Now that the annual liturgical endurance trial known as Holy Week and Easter is behind us, those of us who work in the church professionally have turned our attention to nice, long naps.
But a blogger over at A Church for Starving Artists asks how we, who spend so much time and energy planning these services, should evaluate them? Should we critique the placement of the flowers? How smoothly the processions went? Or should we dig deeper?
She writes:
Here are a couple of questions to ask in that post-Resurrection Sunday debrief:
Were questions asked that real people are asking? I know a pastor whose Easter message – several years ago – asked the question: “Did Jesus really rise from the dead on a Wednesday instead of a Sunday?” Honestly, who cares about that? What about questions like: “How do I find resurrection if my life feels inconsolably broken?”
Did you address the world beyond your congregation? 250 souls are still missing from the April 16 of a ferry accident in South Korean, most of whom were high school students. On April 15, about 100 Nigerian girls were kidnapped from their school, and although most of them were freed on Wednesday, the experience has left them traumatized.
Did you address where resurrection is needed in your own neighborhood? Are your police officers tracking down heroin traffickers in your town? Are your school teachers working with students who experience tenuous home situations? What are the unemployment figures for your suburb?
Read the whole post here.
And how did your Easter services go?