On the way to Jerusalem

        Soon we will begin the season of Lent. In Children Worship & Wonder, we teach this time in the church calendar as a time when we are ALL on the way to Jerusalem. Each week’s story asks the question, “Who can show us the way?” and the answer is always, “Jesus.” We tell many of the stories of Jesus’ ministry during the season of Lent.

        Each year our Worship Team, or for this year, Teams, tries to plan meaningful worship experiences for our Lenten journey. We’ve always had wonderful worship experiences, but including children in our efforts sometimes seems elusive. To speak to children in the midst of adult worship can never really be seamless. We just do not speak in the same way to children as we do adults, so often what happens in worship is that we speak ‘over the heads’ of our children or we may forget that they sit among us and might benefit a great deal if we made efforts to pull them into what happens in the sanctuary. (I’m speaking here of the children who are too old for Children Worship & Wonder.) The act of worship itself, and seeing their parents engaged in a worship experience has tremendous value, but figuring out how to engage the child as well, would be even more valuable.

        So, this year, our Lenten effort to include children in our regular worship service and our special services will include a Journey to Jerusalem. We encourage you to bring your children with you to the Ash Wednesday service, because there will be something for them as well! Each child will receive a ‘passport’ to use throughout the Lenten Season to find Jesus in all our worship experiences. We’ll have a ‘flat Jesus’ figure that will be hidden somewhere within the Sanctuary or the larger part of the church building. The worship services will include hints or clues as to where to find Jesus…and his hiding spot will always have significant meaning! As the children find ‘flat Jesus,’ they will get their passports stamped. By the time we end with our Easter Sunday services, the children will have an opportunity to have their passports full and will also have had a Lenten experience of learning and meaning that we hope will carry them throughout their lifetime.

       After Easter, we’ll have a special outing celebrating our Journey together. Perhaps we’ll take ‘flat Jesus’ somewhere special, like Monkey Joes.

       I look forward to journeying with each of you this Lenten Season…our children and our adults.

 

Blessings,
Tracy