This was the first Easter I served as pastor at Emmaus Church in Milwaukee. There were no signs that my dramatized story sermons would work. While there were many wonderful people, there seemed little interest in doing creative things on Sunday mornings. My preaching routine was mostly thematic, occasionally going to the lectionary. My style is conversational but the pulpit was high and to one side in the front. It looked like a battlement hanging out over the slanting floor. There were seldom enough to even half fill the pews so I sat on a stool out in the middle aisle near the row where the frontmost parishioners were sitting. Perhaps that was shock enough for them and left me feeling I had to "hold back."

At Education Committee, Penny said the youth would do the Easter Sunrise Service.…