05 Apr Easter Story: Rockford, Ohio

From Marvin Schwartz (right), senior pastor of New Horizons Community Church (Rockford, Ohio):

We started planning for Easter in January. After much thought, I came up with an idea for a sermon series that would answer life’s most challenging questions:

• Is God real?
• Can I trust the Bible?
• If God loves us, why is there suffering?
• Is Jesus real?
• What happens when I die?
• Why did Jesus come to earth?

We promoted this series with radio ads, newspaper ads, mailers, and simply by inviting people.

Since then I became ill and was unable to do the series. But with the help of our youth pastor, John Emmons, and a great staff, we kicked this series off on Easter. The Lord blessed our commitment to reaching people, resulting in our largest crowd ever here. Around 400 persons attended one of our two services.

Easter has been a way for us to reach the community around us. I think Jesus would have wanted it like this.