Spend Good Friday with Max Lucado, Chris Tomlin, and More!
This Good Friday, April 2nd, Max Lucado and Chris Tomlin invite everyone to join them for a global word and worship special airing on the Trinity Broadcasting Network at 5:00, 6:00, and 7:00 PST. Good Friday Worldwide features the musical stylings of Matt Maher, Pat Barrett, We the Kingdom, plus a surprise guest (I tried really hard to get him to spill the beans!). After such a tumultous year, this promises to be a sacred time to virtually come together and celebrate Christ's resurrection.
I spoke with Max Lucado from his lake house in Texas, where he and his wife were seeking a little rest and relaxation before a busy Easter weekend.
Having watched the special last year, it seems Good Friday Worldwide is becoming a lovely tradition. How did it begin?
Well, you know, it's got a great story, a great context that this is Chris [Tomlin]'s idea. Initially I think the first three years began as an event for the city of Nashville in the Bridgestone Arena. And I went up there and was with him in the arena. Then when the pandemic hit obviously everything shut down last year. And I was already doing something with TBN, and he asked, ‘Do you think TBN would let us just do our service?’ And so I said, ‘Well, let me ask.’ And boy, they jumped on it quickly, as did KLOVE. It went from an event that typically sees about 12,000 participants at the Bridgestone arena got up to some estimates of 12 million people around the world. And so the Lord just opened that door for us and we were so very honored. There's no topic, of course, we'd rather discuss than the love of our savior and the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.
I see there’s going to be a surprise guest. I promise if you tell me, I won’t publish it!
You know, to be honest, the name slipped me. It's a group, but I was going to tell you their names, but I'll just let you be surprised!
Sounds good to me. There are few true surprises in life, so I’ll be tuning in to see! I was talking to my friend the other day, about how much we miss seeing the massive Billy Graham crusades and not just for the numbers, but seeing the seas of people touched. Hearing you say those numbers – 12 million – just made me think, ‘wow.’ This massive effective evangelism is still possible, just in different ways.
Well, I mean, just think about, So if that is 12 million, and I have every reason to believe it's accurate – how many arenas is that? How many crusades is that? So yeah, the Lord is still reaping a harvest and bringing in his fruit. So we can be very, very grateful for that.
Last March, we were just sort of getting our feet back under us after the pandemic began. And I think we all hoped that this year would be different. How would can we prepare our hearts this year for Easter, especially since COVID numbers are going up and things maybe aren't what we thought it would be?
I think that we are a people that is weary and wounded and worried. Those are the three W's. For some, the struggle has been so personal, they've lost a loved one or they've lost health. And then we're worried. I was just listening to the news yesterday. We're always listening to the news and the numbers are up in several states. I was communicating with friends overseas in Brazil, Ireland, and England, all three of which are in dire straits. So we're not out of this. We all want to be, and sometimes we behave like we are, but we're not, I don't know when we're going to be.
I think what we need to do during this time is just say, “Lord, what are you saying to us? What are you singing to us?” Are we to let this pandemic come and go without hearing the message that the Lord wants us to hear? I think we should ask that as a society. And I think we should ask that individually. So a good practice, this Good Friday would be to say, “Lord, I’ve been at this a year, I'm weary, I'm worn out, I'm wounded. I'm worried. What are you saying to me? And maybe you'll sense an answer, a direction in your spirit, maybe you won't. But I do think that would be a good thing to do this Easter week.
In your ministry this past year, what do you think the most surprising thing is that people have been struggling with, that maybe you didn't expect? I was just wondering if anything stood out that the church or that Christians should be aware of in their own communities that maybe we've overlooked.
It may be maybe the distrust that we have for one another. When you overlay a pandemic with the political chaos we had of 2020, we did not know who to trust and, and leaders got into arguments. So are we going to trust the science or not. Well, we're going to trust CDC or not. Are we going to wear a mask or not? And to me, I think that was the disappointing surprise that we really had no clear voice of calm to help us during. So that to me was the surprise, the distrust that surfaced, and we didn't know whether to trust one another or not.
Well, what a great way to bring us together. Easter is my favorite. I'm just encouraged that you all would produce this for us.
Well, we are honored to do it. There's nobody better than Chris [Tomlin]. You know, his heart is pure gold. Love him as a friend and as a brother and like hundreds of millions of others, his music has weathered the test of time and will be – his songs are gonna be those that are still being 200 years from now. He going to leave a mark. If the church, if the world still tarries, it's still here, we'll still be singing some of his songs.
I am really looking forward to the Good Friday Worldwide program this year. Is there anything you’d like to add before we go?
I think it may be just too, if it's at all possible to encourage people to tune in, to reach out to neighbors and friends. You know, people don't have to go to an event, so they can sit there in their pajamas, in the security of their house and tune in either online or on KLOVE or on TBN. And be encouraged and reach out to people who don't know Christ. It's an evening of quality music, it's a quality presentation. And so I think that they would not be embarrassed to invite their friends to be a part of it, especially young people. You know, [musical group] We the Kingdom, I mean, they rock and roll! So get the children and the kids, and let's all get in front of the television and worship together.
