Thousands of North Texas Christians celebrated Easter Sunday in special services set for outside and those indoors as well.
In Flower Mound, the annual sunrise service at “The Mound” was canceled due to the thunderstorms and rain early Sunday.
It’s not the first time the event has been canceled due to the weather, but it still didn’t deter the faithful from coming out to pray long before the sun rose.
“It is a day of celebration of bringing people together, of having as many people up here to enjoy what we hoped would be a beautiful sunrise,” said Albert Picardi, of the Flower Mound Board and an organizer of the event.
While the driving rain dashed plans in Denton County, in Dallas the hope was they drove people to worship.
“Instead of golfing they’ll be coming to church because the rain spoiled their outdoor plans, maybe that’s what God had planned all along,” said Stephen Hayes, founding associate pastor of Covenant Church.
The Carrolton based church has been preparing for the indoor service at American Airlines Center for more than a year. The church has four campuses across DFW and one in Flagstaff, Arizona.
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The service was filled with music, as well as unique motivation. The AAC was packed for the 10:30 a.m. service.
“Last year in just in our four local campuses, we had just under 14,000 attending our Easter Sunday, and we have 14, 208 seats set up outside in the auditorium,” Hayes said. “I’m a little nervous actually.”
There were no problems getting all the parishioners into the building. And no matter the size of the service, it’s location or weather, it was a day of faith, family and renewal of spirit.
“Everyone leaves better than they come, that’s my hope and my prayer,” Hayes said.
The Flower Mound event has a different church do the service each year. Organizers will likely have this year’s church return next year since the event was canceled.
Covenant Church has performed Easter Services in the AAC once before, in 2005 back when the church only had one location.
