Easter is a big day for local pastors

It is said that Easter Sunday is the Super Bowl of Sunday worship, drawing more people to church than any other day of the year. The idea is for pastors to pull the best sermon of the year out of their pocket, motivating people who do not regularly attend church to come back again.

Churches in Lodi-Galt area are conducting multiple services, some of them outdoors at sunrise at places like Lodi Lake and Galt Community Park. And Heartland Community Church is moving its services to Hutchins Street Square, a household name and venue in Lodi.

Heartland does it big. Instead of two services in a strip shopping center on Cherokee Lane, Pastor Chris Chavez is going with three at Hutchins Street Square for the fourth year. It's an extremely familiar venue, which Chavez hopes will bring people who might feel less comfortable walking into a church building.

"We really want it to be a communitywide Easter service," Chavez said.

So does Ron Dameron, a member of Galt United Methodist Church, who will conduct a sunrise service at Galt Community Park at Walnut Avenue and Carillion Boulevard.

For the Easter services, Chavez said his goal is communication, whether it be for his congregation or newcomers.

"I want to make sure I clearly communicate not just what Jesus did, but why he did it. He did it for you and me."

Easter is good for getting newcomers to come or return to church.

"What you'll usually hear is the first time they came to Heartland was Easter or Christmas," Chavez said. "Then they'll come again, and then all of a sudden, they come every week."

At Bear Creek Community Church in south Lodi, pastor Bill Cummins will give a traditional Easter sermon.

"My focus is more on the person who comes once a year," Cummins said. "Here we do drama, contemporary music."

Cummins focuses on Easter's central theme — that Jesus Christ rose from the dead and what that signifies.

"Jesus Christ rose from the dead; no other religious leader ever did that," Cummins said. "Mohammed, Buddha, the Hindu gods didn't die and came back to life again."

The Easter service is especially important because it draws new people into the church, Cummins said.

"We start a 'new believers class' the Sunday after Easter every year," he said. "We'll have 40 or 50 people in the class."

Mark Price of St. Paul Lutheran Church acknowledges that he will see three groups of people at his church on Easter.

One group consists of those who believe devoutly. Then there are those who don't believe in God at all — "They're going to Grandma's house, so they have to go to church."

And finally there are doubters, something each Christian — even himself — faces from time to time.

"The good news is that Christ is real," Price said. "There's so much there. It's the foundation of the church.

Price said he doesn't feel the need to come up with his best sermon on Sunday.

"Any time I try to do that, I come up with the worst sermon," he said.

But he tries to come up with something fresh, even though it's hard how to say something new about the Resurrection.

"The only thing an old sermon is good for is lining a bird cage or wrapping fish," Price said.

In Lockeford, Father Michael Kelly of St. Joachim Catholic Church says that Easter and Christmas are probably the hardest sermons to give.

"Everyone has heard it all before," Kelly said. "One thing I do repeat every year is to absolutely emphasize that they do belong and don't let anybody tell you that you don't."

Kelly will ask parishioners on Sunday to look at the Crucifix.

"We have beautiful Crucifix from Italy," he said. "I have everybody concentrate on the arms of Christ — just the arms, nothing else — how incredibly stretched out they are. Those arms always include us."

And finally, Kelly will add some music to Mass on Sunday.

"On Christmas and Easter, I am a very occasional and self-taught guitar strummer," he said. "I try to find some song that's appropriate and connected with Christmas or Easter and try as part of my sermon and incorporate that."

But not every Christian church will have a traditional service. At Way of Life Community in north Stockton, which has many Lodi residents attending service, Pastor AmyJo Mattheis will focus on Jesus in a little different way.

"At Way of Christ Community, what is important is the choices He made and how He lived, those choices that caused those in power to want to silence." Mattheis said.

"We're not focused on salvation. Everyone has it; there's nothing to worry about," Mattheis said. "The issue is how do we live in this world. What Jesus lived by, I believe, is that promise that there is and will be new possibilities and new beginnings always. All we have to do is imagine it and believe it, which comes from being connected to the Divine. This is the day we heighten our celebration of it."

Contact Religion Editor Ross Farrow at rossf@lodinews.com.

Reader Feedback

12x wrote on Apr 10, 2007 1:11 PM:

" The day Easter is celebrated has pagan origins. Christians do not celebrate the day, or any pagan rituals, they celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who conquered death and paid the price for our sins, past - present - future. "

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Richard McIntyre wrote on Apr 7, 2007 11:14 AM:

" Many Easter customs come from the Old World. The white lily, the symbol of the resurrection, is the special Easter flower. Rabbits and colored eggs have come from pagan antiquity as symbols of new life. Easter Monday egg rolling, a custom of European origin, has become a tradition on the lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C. ... The name Easter comes from Eostre, an ancient Anglo-Saxon goddess, originally of the dawn. In pagan times an annual spring festival was held in her honour. Some Easter customs have come from this and other pre-Christian spring festivals (Compton's). "

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