Remember playing follow the leader as a child. When we played that game we all wanted to be the leader. The object of this game was simple. You did what the person at the front of the line did. Everyone behind would follow.

Maybe our days of playing the game of follow the leader are over, but everyday we engage in the process of following leaders. And some of the lessons we learned back in when we were playing the game in preschool are still beneficial to us today.

1) Beware the person who always wants to lead. It really makes the game no fun for anyone else. It is deflating to know that you will always be stuck at the back of the line. The person who always wants to lead is not there to make sure everyone else has a good experience, but to ensure that he or she as an individual has a good experience even to the detriment of others.

2) Share the leadership. Everyone has different ideas. And everyone leads in a bit different way. By sharing the leadership experience you will have a much richer and diverse experience. Everyone will be better off. Horizons will be expanded and new adventures will take place. I find this in Bible Study all the time. I often find myself as the teacher, but I find that others have insights into the Scriptures that I would have never seen on my own. If I am always dominating the conversation, our group would miss out on some of those wonderful insights.

3) The best leaders are the best followers. There are many reasons for this. Maybe the biggest reason is that the best followers come with a humble heart. They keep in perspective the challenges of those who are following. And ultimately, the best leaders are those who are the best followers of Jesus Christ. If we are not following him, we will be ill equipped to lead anyone. Not every follower will make a great leader, but every great leader will be a great follower.

In the end, if you are a leader, remember it is not about you. The greatest compliment that can be given to any leader is when they can step aside and others will fill the gap and not miss a beat because you have “leadered the followers.” In other words you have raised followers up to be leaders.

Easter Sunday is an incredible day. We have by far, more people in attendance for worship on that day than any other day of the year. So much effort is put into this big day. The praise team practices a little more. We organize a choir. One thing I heard often echoed was “what a great worship experience!”   Everyone dresses up a little bit more. Barbara dressed me in a tie! We wake up a little earlier in the morning. We do special things with our children to teach them about Jesus’ resurrection. Using the sports cliche – on Easter Sunday we give 110%. I log onto Facebook and everyone is sharing their faith about how Jesus is risen and how great is our God.   

The question that comes to my mind, as I face a “Holy Hangover” on Monday morning, “why don’t we do this every Sunday? What is it that is holding us back from giving Jesus everything each week? Why don’t we have Easter every Sunday? Easter Sunday may be over, but Jesus is still risen from the dead! What’s our excuse?”

There are a few logical explanations. The most obvious is that we would likely burn out. To make Easter as special as we make it, we will typically set aside a few things that we might otherwise participate in. We spent the last few weeks in a sprint and anyone who is a long distance runner knows you cannot sprint the entire race.

Nevertheless, I wonder if we don’t have some more to give when it comes to our worship the other 51 Sundays of the year. We just finished the season of Lent. Many of us might have given up something for Lent. I wonder if there are some things we could give up not just for this holy season, but on a more permanent basis to allow us to give more for Jesus.

Not saying, just wondering!

Of course we must keep in mind that the measure of our success as a church is not measured by what takes places inside the walls of the church building on Sunday morning. Our success is not measured by how many people walked through the doors this past weekend or any weekend for that matter. The success is measured by what happens outside the walls of the church the remainder of the week. Are lives being transformed? Is our community being impacted? Are people being brought into a saving relationship with Jesus as Savior? Is the Kingdom of God being expanded? We could have an incredible Easter celebration every week, but if none of these things are happening, what is it all for?

So Happy Easter everyone! Hope you had a great celebration yesterday wherever you may have been.

Today is Good Friday. It is the day we remember Jesus’ sacrifice upon the cross for the forgiveness of our sins.It is one of the most Holy Days of the year. In my estimation (its my personal opinion) Good Friday is the second most important day on the Christian calendar behind Easter and ahead of Christmas. Although, I need to say that ranking these days is somewhat silly. It is not really about the individual days, but about what happened on those days.   

We call it “Good” Friday. Why do we call it good? Our Lord died upon the cross. What is good about that? It is good because Jesus died for us. Jesus predicted his death and when the angels said, “The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.” (Luke 24:7) It is good because it is good for us.

So we call it good, but is that an adequate description of this day? You come home after a long difficult day and your spouse asks you, “How your day was?”

Your response is “good.”

They reply, “just good?”

You say, “Yep.”

What you are implying here is that your day was not all that good. My point here is that good might just be too ordinary term to describe this day. Maybe we should call it Great Friday or Incredible Friday. It’s not just good, it is more than that.

When we think about it, it really was not the nails that held Jesus to the cross. Jesus could have come down off that cross at any moment. As powerful as the Roman army was, they were no match for the Son of God. Acts 2:23 says Jesus was handed over to death by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge. The only thing that held Jesus on the cross was his love for you and his obedience to the Father.

Crucifixion was an incredibly cruel and demeaning form of execution. It was typically done along a major road leading into the city. It was done publicly to serve as a deterrent against crime. Most importantly for the Romans it served as a deterrent against revolutionaries rising up to challenge their authority.

The cause of death in crucifixion was typically suffocation and cardiac failure. A more complete description can be found several different places online. Here is a link to one such article. All I can say is wow.

Tonight at Lord of Life, along with many churches in many different places, we will remember the 7 words (or statements) of Jesus on the cross. Each of these words hold special significance and meaning. They tell us something new about Jesus’ character and his sacrifice.

Please join us at 7pm at the corner of LaFox Rd and Rt. 38.

Today is April 1, 2010. Many recognize today as April Fool’s Day. Even more importantly, today is Maundy Thursday. And that is no joke!

We celebrate Maundy Thursday on the Thursday before Easter during Holy Week. It doesn’t necessarily fall on April 1 every year, but is dependent upon the date of Easter. Maundy Thursday is the day Jesus shared his last supper with his disciples. It was also on this day he was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives.

There have been many artists who have depicted this meal in painting and sculpture. The most famous is Leonardo DaVinci. Most however, falsely depict this meal as it has Jesus and his disciples sitting around the table on chairs. The reality is they would not have sat at chairs but rather reclined around the table on the floor. But that is another matter.

The Gospel of John has the most detailed account of the events of this night. The events of Maundy Thursday take up more than five chapters, almost 1/4, of the Gospel of John. He begins the account in chapter 13 and continues into the beginning part of chapter 18. John has more to say about the events of Maundy Thursday than he has to say about Good Friday and Easter combined (less than four chapters). Yet, the Gospel of John is the only gospel that does not document Jesus instituting the Lord’s Supper, the one thing we might most associate with Maundy Thursday.

You might ask why we call it Maundy Thursday. Maundy is not a word that we are accustomed to use. There is some debate, but the most widely accepted explanation is that it is derived from the Latin word mandatum from which we get our English word mandate. In John 13:34, Jesus says, “A new command (mandate) I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. “

Maundy Thursday represented an incredible turning point in the story of the Gospel. This would be the last time Jesus would interact with his disciples until after the resurrection. This is likely the reason John gives such a detailed account of these events. Jesus knew what he would share with his disciples on this night would stick with them for a long time, longer than they realized in the moment.

On this night Jesus shared the traditional Jewish Seder with his disciples. Last Sunday at Lord of Life, we re-enacted the Seder. To understand the Seder dinner helps us understand the so much better the events of this night. If you have never participated in a Seder I would highly recommend doing so. Lord of Life will likely host the Seder again next year. So make sure to keep an eye out for it.

Tonight, Lord of Life will observe Maundy Thursday as we will worship at 7pm and receive the Lord’s Supper. It lead us into the Easter Triduum, which are the 3 day of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday when we remember Jesus passion, death, and burial, but end with the celebration of his resurrection. Additional worship opportunities at Lord of Life will include Good Friday at 7pm and Easter Sunday at 8:30 or 10am.