Dear Church Family,
We are approaching the most important week in our lives as believers: Holy Week. While we cannot be together physically to journey with Christ and with one another, we have several opportunities for you to worship safely and meaningfully.
Beginning Wednesday, April 1st until Palm Sunday (Sunday, April 5th), there will be individually-bagged palms under our church building portico for anyone who is out doing essential traveling and wants to stop by the church to grab one. We invite and encourage you to take a picture of your palm in your home, your family waving their palms, or perhaps your palm fashioned into a cross and submit them to Sarah Mickle at [email protected]
Our Palm Sunday worship service will begin at 10 AM and will be available via livestream through our Facebook page. Later that day, it will also be available via our YouTube channel. We hope you will join us for this triumphant time of worship. During this worship service, we will share in a Love Feast in place of Holy Communion. You are encouraged to have food and drink with you to partake in this liturgy as a church. Anything will work: water, juice, coffee, bread, toast, or even a Twinkie!
Later that afternoon (Sunday, April 5th), our praise band Magnify will lead us in a concert of praise entitled “Praise You In This Storm”. The concert will be broadcasted on both our Facebook page and YouTube channel. We pray that this is a time for you to strengthen your faith in the midst of hardship and remember the hardship Jesus was about to face.
Holy Thursday is Thursday, April 9th. We invite and encourage you to visit our Facebook page at 6 PM to watch a Holy Thursday devotional led by Pastor John, as we remember the ways Jesus humbled himself and prayed before his crucifixion.
Our Good Friday worship service will begin at 7 PM and will be available via livestream through our Facebook page. To prepare our hearts and minds for this time, digital prayer stations recalling some of Jesus’ final words will be available on our Facebook page and through the e-newsletter beginning at 5 PM that day. We invite you to join us as we recall the ultimate sacrifice in Jesus’ dying on the cross.
Easter Sunday – HE IS RISEN! Our Easter Sunday worship service will begin at 10 AM and will be available via livestream through our Facebook page. It will be a joyous day to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection and to proclaim “He Lives!”.
Each year we cover our living cross outside of the church with carnations to represent Jesus’ resurrection and our unending joy. This year, we will be creating a digital living cross and we need your help! Sometime between now and Easter Sunday, please take a picture of flowers – in your yard, seen on a walk, in a vase – and send it to Sarah Mickle at [email protected] These pictures will be compiled into a digital living cross to remind us that even a pandemic cannot mask our Easter joy!
If you are willing to participate in any or all of the above worship initiatives but aren’t quite sure how, please contact the church office at (856) 881-3295 or [email protected] and someone will be in touch to help you do so. We want to ensure that all of our congregation is able to observe the events of Holy Week.
In His Service,
Sarah Mickle, Director of Music & Worship Arts
