #3 – Easter at the Stadium gave us the chance to share the gospel with the largest crowd yet in my experience with Parkview. The second largest crowd came for our Easter service in 2015. Interestingly, the two largest Easter Sunday services (2015 and 2017) occurred during the two years that prioritized Easter Sunday over everything else.

Thank you, Parkview, for making Easter a big deal in our community. Thank you for your hours of work leading up to Easter and for your flexibility and friendliness that day. You guys were AMAZING!! Pray that we planted seeds in the hearts of people who need to embrace the gospel and that God has prepared us to disciple them when they come.