I'm foregoing blogging for Holy Week, so I want to wish you a meaningful week of re-living the last days of Jesus' life leading us up to the climax of the Christian calendar, Easter Sunday. I always encourage people not to jump from Palm Sunday straight to Easter Sunday, but to seek to enter into the suffering of Christ in Gethsemane and Calvary. If your church doesn't offer Maundy Thursday or Good Friday services, I encourage you to seek them out at nearby churches. If you're from a non-denominational background, try a high-liturgy church for one of those services. Many of them are contemplative, quiet, and profound. Some churches have Tenebrae (darkness) services, in which they slowly turn out the lights at the end of the service, remembering the darkness that fell upon Jerusalem while Jesus hung on the cross. Historically, Christians have fasted from Thursday night until Sunday morning, and if that's extreme for you try fasting for Good Friday or Holy Saturday. It produces a longing, physically as well as spiritually, for the victory of the empty tomb on Sunday morning.
I've been conducting interviews with introverts in various ministries, which I will be posting in April. Check back often next month, and you will hear from youth pastor Lars Rood, church-planter Jamie Arpin-Ricci, missionary to Haiti and author of Following Jesus Through the Eye of a Needle Kent Annan, and introverted Pentecostal pastor (!) John Lathrop. I'm really excited for this series.
Grace and peace my introverted friends,
Adam
If you want a high liturgy church try a local Orthodox Church, we have 12 services during Holy Week, 2 on Holy Thursday, 2 on Holy Friday, 2 on Holy Saturday and then Easter..........incense, a capella singing, icons, and movement, very sensual.
ReplyDeleteHappy Easter everyone!
I'll be looking for that interview with the Pentecostal pastor!
ReplyDeleteI love that exclamation point after "introverted Pentecostal pastor." I'm a Pentecostal, and I wouldn't be anything else, but I know that Pentecostalism can be one of the most extraverted of the extraverted forms of Christianity, and I'm only just now coming to recognize the depth of my sense of guilt over not doing it like church and Bible school taught me. I'm a Pentecostal because I deeply believe the theology, not because of the way it appears outwardly, and I'm trying to integrate them and have a balance.
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