Easter Sunday

I loved Easter Sunday at our church. We put into practice something we've been learning, and it worked! For the last several months our staff has been studying Thom Rainer's book Simple Church. He suggests that simple is better. We decided to put his theory to the test. This Easter was simple. No sunrise service. No big cantata. No drama. Just a "normal" Sunday service - done with excellence, of course.

The only change we made from our "usual" format was to add an additional service to accommodate the crowd we anticipated.

The result of our simple plan?

The largest Easter attendance in my ten year ministry here at BCC. There were 292 people here on Sunday (312 if you count the worship team twice - which I was tempted to do.) That represents an 18% increase over last year, which is pretty consistent with what our attendance has been running.

Numbers are cool, but the real number that interested me from Sunday is two. That's right, two. There were two people who were immersed Sunday, becoming Christians. A twenty-something mother of two and a high school freshman who is the foster son of a family in our church both professed their faith in Christ and were buried with him.

That is what we're about at BCC. The coolest part of these immersions is that they came, not as the direct result of our church staff (although we did meet and counsel with these two), but rather as the result of "laypeople" in our church embracing the church's vision to "connect with God and connect with people."

That is what cranks me up, not just about Easter Sunday, but about every Sunday!