C & E crowd heads to church for Easter celebrations

Published April 07, 2007 09:00 pm -Port Arthur News
By Darragh Doiron
‘Tis the season for C&Es. Or maybe you know them as the lily and poinsettia crowd. They get to church at Christmas and Easter and — some may grumble — get all the good seats.
But that’s not how Christians should welcome the faithful into their fold. Especially not pastors. Some can make a joke out of it. Others wished they’d hadn’t.
Alan Van Hooser, pastor of Groves First United Methodist Church, remembers an Easter past when the house was packed. Everyone sang and had a merry time and at the end, he issued a tease that went something like this: “Remember folks, we do this every Sunday.”
He was disappointed that someone’s grandchildren took issue with his remark and used it as an excuse to stay away from church.
Van Hooser knows he’ll be welcoming more faces on Easter Sunday and he welcomes them all. He considers the high holy days of Easter and Christmas up there with Mother’s Day at packing them in. His challenge, he says, is delivering the Good News and making it stick.
Van Hooser says he’s sure many infrequent church goers leave services on Easter Sunday fully expecting to get back “in the swing of things,” but by the following Sunday are distracted by something like an invitation to a barbecue.
Clay Faulk, pastor at Presbyterian Church of the Covenant, has also heard the jokes:
“What’s the best thing about the Sunday after Easter? Ease of parking.”
He says he heard a man say he’d never seen the inside of a church when it wasn’t decorated with lilies for Easter or poinsettias for Christmas.
“It’s at every church,” he said. “I just pray the seed we sow on Easter will one day grow. It may not be the next week. It’s just a choice of their priorities.”
Pastor Don Falke of First Baptist Church in Port Arthur says it’s been years since he’s worried about C&Es. “That’s a young preacher’s game,” he joked. “I’m just happy to see them.”
Other pastors, such as the Rev. Chuck Huffman of United Methodist Temple, see the season as an opportunity. These folks are often rather jokingly referred to as CEO's: Christmas and Easter Onlys,” he said. “The way I see it, we have but two opportunities a year to have a positive impact on their lives, and to draw them into a deeper relationship with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. That is why our worship experiences on those holiest of days need to be really rich and meaningful — to help all of us recognize our need to connect with God in corporate worship — where His love and grace and power are magnified among us, every Sunday.”