Green Acres Easter services to be held online and on television

Published 6:00 pm Wednesday, April 8, 2020

The Biblical Book of John says that on the first Easter, Jesus’ disciples were isolated behind doors because they feared punishment from the Jewish leaders. Under the current stay-at-home order due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many East Texan church members will be behind doors much like disciples were on the first Easter.

Pastor David Dykes of Green Acres Baptist Church is expecting over 15,000 people to tune in to their virtual Easter celebration. On previous Easters, the in-person attendance has been about 8,000. Over the last three Sundays, church has tracked over 10,000 users attending services online.

The Easter service on Sunday will be streamed live on www.gabc.org at 10:30 a.m. It will also be available on GABC HD Channel 17 for those in Tyler who subscribe to Suddenlink Cable.

“Our challenge is to continue to be the church when we aren’t gathering together,” Dykes said, “As a pastor, I’m continuing to preach and teach God’s Word — I’m just doing it by way of television and the internet. During this time that I can’t visit members in the hospital or assisted living facilities, I am using the telephone to call and check up on them.”

On Easter, Dykes said he will talk about the two disciples who walked with Jesus to Emmaus on the first Easter. At first they don’t recognize Him, but they are later transformed. He will also talk about the fear the disciples displayed by hiding in a locked room. He’ll talk about how in that time and our current time Jesus can replace their people’s fear with faith.

“The one thing I think we will all take away from this historic time of distancing is this: We will never again take for granted the magnificent blessing of gathering together to worship our Creator,” Dykes said. “For many Christians, gathering to worship seemed to be an option — but now we see how much of a blessing it is. We will never take that for granted again.”