One-hundred-eighty of us from the four downtown Amarillo churches and beyond spent most of yesterday together at Polk Street United Methodist for the first ever 4Amarillo Preachers Conference for Everybody. Each of us four churches brought in the best preacher from our own traditions to preach his/her favorite Easter sermon and then to give us 15-20 minutes of whatever they had burning in their bones to tell a room full of preachers from Canadian and Borger to Plainview and Tulia.

The theme of our two-day worship and preaching seminar was “Easter’s Coming. So What?” And it was fabulous.

Ron Scates took us on an imaginary bus tour across the state of Texas and helped us see our communities as if Jesus had never been raised. Alyce McKenzie described the shock and awe of the resurrection to those first followers who should have seen it coming, but didn’t. Chris Seidman, our CofC guy from The Branch in North Dallas, inspired us by pointing out the significance of the seal on the tomb of Jesus and the breaking of that seal to boldly proclaim that the situation does not belong to Pilate or the soldiers or to even Caesar himself, but to Almighty God who breaks the seal and does exactly what he wants to save the world. And then Joel Gregory reminded us that Jesus appears to the downsized characters on the road to Emmaus, he meets them and us right where we are, in the middle of our doubts and fears and shattered hopes.

The ecumenical spirit was turned up to eleven at First Baptist Sunday night. And the unity and fellowship was even stronger Monday because it included so many from at least a dozen other congregations of God’s people throughout the panhandle.

On top of all that, the optional offerings added up to $1,500 we’re donating to Amarillo’s Heal the City free clinic in the name of the Christian unity our Lord prayed for on that last night.

I am so grateful to Chris for joining us up here for this incredible event. I am thankful to God for the friendship and partnership I share with Howard, Howie, and Mark and our four churches in this city. And I pray that when we worship and serve together, it remains an undeniable witness that our Lord really is the Prince of Peace, and he is bigger than anything that might possibly divide us!

Peace,

Allan