Last night's Maundy Thursday prayer night was a great event in my opinion. First, the generous giving that Amy talked about in the
last blog post absolutely overwhelmed me. I am so proud of all of you!
Second, watching so many of you praying inspired me to pray. I had already gone through all the stations in a sense during the preparation, but I was so moved watching so many of you spend serious time with God, contemplating the Scripture passages and what they mean to your life, it motivated me to go through each station again, but this time not as prep but for genuine prayer and reflection.
Third, I was impressed that so many of you just rolled with this completely new method of worship. I expected a few more people to have negative reactions (anytime you implement big change like this, even for a one time event you can expect criticism and negative response), but so many of you were amazingly flexible and sought to connect with God.
I don't know that we'll ever do this again, but if we did, I would change a few things. The scented oil, for one, was too strong. I thought the scent was very nice, but I never imagined it would not only take over the whole worship center, but the whole building! I had a slight headache by the time we were doing tear-down, and I think the scent was partly to blame. My apologies to any of you that are sensitive to smells. The goal was to just have the scent in the area of that particular prayer station concerning the woman and her sacrifice of her embalming perfume.
The other thing I would change is the preparation time. I WAY underestimated how much time it would take to put things together. A HUGE thank you goes to my administrative assistant, Gina Green, here at New Covenant. I try not to bother her with Watershed things, but she got all the books folded and stapled, the various elements collected (communion stuff, props, candles, etc.), and more.
Also, thanks to John Connelly for writing three of the stations' notes and suggested prayers. I wish he hadn't gotten sick so that he could have written more of them - his thoughts and prayers really touched me.
Thanks also to Amy Arp for giving all of us the opportunity to give as part of our worship.
And lastly, thanks to Matt, Mike, Nate, April, Daniel, Ida, Steve, and Heather for their help in set-up and/or tear-down. Without them, the evening would have been a flop.
I've opened up comments on this blog for those who want to share their thoughts about the evening. What did you like? What weirded you out? What would you have done had you planned something like this?
And for those who missed the evening and would like to know what it was all about, I have made a
PDF with the content of the prayer guides that were handed out at the door as well as the Scriptures that were at each prayer station. All you'll be missing is some bread, juice, a couple of laptops, and a whole lot of smell!
I must admit, it felt a bit strange not having a Worship Gathering tonight. Instead, I was hanging out with John, Matt, Amber, and Bill working on the June 21 staff meeting, the June 28 Worship Gathering (we almost have a park secured!), and the new location (several good options, I must say!). While I missed worshipping and hanging with all of you, I am excited about this summer and gearing up for next fall.
