It seems like it's been forever since I last left a post - I've been really busy getting ready for Easter.I've been really inspired and excited about Easter this year. First, we're having a Good Friday and two Easter morning worship services. They are themed "Experience the Cross: Prayer Stations of Jesus' Passion" (Good Friday) and "Experience the Resurrection: He Makes All Things New" (Easter).
Our Good Friday service will be a reflective time with a large portion of time set aside for seven prayer stations. If you are not familiar with a prayer station service, the room is set up to have a multisensory experience that involves the physical body in the act of worship. One station, for instance, might involve a table you can go to that has ice cubes in bowls. The instructions might suggest picking up and holding an ice cube as long as you can. As it begins to hurt, you can imagine and meditate upon the pain Jesus felt upon the cross; then pray in gratitude for the far worse pain and suffering that Jesus endured for our sin. So you can see that we will literally be "experiencing" some of Jesus' passion.
For Easter Sunday, our theme is directly related to this graphic I "borrowed" from a peer review on Church Marketing Sucks. The graphic depicts the transition from death to life - the Resurrection. But the title "Experience the Resurrection" speaks both to Jesus' resurrection, and also to the new life we can have through Him. Jesus' death and resurrection mean nothing to us if we're not being transformed into a new life - the life that God intends.
Whew! May you have a wonderful Easter - full of joy, celebration and new life!
