Why I am so excited about Good Friday in Dearborn this year

In just two months we will join together with other gospel loving churches in Dearborn for a Good Friday service on April 18th. Together we will magnify the cross of Christ for all of its significance both for each person and for the whole of creation, not as Baptists and Presbyterians and Methodists but as those redeemed by the blood of the Lamb.

On Good Friday we will be together worshiping the crucified and risen Lord the way we will forever in heaven…without denominational differences or distinctives.

Why, then, do we maintain differences and distinctives here on earth? We’ll leave that for another post on another day. There are some good reasons. For now, I want to share why I am so enthusiastic about this effort at unity around the gospel:

First, this meeting has great potential lift my eyes and yours up to heaven. We spend so much time thinking about, working on, and edifying our own “churches”. Necessarily so. God is at work in every congregation redeemed by his blood and for his name’s sake. But we can get so siloed into our own projects and groups that we miss out on what God is doing to prepare us as one family and one Church for heaven. I can’t wait to sing with unified voice with all of these brothers and sisters in Christ!

Consider these verses:
Revelation 5:9-10 
And they sang a new song, saying,

“Worthy are you to take the scroll
    and to open its seals,
for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God
    from every tribe and language and people and nation,
10 and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
    and they shall reign on the earth.”

Matthew 16:18
And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Second, this meeting has great potential to be a witness to our city. What brings us together? The cross of Christ. What makes us brothers and sisters? The cross of Christ. What can wash away our sin and the sin of the world? The blood of Christ shed on that cross. Good Friday is a special day to magnify Christ and him crucified.

Consider these verses:
1 Corinthians 2:2
For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

I hope you’ll make plans to be there and to invite a neighbor! More details about time and location will follow.