Easter Sunday, that special day of the year where little girls get a brand new dress, kids search for craftily hidden Easter eggs, and many families go to church for quite possibly the first time of the year. Traditionally, the Sunday nearest to Christmas and Easter Sunday are the two most busy Sundays for churches across the country as people who have not stepped foot in a church for weeks or even months get dressed up and head out to fulfill their religious or moral obligation; but they really shouldn't.
I am tired of my church being more full on Easter than it is every other Sunday of the year. "But Kristyn, you're a Christian, shouldn't you be happy people are coming to church?" Yes, I am; I am absolutely overjoyed that people are hearing the good news of Christ and the cross and his resurrection, because absolutely nothing can top that. But I am incredibly saddened, because I know that the Easter Sunday crowd is largely composed of two groups that the church fails miserably.
The church has failed the "come twice a year" church members. I cannot even begin to count the number of people I know who will tell you "Oh yeah, I go to church," only to find out that they mean they attend an Easter and Christmas service. Attending a private Christian high school (and now college) has only increased this problem exponentially. Somewhere between the first church at Jerusalem and modern Christianity, we have let it become acceptable for people to consider themselves church-going Christians, when they almost never darken the doors of the church. Church, it is acceptable for us to allow our brothers and sisters to neglect the community and fellowship that is exhorted to them multiple times in the Scripture? No! Our brothers and sisters must be brought back into the fold.
The church will fail the nonbeliever who visits for Easter. Don't get me wrong here, the Easter story is undoubtedly the most beautiful story of love and redemption a human can ever hear, for it comes straight from an above human Storyteller. The story of Christ could be told every second of every day from now until the end of the world and it still would not be told enough. But the church fails the nonbeliever. These people will come into our midst - into the Lord's midst - quite possibly knowing nothing, and we will expect them to be able to grasp both the fact and the miracle of redemption, sanctification, justification, substitution and all the other "tions" wrapped up in the crucifixion and resurrection just like that. And then we will let these visitors go on their way, some without even asking their name. That is not Christianity and it is not evangelism, because it lacks discipleship. We must forget ourselves and bring ourselves to the unbeliever's level so that they too may begin to grasp the wondrous beauty of Christ's love, and then it is our duty to bring them under our wings and disciple them so that they too do not become "twice a year Christians."
Easter is undoubtedly the most joyous Sunday of the whole year. It is certainly worth celebrating and if ever anyone should go to church, Easter is the day. But, Christians, I beg you, do not let your church be full but the people leave empty. Use this week as an opportunity to pour into others' lives, so that they can experience the life-changing Good News, not some twice a year requirement.
