Passion Week – Focus and Mission

Put God First – In our attempt and desire to put God first this year it would seem that Easter is a time of year where it is easy to have Jesus at the center of our lives and yet, it doesn’t always play out that way.  Even at church.  I am convinced that as Jesus followers, the Passion Week and Easter should be one of the greatest weeks of the whole year for us. An opportunity to remember what Jesus did on the cross, focus on the fact that he is no longer in the grave and celebrate the freedom that his blood and resurrection brought us.  But I also believe God wants more than remembrance; he wants us to take another step (no surprise there).  Our remembrance and focus should move us to continue the mission of the cross by reaching out to those who are far away from God and are in desperate need of the message of the cross.  As disciples of Jesus we should see this time of year as one of our greatest chances to invite people to meet Him.

That is why I am so excited about our plans at The Chapel for Passion Week and Easter this year.  We are going to do several things that I believe will help bring Jesus to the forefront of our celebration and provide opportunity to invite others to join us.

First we are going to put on hold all of our regular ministries during Passion Week (the week before Easter).  I believe doing this helps us step out from the ordinary and provide us time to focus and celebrate.  It also gives us a chance to plan several special events centered on the meaning of Easter and mission of Jesus.  Below is the schedule of events we have planned. Look also for a special invitation that you can use to invite friends or family to The Case for Christ and to Easter Sunday.

Monday – 3/29  Seder Dinner

Wednesday – 3/31  The Case for Christ

Friday – 4/2 Good Friday Night of Worship

Sunday – 4/4 Easter Sunday

Church, let’s begin to pray now that God would use this time to help us fall more in love with him and that we would have our hearts broken for those who don’t know him.

MCC parking lot

We have been vigorously battling the snow storm of 2008 for 10 days now.  Our parking lot at the church looks more like a ski resort parking lot than a church parking lot.  We have had teams of people shoveling snow off the sidewalks only to have loads of it come crashing off the roof (we can’t get out of several of the doors on the west side).  Our neighbor Clay has been here for the past two days trying to keep the parking lot clear for our Christmas Eve service tonight.
Here is my prayer today, that you and your family would be safe and warm but if there is any way you can make it to church tonight to celebrate with us the birth of our Savior that you would be here. Service is at 6:00 p.m..  If you can’t make it I have recorded a special Christmas eve message for you to listen to but know that we will miss being with you tonight.

Merry Christmas everyone and Glory to God in the highest!

2008 Christmas Eve Snow Message from Monroe Community Chapel on Vimeo.