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easter

Exactly 19 Reasons We're Excited about #EasterAtFinlay

With #EasterAtFinlay quickly approaching, we took it upon ourselves to gather exactly 19 reasons we're excited out of our minds for the Gathering. For more details about the event, visit our Easter at Finlay page.

  1.  Jesus is alive.
  2. We get to celebrate Jesus together as a family, while overlooking the city from one of the most beautiful spots in town.
  3. We get to baptize 22 people.
  4. Inflatables for the kids.
  5. Face-painting for the kids.
  6. A playground for the kids.
  7. Our whole church together at one Gathering (this hasn't happened since  2010).
  8. Getting to welcome the homeless in our city into our celebration.
  9. Proclaiming the gospel publicly right smack in the middle of our city.
  10. Hearing 22 stories of Jesus' grace in people's lives.
  11. Families celebrating Jesus together in the park.
  12. Potluck-style picnic after the Gathering.
  13. Cornhole
  14. Spikeball (if you haven't heard of it, you're gonna love it).
  15. Bocce ball.
  16. Celebrating Easter together with Midtown Two Notch.
  17. Hearing through people's stories the role that our LifeGroups played in them coming to know Jesus.
  18. Quality time with church family.
  19. Did we mention that Jesus is alive?

We sincerely hope you'll make plans to join us for Easter At Finlay. For more details including where to park, click here.

Why Adam is Excited about Easter Gathering

During the next two weeks leading up to our Easter Gathering, our pastors will be posting why they are personally excited about Easter Gathering. For more information, head over to the Easter Gathering page.

Most folks in our culture are horrified of death. We spend lots of time, energy, and money in an effort to make it seem like death is not coming for us. Wrinkles, gray hairs, and sagging skin are avoided at all costs, lest it become clear that death is beginning to make its mark on our bodies. We used to bury our loved ones in graveyards, but that began to sound too bleak so now we place their bodies in a cemetery (Greek for sleeping place). Embalming and death cosmetology have become huge industries, shielding us from having to see what death does to the body. In his 1974 Pulitzer Prize winning book ‘The Denial of Death,’ Ernest Becker says, “the idea of death, the fear of it, haunts the human animal like nothing else.” Death has an unavoidable sting to it. Death always feels wrong to us…like it shouldn’t be happening.

This is because, according to Ecclesiastes, God has “set eternity in the hearts of men.” For thousands of years of human existence, death has been a natural part of life. And yet, somehow it still feels unnatural.

All of this, of course, completely squares with the biblical account. We were in fact, created to live forever. Death is a result and consequence of sin…it isn’t “how things ought to be” and deep in our souls we resonate with this truth. This is what makes the resurrection of Jesus so spectacular. It proves that he has power over death. It proves that God really did accept his death as atonement for sin. It means that death no longer has the final word, Jesus does! And it means for believers in Jesus, death has lost its sting.

I can’t think of a better way to celebrate this reality than gathering with our whole church family – both campuses, all 75 LifeGroups, together to see almost 30 people be baptized, and to scream and yell and sing out:

 “'O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?' The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.  But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!" (1 Cor 15:55-57)

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Why Chris is Excited about Easter Gathering

During the next two weeks leading up to our Easter Gathering, our pastors will be posting why they are personally excited about Easter Gathering. For more information, head over to the Easter Gathering page.

I am probably most excited to hear story after story of Jesus transforming people's lives.  The Easter Gathering is such an incredible experience because it reminds me that everyone has an amazing story of sin and Jesus' grace in our lives.

It's like watching a bunch of movies with a redemption story back to back.  In every one of them, sin ruled their life and then the grace of Jesus triumphs. The worst sin problem they had prior to become a Christian is revealed and there is no longer any need to hide that and pretend that they are fine...because Jesus performed on their behalf and they are credited with His righteousness.

So each story where a once thief, horrible spouse, liar, and/or porn addict are radically changed helps enhance our perception of the gospel. And we get to witness, standing right before us, a new creation (not a perfect one) and the story that goes along with them of how God has poured His grace on them. And then they are baptized. Boom!

Happy Easter!

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Why Kent is excited about Easter Gathering

During the next two weeks leading up to our Easter Gathering, our pastors will be posting why they are personally excited about Easter Gathering. For more information, head over to the Easter Gathering page.

Sometimes it’s easy for us as Christians to make a big deal out of things that aren’t a big deal. Good worship bands, summer camp, and Chick-Fil-A are all fine things to be excited about, but they aren’t really as big of a deal as sometimes we make them into.

So I think it’s really cool that we make a big deal about Easter. It’s seems like if you’re gonna be excited about one thing as a church, Jesus being alive is way up there on the list. And doing what Jesus said to do (making disciples, baptizing them, and teaching them) seems like the perfect thing to make a big deal out of.

So we make a huge deal out of it: we rent out one of the bigger venues in Columbia, we baptize lots of people, sing a lot of songs about Jesus, and invite all our friends to come see why it’s such a big deal.

I can’t wait to make a huge deal out of Jesus’ resurrection with you this year at the Metropolitan Convention Center.

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Why Bailey is Excited about Easter Gathering

During the next two weeks leading up to our Easter Gathering, our pastors will be posting why they are personally excited about Easter Gathering. For more information, head over to the Easter Gathering page.

Typically, I am a man of too many words. I like to talk and because of this I will often answer a question with a paragraph that should be answered in a sentence. That being said, why am I excited about Easter?

One word: Jesus.

I know that sounds cliche. I can hear the cynicism now. “Oh, of course, pastor. You’re excited about Easter because of Jesus.” Cliche as my answer may sound, it’s true.

Easter is the day where all of my attention gets focused on Jesus’ empty tomb. He’s not there. He is risen. Jesus isn’t dead. Jesus is alive! And His resurrection is the best news my ears have ever heard!

For Christians, much of the emphasis of the gospel gets placed on Jesus’ sacrificial death for our sins. This is certainly the case for a good reason. We desperately need atonement to be made for all the ways we have turned from God. But, the resurrection, Jesus’ victorious life, is what makes it all possible. Without it, there is really no gospel at all!

In 1 Corinthians 15:14, Paul puts it like this, “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.” His point is that Jesus’ resurrection is what seals the deal. The empty tomb is the proof that the debt of our sin has been paid. The resurrection is essential to the gospel message because its our assurance that our justification through Christ has been accomplished.

Throughout my life, I’ve often struggled with depression - a pervading sense that all hope is lost and my sins, my struggles, and my sufferings just cannot be conquered. But the message of Easter is that these things aren’t true! Because Jesus is alive, I have hope! I have hope that my sins, my struggles, and my sufferings aren’t insurmountable. They aren’t the final word on my life. If God is powerful enough to raise Jesus from the dead, then whatever I’m going through, however bleak it might seem, it isn’t beyond His ability to forgive, heal, and even use for His glory.

If the tomb is empty, life doesn’t look so bleak anymore. As matter fact, its full of promise and assurance that God is after my good and will take care of me no matter what!

So, why am I excited about Easter? Jesus. Because of Jesus.

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Why Jon is Excited about Easter Gathering

During the next two weeks leading up to our Easter Gathering, our pastors will be posting why they are personally excited about Easter Gathering. For more information, head over to the Easter Gathering page.

In less than two weeks we will all gather together as a city-wide church family for two Easter Gatherings. We get together two times a year as a whole church and host our city. Our seventy some odd LifeGroups will gather together as a huge extended family to worship Jesus together, and celebrate the work He is doing in our city.

My favorite part will be the baptism stories.  Sixty percent of the time the stories are my favorite every time.  I love hearing a bunch of real people talking about their real lives and how Jesus has reshaped reality in their world.  I love the variety of backgrounds and circumstances.  I love the different ways that people explain how Jesus drew them to Himself.  I love hearing about how people got invited into community by their roommate or their coworker or their family member.  I love how many of the people getting baptized will describe how God used normal people who were living on mission and building relationship with them to bring them in to God’s family.

Baptism stories are a reminder that God loves our city more than we do.  That God is pursuing people and rescuing people.  That God is the lead missionary.  It doesn’t get better than that.  As a whole church family we will scream our heads off in celebration after each Baptism story because Jesus is good.  Because Jesus is alive and saving people.  Because Jesus is actively rescuing and forgiving people. Because Jesus is leading His church and we get to be a part of working, laboring and celebrating what He is doing along with Him!

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