Topic: God things
Weekend report:
Friday night we had a Good Friday service with a contemporary/contemplative flair to it. We were given a nail as we entered the sanctuary, which had a fog machine going up near the stage and red spotlights pointed at a very rugged looking cross in front of the stage. The was a stage set up away from the main area, draped in black where a band played worship songs, mostly related to the cross. Then above the band was a powerpoint of video clips, no audio, of scenes from the Jesus movie and the movie The Gospel of John to accent what the songs or testimonies were saying. In between songs were about 4 or 5 testimonies....one was a scripted one by 'Barabas', the others were from people from our church on how what God is doing in their lives. Near the end, while singing a song about the nails in His hands showing us how much He loves us, people began walking up to the rugged cross, kneeling down to pray, then leaving the nail they had on the altar....this went on for a good 10 minutes while the band played. It was very good...very moving and interactive. When everyone who wanted to was done, my husband (the pastor) said just a few words and the band sang one more song to close. Saturday morning we had a church sponsored egg hunt and party on our grounds. It was a gorgeous day and we had carnival types of games to play, an egg hunt and free cotton candy, popcorn and drinks. One of the booths was giving away 'salvation eggs' which had colored jelly beans to represent the salvation plan. The women running it told the plan of salvation 125 times in 2 hours!! The eggs came with the instructions to retell it inside. Here is a good example I found online to make your own. Use any color or style of plastic egg and put one of each of these in the egg:
Sin...the bad things we do, (a small stone) not only keeps us away from God, it doesn’t belong in our lives....just like a stone doesn’t belong with jelly beans – you can’t eat a stone!
However, Jesus took the punishment for our sins and died on the cross to pay that price. (red bean)
If we receive Jesus as our Saviour, giving our lives to Him, He forgives us and our hearts are cleansed like snow (white).
Once we have chosen to follow Jesus, we should grow in our knowledge and faith by going to church, reading the Bible and praying. (green)
And eventually we will go to be with God in heaven (yellow – like streets of gold).
Here is another site for making an Easter Story basket.
We also had people register and fill out an information card with their address so that we can send invitations to them for other events and to our services. It was a good day with a lot of families who came from a nearby school, where we sent out flyers about it.
Sunday was a great morning of worship and celebration! We started at 7:30am. It was not quite a sunrise service, but it was outside on the church grounds, decorated as the 'garden tomb' area, with a pulpit one of our youth girls made out of chicken wire and paper mache that looks just like a real stone! Then we had a coffee and snack fellowship time, Sunday school and regular service. We were so glad God answered prayers and brought back for these services some of the people we had met at the Easter egg hunt! These included one college aged girl who talked a long time with my husband about the paganism she was involved in, and also a couple from Pakistan who would like to join our church, as well as several others.
It was a good weekend!
