Easter services at our church were amazing this weekend. We had five services and we were encouraged to stay away from the 10 a.m. service so guests would have room to attend. We went to the Saturday 4:30 service, and it was packed! It actually blessed me that so many people honored that request. And then in our 8 a.m. toddler room, we had over 20 toddlers (with only 3 that I recognized)...so it was like fruit-basket-turnover this Sunday.
The really cool thing our church did all week long was the Holy Week Experience. My husband, niece and her husband, and I went on Thursday night and for an hour traveled through experiential worship stations. The team did an amazing job with lighting, music, images. We traveled from sounds of people cheering at a large image of Jerusalem and read Scripture about Palm Sunday. Then through worship stations of writing on a brick and carrying it with us through the images and last seven sayings of Jesus on the cross, then laying it down on a huge pile of bricks. We then went to a station where we covered our hands with ash and prayerfully wiped them on a large white cross and afterward washed them in cool water. At the tomb where the stone was rolled away, we chose the "rock" by writing our names in red ink on a large rock and then having communion. It was so amazing and so impactful to focus on the meaning of Easter--Jesus' sacrifice and resurrection!
I love hearing about what your church did re. holy week and the worship stations. Very cool!
Posted by: Glen Woods | March 25, 2008 at 01:01 AM
Thanks, Glen! I talked with the pastor in charge of setting it up, and I love what he said about so often we don't allow time for worship/reflection in our services. So this was a great way to do that.
We also had one specially designed for children to go through. We do have a neat church.
Posted by: Chris Yount Jones | March 25, 2008 at 07:27 AM
Any possibility of seeing pictures of the stations, especially the ones for the children? I would love to present this idea to my pastor.
Posted by: Glen Woods | March 25, 2008 at 09:10 AM
What a great idea! I'll email our pastor to see what I can do. I'll let you know!
Posted by: Chris Yount Jones | March 25, 2008 at 09:22 AM
What an awesome way to reach adults and kids! Did you take any pictures? I'd LOVE to see what it looked like!
Posted by: Christiaan | March 27, 2008 at 02:15 PM
No, I didn't! But I've emailed our pastor asking if he did. I'll keep looking!
Posted by: Chris Yount Jones | March 27, 2008 at 02:18 PM