Good Friday Together
This past Friday history was made in Buffalo when churches from all over WNY came together as one body at First Niagara Center to celebrate the sacrifice Jesus made for us. The event was the first of its kind that this area has ever seen, bringing in over 10,00 people. I had the great opportunity to experience this historic day:
It’s taken me until today, Wednesday, to process all that went on this past weekend. It was an incredible time in Buffalo, New York where the Church in this region came together and God did some incredible things.
Good Friday Together was an event born out of some smaller examples of church expressions partnering together. Four local pastors, after walking through an experiment-of-sort, where their congregations joined together in a sermon series at Christmas time, began to dream bigger and contemplate what a Good Friday service would look like if it really was the Church coming together as one. My first taste of what this event would be like came at a lunch held at the First Niagara Center, where these four pastors pitched the idea to other local church leaders and challenged them to imagine what God could do if we all came together as one.
It was beautiful reminder to see that even in our local community, God’s people in Buffalo aren’t all the same. The don’t all speak the same language, but want to worship and celebrate the same Lord together!
The feeling in the room was hard to describe, but it was an overwhelmingly excited atmosphere. I think each person there started to picture what this event could look like and, more importantly, what effect it could have on how we work together going forward. As the planning process continued, the excitement continued to build. I had the privilege of meeting and working with people in this region who have been immensely gifted and obviously called to certain ministry areas. Watching this group come together, to pray, to plan, and to get excited about what God could do if the Church in this region really did show up on Good Friday at the First Niagara Center; it was an amazing process to be a part of.
One thing I learned through this, is that when the Church (which is always bigger than you can assume) really comes together, the various expressions can’t always be accounted for in your mind. For instance, the question was raised later in the planning process, “How will we include people who don’t speak English?” Yeah…hadn’t thought of that! It was beautiful reminder to see that even in our local community, God’s people in Buffalo aren’t all the same. The don’t all speak the same language, but want to worship and celebrate the same Lord together! So we went to work on ways to include everyone – identifying translators specifically for Spanish and Mandarin Chinese as well as including song lyrics in Spanish in addition to English on the screen in hopes of making the Spanish-speaking community more able to engage in what was happening.
Volunteers showed up at First Niagara Center early in the morning to prepare for Good Friday Together.
Logistically, I was so thankful for the team from Kingdom Bound Ministries, as they quickly helped answer daunting questions like, “how will we distribute communion to that many people?” or “how long would it take to collect an offering?” We’re talking about a room that potentially could seat 14,000 people in this configuration! But this team nailed it. There was a detailed, well thought out plan that was put into place.
After a sprint to the finish that week before, all of the plans were in place, and Friday, March 29th arrived. It was Good Friday, and that evening I was praying that it truly would be Good FridayTogether.
Throughout the day, there was, of course, a lot to get done.
Sparing all the details, I’ll just say it did all get done with the help of a great team! One highlight: volunteers who came to place elements at each seat in the arena. This crew of about 20 people spent hours taping communion cups and placing envelopes at each and every seat in the lower two sections (over 8,000 seats) so that for the event we could efficiently take communion and have an offering together without it taking up a ton of time. These people were heroes; heroes with sore backs by the end of the day.
Very honestly, around 6:15pm I stepped out on the floor of the arena and looked around at the seats. Doors had opened at 5:30pm, and at 6:15 it wasn’t looking full. I was praying, but I hate to admit that I also started to reason in my mind that half full was still good and we might want to start considering a plan for that number of people. The 300 level, which took our capacity from 8,000+ to around 13,000, didn’t appear to be needed that night. That was ok, I thought. It would be a great night regardless. Then, around 6:45pm, it seemed like the room had a rush of people. I heard over the radio that they were in fact opening the 300 level, and as I walked out from the backstage area, I saw people spilling into the seats way up in the 300s! My heart started racing – SO many people had shown up to celebrate Good Friday TOGETHER.
What an incredible night. The music was great, the speaking was great, and the people in the room were responding in worship to our one and only Lord. Standing in that room, hearing the excitement of the people and sensing the oneness that existed – it was incredible. Only God could have orchestrated this. He exceeded our expectations in every way. The room was filled with over 10,000 people, well over 100 people came forward in response to an invitation to invite Christ into their lives, and around $90,000 was invested into needs within the city of Buffalo. Above all that though, each person in that room could look around and see a more accurate picture of what the Church looks like. Not everyone looks alike. Not everyone talks alike. Not everyone worships in the same style and manner. But everyone in that room serves the same Lord, Jesus Christ. The walls that were torn down, and the momentum that was generated by this coming together has yet to be fully realized. God did some incredible work that night, and as usual, we were blown away but not surprised that God had gone before us and done something bigger than we could have imagined.
Our prayer is that this would be just a starting point for the Church in this region. Now that people have gotten a glimpse of what the Church in WNY looks like, we pray that 
they would begin to set-aside differences that are not a priority, in exchange for a true willingness to live and act as one body. The differences that make up the Church of Jesus are beautiful, in that they represent the diversity and uniqueness of people.
For more information on Good Friday Together, as well as more photos, visit: http://www.goodfridaytogether.com/