Holy Week has finished and as the life of the church quiets down a little after Easter, I wanted to take just a few minutes to reflect back on the week and share a few highlights and links with you.

We often tell people that Good Friday at Terra Nova is perhaps the most moving service of the year for us. Worship Arts Pastor, Scott Womer and people on his team put a ton of time into creating an atmosphere through music, art and setting that leads you to a place where you feel the reality of the death of Jesus. One person said to me on Sunday that “I was sitting there in the Good Friday service and it just hit me–this is real! Christ’s death is real! And I lost it”. While all honor and glory are due to God in this kind of response, we would be remiss in not thanking people like Sarah Gorss (wife of Jason who is an elder in process) for putting in over 100 hours creating original art telling the story of the Stations of the Cross that was viewed on screen during the service. Terra Nova songwriters wrote new arrangements to classic hymns bringing them to life in a way that allowed you to hear them again for the first time.

Due to a concert already booked in Revolution Hall, we chose to do Good Friday in the large room in the back of our gallery building. The reality is that the size of this room works perfectly for a service like Good Friday. It is such an intimate space when treated well with lighting etc. Over the course of the evening, 300 people attended three packed out services. We were very close to being standing room only. Additionally, dozens more watched on ustream.tv as we streamed the services live for those far away. The chat room that accompanies that technology was filled with people who used to attend Terra Nova but have since moved to other parts of the country, as well as other friends of Terra who live elsewhere. More importantly, a terra member who is confined to a hospital bed after a car accident was able to virtually attend both good friday and easter. While we would never suggest that watching a service online is an acceptable replacement for being in community, it did allow some to connect long distance to a community that has served an important role in their lives.

Easter sunday began early for the set up crews that serve faithfully setting up sound equipment, chairs, and this past sunday we even pulled out the risers upstairs that we have not used since going to two services. It’s a good thing we added that extra seating capacity as Easter sunday marked a new high with roughly 325 adults and children in attendance at two services. I realized during the set up that one of the crew members was not a Christ Follower last year at this time. I turned to him and said “Hey, This is your first Easter isn’t it? This is the first Easter that actually means something to you!” He responded simply, “Ya, it’s pretty cool”. What an amazing thing to recognize that last year, this RPI senior did not know the grace of God and the forgiveness that Easter makes possible, and one year later he is setting up chairs and risers at 6AM on Easter morning so that hundreds of people can come and celebrate the resurrection! For me personally, that recognition was the supreme highlight of the day.

I’m a details guy, which sometimes makes it hard to concentrate on a sunday like Easter. For whatever reason though, music has the ability to cut through the noise in my head and as the band led us in a song that I had never heard before by an artist named Kelly Minter, the phrase “Could Love have known a finer day?” stuck out to me in big bold letters. This phrase summed up the whole of Easter, Good Friday, Holy Week . . . all of Lent. Scripture is clear that the thing that should mark those who are Christ followers is love, and Holy Week is the time each year when we come face to face with the severity and reality and extent of the Love that was shown to us. It challenges me to live in the light of that example even more.

Here are a couple links to low tech videos from Friday and Sunday including the song by Kelly Minter mentioned above. I’d encourage you to share your own Holy Week reflections in the comment box below.