Easter and Christmas church services have been lightheartedly labeled, even in sermons, as ”reunions of twice-a-year Christians” and ”an actor`s dream, a full house.” But there is a downside to such images.
Facing a church overflowing with newcomers on Easter can be a pressure situation for the minister, and one that ultimately can be disappointing when the attendance potential seen at Easter is not sustained on subsequent Sundays, clerics and religious educators say.
Keenly felt in these days of dwindling church membership among many denominations, they say, is the challenge to win those infrequent churchgoers into the regular fold.
”I always feel under more pressure to do my best sermon because I know I`m going to have that one great shot on Easter,” conceded Rev. Robert Howell of St. Chrysostom`s Episcopal Church, 1424 N. Dearborn Pkwy.
”On the other hand,” said the veteran of 22 Easter sermons, ”I don`t think I`ve ever really peaked at Easter, or Christmas for that matter. They haven`t been my best sermons.”
Rev. Michael Rodriguez, ordained less than a year ago as a Catholic priest, faces his first Easter sermons-one in English and one in Spanish-at St. Maurice Catholic Church, 3615 S. Hoyne Ave., this Sunday.
He sought to downplay the pressure, but admitted: ”It`s a funny feeling, being on the other end from my years as a participant in the service. Now I feel responsible, like I`ve moved from the passenger`s seat to the driver`s seat.
”I know there will be many more people than usual celebrating mass this Sunday, and I feel responsible for inspiring them.”
Professor James Davison Hunter of the University of Virginia, who specializes in the sociology of religion and culture, said: ”No matter how much a pastor might say Easter is just another Sunday, it is a rare chance to make that special appeal to people who wouldn`t ordinarily go to church, but who might come back if the appeal is successful.
”And, let`s face it, all ministries view success in part by the number of parishioners, and the amount of money and activity they bring to the church.
”That puts a lot of Easter pressure on the preacher.”
Adding to the pressure, he said, is the trend of declining membership in mainline Christian churches, particularly Protestant ones.
”Social scientists have talked for years about the market-nature of religion in America`s pluralistic society,” said Hunter. ”Since there is no state church and no religious monopoly, every church has a shot at recruiting volunteers. In the 1940s and 1950s, mainline churches were growing like crazy. It was a bull market. Now, we`re in a bear market, with people of college age to their mid-40s being the fastest growing group of unchurched Americans.
”Ministers used to be able to joke about those people who only came to church on Easter and Christmas in the 1940s and 1950s, because the church`s success didn`t depend on those attendees. Now, it`s more disappointing not to be able to recruit those people.
”Now that joke isn`t so funny.”
Professor Gilbert Bilezikian, who teaches biblical studies at Wheaton College, agreed.
”Yes, obviously there is pressure to offer an Easter service that will show those who do not go to church at other times that the Christian faith has relevance to their personal lives,” said Bilezikian.
He helped found the highly successful Protestant interdenominational Willow Creek Community Church in Barrington Hills.
At Willow Creek, where two extra Easter services are expected to accommodate 8,000 attendees beyond the normal 12,000 Sunday congregants, making the Easter service relevant means ”we will talk more about subjects like marital problems and parent-teenager stuggles,” said Bilezikian, a leader and teacher at the church.
Not all preachers respond in the same way to the Easter-crowd pressure and some do not respond well, said James Rosenthal, communications officer for the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago.
”There are temptations for ministers to do things like make a hard evangelical pitch to try to recruit, or to berate the `tourists` who show up only for Easter or Christmas, or to become subdued, because they feel so estranged from the mass of new faces before them,” Rosenthal said.
”None of these is the normal service. All are departures from the norm. And all can have a negative effect on the usual congregation.”
He said a barometer of how regular congregants have become turned off by Easter services has been their opting in increasing numbers to attend night vigil services on Holy Saturday rather than go Sunday.
Unfortunately, he said, ”that has made Easter service even more touristy at some churches, and intensified the dilemma.
”I still remember the pastor at one church I went to who`d invariably get caught up in blasting the newcomers. It got so bad, nobody enjoyed the Easter experience.”
One who disagrees with the idea of special Easter sermons is Rev. Durocher Blakey, presiding elder of a Midwestern district of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church that comprises 18 churches and 6,000 members in Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin.
”You do the best you can, but you must realize a church is not a theater, not a place of entertainment,” he said. ”My only audience is God. All others are under the attendance of God. Church is a real situation, not a show.”
As for pressure, he said, ”the pressure is on the congregation to decide whether they want to accept the revelation.”
Rev. Blakey, who has been preaching since 1942, now makes a circuit among those 18 churches, which scheduled him for Easter services at Fisher Memorial AME Zion Church in Evanston.
”For me, every day is Easter,” he said. ”I preach special sermons for every day. For Easter, the subject is joy. The resurrection means joy that the disciples did not lose their best friend, and joy that faith cannot be destroyed by death.”
Father Howell, whose church has thrived in a neighborhood of young professionals where more than half of his 1,200 members are under 40 years old, said, ”I never criticize, ridicule or even kid people at Easter services about not having seen them since Christmas.
”I know they can feel weird and strange as it is, so I congratulate them for having the courage to come through our doors, not knowing what kind of reception they`ll get.”
Bishop Louis Ford, pastor of St. Paul`s Church of God in Christ, 4528 S. Wabash Ave., offered a different perspective on Easter services. He`s resigned to it being flashier, but less rewarding, than other Sundays.
Besides the disappointment of seeing pews filled with families where he might see mostly children on other Sundays, ”my finances are better on other Sundays than on Easter,” he quipped. ”This Sunday, there is more money spent on clothing than on church.”
Ultimately, a sense of humor is probably the best way for ministers to deal with Easter`s unique pressures, Rosenthal said.
In that vein, he recalled an anecdote told among clerics: After Easter service, a woman inadvertently betrayed her infrequent church attendance by asking the pastor, ”Why is it that every time I`ve been here you sing, `Jesus Christ is risen today?` ”
