A poignant Easter

We have just had a couple of good Easter meetings at the Lighthouse. What made them good was sharing with other believers. On Good Friday a group from Bow Baptist Church turned up for our meditation and added an extra dimension. We pondered that Jewish saying which grew out of Abraham’s experience of nearly sacrificing Isaac “On the Lord’s mountain He will provide.”

On Easter Sunday the English and Portuguese speaking churches combined for a big celebration with a meal after. Pastor Joao lead the communion in the style of his fellowship and I preached on 1 Corinthians 15 looking at Jesus as the prototype of the resurrection to come. If you are interested in catching either talk they are on the Lighthouse Website.

What made for extra poignancy was that we had to say goodbye to Mark Dobell, my accomplice in the Eldership, and Elaine and the family.  It is hard to say just how valuable they have been to our church over the last dozen years.  It is not just that they served so willingly but the spirit in which they served which has made them a treasure from God.

How do you replace people like that?  You don’t.  You wait to see what new pattern of gifts and abilities God gives the church and work with the talents you do have rather than the ones you don’t have.  The really stupid course of action would be to assemble a job description covering all Mark and Elaine did and then try to squeeze someone into the mould you have made.