There's something very satisfying, in a non-prideful way (I hope), about pouring yourself into something and finding out that it touched others in a meaningful way. Last year, Matt and I spent about 3 weeks planning a new Good Friday service. It was a bit of a gamble as it was quite different than the previous Good Friday services, and really any other church service we have. Now, not many people usually come to our service on Good Friday anyway, so last year about 25 or 30 people attended. Those who were there really seemed to enjoy it and it made me so happy to know that my style of worship resonated with people.
Cut to this year. My dad allowed me to also work with the Ash Wednesday service to tie the full Lenten season together. Matt and I worked together (as we actually do very well ;) ) and developed an experiential service for Ash Wednesday that focused on "tangible" prayers. We had various stations throughout that sanctuary that encouraged participants to meditate on an area of their lives. There was a station with clay that asked everyone (while playing with the clay) to imagine what their lives would be like if they truly allowed God to mold them the way He saw fit. Then they prayed asking God to soften their hearts and mold them. There were 3 other stations like that (Water, Oil, Ashes).
The final station asked each person to select a stone and write on it one thing in their life that they'd like to work on during the season of Lent. Personally, mine was bitterness. That's probably another blog post in itself. I carried my stone around with me everywhere. It often reminded me (although not always in time) to try to respond more kindly to those I disagree with. I hope it continues to remind me that I can't carry those disagreements into feelings of resentment that sometimes make me a not so fun person to be around.
This past week Matt and I reworked last year's Good Friday service to include some songs that were more meaningful to us, and include time for everyone to bring their stones up front and leave them at the foot of the cross.
Last night about 70 people showed up for service. So many of them shared such positive things about their experience in the service, including our (older) very traditional assistant pastor who told me that it was both "moving and reverent," and another stoic man who said, "thanks for making me cry!" I told him, "Mission accomplished, I don't consider it a good service unless people leave crying." Haha.
Anyway, I guess what this whole post is about is that to know that you were able to facilitate others into a meaningful experience of Good Friday is somewhat indescribable (which is probably why I've spent most of the time in this post rambling about logistics).
It is also very encouraging to know that maybe this style is something Matt and I need to continue to work on. There aren't a lot of areas in our lives or ministries where we are able to work together on the same level. I sometimes sing back-up for worship, he sometimes leads at youth, but overall those are more "supporting" roles. For this, we both brought our talents to the table and worked together. It's kind of an amazing feeling.
Denise will probably tell me that I always write sermons in my blog. And, well, I kind of just can't help it. Ha!
I hope sincerely that you have a meaningful Easter weekend, whatever that looks like. For now, my small boy has just gotten out of the shower and is running around naked. I guess that's my cue.
-ktw
p.s. I'm hoping this is the start of a "blog challenge" where I commit to blog every day for a month. We'll see how that goes. ;)
No comments:
Post a Comment