Pastor's Message
April 2010
To the Children of God:
The shout goes out, “Christ is risen! Alleluia!” The reply comes with equal enthusiasm, “He is risen indeed! Alleluia!” Then from the back of the church a voice yells at the top of her or his lungs, “So what!” Another voice mumbles, “Whatever.”
I have been around now to see nearly 55 Easters come and go. When I am honest with myself only a few really stand out in my memory. It is the same old same old that we have heard over and over and again and again. The fact is that it just doesn’t seem to bring the same excitement that those first disciples experienced. It might be that they had no Easter Bunny or Easter egg hunts to deal with on that morning of the resurrection of Jesus. There probably was no worry about getting an Easter bonnet or some new clothes to go to church on Easter Sunday.
What would our lives and hopes be based upon if there had been no Resurrection? Boring as it sounds year after year it is still the best hope (I believe it’s the only hope) we have of living life that has meaning and purpose. It may be yesterday’s news, but it is the best good news this old world could hear or be told. We have a future that will benefit us and the world because we BELIEVE God has revealed God’s will and kingdom to us through Jesus, the crucified and living Christ.
God longs to have all communities of faith to be VERY INTENTIONAL partners with God in sharing and living out the power of God’s love and grace with the world. Emmanuel will continue to see how God is calling and leading it to intentionally walk the life of the resurrection on April 18. There will be only ONE service that Sunday at 10:30AM. It will follow with a potluck and then a time to be interwoven into the WOWS of God. We will look at how God continually moves Emmanuel to share in God’s dream through its assets, loves, passions and the needs Emmanuel and its community has now and in the near future.
Emmanuel needs members, new members and those who gather to worship here to continue discerning how God longs to share the power of Christ’s resurrection with one another and the world. We have been given a life to live today and the promise of our tomorrows because of Jesus Christ. Come on April 18 at 10:30 for a truly celebratory service, community gathering, and discovering God’s dream for the world and Emmanuel. Let’s look forward to this time lead by the Transformational Ministry Team and call it the “Wow” of God for all of us.
CHRIST IS RISEN! ALELUIA! How will you reply not only on Easter, but also to the dream God has for Emmanuel?
One of Christ’s servants,
Pastor David A. Hendricks - Child of God