Since coming to faith in Jesus, with the exception of one, I have ministered in song and/or dance for every Easter Service. I have been in churches of 20 that swelled to 40. I have worshiped in communities of 105 that suddenly became 160. I traveled to a church that routinely drew around 400 but had seats for 1100. And this year with much less preproduction and stress than I have experienced in years past, the church I serve in, a church that consistently hits the 220 to 250 mark when everyone shows up (and that counting those serving) seemed to filled to capacity with a sizable representation holding it down in the balcony as well. The body count easily tripled for this single service.
Just as we were closing service, hanging up the choir robes and putting away the music stands, one of the gentlemen singing in the service turned to me with tears in his eyes and said, "Do you think with something like this we can move mountains?" Then turning his teary eyes over the brimming sanctuary alive with chatter and color he spoke again, "I hope we get some inertia out of this." Now I am not entirely sure as to what was going on in his heart and mind, perhaps he was speaking to the unity of our combined "Traditional & Contemporary" worship services. He may have been considering the power of Handel's Messiah to move people into worship (I myself can't sing it without tears), but it was my first inclination that he was looking out over the people and speaking to the sheer number of bodies that were present, many of whom will not return for another calendar year.
Part of me hoped that he was right, that some would be called to join us in fellowship and worship. Another part of me kind of wished that all the extras had just stayed home. To be honest I have grown accustomed to the faces that I see on a regular basis, their smiles, their voices, their trustworthy positioning in close to empty 600 person sanctuary, and having been a formerly Easter Only Believer I knew that ultimately this visit would turn out to be like so many that preceded it. And still another part of me was moved in concern for the man next to me, I asked myself "Whats going to happen to him next week when the 400 visitors and 20 of our regulars decide to stay home?"
The irony of this for me comes in that just the night before the service I had been going over some graphs that chart the attendance of congregation as a whole, comparing this current year to the previous two. Both 2011 and 2010 in comparison had wild spikes, up 95 people one month, then dropping by that and a half for the following two, only to return to close to normal by the end of the school year before family vacations. Ultimately loosing a couple dozen to matriculation and "graduation." However as I looked over the first three months of 2012, the numbers have been really steady, no big spikes no big drops, and this encouraged me. In fact I thought to myself, "If we could keep this going for another six months that would be great!" Having the same 200 people committed to growing as a community in Christ, developing a like-minded vision, employing their gifts in mission, and building each other up through worship and edification. Thats the kind of thing that drives relationships deep into the hearts of people and makes them hard to get rid of. This is what I was longing for in my church when suddenly the reality of Easter Sunday struck me with 200% increase in attendance.
To my fellow musician, the image of a room full of conversation and life on a gloriously sunny Virginian Sunday gave him hope, let him believe that something good was happening right where he was, and that he was a part of that. The power of the message of Christ's resurrection and also some likely misplaced religious guilt filled our sanctuary and gave hopeful eyes to those who have seen the pews of this building grow increasingly more available over the years. I pray that his heart saw the hope of what is to come and that he is empowered by that to sing and serve in this community, because no single service or message will bring the bring the crop of his hope. It's clear that the harvest is plentiful, I'm just praying that more laborers will join in the song.
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