Prayer Stations (Part 2) (Repost)

Prayer Stations (Part 2)

This is the second part of my posts on Prayer Stations. We just completed our third year of prayer stations on Maundy Thursday.

We had our most participants this year as I believe this has become kind of new tradition for us at Easter. We got great coverage from the local newspaper (front page the day of and a photo piece on Good Friday). This year's stations conincided with our sermon series on the Miracles of The Crucifixion--The Ninth Hour Sermon Series. You can listen to the sermons here. You can also download the handout that went along with each station here. I'll try to briefly describe each station. I'll be glad to send to anyone the details from each station and any accompanying materials I had for this.

Preparation: We had a little sitting area just before you entered to the stations. This was a time for reflection and settling your heart. I had printed large pictures of Christ on our large scale printer. They looked like painted portraits. Thanks JVO for the info on the light styrofoam insulation from LOWES-worked great.





Station 1: DEATH AND DARKNESS
At this station we had them read the scriptures and contemplate the darkness that fell over the land. This was in a small hall way that led to the Library. We darkened all of the windows. The only light (had to be) was the exit sign just over their shoulder--but they got the point.



Station 2: The Torn Veil
Pilgrims sat at a table filled with purple, red and blue fabric (the colors described in scripture) and sat before an open curtain symbolizing our access to God.






Station 3: The Earthquake
This one was difficult. How do you represent an Earthquake? We chose to make large slabs from styrofoam. There were rocks for the pilgrims to take when they left this station






Station 4: The Open Graves
I thought this one was the most effective and the most emotional. I asked the local cemetery if I could borrow a small headstone. They said yes. In fact they told me that I could write on the stone. So we had each pilgrim write something on the stone with a sharpie pen.





Station 5: Salvation

This was my favorite station. We had several crosses on this table and they were all set upon a piece of sheet metal. We had purchased two boxes of Christiam Magnet Poetry (http://www.fatbraintoys.com/) and had each pilgrim make a sentence or phrase as their response to the cross.






Station 6: It Is Finished
This one ended in our Garden Room. We had the fountain going so it was relaxing and cool in here. I had Matt Maher singing "Empty and Beautiful"on the cd player. At the end of this station the pilgrim took a sugar cube and placed it in Red water to symbolize the payment for their sin.


Station 7: Communion
As we had done in years past, we held off on taking communion until the evening when we gathered back for the Maundy Thursday service. This will probably change next year as we'll off the chance for them to take or not take communion. Several said after the experience they were ready to take it.

That's it for this year. We evaluated this yesterday and will make some changes next year.
This post is part of Creative Chaos.