An experience of celebration

Today is Easter, which marks the day Christians believe Jesus Christ

was resurrected from the dead after being crucified on the cross.

At ROCKharbor Church in Costa Mesa, Easter is more a celebration

than a holiday for it is the most important holiday in Christianity,

said Mike Erre, the church’s pastor of teaching and family

ministries.

While ROCKharbor usually meets at the Costa Mesa Senior Center,

the church annually celebrates Easter at the Orange County

Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa.

On Wednesday, City Editor James Meier caught up with Erre at the

fairgrounds as church officials and volunteers worked to raise the

tent that will host about 4,000 people at three services today.

What should Easter mean to Christians?

It is the most central aspect of our faith. Paul, in one of his

letters to the church of Corin thousands of years ago said, “Look, if

Jesus didn’t rise, we are to be pitied of all men because we our

liars about him, we are still in our sins, we are just absolutely

clueless and failures.”

So it is the central thing. If it did not happen, we are wasting

our time. Not only does it anchor the core of historical Christianity

because it claims to be a historical event, but beyond that it speaks

of a world reborn of a new hope that death is not the final answer,

that it’s not cancer, or accidents or disease that have the last say.

Literally, there is a future for all of us depending on the choices

we make here on Earth. But that is a rebirthing of all that is good

and all that is pure.

So it speaks to the historic core of our faith, it speaks to a new

hope and future that is promised us. And it also shows that Jesus is

no ordinary teacher. If you take this to be a literal, physical

resurrection and actual historical event, then that separates Jesus

from every other religious figure in the history of the world. And he

pointed to it to prove his authority.

How important of a holiday is it in Christianity?

For the reasons mentioned above, it is the major celebration of

God’s work on Earth. Christmas obviously is huge as well, but what

Easter says is that all of the promises given to us in the Old

Testament, all of the teachings of Jesus, all of that stuff, is true,

literal and real to us today.

So it is the most important holiday. And I hate even using the

word holiday just because it’s a celebration more than anything else.

It is the acknowledgment of all that is good and right and pure.

What message does the church plan to convey this year?

Our theme this year is called the Door to Freedom and the message

is simply this: There are many avenues that the world presents us

that offer the promise of freedom that don’t really deliver. And we

believe there’s only one door to freedom. And, obviously as

Christians, we believe it is surrender to Jesus Christ.

Through drama, through song, through the message, we hope to

communicate just a message of liberation that Easter represents for

anybody, no matter what nationality or faith background or cultural

history, that truly the doorway to freedom is the surrender to

Christ.

The way that freedom comes about is through the absence of fear.

The single most repeated command in the Bible is, oddly enough, not

be holy or don’t sin, but it’s do not be afraid. If there’s a

personal aspect to the Easter message that resounds to me, it is that

one.

You know, with threats of terrorism and [severe acute respiratory

syndrome] and the war just ending and in some really just troubled

and uncertain times, Easter shines out this very clear message: do

not be afraid.

Fear not. God is God. He is sovereign. His kingdom will come. His

will be done.

How does Easter differ at ROCKharbor compared to at other

churches?

I can’t speak to Easter at other churches. I know that in

ROCKharbor, there are a couple of high values that we have. To what

extent they separate us from others churches, I don’t know. Certainly

the focus of all churches is the same. The way we go about

communicating the message may be a little different. We do emphasize

drama and the creative arts and different mediums of communication

and the traditional hymns and preaching styles.

We also emphasize a huge amount of volunteer involvement because

we don’t have a permanent facility. We have 600 volunteers putting

together various facets of Easter. We really desire to be hosted by

ROCKharbor open to the community and we incorporate a large portion

of our church body to just putting on the weekend [of events].

We also emphasize that it’s an entire weekend experience. We have

Good Friday services. We have a Saturday experience here that is just

a reflection of what it must have been like for those original

followers of Christ to see here’s the guy they pinned all of their

hopes on and now he’s hanging between two thieves and all of those

sorts of things. And then we have three services on Sunday.

So we really call on our church to host a weekend experience that

goes through the agony of Friday, the bitterness and uncertainty of

Saturday, and then the celebration of Sunday as well.

What activities are planned at the fairgrounds on Sunday?

Three services at 8, 9:45 and 11:30 a.m. There are children’s

things we have going. It’s just alive. There is just an excitement.

And I think it’s fitting of what it is we’re celebrating.

We want the center to be, of course, the celebration itself and

not all the extraneous things. We don’t to focus on how neat this

tent is or how many volunteers it took to pull this off. Truly, we

stand united with all the churches in Costa Mesa, Orange County and

the world in proclaiming the central message of the Christian faith.

So as much as it’s exciting, we try to focus all of this on what it

is we’re doing.

Do you think the Easter bunny takes away from Easter at all?

If you consider the absolute absurdity of what it is that we

celebrate. Oh, that God invaded the world in the form of Jesus

Christ, that an innocent life was sacrificed in our place so that we

might have a relationship with God, that Jesus performed miracles,

that he taught with an authority that was unique, he was crucified

and tortured to death and three days later he rose again.

If you consider that message, it’s no wonder that people would

rather celebrate with Easter bunnies, Easter egg hunts and candy

because this message, if true, if so radical and it calls for such a

deep response from us. If it’s false, of course, it should be ignored

completely, but if it’s true, it’s threatening.

I think that the Easter bunny does not take away, I think it’s

just a substitute.

Any final thoughts?

I think ultimately that what Easter represents isn’t the exclusive

domain of the Christian church and that much evil has been done in

the name of Jesus and yet what he still represents is the absolute

proof and demonstration for all time of God’s love for every single

one of us. And that, to me, is more important than anything else that

can be said.