Easter weekend tends to be one big blur in the life of a preacher.

For me, this year's blur was even bigger than usual, in part because of the Thursday conclusion of Spring Breakthrough and in part because of the addition of a Saturday night Easter service (funny concept . . . celebrating the resurrection on the evening before it actually happened).

Anyway.

Here are the five most salient observations on a weekend where we pray God showed up in people's lives:

5. Thursday night: Spring Breakthrough celebration with 90 teenagers and their families gathering in our Corner Campus to rememeber and reflect on a week of service. The highlight was a surprise guest appearance by Jamie Grace, a recording artist out of Atlanta who has a current hit called "Hold Me." Our students were blown away. Here's the song itself, which was of course her encore that night:



4. Friday all day: Interactive prayer chapel dwelling on the passion of Jesus. Our team did a terrific job designing the space. I believe the people of GSUMC are more comfortable on serve teams or in worship gatherings than they are taking part in contemplative prayer ... we did not have the kind of response to the prayer chapel we hoped for.

3. Saturday evening. I had no idea what to expect. 10 people? 200? God was so good -- so much bigger and better than my doubts -- and over 300 showed up, thereby creating space for more people to come on Sunday morning.

2. Saturday and Sunday. I fought with the sermon all weekend. I knew I had some good stuff to say but had a hard time remembering when and where I was going to say it. I drew the message from Romans 4:25 - 5:10 where Paul's logic is both complicated and complicating. Paul's thinking hinges on the "how much more" refrain that repeats in both verses 9 & 10, so that was the heart of my sermon as well. If God can do the hard thing of making enemies into friends first, then how much more (meaning how much easier, bigger, bolder) can he do the second part of saving people by his life.

The one part of the message I never overlooked on any of the five times of delivering it was the beautiful comment by one of our teenagers. We put it up on the screen for all to see. Here it is:

When I say I am a Christian, I am not shouting 'I am saved!' I am whispering, 'I was lost and that is why I chose this way.'

Doesn't the bible say that a child shall lead them . . . ?

1. Sunday afternoon. If you didn't cry with Bubba Watson winning the Masters, your heart is two sizes two small.

Two things have me eager for this weekend:

1. On Saturday, I have the privilege of leading a seminar in a ministry class at Gordon-Conwell Seminary on funeral ministries. I'm helping my friend Steve Klipowicz by teaching 23 young pastors and pastors-in-training on leading funerals that heal and delivering eulogies that comfort. As a lot of you know, it's a subject I hold close to my heart.

2. On Sunday, I have another privilege: Week Five of Life After and the sermon that's at the heart of it all -- Life After Death. Can't wait.

Sunday.

8:30. 10. 11:30.

Ministry requires flexibility.

Yesterday, something was slightly off in the flow of our service at 8:30. We were trying to teach the church a great new song, celebrate communion, and still leave enough time for a serious teaching on Homosexuality: The Elephant In The Room. We muddled through and I had plenty of time for the sermon, but the flow felt disjointed.

So Chris Macedo, who more than anyone oversees the flow we're trying to craft, came up to me and said, "We need to change something. I don't know what it is, but something needs to be different this time." He was right -- which says a lot about his character because he had designed the service in the first place!

So we changed the order of a couple of songs, moved a video from one place to another, and then launched into our 10:00 service. Much better. 11:30 was even better still.

It took some of us realizing that what we were doing could be working better, admitting we might have made some mistakes in planning the order, and then having the flexibility to adjust, adapt, and move ahead.

One Sunday service. A microcosm of what ministry is like in the big picture: figure out what's not working, adjust, adapt, and move ahead.