I have to preface this article with a few things before I begin.
1. Our congregation has amazing volunteers and we could not have done the Holy Week Walk with out them.
2. We did not have a budget for this event. We actually took a hit in 2013, so we had very little means to create what we did.
3. This was the first time we did this and we planned for the better part of a year to make it happen.
With that said...here we go.
Pre planning
It goes without saying that any event needs some kind of planning. And the better the planning the more likely you will meet your goals and succeed during the event. In the case of the Holy Week Walk (see last weeks post for details) we knew we were going to need time and help to pull it off. We actually had the idea about 3 years ago when our Education Director visited the church that gave us the idea. She took part in the walk and thought we could bring it to Word of Peace. It took her and the education team of volunteers a year and a half to finally put it into motion and 6 months of meetings to work out the details. Whew, that's a lot! But it was needed. The Holy Week Walk is no easy task. In the end there were over 60 volunteers, food for 300, a script to write and 6 different scenes to create.
The Volunteers
Love your volunteers, thank your volunteers and most of all ask everyone to volunteer. We were so blessed with amazing people, most of which have never been a part of a drama at church, be willing to help. It's not easy finding 12 guys to act as disciples! We also discovered so many new gifts in the congregation that we never knew existed.
Food
Finding grape juice, parsley, water and salt is fairly easy for 300 people. Matzo on the other hand was not. Planning ahead was crucial here so we could have enough supplies.
The Script
Knowing your audience for our script was imperative. We wanted to bring the last week of Jesus to people of all ages. More importantly, we wanted children to understand what Jesus went through for us.
This framed our script and made some of the heaver points less important. We thought having a narrator and two witnesses travel with and guide the group through the different scenes would be most effective. The job of the witnesses was to ask the questions that everyone, especially the children would be thinking. "Why is Jesus washing their feet? Why are they arresting Jesus? Who is that woman and why is she crying?"
Looking at the life of Jesus through the eyes of children is a wonderful way to deepen your faith and even ask some great questions.
We did leave a few parts out of Holy Week. We didn't show any of the brutal beating or crucifixion or Jesus hanging on the cross. Those are important parts, but all lead to the death of Jesus and that is the most important.
Setting the Scene
This is the most expensive part of the Holy Week Walk. The more props you have, the better it will look and feel. Costumes were key. They helped differentiate the actors from the participants.
We did purchase a few big items like a Jesus, Pilate and Roman Solider costumes. We also found 4 shade tents at a really good price for the streets of Jerusalem marketplace.
The rest came from donations, things we had laying around the church or items from people's homes.
Preparing for the Unknown
When all the planning was said and done we still had no idea how many people to expect. This was our first time. It's on a weekday afternoon.
We needed a way to know how many to plan for so we invited the congregation to "RSVP" for a time through text and email. This was also the first time we tried something like this. We got a small response at first but as the week went on the responses started coming in more and more. We began to be concerned if we would have enough. We set up for 125 at each walk. When almost 220 showed up each time it was a modern day Fish and Loafs story. We had enough and God blessed us with an amazing showing of support.
Final Thoughts
We are so happy that this went well. We have lots to learn and even more ideas for next year. If you or your church would be interested in something like this, we would be more than happy to answer any questions for you.
My advise: start planning now because Easter is coming sooner than you think.
God Bless,
Dain
Monday, May 19, 2014
Monday, May 12, 2014
Holy Week Walk
Trying something new comes with risks and rewards.
Over the past few years we noticed that our congregation and their families tend to show up in droves to Christmas, Palm Sunday and Easter. Don't get me wrong, we love to pack the place whenever we can, but we were noticing something wrong with this picture. The celebration of the birth, triumphal entry and resurrection of Jesus are all positive. What we saw were families missing the whole point of Jesus' resurrection. Why was Jesus born, why did he come into Jerusalem and why do we celebrate the resurrection? As Christians and Lutherans we believe that we are both sinner and saint, at the same time. This means that there are two sides to the story. Baby Jesus was born so that he may die. He entered Jerusalem as a beginning of a journey to the cross. And most importantly, you can't resurrect without first dying! As a church we had to ask the tough question of "how do offer opportunities for our community to experience holy week?"
In past years we have done more of a Passion Sunday rather than just Palm Sunday where we experience the entry into Jerusalem, the Last Supper and a little of Good Friday all within the Palm Sunday worship service. It helped to educate people more about Holy Week, but it didn't help involve anyone outside of our Sunday or Monday services.
Our Education director Kristin Skare recently visited St. Andrew's Lutheran in Mahtomedi, MN and experienced their Holy Week "Walk with Jesus". She was impressed at the number of families involved and was moved by the "incompleteness" of the story and subsequent invitation to come back on Easter to see how the story ends.
Implementing something like this at Word of Peace would be no easy task, but we have never backed down from a good challenge. Could we pull it off? How many people would come? Was it worth it? We have always been blessed with amazing volunteers and when the idea was pitched the support from staff and congregation members alike made us very hopeful.
Over the course of 3 months we prepared for the Holy Week Walk. In the end we transformed our entire church into the major scenes of Holy Week inviting families to come and walk in the steps of Jesus and experience his final week before the cross. Below is a brief outline of the Holy Week Walk.
The Streets of Jerusalem
Our next stop was the house of Pontius Pilate where Jesus was placed on trial.
One of the things we were concerned about was the crucifixion and how we wanted to treat the death of Jesus. We decided to not show any blood or Jesus hanging on the cross. We made sure people knew that Jesus died, but they only thing they saw was an empty cross.
Here we gathered everyone at the foot of the cross with Mary the mother of Jesus. The song Pie Jesu by Andrew Webber was sung as a duet and the crowd was invited back into the sanctuary to see the tomb.
In the end we planned for 125 people to come for 2 showings. We had over 220 people there each time! We were blown away by the response and couldn't believe how God was working through us. We were truly blessed this Holy Week and are so excited for next year.
We took a risk that involved a lot of work, changes in the Good Friday traditional worship service and involving tons of people on a weekday in the afternoon. but our prayers were answered and amazing things happened!
Next week I will focus a little more on the behind the scenes aspects of the Holy Week walk and what it took for us to accomplish it.
Till then, God bless.
Dain
Over the past few years we noticed that our congregation and their families tend to show up in droves to Christmas, Palm Sunday and Easter. Don't get me wrong, we love to pack the place whenever we can, but we were noticing something wrong with this picture. The celebration of the birth, triumphal entry and resurrection of Jesus are all positive. What we saw were families missing the whole point of Jesus' resurrection. Why was Jesus born, why did he come into Jerusalem and why do we celebrate the resurrection? As Christians and Lutherans we believe that we are both sinner and saint, at the same time. This means that there are two sides to the story. Baby Jesus was born so that he may die. He entered Jerusalem as a beginning of a journey to the cross. And most importantly, you can't resurrect without first dying! As a church we had to ask the tough question of "how do offer opportunities for our community to experience holy week?"
In past years we have done more of a Passion Sunday rather than just Palm Sunday where we experience the entry into Jerusalem, the Last Supper and a little of Good Friday all within the Palm Sunday worship service. It helped to educate people more about Holy Week, but it didn't help involve anyone outside of our Sunday or Monday services.
Our Education director Kristin Skare recently visited St. Andrew's Lutheran in Mahtomedi, MN and experienced their Holy Week "Walk with Jesus". She was impressed at the number of families involved and was moved by the "incompleteness" of the story and subsequent invitation to come back on Easter to see how the story ends.
Implementing something like this at Word of Peace would be no easy task, but we have never backed down from a good challenge. Could we pull it off? How many people would come? Was it worth it? We have always been blessed with amazing volunteers and when the idea was pitched the support from staff and congregation members alike made us very hopeful.
Over the course of 3 months we prepared for the Holy Week Walk. In the end we transformed our entire church into the major scenes of Holy Week inviting families to come and walk in the steps of Jesus and experience his final week before the cross. Below is a brief outline of the Holy Week Walk.
The Streets of Jerusalem
When people attending the Holy Week Walk arrive they are greeted by a gathering area that had been transformed into a Jerusalem street. Different vendors and actors roam the booths and invite people to take part. We had different booths for fish, pottery, bread, and spices. There was also a prayer wall where people could write down prayers and tie them to a wall.
The walk was lead by a Narrator and two witnesses. They helped people along and described the events that were taking place. There were also musicians with guitars that would lead a song or two in every scene. Jesus entered the street and was followed by a live colt. The kids loved that one! We then followed Jesus and his disciples to the Last Supper
The Last Supper
The crowd was welcomed into our sanctuary for the Seder Meal. Jesus and his followers sat up front and acted out the last supper. The narrator and witnesses then invited everyone to try some of the unleavened bread, bitter herbs and grape juice.
The Garden of Gethsemane
We then headed to the garden where Jesus prayed. We had originally planned to be outside, but 9 inches of snow changed our minds. We quickly created a garden scene on one corner of the sanctuary that was not being used.
Our next stop was the house of Pontius Pilate where Jesus was placed on trial.
One of the things we were concerned about was the crucifixion and how we wanted to treat the death of Jesus. We decided to not show any blood or Jesus hanging on the cross. We made sure people knew that Jesus died, but they only thing they saw was an empty cross.
Here we gathered everyone at the foot of the cross with Mary the mother of Jesus. The song Pie Jesu by Andrew Webber was sung as a duet and the crowd was invited back into the sanctuary to see the tomb.
In the end we planned for 125 people to come for 2 showings. We had over 220 people there each time! We were blown away by the response and couldn't believe how God was working through us. We were truly blessed this Holy Week and are so excited for next year.
We took a risk that involved a lot of work, changes in the Good Friday traditional worship service and involving tons of people on a weekday in the afternoon. but our prayers were answered and amazing things happened!
Next week I will focus a little more on the behind the scenes aspects of the Holy Week walk and what it took for us to accomplish it.
Till then, God bless.
Dain
Monday, May 5, 2014
Crucify Him - Good Friday 2014
To be perfectly honest, my favorite day of Holy Week is Good Friday. For some reason I feel closer to God through the suffering and anguish of Jesus on Good Friday. How many times have I asked the same questions as Jesus in the garden? "Lord take this cup from me," I don't want to do this, why do I have to go through this? But Jesus continues on and prays a prayer that I would hope everyone could bring themselves to say: "Yet, not my will Lord, but your will be done."
This is why I love Good Friday. I love the questions, the darkness, the suffering, the pain. I love that Jesus knows my pain and suffering in my life because of the excruciating ordeal he went through in order for us to spend eternity together in heaven. Without Good Friday there is no Easter!
A few years back I attended a Good Friday service at The Upper Room and I was moved in ways that filled my soul with a true meaning and depth of what Jesus did for us. Their use of video clips, smells, the cross, and the sound of nails pounding created a multi-sensory experience that I wanted to recreate at Word of Peace.
The Passion Experience is a small experiential worship service held in a large back room that can fit about 60 people. The service is media based and all instructions, prayers, video clips and words to songs are projected on the wall. The room is decorated with candles, a cross and mood lighting. The chairs have a black piece of paper and a pencil for use during the service. The video clips are taken from The Passion of Christ movie. I edited them down and incorporated Bible verses that a narrator reads. The music during the service is one voice and a guitar. The simplicity is powerful.
At one point during the service the congregation is invited to write down sins and nail them to the cross while we sing Jesus Paid it All and the Wonderful Cross. Once again...powerful.
The end of the service is the most important part. Even though people know Easter is coming we leave the worship service as a cliffhanger. There is no hint of the resurrection and only an invitation to finish the story on Sunday morning.
The service is prayerful and very introspective for those that attend and I am excited that it has become a tradition for a small number of worshippers at Word of Peace. The content of the video is more mature, but because of the way I have edited the clips children as young as 5th grade have come to the service.
Continually look at Holy week as an opportunity to explore the story of Jesus. It is rich and full of meaning. Focus on the sights, sounds, smells and feelings that took place those final days of Jesus' life. Bring the story to life and have people participate in more than just song during the service. You might just be surprised how meaningful this can be to people and their faith.
Blessings,
Dain
This is why I love Good Friday. I love the questions, the darkness, the suffering, the pain. I love that Jesus knows my pain and suffering in my life because of the excruciating ordeal he went through in order for us to spend eternity together in heaven. Without Good Friday there is no Easter!
A few years back I attended a Good Friday service at The Upper Room and I was moved in ways that filled my soul with a true meaning and depth of what Jesus did for us. Their use of video clips, smells, the cross, and the sound of nails pounding created a multi-sensory experience that I wanted to recreate at Word of Peace.
The Passion Experience is a small experiential worship service held in a large back room that can fit about 60 people. The service is media based and all instructions, prayers, video clips and words to songs are projected on the wall. The room is decorated with candles, a cross and mood lighting. The chairs have a black piece of paper and a pencil for use during the service. The video clips are taken from The Passion of Christ movie. I edited them down and incorporated Bible verses that a narrator reads. The music during the service is one voice and a guitar. The simplicity is powerful.
At one point during the service the congregation is invited to write down sins and nail them to the cross while we sing Jesus Paid it All and the Wonderful Cross. Once again...powerful.
The end of the service is the most important part. Even though people know Easter is coming we leave the worship service as a cliffhanger. There is no hint of the resurrection and only an invitation to finish the story on Sunday morning.
The service is prayerful and very introspective for those that attend and I am excited that it has become a tradition for a small number of worshippers at Word of Peace. The content of the video is more mature, but because of the way I have edited the clips children as young as 5th grade have come to the service.
Continually look at Holy week as an opportunity to explore the story of Jesus. It is rich and full of meaning. Focus on the sights, sounds, smells and feelings that took place those final days of Jesus' life. Bring the story to life and have people participate in more than just song during the service. You might just be surprised how meaningful this can be to people and their faith.
Blessings,
Dain
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