Dear Church,
What a great Easter celebration we enjoyed last week! Such excitement! Such joy! Such worship! Our Lord was honored. The name of Christ was heralded. The gospel was proclaimed!
I continue to be amazed at our church and how our membership so willingly embraces new challenges. I am so thankful that our church puts the proclamation of the gospel in first place. I am proud of how our church is willing to roll up the sleeves, get out of the comfort zone, and minister with common purpose and selfless cooperation.
Everyone wants to know the attendance for our first-ever. That is a harder number to pin down than you might think. As of the writing of this letter, we have identified 1,707 in-person attendees. (Maybe another 300 people on live-stream.) Perhaps the number is higher, but we will stick with what we know. The best news: That 1,700 includes about 900 visitors! However, as excited as we were about the numbers, there was much more to celebrate. I stood in front of the coliseum greeting as many people as I could. I heard so many comments about how excited people were to be a part of Easter worship. Both people I knew and people I met for the first time shared their anticipation and enthusiasm for the service. People were taking photos with their families. Little kids were running everywhere. People were greeting friends from the community. I’ve never seen such zeal on Easter morning!
It was a very good day. And, as your pastor, I have a few things to say about the day. I’ve chosen to write this very long letter so that I won’t take our entire worship service this week talking about details.
First, I want to thank the Lord for this opportunity. So many things could have prevented us from having such a good day. The Lord gave us favor with SFA leadership, with the community, and with the WEATHER! And, of course, he gave us the gospel to proclaim.
Next, I want to thank our church. As I’ve already said, you are a source of constant amazement. Many churches are filled with people who say they love the Lord, the great commission, and the gospel. But when it comes to stretching or risking or sacrificing, that is a bridge too far. Your uncommon love for the Lord shows in your eager support for so many cutting-edge efforts to reach our community and grow our church. Just two weeks before Easter at the Coliseum, we had hundreds involved in our first-ever ministry fair, a great success. Before that was our second annual Serve Day. Many churches would have pushed back on those events. YOU embrace everything. I LOVE MY CHURCH! I’m so thankful to be a part of FBC Nac!
A pastor-friend asked me a couple of weeks before Easter at the Coliseum what would happen if the event flopped. I thought about it. I know what he was asking. Will the church revolt because we took a risk that didn’t work out? With the highest level of confidence, I told my friend that our church would be glad we tried to find a way to proclaim the gospel to more people. I said we would all be disappointed, but our church is mature enough and gospel-focused enough, that they would be happy we made the attempt.
Many individual people deserve a shout-out. No way can I name all of those who contributed to the success of Easter at the Coliseum. Having said that, I do want to mention a few...
The gold medal goes to Tom Webster. I asked Tom to be the captain of this endeavor back in July 2022. I had full confidence that Tom could handle this event, but I greatly underestimated how hard he would work, how detailed he would be, and how his commitment to excellence would show through every tiny slice of this project. Tom, as I’ve shared with you before, everyone loves your wife, Angela. And I believe if you would take a day off and go home every once in a while, you would probably like her too!
If Tom is #1, then Grant and Jonathan are #1a and #1b. You recognize we had over 130 musicians and singers on the platform all making music, singing songs, and leading worship in harmony. Imagine getting the 130 most creative people you know to all do the same thing at the same time! Thank you, Grant!
Further, we had countless microphones, loudspeakers, video screens, cameras, and lights in a room we had never supported before. In addition to managing all of that, Jonathan and his team also handled connections to SFA’s video assets, live streaming, Spanish language broadcast, recording for television broadcast, and more. Thank you, Jonathan.
Every minister and director on staff played a significant role in Easter at the Coliseum. All of them worked hard, made family sacrifices, and stretched beyond their comfort zones. Please, please, please know that the work ethic, professionalism, and team focus of these eight ministers and directors is a rare gift to our church, and especially to me as pastor. (And I should add Jeff Thompson to the list because he helped early on in a staff role and then continued as a key volunteer.)
When our church goes the extra mile on things like Serve Day, Ministry Fair, extra Christmas Eve services, Men’s ministry, and more... It is these eight people who make the first and primary sacrifice to make those events happen. We could choose an easier path. They could choose an easier path. I love their commitment to the Lord and their love for our church and community!
I’m running out of space for this letter, but I should also point out that we had hundreds of people serve as volunteers. One of our FBC values is that we believe part of being a disciple of Christ is serving the body. Well, that service was in overdrive with Easter at the Coliseum.
One more thing... This may not seem like a fit for this letter, but it’s important. I’ll be fully transparent with our church. Easter at the Coliseum was an expensive project. You cannot organize an event like this event with all of the publicity and with such a commitment to excellence without spending significant funds. Now, I’m not asking anyone to help us pay for the event. That is my point. We had all the money we needed to do the event and to do it well. We set that money aside a while back. And while we were careful not to overspend, we were able to spend what we needed. So, why am I telling you this?
Here is how our ministries operate at FBC... We don’t plan ministry and then come to you and ask you to fund it. Instead, you give faithfully and generously. And then we plan ministry that fits what you support. The reason we were able to follow the Lord’s leadership and host Easter at the Coliseum was that you were faithful and generous through 2022. The Lord is leading us to do more and greater ministry in the months and years to come. Your faithfulness and generosity today are what make it possible to be obedient to the Lord’s calling in the days to come.
Now, the $64,000 question... What will we do on Easter 2024?
It could be that our great attendance and enthusiasm in 2023 was because the event was new, and next year we won’t have that same novel factor, and numbers will fall. OR... Maybe 2023 is the baseline we can build on. Perhaps the Lord will leverage the success of this year to help us reach more in 2024. These are the questions that keep pastors up late at night. Honestly, no one knows the answer.
But here is what we do know... Easter at the Coliseum allowed us to proclaim the gospel to many more people than if we would have stayed on our church campus. Further, there would be no simple way to accommodate the 2023 crowd if they all showed up on our church campus in 2024. AND MOST OF ALL, we aren’t just looking to get by or find the easiest or safest path. We aim to proclaim the gospel from the rooftops! So, circle the date on the calendar... Lord willing...
Easter at the Coliseum 2024 will be Sunday, March 31!
Pastor Noel