Spring 2007 Facing Bench

Cornerstone Celebrates Easter with Thousands of Eggs
To celebrate Easter, Cornerstone Friends located in Madison, Ohio, held a community Easter egg hunt. The goal was to let people come onto the property, have fun and get invited to Resurrection services.

Volunteers stuffed 8,000 eggs, got $1000 worth of prizes for different age groups of kids and even advertised that one family would win a 32" flat screen TV.

"At our Christmas outreach we had around 1200 people attend, which blew us away," explained Pastor Mark Winner. " Imagine our surprise when over 3,000 people came to our Easter outreach!

"It was incredible and was reviewed very well by a couple local newspapers. One paper even filled a whole page with photos they took! Over 100 visitors have attended a services at Cornerstone in the following month.

Submitted by Executive Pastor, Mark Winner of Cornerstone Friends Church in Madison, Ohio.

Bethany Friends Church Hears New Testament Before Easter
The Bethany Friends Church family in Wadsworth, Ohio, received an interesting challenge in January. Would the church commit to listening to the entire New Testament on tape before Easter Sunday? Most members responded with enthusiasm. Some questioned their own ability to actually complete the task, but every family accepted their copy of a CD recording of the entire New Testament.

The sermons for the next twelve weeks kept pace with the taped versions of the New Testament. The goal was to spend fifteen minutes per day listening to the New Testament on tape. Many put the CDs in their cars and listened as the drove to work every day. Some took it a step further to listen as a family. Not all members completed the task but most agreed that it was a wonderful preparation for Easter Sunday. All agreed that the exercise was an effective way to use new tools to spread old truths.

Information provided by Pastor Bill Powell of Wadsworth-Bethany Friends in Wadsworth, Ohio.