I stepped outside after church on Saturday night, and snow was floating down in huge, white flakes. Overnight, the spring snow blanketed the lawns and trees of northern Colorado. By Easter sunrise, the sky was crystal clear, and the shimmer of light on snow was stunning. Our White Easter was nothing like a White Christmas, because the first light brought enough heat to melt the snow. As I drove to church, I thought, “Narnia is thawing.”

That was our Easter weather. I want to tell you about services too, but I’ll keep it short, and I hope you will write in and tell us about your Easter experience as well.

We opened the service with Point of Difference by Joel Houston. It was like an “introit.” (If there is such a thing in a church like Crossroads!) It worked great. All ears and eyes were focused on the power of Jesus Christ to make a difference. Then we had a spoken word piece called Resurrection. Tim actually purchased it online, and it’s great. It starts with John 1.1 and plows through Jesus' Story, all the way to the resurrection. Then we sang together: My Savior Lives and Tell the World, had a welcome/greeting time and then a 3rd song—Inside Out.

Then a pastor stepped up with some orienting comments about the church, the next series, the offering and a pastoral prayer.

We had “special music” just before the sermon (Opposite Way by Leeland). John Smith preached a sermon centered on Ephesians 1.19-20—the power that is available to us who believe. And he talked about that power in terms of the difference it makes in the life of a Christian. We had props on stage—5 different “doors” that each represented an aspect of human life that Christ’s resurrection power might change: unformed identity (mirrors on this door), past hurt and failure (a “broken”, beat up door), bondage to sin/addiction (prison door with bars), and a red door, representing the door of salvation/redemption—Christ. At the end of the service, people came forward and walked through the doors—any door/s that symbolize an area where they are needing/asking for God’s power to transform.

The response (walking through a door) was something people did after the service. It wasn’t part of the ending. After the sermon, we sang Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone). Then John came back to send us out: He prayed, explained how we could come after the service and walk through the doors, then blessed us and said goodbye.

Nearly everyone in attendance came up to walk through a door. I liked the way John spoke to people across the entire landscape of membership and discipleship in the Christian/human family (people: outside the Christian faith, with unformed IDs, broken hearts, enslaved to sin...) He spoke to all of us; offered the gospel to EVERYONE. It's not easy to do in one worship service!

What was your Easter worship like?

Katie Martinez

Katie Martinez manages worship arts projects for the ECC and helps plan worship at Crossroads Covenant Church in Loveland, Colorado.

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