What Passes for the Gospel Nowadays...

It's Holy Week, and the local churches are advertising their special services and inviting the community to attend. Today, I received an offer in the mail to visit a new nondenominational church in town ("A free gift for first time guests!). The postcard they sent was slick and attractive, if a bit impersonal. However, what truly saddened me was its message.

Here is the "Good News" they're preaching this Easter...

FIND THE POWER TO RISE AGAIN AT CHRIST'S CHURCH

Jesus didn't let a nearly two-ton stone keep him down; that Resurrection Sunday he moved the stone and rose from the grave. Are you carrying a weight that feels like two tons: pain, hardship, unmet expectations, or guilt? If you feel exhausted or trapped, join us at Christ's Church and learn how to experience the power of the resurrection in your life. Your burdens can be lifted—a relationship with God can roll them away just like the stone rolled away from Jesus' tomb at the resurrection.

The front side of the card portrays a stone with the words, "Doubt, worry, fear, anger, pain—He still moves stones."

THIS is the message of Easter?

Help! Someone has taken the "evangel" out of "evangelical"!