As a kid growing up in the 1970’s, my biggest memories of Easter are the stomach-aches I always got after eating way too much chocolate. It was the Halloween of spring for me. Even a seasoned chocolate eater such as me could not down half a dozen of those super-rich Cadbury eggs without repercussions! I noticed in the media this week that the numbers for Easter candy sales for 2007 are higher than ever. Candy sales are expected to top 1.85 billion this year. That’s just the money spent on candy! If you count all Easter related purchases, the average American will spend $135.07 each.
In the midst of all this conspicuous consumption, the Crossbridge church in Houston, Texas has a plan to use the Easter holiday as an outreach tool. Today (Easter Sunday) they will have a helicopter drop candy-filled Easter eggs to egg-hunting youngsters below. Thousands of eggs will fall from the sky for children to collect. "It is something different and completely unrelated to the Gospel message, but it is a fun way to reach people," children's director Trisha Rich said. "And once they are there, we invite them into the service."
Good for them for being creative in their outreach, but I wonder if the type of people who come to church because a helicopter dropped eggs on their kids’ heads are going to be a little surprised when the rabbits leave, the fun and games stop, and the church starts asking people to die and be resurrected with Christ. As far as I can tell that’s the primary message of Easter.
So here we are at Easter, faced with the challenge of presenting the hope-filled reality of Christ’s empty tomb to our culture. Should we get tough, be serious and make sure we are not confused with those helicopter churches? (Based on our budget I don’t think we have much of a problem there;-) Certainly there will be different answers for different members who have different sorts of friends. But here is one message we can tell our culture this Easter. If you fill your bellies with 1.8 billion dollars worth of candy, you are going to feel very, very, very sick.
In the midst of all this conspicuous consumption, the Crossbridge church in Houston, Texas has a plan to use the Easter holiday as an outreach tool. Today (Easter Sunday) they will have a helicopter drop candy-filled Easter eggs to egg-hunting youngsters below. Thousands of eggs will fall from the sky for children to collect. "It is something different and completely unrelated to the Gospel message, but it is a fun way to reach people," children's director Trisha Rich said. "And once they are there, we invite them into the service."
Good for them for being creative in their outreach, but I wonder if the type of people who come to church because a helicopter dropped eggs on their kids’ heads are going to be a little surprised when the rabbits leave, the fun and games stop, and the church starts asking people to die and be resurrected with Christ. As far as I can tell that’s the primary message of Easter.
So here we are at Easter, faced with the challenge of presenting the hope-filled reality of Christ’s empty tomb to our culture. Should we get tough, be serious and make sure we are not confused with those helicopter churches? (Based on our budget I don’t think we have much of a problem there;-) Certainly there will be different answers for different members who have different sorts of friends. But here is one message we can tell our culture this Easter. If you fill your bellies with 1.8 billion dollars worth of candy, you are going to feel very, very, very sick.
Mark
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