He Is Risen

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Easter Sunday was an incredible time of worship.  Coming off a busy weekend with “Knowing Jesus” being absolutely incredible, our time together was such a special way to conclude the weekend.

Different people gauge success in church in different ways.

If you define success with numbers, we had more people at church than what we have ever had.  If you define success with momentum, there was more energy and excitement than what we’ve ever experienced.  If you define success with the number of visitors, we received more visitors over the weekend than what we’ve ever encountered.  If you define success with the polish of the service, everything went wonderfully well (even if some of the things were never rehearsed since we were working on “Knowing Jesus” so much).  If you define success with a powerful message, it was off the charts.

So, how did we determine if it was truly successful?

Jesus was glorified and people are being discipled.

That’s what the Bible says as successful and so we are aiming for that.  Lives are being transformed and God is getting the glory!

We are thrilled that all that other stuff happened, but at the end of the day, we worked hard to make sure we kept the main thing the main thing.

Jeff mentioned that sometimes churches can get into the sauce-selling business when we need to make sure our meat is good.  He said this was his 30th year of preaching an Easter message, and it was the first time that he felt like he didn’t have to put the sauce on.  “Every year, preachers like me try to figure out what we can do to entice you to come back after coming on Easter.  If you haven’t come back since last Easter, maybe that’s the wrong approach.  Sauce won’t keep you coming.  There has to be true meat.”

And then he brought it.

Sunday, we worshiped to:

Overwhelmed at what God is doing at His church and so thankful to be a part of it!