A Glance Back at Easter
Pondering the gift that is “the” Gathering. I hope you’ll allow me to give Easter Sunday a backwards glance (I know it was ten days ago).
Easter is the Holy I Told You So. I love the way the Scripture reads, “He is risen, just as He said.”
If you only attend church on Easter, I want you to know Jesus welcomed you into the assembly, Sunday before last. Oh, for sure. He welcomed you there, with joy.
And He wants to offer you so much more.
He offers you a rhythm of life, where every week, on the first day of the week, you can rush out the door in order to slow your whole life down to the manageable pace of grace. I don’t care how busy you are, I promise you that skipping a Sunday church gathering will not give you space to breathe.
Heading out on that day, carving out that time, is like doing with time what the tithe (or “regular financial giving”) does for your money: give the first fruits of the 10 percent, and that somehow multiplies the effectiveness of the 90 percent that is yours to do with as you please.
Jesus offers you a lifestyle of gathering with certainty around mysteries. And that looks however that looks!
What I mean is this: Some church leaders think they have all the questions figured out, and that’s fine. I challenge you to allow them that. Their certainty does not make them wrong. Other pastors and Bible teachers prefer some mystery, and they can acknowlege not knowing some things. And they’re not wrong.
But all know for sure that Jesus is alive.
In the act of Sunday gathering Christ offers you a liturgy of celebrating wholeness - sometimes we experience instant healing of brokenness, sometimes we lift holy hands (without an agenda…with zero anger or scheming contention) in hopeful certainty of heaven’s perfection laid in store for the time that comes after time.
And I hope you ate some form of ham/pork, ten days ago, even if it was just a bit of bacon for breakfast. Because Easter celebrates the New Covenant. We no longer get to call anything unclean that God has declared clean. This includes food.
““The voice spoke from heaven a second time, ‘Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.’”
This also includes church. This heavenly word refers to much more than bacon (as though the fact that Jesus has sanctified our bacon is a small thing - it most certainly is no small thing!) it also includes the assembly of the made-righteous.
In all its fragile faulty realness, in spite of the fact that sometimes churches miss the mark, you don’t get to call “toxic faith” what God has saved by grace alone.
And I hope you bought some cute Easter shoes. Because you also get to have beautiful feet, as you embody the good news that Christ died and rose again.
He came for the Pharisee in you and me.
And the one in “them”.
Rocky Mountain High
The Preacher and I just returned from a trip to Colorado.
We attended a minister’s conference hosted by Andrew Wommack and Charis Bible College. This year (2023) was our first year to go to the minister’s conference, which celebrated its 40th consecutive year while we were there! The teaching was rich, and the connections felt solid and substantial.
One of ARMI’s regional leaders (Association of Related Ministers International) who is also a dear friend, told us that the conference had more than doubled in size since just last year. So we felt a bit like fish out of water.
We sat in a room with about 2,000 people. We are not accustomed to that.
Therefore, since we are now part of ARMI: we adapted.
The second thing we weren’t accustomed to, was a minister’s conference that went Monday through Friday.
Therefore: we adapted.
The third thing we were not accustomed to, was incredible facilities. Jaw dropping facilities. Built with zero debt.
There’s a soothing, gorgeous, at least two stories tall waterfall inside the building. There’s a great little coffee shop and bookstore. Every single person there was happy to serve.
Upstairs, in the mezzanine, there had to be at least 50 leather couches, in more than a dozen well appointed conversational groupings, with a view directly looking at Pike’s Peak.
The dining area was like a very large, very fine restaurant, complete with large round tables, tablecloths, plush padded seats, and an enormous stacked stone fireplace. It was all absolutely stunning. And with one goal: to facilitate deep connections. We happily adapted.
Here’s where we did not need to adapt: we know the presence of God, when He broods over a gathering. We felt right at home. We don’t know any other way, except to be authentic, and therefore we make deep and authentic friendships. The favor of God rests upon us, and meeting people comes easy for us. We felt well within our element, in that respect.
And we two are still in love, and we know how to spend time together. If a conference structure doesn’t allow enough time for that, well, we know what must take precedent: our romance. We know exactly how to be Bohemians, and keep important principles but break picky rules, and therefore leaving some sessions early to go roam Woodland Park came really, really easy to us.
(…we laughed so hard at this one…)
We found out that we are highly adaptable, can function under less-than-optimal conditions (our VRBO was absolute garbage - with a busted double bed, in a musty shed that they advertised as a “cozy cabin”. Buyer beware), that we are blessed and incredibly favored, and that altitude is a thing.
But we thrashed it. We hiked, frolicked, friended, explored, prayed, laughed, cried, sang, and basically wore ourselves out, acting half our age.
Until next year, Colorado. Until next year.
With deep gratitude for all the great lifelong friendships that have led up to this season of our lives, with excitement for what now is, and all the incredible new connections we are making, and with great hope for the future.
Because the next Great Awakening will be stewarded into the earth through Great Relationships.
Thanks, Andrew Wommack, for your incredible vision. Thank you Greg and Janice Mohr, Mark and Jennifer Machen, Jeremiah and Stacey Johnson, Brad and Celina Holliman, Randall Barrington, Rob and Glenda Rufus, Charis Bible College, and all who we’ve met and fallen in love with since 2018. We stand ready to serve. My goodness, we are thankful.
And it’s so so good to be home. I can’t wait to get in the studio to paint some scenes I sketched in Colorado.