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In preparing for Easter we should take every opportunity to invite people all around us. One of the more obvious groups we should invite is our neighbors. It is easy. You know them. You do not even have to make a special trip.

I have invited several of my neighbors by having some of our invite cards with me. I have handed a card to one neighbor who was working in his yard when I came home. We chatted for a few minutes and I invited him and his family to church. I invited a couple of neighbors who were out walking their dog. I invited one family who were out in their front yard with their kids. I invited one neighbor who was out getting ready to mow his lawn and I stopped my vehicle, chatted for a minute, and gave him an invite card.

It is so easy. I hope you will make a conscious effort to invite a neighbor today.

Ritchie

This probably seems rather elementary and basic, but we need to invite our friends to church with us on Easter. I mean, Easter is what Christianity is all about right? Why would we not invite people who need to hear about it?

It is OK to invite Christian friends to church with you on Easter. After all, we all probably know someone who is in the market for a new church. Unfortunately, there are lots of Christians who are mere consumers and think that it is all about them. Our focus, however, should be on inviting those who are far from God and who are out of church completely. There are certainly many Christians who are out of church but there are many more who do not know Christ, and they should be our focus.

You have friends that do not know Jesus Christ. If you do not it is very easy to find someone to befriend. They are all around us. Ask a friend today. I have invited several non-believing friends on the phone, on Face Book, at the gym, and in my neighborhood. It is so easy. Invite someone today. It could change their life.

Ritchie

This coming weekend is the biggest weekend in all of Christianity. It is the weekend that we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. When I was growing up my mom would always make a big deal about getting a new outfit for my sister and me because she wanted us to “look pretty on the Lord’s Day.” Some people focus on the outfits, some on the Easter Bunny, some on the candy, and some on egg hunts. I have some friends who only come to church on special occasions. I will tell them “Merry Christmas” this weekend because I won’t see them again until Christmas. I have some friends who don’t even believe that Jesus was real, much less that the resurrection was real. Then there are those of us whose lives have been radically and forever changed by Jesus Christ and His resurrection.

Over the next four days I am going to write a few short stories and reminders about what we should do to join in on this greatest of all events, this one day that changed the world.

I hope you will join me.

Ritchie

I used to love playing on the monkey bars. I have often wondered why they are called that. I have never seen monkeys use them – well, as long as you don’t count some of my friends from elementary school. I guess monkeys do swing and hang out a lot, and kids often act like monkeys, and I liked bananas when I was a kid, so…

Monkey bars made me feel like I was above everyone else. I could see when all the other kids fell and skinned their knees. As long as I held on I was not in danger of getting dirty like everyone else. I did not have to help anybody who fell because I was above them. I was on the monkey bars. Getting involved can be messy sometimes anyway. You can easily recognize all the goofups and mistakes that the other kids make while they are playing together. That’s kind of fun, right?

The problem with hanging out on the monkey bars is that you eventually start to lose your grip. No matter how hard I tried I could not hold on for very long before falling.

Falling on the playground is not such a big deal; after all, everybody on the playground falls occasionally. It’s just that falling all alone hurts much worse.

On the playground you can swing alone, you can ride the merry-go-round alone, and you can hang out on the monkey bars alone. But you can’t seesaw alone.

God never intended for you to try to live the Christian life alone. You need the church. When the church functions the way God intended not only is it fun, it is also the hope of the world.

Ritchie

I go with merry-go-rounds like onions go with ice cream. It does not take very long spinning in a circle before my lunch starts going horizontal.

The thing I hate about merry-go-rounds is that if I keep running round and round in the same rut I will eventually get sick. I will lose what was fed to me earlier. If I stay on the merry-go-round I will get to the point that I will be unable to keep anything down that is fed to me.

Some Christians are caught up on the church merry-go-round. They run in the same rut until they get sick and lose what was fed to them earlier. Eventually, you get to where you have no appetite and nothing that is offered to you will satisfy. So what do they do? They get off this merry-go-round and onto another one and fail to realize that they are still running around in a rut.

If you are on the church merry-go-round no matter how many times you switch churches you will still eventually get sick and lose your appetite because you are running around in the same old rut.

Ritchie

Swing sets are funny. You can find them in the middle of the playground. The playground is supposed to be a social place, where you connect with other kids and play together. What’s funny about a swing set is that right in the middle of the place where you are supposed to be connected, you are actually disconnected. You swing alone. The funny thing about swings is that you can swing all alone in the middle of a crowd of people or you can swing all alone by yourself.

Have you ever noticed that when you swing alone it hurts a lot more when you fall?

Strangely, lots of Christians try living the Christian life on the swing set. They are the ones who swing alone whether they are by themselves or in the middle of a bunch of people.

Some people swing alone because they are afraid of bullies. Occasionally there are bullies on the playground. Bullies try to intimidate and manipulate you. Sometimes they hurt you. Sometimes bullies give the playground a bad name. That is no reason to be all alone though.

Some people swing alone among lots of people. They still come to church but they just stay all alone on their swing. They do not interact. They do not volunteer. They do not get involved. They don’t join a small group. They just swing alone among everybody else.

For the record, I have resisted the urge to end with the phrase, “So don’t be a swinger.” That would be juvenile and immature. I have got to work on my metaphors.

Ritchie

You just can’t seesaw alone. Have you ever tried it? No matter how hard you try, you just can’t do it. You need a teammate to enjoy the seesaw. The truth is you were never meant to play alone anyway. So why do so many people try to seesaw through their Christian life without the joy of someone sitting on the other end? Why do so many Christians think that they can live an effective Christian life without the church? It is like trying to seesaw alone.

Now I know what you are thinking. Most churches you know do not sound fun or playful. You may even think that church is more like sitting in class, with its rules and regulations, than anything associated with recess. But when church is experienced like God intended it to be, well, that is a different story altogether.

You see, in the first church people found answers. Life-change was so incredible that people were playing on this playground every day! It’s hard to believe, but the happiness they found was so powerful that even when they were persecuted for participating they still came. And no, I am not trying to paint a picture of “Jesus the concierge” who came to serve our every whim. That is not why Jesus came. He came to redeem us!

When I grasp the depth of why He came – because of my sin, because of my separation from God, and to bring me back to Him – it produces the incredible life-change that only He can give. He gives us the hope that comes from God’s help. In that first church they experienced firsthand the real meaning of life.

What became the hope of the world then is still the hope of the world today. It is the hope of your world.

God is inviting you to join Him on His playground. You can find wonder here. But you can’t seesaw alone!

Ritchie

If you loathe “irreverent” and love the “greeting card” style of communication, you may want to stop reading right about now. Seriously, your brain might bleed. In fact, you may want to find a pack of matches and set your computer on fire. If, on the other hand, you can handle the occasional sprinkling of sarcasm then by all means, take a chance and read what I will talk about this week.

Recently there has been a great deal of conjecture about the demise of the local church. Some have speculated that the church as we know it will be a fossil in the next 50 years. Quite frankly, I believe that is a load of crap. If the church is God’s idea (I believe it is) and He promised to build it, love it, and come back for it one day, wouldn’t it make sense that He is actually capable of keeping it? After all, the church has survived Nero, the Roman Empire, the Dark Ages, Charles Darwin, Communism, relativism, fundamentalism, and televangelism.

The church has been persecuted, politicized, and ignored. Even in the era of American Idol – a show that I would rather be kicked in the stones than watch (see Deuteronomy 23:1 in the KJV) – it survives and thrives. I have discovered that the church can survive without me. I can’t survive without it.

This week I will write about the church. I will not be speculating about the next movement or pointing out all of the shortcomings of any particular group. My goal is simply to unleash your enthusiasm for what God is very passionate about – the church. I will point out the amazing benefits of becoming a part of a local church and how God has designed us to need each other.

Hopefully we will have a little fun along the way too.

Ritchie

Krista Maddox is the director of Small Town Kids, Avalon’s church experience for new-born babies through four years old. She related this story in our staff meeting last week.

While making a first timer call I spoke to a lady about her son who was in the two year old room last Sunday. When I asked how he liked it she said that he loved it but she was a little hesitant to drop him off because the room was a little crowded; but she proceeded. She got up in the middle of service to go and check on him and saw that her 2 year old was in the middle of his lesson and the room was under control. She went back to service. After church, she asked her son what he learned in class and she said that he just kept talking about a guy named Joe. She asked me what the lesson was about and I told her that they learned about Joseph and his coat of many colors.

I love that…a story about a guy named Joe. Our staff, leaders, and volunteers do an amazing job taking care of our children and teaching them the Bible. Way to go, guys! You are doing an awesome job. Next time you see her, tell Krista and the many volunteers how much you appreciate them.

Ritchie

We all know that no one is perfect, yet it is in our nature to demand perfection. We tend to demand perfect conditions from God. I am sure that He laughs at that. We even try to approach God on our own goodness; not perfection, per se, but perfect enough in our own minds that we deserve Heaven. How ludicrous! Yet we plow on. We like perfect leaders, perfect churches, perfect spouses, perfect children, perfect schools, perfect jobs. The irony is that even if those things existed, once we got involved, they would no longer be perfect!

Ecclesiastes 11:4 says, “If you wait until the wind and the weather are just right, you will never sow anything and never harvest anything.”

In other words, if you wait for perfect conditions you will never get anything done! Quit waiting for a perfect job, church, spouse, kid, or school and focus on making yourself better. Stop waiting to read the book, get the degree, lose the weight, exercise, write the book, start the business, or change your life. There will never be a better time than now.

Hey, stop reading this and get busy! Don’t get mad. I am not perfect you know.

Ritchie