FOR REAL

Jesus did not go back into the tomb on Monday. Neither should we. While my eighteen years in ministry pale in comparison to the long tenures of pastors I admire, it has been long enough to see the Easter attendance trend. In fact, when I worked at LifeWay in Nashville, we prepared each spring for a nationwide run on resources that would crescendo toward Easter and abate through Spring Break until hitting a nationwide lull over the summer. Church attendance also spikes when everyone comes home from summer vacations and the back-to-school routine keeps numbers healthy for a while until they wane into the holidays before whiplashing back for Christmas and the new year.

 

We need to get our tails back into consistent church attendance, my friends. These trends ought not exist with such stark prevalence, but they do. Resurrection Sunday is approaching and my fellow pastors are preparing for what historically tends to be the highest attendance on the church calendar, rivaled only by Mother’s Day. Overflow rooms are being prepared for April 20th with tempered hopes that they will be needed again on April 27th, or May 4th. Why?

 

Two years ago, we launched a series titled “For Real This Time” for the Sunday after Easter and what we experienced was much more than the typical “spike” in attendance. We saw lasting repentance and evangelistic fruit which has since born second generations of evangelistic fruit! There are people in our church who came to The Redemption Church for Easter 2023 and never stopped. One such man is a member of my small group who came to Christ right before nearly losing his life! Today, it is impossible to imagine our church without him and many of our new members come to The Redemption Church because he first drove them to join us for worship.

The two biblical principles emphasized in that series were repentance and worshipping in spirit and truth. In John 4:24 (CSB), Jesus said to the Samaritan woman at the well, “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and in truth.” This Easter, we are inviting YOU to join us not once, not twice, not three times, and not just until the summer. Come home to The Redemption Church and worship for real this time. Repent for real this time. Draw a line in the sand and pick a fight with your sin alongside us. Aspire unto holiness and back it up with accountability to a small group that is perfectly aligned with the church’s unflinching book-by-book plan through every verse of Scripture. With steadfast faithfulness, worship in spirit and in truth consistently, serving in a biblically rock-solid church who loves you. Jesus did not go back into the tomb on the Monday after the resurrection. Do not go to church on Easter Sunday and then right back into your tomb of sin on April 21st. Instead, join The Redemption Church for nightly worship that Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Live like you believe in the resurrection…for real this time.