A Message from Our Pastor: April 2013

Dear Church Family:
It is that wonderful time again when I have the glorious opportunity to remind our
church family that Easter is a movement, not a moment. Easter is not a simple day
on our calendar, but an entire season, like Spring, during which time we see new life,
new beauty, and new hope like flower blossoms springing up and out of the ice and
snow-covered earth. In the same way, during this season of holy joy, we witness the
thawing of frozen human hearts as a new and unshakeable hope calls us out of our
tombs of despair, and into new and abundant life. We tell the wonderful Easter story
over and over again, year after year, not simply to remember old details, but to gain
and share new insights and fresh perspectives. Christ is risen! Death is conquered!
Embracing this reality, what else could we possibly have to fear as our life unfolds?
Love has conquered and forgiven all hurt. Light has redeemed all darkness. Life has
terminated death. This is the season of life, and we are invited to live in it fully. When
the stone is rolled away, love conquers all, and grace wins the day and becomes the
endless source of new and unbridled power.

Christ has risen! How shall we respond? Merely shouting the verbal response,
“Alleluia! He is risen indeed!” is simply not enough. We must move from shouting our
alleluias to living them! The resurrection sheds light on everything that happens
around us, and all that happens to us, and offers us new perspectives illuminated by
unshakeable, unbreakable hope, and empowered by unrestrained courage. Christ is
risen! We, too, must rise, and walk with him in newness of life.

Anona and I wish and pray for all our church family an earth-shaking, lifetransforming experience of the presence of the risen and living Christ!
In Easter joy,
Pastor Chuck