I am looking forward to this weekend. I love weekends. My weekends consist of spending time with my daughter, life group and gatherings at Watermark. Pretty awesome ways to spend weekends. This is always a great one though. It is Easter weekend. A weekend reserved for Easter egg hunts, marshmallow bunnies and chocolate. WHAT? No, this is the weekend for celebrating Christ's resurrection from the grave. What hope that brings? The knowledge that Christ did what he did for us.

Which brings me to the movie the Passion. I blogged a while ago about it. This is just a follow up note. I wonder how many non-religious people went to see it. I am curious how many Christians took the time to drag a friend along to see it. I am embarrassed to admit that I have encouraged some to see it, but did not go with them myself. I have had lots of conversations about it -- mostly with Christians. I think this is one of the problems with the organized church today. We are comfortable talking and communicating within our circle, but not outside it.

I was at a meeting last Wednesday night. The purpose of the meeting was to coordinate volunteer effort to impact a local ministry effort. Sidebar -- I am a supporter of global outreach. I defend the concept. I believe in the concept. I just think we miss the point when it comes to what the mission field is. We have MANY MANY MANY hurting people right here in our local communities. Sorry about that -- little passion showing thru. The guy coordinating the effort is a good friend of mine. I know his heart on this issue. His whole drive has been to pull the community together, combine our resources and change peoples lives. He is well connected with several local missions agencies and is well respected by them as well. As he addressed this pitiful small group. Sidebar -- Ok I am sore on this point I realize. The meeting was well promoted in this church and there were 10 guys who showed up. Ten guys who said I will serve. Show me the way. I will drop that point --for now.

Anyway as the meeting started and Jeff began to share his heart, there were several guys starting to stir. You could clearly see they had something to add. So, Jeff opened it up for conversation. It was amazing to me to see us come to consensus on several things. 1. The church remains divided. We are so concerned, as believers, about our own church walls that we do not see the opportunities to minister. We put on those blinders and say oh well they can handle it. Or if the wesleyans are involved I want no part..... We need to get over ourselves. 2. We must come together. We need to put our differences aside and serve one another. Together Everyone Achieves More. Think about the local outreach impact on our community if we all came together and choose to serve as -- what -- Christ called us to do.

I am as guilty as the next. That does not mean we should not look for the opportunity to serve, to touch someone's life, to share or pray with some one.

I think I could preach a sermon.

Have a great Easter celebration,

Becca's dad.