Doing something different

This week is Easter and it is one of the toughest weeks for a pastor. The reason it is tough is because preparing a sermon for Easter Sunday that is different from the previous year is an almost an impossible task. Easter is the one Sunday of the year where churches all over are filled with people who normally do not go to church. I always feel pressure to come up with a sermon that will prompt these people to come to surrender their lives to Christ and start coming to church every week. This year I'm done with that. I have been trained through seminary classes and books that in order to deliver a good sermon, one must spend hours throughout the week researching it and reworking it till it is perfect. But, is this what is going to compel people to come to Christ? Isn't this a little prideful on our part as pastors, thinking that our words will bring people to Jesus? This year I want to do something different. I want to talk to people. I want to tell people my story of how Jesus changed my life and the resurrection makes all of that possible. I will use Scrpture because it would still be prideful on my part to think my story will bring people to Jesus. But, I do think that people want to hear how Jesus has changed people's lives. I'm not saying this will be any different from any other year. It is still up to God to save people. But, I hope and pray that God will use me to communicate a story, my story, that people can relate to. I want people to see the reality of Jesus. I want people to understand that the resurrection happened and it promises freedom and redemption. It promises freedom from a life that leads only to death and destruction. It means freedom period!