Beyond the Largest Easter Egg Helicopter Drop in Kent History this weekend, there's 2 additional reasons I'm primed for a very special Easter at Catalyst.
The first is that we're launching a new children's environment on the heels of our easter egg family event. KidMo is for 5th grade and below - a fun, safe, engaging environment that utilizes kid-friendly worship, high-energy DVD-based Bible lessons, and small groups. Our volunteers are released to do relationship-building, leaving the teaching work to the KidMo DVD. Chas & Chelsea are leading the way this Sunday - go team!
Secondly, Amber & I are dedicating Josiah this Sunday. At Catalyst, we strip away man-made traditions and open the Scriptures for guidance. Nowhere in the Bible do we see infant baptism (or christening). Instead, we see people making a decision to follow Christ and then immediately being baptized as a believer.
With babies and children, we instead see dedication by the parents to the Lord. 1 Samuel 1 is not only a firm foundation for baby dedication and its purposes, but is also a dramatic parallel to our family's own life. Amber & I will make a covenant with God to do everything we can to point Josiah to Jesus of Nazareth. It is an important responsibility with great weight (see Deuteronomy 6 - the shema).
We wanted to dedicate Josiah at the time of his adoption finalization - when he legally becomes a "Herron." When the Court assigned us April 9th as the finalization date, April 8th became his dedication date. Little did we know that it also happened to be Easter!
So we are dedicating Josiah on Easter in front of his family (who are coming in from Iowa & Pennsylvania as I type), his birth family, and his church family, Catalyst. What a weekend it will all be. I'm primed!