There is so much I could say about Easter weekend at Journey! It was truly and epic weekend.
GOOD FRIDAY SERVICES
Holy Week and the weekend particular feel like a reliving, a re-feeling more than just a memorial weekend, more than just a time to remember. So on the Good Friday services, we only hint at the happy ending. It’s DARK. We remember His death. We wallow in the irony of the name of the day: “GOOD” Friday.
We want GF services to be visceral and experienced with more than just one sense. We want it to have a little bit of a “stations of the cross” feel. We usually do a lot of thinking about the “sound” of the service. What sound do we want to be bouncing around the room – pounding, tearing, nails, chain links rattling. This year it was about those heavy weight bearings being chucked in the metal container at communion. It was all wrapped up in the “It is finished” in John 19, the “tetelestai” that Jesus shouted, the finishing of the loving them to the finish (eis telos… tetelestia – for you Greek readers… you’d have to have been there, but if you weren’t compare John 13:1 with John 19:30).
We covered the Bob Dylan/ Adele song “Make You Feel My Love” – powerful!
THEN COMES EASTER
I was in on it, and I was still blown away by our services. We’d been praying for God encounters and we GOT them.
* Worship music was so so powerful
* Mumford and Sons song was nails
* The Video on “Scars” was another stroke of genius by D Stevers
* Our invite factor was crazy! The 3 services were all full, but the 9:30 service was INSANE!
* Parking miracles – even when there were no seats, there was plenty of prime parking. Yeah to the Journey Peeps! “Greater love has no man than to lay down his parking space… o.k. that’s a little much, but good job.
* So many people served so tirelessly – I ran into some a friend named Keith who is a long time Journey leader on Monday. He asked how the services went. I told Him how faithful God was. He was bummed he missed being in there but felt like he as his wife needed to volunteer all 3 services in the kids area. 
* Speaking of God’s faithfulness – I got slammed by a cold this weekend. I went through a forest worth of Kleenex. Each service God came through. I was able to go the 30 minutes or so without too much snot flying around. Most people said they never noticed.
My favorite thought throughout the weekend was the delicious irony that the day represented. On April 5 year 33, the year of the first Easter everyone on the planet knew the name of the Roman Emperor (Tiberius). Jesus had been executed as an annoyance to the Roman and Jewish powers that be. How ironic that 2k years later somewhere north of a BILLION people gathered in the name of JESUS OF NAZARETH. I’m going out on a limb here but I’m guessing that there wasn’t even one gathering whose purpose was to think about Tiberius. I’m just sayin… HE IS RISEN INDEED!
