Today we had our first Easter Sunday celebration in the local park.

There were 2 families from our team as well as 6 families from the local area. With kids it meant there were around 35 of us in all. A big question was how to keep the integrity and significance of the Easter story when the majority of the group are not Jesus followers in the same sense as we are.

I am not one for imposing religious observance on anyone – we have seen the disastrous results of trying to make people conform to religious practices that their heart is not in. Yet… I sense the ‘kingdom is near’ to some of my neighbours and friends and we wanted to observe the significance of the Easter occasion.

We had a great brunch, had fun with easter eggs and had a pretty energetic soccer match then we created a simple reflective process for people to participate in. For those who are interested here’s what we did.

– I introduced ‘the cross’ by holding up a small cross and asking people what words they associated with it.
– I explained the significance of the cross – of Friday being forgiveness – of Sunday being hope
– We opened a bottle of red and broke a loaf of bread and as we did, spoke of the imagery of bloodshed and a broken body.
– People were invited to participate in communion if they wanted to.
– The cross was then placed in a nearby garden area with this image on it
and people were encouraged to take the bread and wine and then go there to reflect for a few minutes.
– Most people chose to do this
– There were many interesting conversations that emerged from this experience
– We left the cross & image in the park so that others might discover it today.

The hardest part for me was shifting the conversation from the social and fun to something more focused. I know it was expected, but I still needed a few deep breaths to do it.

Why?

These people have become my friends – good friends and people I really want to share life with. I don’t want to be seen as another religious guy trying to impose stuff on them.

It would be great if we could share the journey of faith together and in one sense we are already doing that – but I want to do things as Peter spoke of ‘with gentleness and respect’

Over the last few days I have been aware of what I will call ‘residual christendom’, some residue of our Christian heritage showing up in the lives of our friends.

It showed today when the cafe owner questioned why I would eat bacon and eggs on Easter friday… ummm… because I like bacon and eggs… It showed when one of my friends didn’t know what to take to a barbecue – red meat (his much preferred option) or fish…

It showed when friends decided that they would have their child christened even though neither have any faith convictions…

My question relate to whether this works for us or against us as missionaries.

Should we be happy that there is some remnant of christian memory at work in people’s lives or is it actually to our detriment because it is a residue that has lost its significance and now is almost in the realm of superstition?

Residual Christendom shows up in lots of places, with people wanting their kids to grow up with good morals – hence Sunday school – people setting up nativity scenes at Christmas – the list goes on.

I’m interested in the question – should we seeing this as a foundation to build on or should we look to ‘put a broom thru’ and completely start over?…

Looks like our first Easter service will have 4 Christians present and around 15 ‘still looking’

Mot of our team have had to bale on being around at Easter time so its now just down to two families. We have invited our whole street plus friends along (maybe 20 people!).

Wonder what it will feel like?…dead like me download divx colour me kubrick a true ish story

I might as well start smoking.

All the people I hang around now and the places I go seem to be full of cigarette smoke. A few weeks back a party across the road in a garage saw 7 people smoking and two of us not. What was the point?!

Today at the pub I got chatting with a guy who chain smokes. I might as well be smoking them with him! It was a great conversation – he was involved with the Ananda Marga sect and then the Bahai faith.

I asked ‘why?’

‘Well – I guess I was just pretty lost’

Sometimes people know when their lives are up the creek – when they need to reach out to a higher power.