journey to the cross...come join us!

this week we are remembering the final week in the life of jesus...
the celebration yesterday of palm sunday...the triumphal entry into jerusalem with palms waving and shouts of hosannah! leads to the more sober moments of jesus clearing the temple and the annointing in bethany...the dinner in the upper room, the betrayal, arrest and finally the cross.
having worked on church staff for many, many years, holy week was not usually "holy" at all.
usually it was filled with events and/or work leading up to the frenzy of easter.
too often the stuff of programs got in the way of any spiritual focus for me...
i hope you're not caught in that web.

i'd love to encourage you to step out of the frantic pace of this week and slow down a bit. originally lent was only this week...not the 40 days we often honor traditionally.
so, clean slate, new week...a full seven days to ponder and reflect on just what it must have been like for jesus to know that it was his last week on earth...all the emotions, the lessons, the teaching that wasn't really understood. the threats from enemies as well as friends.

sounds like our own lives some days...
how about you?

i spent yesterday and today setting up a prayer experience called "journey to the cross" for northminster presbyterian church here in cincinnati.  this interactive prayer journey provides an opportunity to reflect on the events in the last week of jesus' life.  from palm sunday to the cross.
there are 12 prayer stations and an art station where you can create prayers in chalk, crayons, or clay.
it is open daily from 8am til 9pm? (check with the church for closing times)
if you need a place to pray, to be still, to pause and remember what jesus did for each of us, i invite
you to come to "journey to the cross". 

and my friends at vineyard central have a creative, interactive stations of the cross happening this week in norwood, ohio (central cincy) via crucis is the running from 11am til 11pm each day this week.
several area churches have designed stations and my crew from oasis @ christ church glendale has created two of them.

so if you're around the cincinnati area...Y'ALL come!
email me for more info if you need it .

and i'll be praying for "all y'all" in churchland this week...that you truly can see and experience a bit of the holy.
lil