Don’t Hope in Easter

This sounds like a weird thing for a pastor to say. Especially a pastor who named his church “Resurrection.” After all, Easter is precisely what Christians hope in.

But what I mean is this: We place far too much hope on everything changing for our church or neighbours on Easter weekend.

There is a tremendous amount of buildup and anticipation, people inviting friends, special arrangements being made, and don’t get me wrong, people might be more open to attending church this weekend. However, the reality is nearly always disappoints.

It is like being a kid and waiting and waiting for Christmas morning to rip open all the presents. I don’t know about you, but Christmas morning was always subtly disappointing. Not because I didn’t get great presents (I did!), but because reality can never be as great as you hope.

Look, sometimes God moves quickly and miraculously and those moments are great and awesome, but the reality of ministry is that it happens slowly, over time, nearly unnoticeably. It is usually only as you look back that you can see the progress made.

Nearly always, neighbours and friends take slow steps toward Jesus. Conversion rarely happens overnight and rarely is that night Easter Sunday.

Zack Eswine writes in the Imperfect Pastor, “Almost anything in life that truly matters will require you to do small, mostly overlooked things, over a long period of time.” Thanks Zack for dashing all my Easter dreams of supersized crowds, weeping conversions and a steady stream of people changed by our Easter egg hunt.

Look, this article is mostly for my own soul. On Easter Sunday I need to wake up, eat some shreddies, drink some coffee and then preach and pastor as well as I can. Maybe God will descend in fire, but maybe it will simply be one more nudge in the right direction for the people who come.

And most likely, I’ll get up on Monday and Tuesday, say my prayers, read my Bible, meet with people, prepare my sermon and walk the long road of gospel ministry.