Easter Thoughts

Greetings to all MFI leaders! In the USA, we are having great Regionals around the nation. Next stop: Idaho. Right now, as are most pastors and churches, I am looking forward to Easter and preparing the best way to present the gospel. I thought I would throw out a few ideas as to what we at City Bible Church do for Easter.

1. We change our service times to make room for all visitors and to make it special for all people. It is not business as usual. This year, we’re holding one hour services at 9 AM, 10:30 AM, and 12 noon. This service is custom made for all who will visit on Easter. We also provide some special goodies in the lobby so that people can snack and linger after service.
   

2. We do a special video with new and original music that highlights people’s lives changed by Jesus. Both the music and the video portray a moving story of what people face today and how Jesus can step in.
   

3. We keep the worship shorter and focused on Jesus, the cross, forgiveness, and the power of the blood of Jesus. The worship set will be powerful but not unusual, including a well-known hymn. The spirit of the service will be grace, compassion, hope, forgiveness, and redemption.
   

4. We will baptize people in water during the service to highlight the power of a changed life, of grace and mercy, and new beginnings. It’s a visual of death, burial, and resurrection. Those being baptized will invite their friends and family. Baptisms on Easter Sunday is a huge win.
   

5. I will speak for only 20 minutes and will share a straightforward Jesus message. Our Easter theme is "Forgiven,” so everything – song, video, and message – will flow around this theme. I will aim at the prodigals; the unsaved; the broken; the fallen; those who have fallen into tragedy; and those who need healing, hope, and a life encounter with Jesus. I will invite all those responding to pray with me and I will also take time to make sure they fill out an information card so that we can follow up with them throughout the week and disciple them.
   

6. We will also promote our next series that starts the following Sunday, April 15. The series is called "Your Ticket to Life,” a verse-by-verse study of 2 Peter 1:1-11. The 11 verses give us specific tickets we must have to enter specific doors in life. The ticket holder must take the ticket from Jesus, the ticket giver.
   

7. We have a huge kid’s party with a massive egg hunt, prizes, and food. It’s really quite amazing. The gospel is presented clearly to all kids of every age and we have amazing responses. This party is one hour, just like the service, and it is highly successful.

Our church hands out thousands of touch cards and posters for our Easter services. They send out e-vites, tweets, and invitations to their friends on Facebook. We promote Easter every way we can. This is the Sunday America goes to church. Let’s be the church that sees amazing and miraculous results. Don’t try to stuff too much into the service or the message. This is not the time to show your theological roots and your 50 minute sermon on the meaning of Easter. Be different this Easter Sunday. Be focused, be simple, be graceful, and be Spirit-sensitive. People want hope, a future, a way to start over. Be the Jesus emotion and show Jesus empathy.

I am enclosing my sermon notes for April 1, this Sunday before Easter (click here to download the file). Its message is strong in content, will be about 40 minutes, and it will get the cross message deep into the heart of everyone. 

May you have the greatest Easter ever!

Frank Damazio

Lead Pastor, City Bible Church

Chairman, Ministers Fellowship International