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gathering

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.

Playing Hooky from the Gathering: 3 Reasons Casual Isn't Cool

Meet Lazy Lawrence. Lawrence is like some Midtown folks in that he attends the Gathering, at best, once or twice a month. Lazy Lawrence is fine with his attendance record. “Besides,” he thinks, “church isn’t all about Sundays anyway. So why does it matter if I come every Sunday or not?” Unfortunately, Lawrence is unaware of a few problems with his mentality. We thought we’d take a moment to point them out:

  1. Using good theology to encourage lazy methodology is bad theology. Lawrence is right in thinking that church is more than what happens on Sunday, but wrong in thinking that gives him license to be lazy and avoid something that scripture tells us is important.
  2. Shortchanging and confusing your family. Lazy Lawrence is sending extremely mixed signals to his kids. While he prays before meals and tells his kids that Jesus came to save them from their sins, his lackluster desire to even show up to the Gathering makes them wonder how important this Jesus guy is. “Besides,” they think, “if Jesus isn’t important enough to get out of bed for on Sundays, is he really that important at all?”
  3. Sunday apathy usually isn’t alone. If Lawrence isn’t at least excited enough  about Jesus to show up and worship with church family, chances are he’s actually not that excited about Jesus period. Usually people who can’t give an hour and a half a week on Sundays have an even harder time leveraging their entire lives for the gospel.

But in all seriousness, the gospel sets us free from all kinds of things. Not the least of them is apathy and laziness. Because Jesus endured the cross for us, we can put our big boy and big girl pants on, take off the old self, put to death apathy and laziness, attend Gatherings, and get excited about Jesus, all out of gratitude for what he’s done for us.