Napier Baptist

There's much that I enjoy and appreciate from Steve Taylor. He recently wrote something that articulates what I believe about journeying through Easter: "The better we do [Good] Friday [and the entire Easter journey], the richer our [Easter] Sunday will be." This year we tried to avoid leaping too quickly into Sunday's triumph without experiencing Friday's grief and loss, that doing so only hollows out the Easter message. On Thursday we tried to enter into the Upper Room (my first ever attempt at a Passover meal) together and sense Jesus' last words with his disciples; on Friday we tried to comprehend the gravity of sin and the cost of our salvation both through our service with the Salvation Army and an evening Tenebrae service (my first ever attempt at this as well); then on Saturday we deliberately held no services so that we could experience something of the lostness and confusion the disciples faced after the crucifixion; and then on Easter Sunday we celebrated the resurrection and that through Jesus, God is making all things new. I don't know how others found it (I've had some really good feedback), but I personally found it to be a rich Easter this year.

Some Highlights For Me From Easter:

At the Last Supper together we had a great variety of people from 6 months old to 70 plus years old. All participated together (be it banging a plastic mug on a high chair or having your eyes water from eating the bitter herbs) and we felt like a family sharing, learning and growing in faith and life together. I loved the fact that we could share this supper together, young and old, and all were both seen and heard.

At the combined service at the Salvation Army, preaching to a packed church (seeing people scrambling for a seat), taking a deep breath and preaching about the death of God on the cross. I was very nerous about it but was determined to keep the focus on Friday's crucifixion and not on Sunday's resurrection. It seemed to go pretty well. I found our Tenebrae service fantastic. Often in ministry I find you're so busy doing ministry there's not a lot of time to be ministered to or to 'receive ministry'. The Tenebrae allowed this for me and I loved it.

On Sunday I loved celebrating the resurrection together, again to a packed church. I especially loved popping corks on bottles of grape juice to celebrate the firstfruits of the resurrection. I even sung in the choir. Having never been a part of any singing group nor having sung in public before, I did my best Milli Vanilli impersonation, lip synching my way through it!

My lowlight was preaching in the open air at Easter Alive. This isn't much my scene anyway and I'm not deeply commited to it (I wonder why we do it and who is it for?). Frankly I found it really hard and felt like it bombed a bit. Others reassure me that it was good but I didn't enjoy it. Put that one down to experience.

How was Easter for you? What did Easter mean for you this year? What enriched you and what distracted you? I'd love to hear from people who aren't a part of the Napier Baptist community as well those who are a part of our community... What struck you this Easter?