Wow, what an epic Easter we had this year at Mars Hill Church! We witnessed grace upon grace at each one of our 14 churches, as well as heard of thousands of people listening online. One of the many blessings of the weekend was to see whole families saved as the Lord convicted them of sin and they turned to a new life in Christ. I also felt blessed to be able to celebrate the day with my wife and four daughters, along with my new son-in-law.
Pastor Mark gave us a rundown of Easter by the numbers yesterday. Here’s a peek into some of my favorite stories behind the numbers from the weekend.
- An elder candidate at Mars Hill Olympia has been sharing his faith with a man for the past several months. On Easter, he came to church with his wife and two daughters and they all got baptized.
- A man at Mars Hill Shoreline got saved a year ago. He was addicted to drugs, struggling with demonic oppression, and his marriage and family were falling apart. Now, through this man’s testimony, his whole family got saved and on Easter he baptized his wife and son.
- A man came to Mars Hill Downtown Seattle to hear his friend sing in the choir. The sermon was deeply convicting to him and he got saved and baptized.
- A dad and grandpa at Downtown Seattle baptized their daughter and granddaughter. Praise Jesus for three generations of faith!
- There were so many people at Mars Hill Bellevue for one service that roughly 200 men gave up their seats to stand during the sermon.
- An entire family of four was baptized at Mars Hill U-District.
- A man at Mars Hill Portland shared with one of the pastors how he was converted from trying to please God to realizing Jesus did all the work for him on the cross. He shared how Jesus set him free from patterns of sin and performance and he was baptized. Then he baptized his wife who also recently became a Christian.
- Also at Portland, there was a man who started listening to Pastor Mark’s sermons when he was in prison and became a Christian. When he got out, he tried to point his wife toward Christ but she wanted nothing to do with it and tried to kick him out of their house. She felt terrible with kicking him out so she listened to a sermon in the Real Marriage sermon series and got saved that day. She shared the story with the whole congregation on Easter.
- Last Easter, a man at Mars Hill Rainier Valley got baptized and started bringing his extended family to church. This year, his sister and her husband got baptized. They’ve both recently become Christians and God is doing a lot of great things in their lives.
- Also at the Rainier Valley church, a single mother got out of prison a short time ago. She and her daughter became Christians last week and were baptized on Easter.
- A woman became a Christian on Good Friday at Mars Hill Bellevue. She got baptized on Easter. Also at Bellevue, a couple got married on Saturday then baptized on Sunday.
- Two pastors, AJ Hamilton and Jon Krombein, had the great opportunity with their wives to each baptize two of their children on Sunday.
- One of the baptism screeners at Mars Hill Sammamish screened an eight-year-old girl who reminded her how simple salvation truly is. She said the little girl explained the gospel to her, explained who Jesus is, explained what sin was, and even explained the concept of repentance (although she didn’t know the word). She said she wanted to be baptized “because I want to show people that I love Jesus.” Minutes later her daddy had the great privilege to baptize her.
Thanks to Jesus for saving so many people this weekend. Please join with me in praying for all of them. We were truly blessed this year!
