Today is post-Easter Monday and after a long day of services that started at 9 a.m. and ended after 10 p.m., I wanted to reflect on the furious pace of the past few weeks and boast in the lavish grace of God. I'll start with Easter and work backwards. Something broke this weekend, spiritually.
I'm not sure how to explain it, but God's favor was evident everywhere. We had 8,070 people attend on Sunday, plus however many could not make it into the Eastside Campus or stand up outside the building to listen on speakers because there was no room in the parking lot or on the sidewalk. We had 3,648 for Good Friday services plus however many hundreds got turned away from the 7 p.m. service at Ballard. We had at least 11,718 people altogether this weekend, somewhere near 200 baptisms yesterday alone, and are still trying to figure out how many people got saved. My children loved seeing all the new converts and baptisms yesterday and my two-year-old son Gideon cracked us all up by calling them bath-tisms and asking if he could take a bath in the church too. We told him he can have a bath-tism in a few years when he gets a bit older.
When my wife Grace and I started Mars Hill as a Bible study in the living room of a small rental home just over a decade ago, we hoped, dreamed, and prayed for people in our city to meet, worship, love, and serve Jesus in great numbers. But to actually see it was overwhelming and we feel like a kite in a hurricane. Yesterday while singing with the congregation at each of the five services I preach live, I could not stop weeping. People were singing loudly with their hands in the air. They cheered all day as people came forward to give their lives to Jesus and be baptized. The pastors were up front laying hands on people, praying over them, and leading them to Christ by the dozens at every service. I stood off to the side during the singing to watch what God was doing and multiple people walked up to me weeping and asked me to pray with them to become a Christian. I met people who had flown in from out of state and out of country to celebrate Easter with us. I even met a couple who had organized their honeymoon to spend Easter with us before flying home to South Carolina. And I only got to see a fraction of what God was doing.
On Good Friday we had eight services on six campuses and for Easter Sunday we had seventeen services on six campuses. I am so glad we have gone multi-site and so glad for the trust we have in the campus pastors and their teams of elders, deacons, and church members. Most of all I am glad for God's grace on us all. We are honored and humbled to be a part of what Jesus is doing.
Other miscellaneous factoids from the last week include a great time I had in Portland teaching a class for Western Seminary with my dear friend and co-author of Vintage Jesus, Dr. Gerry Breshears. We covered issues related to the missional church and captured the lectures and ensuing discussions on audio. We will clean it up and post it online for free in case it can be of any help to other pastors. We rounded off the day with a nice steak dinner with some of the Acts 29 church planters in the Portland area. We are very grateful for the strong sales of Vintage Jesus, whose numbers are on pace to double projections, so thank you to those who have helped us get the word out.
It's been a busy few weeks in the media; first on local radio with Ichabod Caine who attends Mars Hill West Seattle, then a call from the New York Times on an article they are doing about Obama, along with some others, including a quote about Easter in USA Today after a really great interview with their reporter. And, Ichabod put the super fun radio gig online. It's cool because I'm getting multiple opportunities each week to talk about Jesus in all kinds of print and radio media and I praise God for that.
As someone who has a degree in communications and did journalism and talk radio for some years, it is fun to talk about Jesus with the media. Going back a week, our downtown campus launched on March 16 with 750 people whom we praise God for. It was super cool to see the launch on the cover of the Seattle P-I along with some great television coverage. The building is a former nightclub that previously dealt with drugs, gangs, shootings, and such. We replaced the condom dispenser in the bathroom with a baby changing station and reused the go-go dancer cage as a coat rack. The rest of the story is here.
I'm working feverishly to finish up the book Vintage Church, slated for release in early 2009, and am gearing up for the Doctrine sermon series that starts this Sunday. There is a ton that is happening, but by God's grace, good leaders and good teams are in place and the pace is not overwhelming. Unlike this time last year, I am sleeping great, super encouraged, happy with my job, getting time with my family, and feel like the little boy who handed a few fishes and loaves to Jesus who multiplied them to feed thousands.
Thank you, Jesus!
