The Easter Bunny Hop

I have been entrusted to jumpstart the outreach endeavors at our church up here in Northwest Indiana. I have done a number of the standards: Handing out free cokes, providing free oil changes for single moms, doing the $1.00 car wash since my DNA is preloaded with the concepts of “small things done with a great love will change the world” and “sharing God’s love in a practical way.”

Those are always fun things to do, but I want to do something a little bit bigger this Easter. Are you with me?

I have been doing some thinking about 1 John 3:18 lately: “Dear children, let us not love in word or tongue, but in action and in truth” We have put this (scripture) into practical action with a church wide challenge we call Triple-P: Pray, Provide, Participate.

Triple-P creates a fun atmosphere that provides an easy way for many to get involved. We get them to search their hearts, and seek God with earnest prayer to find a need they can fill. Then we encourage them to find a way they can fill that need with their own resources and energy. This moves folks from "praying about it" to actually doing something about it in a move towards getting out of their comfort zone.

We are going to launch something big this spring to energize it. I am calling it the Easter Bunny Hop. In a bag will be eight plastic eggs. Seven of these eggs will be filled with wrapped candy. In addition there will be one golden egg with an outreach card in it.

The week before Easter we will give out these bags to everyone that attends the church with the encouragement to look for somebody they can surprise with some Easter Kindness. They will put the eggs in the front yards of neighbors for them to find eggs that the Easter Bunny left with a message of God’s love in the golden egg. A note will be taped to the front door to explain that the bunny stopped by and that there are eight eggs to find.

We are hoping to surprise many, including our church body in a fun and silly way to spread God's love on a most appropriate holiday.

Reprinted by permission form Steve Sjogren Serve!