In this month’s Pastor’s Perspective, the Rev. Dr. Art Suggs reflects on a very profound Easter Sunrise Service he once attended.

Rev. Suggs writes,

“There is an event that took place long ago that I remember every Easter. It’s one of those stories easy to over- sentimentalize, kind of like the Reader’s Digest version of spirituality. But it really happened, and it touched my heart.

I had a classmate in seminary that I’ll call Mike. As with many of us, he was serving a small church on the side while we went to school. And that church had a tradition of having an Easter Sunrise Service held on the top of a little hill within a local cemetery. Unlike some churches I know, theirs was really held at sunrise.

Actually they were even more particular than that. They timed the service such that it began in the dark, and then right at the conclusion of the sermon, they would sing that old favorite by Charles Wesley, Christ the Lord is Risen Today. That moment was timed to coincide with the exact minute of sunrise, which someone looked up every year.