Several churches are taking their Easter Services outside this weekend, braving the predicted showers in the hope of making connections on community soil.
One of these is Putney Anglican Church, who is holding their usual 9.30am Easter Sunday service in Kissing Point Park, by the Parramatta River.
For a church of only 50, minister the Rev Matthew Snelson says Easter is a must-grab opportunity as few other local groups have community activities running.
"Every man and his dog does Christmas, so we're not interested in doing a big "out there' community thing at Christmas time because we can't compete with Ryde Council, Rotary, primary schools " we get crowded out," he explains.
"I'm the only full-time minister here in Putney, and it has a village feel, so putting on a community-wide Easter event is a great opportunity and a hole we can fill best."
The church will hand out showbags on the day with balloons, lollies, Essential Jesus and Bible Society tracts and invitations to Introducing God.
Easter in the Park also allows the church to get beyond the limitations of the church building, which only seats 100 comfortably.
"It's a great spot down by the river, fantastic for having a crowd, and there's plenty of space, good parking and it's visible from the road " so it's bring your rug and stay for a cuppa."
Above all, Mr Snelson hopes running the outdoor service, which will be more "concise' than usual, with a 10-minute sermon, prayers and songs, will "take the gospel out of the church building and put it in places where we can connect with more people".
"We've already had some responses of "that sounds good' from some people who wouldn't think of stepping onto the church property," he says, adding that a small committee from the church has letterbox-dropped 3000 homes, set up banners and organised advertising and media releases for the local paper.
Meanwhile Holy Trinity, Wentworth Falls' Easter in the Park, at nearby Wilson Park, will feature a puppet show, easter egg hunt, and showbags and balloons.
It's the first year Wentworth Falls will have ventured into the outdoors for Easter, but despite the weather predictions, organiser Sophie Partington says the visibility the park location will give to the event and the church is worth the risk.
"We hope to make it an annual event expressing our faith in our community and welcoming others to join us in a non-threatening environment," she says.
Quakers Hill Anglican Church is also making the move outdoors, as they aim to connect with families out for early morning easter egg hunts with their 6am Easter Sunday Dawn Service in the local Paterson Reserve.
Pre-Easter shoppers snap up Essential Jesus
Last week, Hope Anglican Church teamed up with St Barnabas' Roseville East to run a Sunday afternoon stall in Chatswood Mall, giving away copies of Essential Jesus, enviro bags with church information and invites to Easter services.
Hope Anglican Church minister the Rev Brian Tung says the event was not run with a lot of planning or "fanfare', but a simple way of making connections, which the churches hope to continue.
"The results were not spectacular, but we were busy the whole time having conversations with shoppers at Chatswood, connecting with them, finding out more about the neighbourhood, and from time to time, the conversations even turned to Jesus," Mr Tung says.
Two weeks before Easter, Blacktown Anglican Church also ran puppet shows and music, and handed out showbags containing Essential Jesus, Easter invites and other information in the local Westpoint Shopping Centre.
Lay minister, Graeme Marks says the reception was beyond the 50-member team's expectations.
“We planned to handout 500 bags containing Essential Jesus" and an offer to give a free copy of Colin Buchanan's DVD to to the first 50 people who filled in a form - within an hour and half we had run out and need to bag another 300 copies!"
Conventions start up and continue
Ingleburn Anglican Church will hold its first Easter Convention on Good Friday in the new local community centre, which opened a month ago.
The afternoon convention will feature two talks given by the Rev Joe Wiltshire of Ingleburn parish and the Rev Steve Swanepoel of Glenquarie, while Hoxton Park Anglican Church will provide the music.
"The aim is to get all the Christians in the area together to celebrate Easter and claim Easter back as a Christian festival " it could be encouraging for them and also an easy invite for other people to find out about Easter who might not be comfortable coming to church," says Mr Wiltshire.
“And it makes a bigger statement when we all do it together.”
People from up to nine churches in the local area are expected to come along, and the convention has also been promoted in the community through letterbox drops, and the contacts made at the Ingleburn festival on March 21.
Meanwhile, Easter Convention continues this year at St Andrew's Cathedral on Good Friday, where Archbishop Peter Jensen and Dean of Sydney Phillip Jensen will speak on the topic of Establish Hope, Restore Confidence.
Posters tell Sydney Jesus nailed it on the cross
Thirty-three Sydney Anglican churches will be featuring Outreach Media’s latest poster for Easter, which declares ‘Wondering if God loves you? Easter nails it’.
Outreach Media’s director, Malcolm Williams says the wording of the poster is “a play on a popular expression”, designed to show that God ‘hit the target’ on the cross when he atoned for the sins of the world through Jesus.
“When someone says something is ‘nailed’...Somehow they've got the measure of some great task and their response has hit the target like a hammer hitting a nail and sending it deep into wood,” he explains.
“This is what God has done at the cross in atoning for the sins of the world.”
Inspired by Grunewald’s famous crucifix from his Isenheim altarpiece, Mr Williams adds that the posters deliberately show Jesus face down, so that the focus can be on the nails.
“Life’s full of important questions. Sometimes you get answers, sometimes you don’t. The most important question we’ve ever asked is, ‘Does God love us?’. Thankfully, this was nailed by Jesus a long time ago,” Outreach Media explains in the notes accompanying the Easter poster on their website.
St Augustine’s, Neutral Bay is one church featuring the eye-stopping image, and senior minister, the Rev Craig Roberts says the Outreach Posters are an effective way of piquing interest in Jesus.
“It’s an easy, low-cost way to attract the attention of passers-by with a clear gospel message that is relevant and accessible to our culture,” he says.
