When Grace Took the Stage

Easter had always been my favorite day of the year, but this one felt especially meaningful. As we planned the service, I felt like a child waiting for Christmas morning. I could hardly wait for it to arrive. I loved the music, the celebration, and the chance to open God’s Word, but what stirred my heart most was our decision to center the service around testimony.

From the very beginning, the morning carried a special sense of joy. We started with a testimony and a baptism, and by the end of the service we shared cardboard testimonies from people across our church family. To many in the room, those signs may have looked simple. To me, they represented real lives, real pain, and real change. I knew the stories behind many of those brief lines, and that made the moment even more powerful. I watched our congregation celebrate not just words on cardboard, but the way Jesus had met people in their deepest need and given them new hope.

Our theme for the day was “This Changes Everything,” and I felt the truth of that in a fresh way. The resurrection of Jesus was not just an event we remembered once a year. It was the reason people could say, “My story did not end in shame.” It was the reason someone who felt broken could now speak with peace. It was the reason a visitor, or someone who rarely came to church, could look at those stories and think, “Maybe hope could be possible for me too.”

That was what made the testimonies so important to me. Anyone could listen to a pastor speak, but when ordinary people stood up and said, “This is how God changed my life,” the message became personal and clear. We tried to make sure the stories reflected many different ages and backgrounds, because I wanted everyone in the room to connect with at least one of them. I wanted people to see that no one had to pretend to have it all together to be loved by God.

What stayed with me most was the beauty of a church family that had learned to be honest. We were not celebrating perfect people. We were celebrating grace. We were acknowledging that every one of us carried struggles, regrets, and wounds, and that Jesus met us there. That Easter reminded me that the good news of Jesus did more than forgive people. It gave people a new story, and it gave all of us reason to rejoice together.

Mike Rybka
Sr Pastor