With the recent journalistic, political, social, and cultural assault on some of the foundational and celebrative aspects of the Judeo-Christian faith in America, one wonders what shape the Western Evangelical church would take in the future. If, as some analysts predict, there is a calculated effort to remove from the public arena all semblances of our allegiance to our religious preferences, what would our strategy be for reaching the unchurched in the United States and Canada in the 21st century?

Some Christians can argue, from the basis of self-preservation, if not from other biblical teachings, that Easter is the cornerstone of our continued faith in a creative God. Others can postulate that Job was prophetic in his prognosis that “I know that my Redeemer lives …” However, with the increasing hostility towards the celebration of creedal milestones, one must yet ask, what would it be like without a public accession to our revered Christian holidays?

I would humbly suggest that in the 21st century we may have to shift from an annual celebration of an event to an all-year living out of our commitment. The moral struggle to keep the secular community in remembrance of the foundation of our faith may have to give way to an everyday pragmatic fidelity to the difference that such belief makes in our life.

The resurrection should be more than a miraculous event that changed the face of Judaism 2,000 years ago. Certainly it is abidingly more than Easter eggs and an over-inflated bunny. Easter is the motif that integrates our mission and the raison d’etre of the Christian faith. The symbolism of the Christian faith ought not depend for its veracity upon what adherents can tangibly observe annually, but upon the consolation that it could be the dynamism of continuous missional initiatives. Is it conceivable that the resurrection theme could become more than a day of celebration? What would our missional strategy look like? I suspect that such a theme would radically alter both the intensity and authenticity of our ministry in two significant ways.

First, ministry would be done with the understanding that Jesus is a figure of the present, not just of the past. The disciples continued to experience Christ, after his death, as a living spiritual reality. The truth of Easter should be grounded in the continuing experience of Jesus, not in what did or didn’t happen on a particular day in the past. Second, Easter would affirm that Jesus is Lord who has been raised to God’s right hand. This same Christ who lived “as a God-intoxicated Galilean peasant healer, wisdom teacher and social prophet not only lives, but is Lord.” Halelujah! It is this daily celebration of Easter that would rescue it from the generic triumphalism of the past which only depicts some spiritual truth about eternal life that requires no application to everyday life. From this hermeneutical perspective Easter becomes no longer merely the triumph over the idea of death, but the discovery of new life in the communities where we practice ministry.

If Easter is no longer the celebration of an eschatological event it would inevitably make sense of life here and now. In the strategy for mission we would be empowered to face the powers of death. These powers can be seen in the realities of racism, economic deprivation, drug addiction, inadequate education, and reduced public support of women and children. Easter must, and should speak to these forces! Maybe Rita Nakashima Brock in Journeys By Heart, saw this much needed shift clearly when she wrote “Faith in the resurrection must come from real glimpses of our ability to make whole our suffering world. For the work of Christian grace and love is now, and not just later.” Consequently, strategy for mission would be practiced with the constant awareness that we cannot believe in resurrection for some and not for others. It must be integrated with an all-inclusive symbol of life for everyone, a kind of life that defeats

Oliver R. Phillips,
Editor and Mission Strategy Director