Posted by Tim Mannin
At the genesis of this church…before it was named…before we had a Community House…there was a dream that this church would humbly love a city and be able to seed the gospel throughout it. That is easier said than done. Figuring out how to share the gospel is one significant hurdle…and hoping people will listen, notice, or receive the gospel is an even bigger hurdle. So, we have the difficult work of gardening ahead of us. We must plow the ground, nurture the soil, plant the seeds, water the ground, and hope for new growth (not to mention…guard from prey, hope for good weather, get a straw hat, and do some occasional pruning). Seeding the gospel and loving a city will take time, but that is where we begin.
So why do an Egg Hunt?
Is this the best we can come up with?
Doesn’t everyone do an egg hunt?
How does this help with the dream to bring life to the city by loving God and living the gospel?
Have you ever purchased something…maybe a car that you thought was super rad and way different? Then you start driving it around and you quickly realize that there are a lot more of that super rad and way different car on the road than you originally thought? Maybe you’re not quite so different after all. That’s how an Easter Egg Hunt can feel…admittedly they are a dime a dozen and you see churches doing them all over the place.
So it’s easy to wonder if this is a good way to love our city and seed the gospel.
Will people notice anything new in a sea of sameness?
Our church must build a presence in this community and create proximity to our neighbors in order to communicate the message of the gospel. Getting to know real people in our city means that we have to build relationships with them—and a great way to do that is by serving the city and throwing parties. This Egg Hunt is just an easy way to throw a party…not new…not terribly inventive…but, I’ll remind us—neither is the wheel. Some things just work. We aren’t trying to be different—we are tying to humbly serve and find ways to build presence and create proximity with people in our city.
Sometimes it’s not so much about what we do, but it’s about who we are as a church. Don’t get me wrong what we do matters—I mean if we decided that we wanted to throw a party by organizing an all-you-can-eat hard boiled egg night, we might not see very many people who would be interested in that party (apparently most people would rather hunt eggs). Bigger than what we do is the who we are factor. We want people in our city to experience who we are as a church, and more importantly who we are as people.
This is how we make a blip on the radar screen of normalcy and sameness—our love for our God and for people must be witnessed…this is how we will seed the gospel through an old fashioned Egg Hunt. The gospel must be seen in who we are and we hope (fingers crossed) that what we are doing will be the avenue where we intersect with the people around us.
This may sound odd, but I think it’s important to have a philosophy and even a theology of why we do an Egg Hunt. Because, we aren’t throwing an event—instead we are making steps to create presence in our community and establish proximity to those around us…all with the hopes to seed the gospel in new places in our city.
So, we are hosting a Community Easter Egg Hunt.
Saturday, March 30th, 9:30-11:30am
Goodholm Park (NW26th and Robinson Ave)
Free Breakfast, Family Activities, Inflatables, and of course an Egg Hunt