Holy Week: Good Friday Service

Here is what we are doing for Good Friday. I took the order of service from Jordan because it was fantastic. I added and took away a bunch of stuff.

Everything in Red are the songs being sung. The service layout with going to black is really a Tenebrae Service which is typically done on Maundy Thursday, but I really like this order and I think it is going to be fantastic. We will end it with writing our sins on paper, lighting them and putting them in a bowl on the altar

We are working on some projected visuals for each section along with working on the look with some large paintings in the vein of the Jesus Painter.

MAKE SURE YOU READ ON…so CLICK the more button. Any Thoughts?


PROLOGUE

NARRATOR: From the creation of the world His invisible attributes, that is His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what He has made. We have a God who speaks to each of us. And while people of the world are limited by a language barrier, the Creator not only exists free of any such limitations but also provides us with ways to know Him and share his story without words.

A rainbow. The red tipped petals of a dogwood bloom. A dove. All around us are symbols-universal reflections of God, of His son and the eternal life found in Him.

This Good Friday, we invite you to experience the Passion of Christ in a new way, with ancient symbols and colors. Symbols and colors created by God and used by seekers throughout the ages to tell the story of our Savior.

Processional: with colors on flags after each reading during the song the flag will be laid out on a cross

All Creatures of Our God and King

movement 1 GREEN

NARRATOR: Green . . . (3 second pause) Creation and Birth. . . (3 second pause)

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and He said that it was good. Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created man in his own image, . . .in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Fairest Lord Jesus

movement 2 BROWN

NARRATOR: Brown . . . (3 second pause) The Fallen World . . . (3 second pause) Living in mud and slime. . .Croaking incessantly. . .Snatching at filthy flies. . .

For centuries, the frog has represented our sinful indulgence of the flesh. This repulsive little creature, also negatively portrayed in the Plagues of Exodus and the Book of Revelation, has been used in art, in literature, in history to remind us of ourselves . . .

As Isaiah wrote, All of us have become like one who is unclean and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.

Nothing Without You – Bebo Norman

movement 3 YELLOW

NARRATOR: Yellow . . .God Revealed . . .The beautiful laurel, long used to symbolize victory and healing, when coupled with yellow speaks to us Jesus Christ, the Revealed Truth of God . . victorious over the temptation in the wilderness and living out the mission of God the Father by preaching the Kingdom of God. Restoring sight to the blind and healing the lame. . .

The Apostle John wrote: In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.

The Word, Jesus Christ, entered the fallen world to give us a vivid picture of God and to accomplish all that the Father had for Him to do to bring us hope and healing for our sin. The very Image of God had come to dwell among us and bring us the means of salvation . . .

NARRATOR as acolyte lights candle:

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

Word of God Speak – Mercy Me

movement 4 SILVER

Narrator: Silver . . .The Chalice or the Coins . . .

Into every person’s life comes the choice between the cup of fellowship with God or the choice to seek after our own selfish desires. Such a decision faced Judas . . . and he chose the latter to line his pockets with the silver of those who didn’t want their religious hierarchy and power shaken by this radical, Jesus.

And so the Judas the betrayer was easily pulled away from the chalice of wine and bread of the Passover meal for a secret rendezvous with sin. Thirty pieces of silver was all it would take and lost forever was his fellowship with God who would soon become the Passover sacrifice.

Paradise – The Choir

movement 5 VIOLET

NARRATOR: Violet . . .Suffering Servant . . .Violet represents the deep bruising of Christ. The figure of the pelican is based on the legend that in times of famine, the mother pelican plucks open her breast and feeds her young on her own blood. A voluntary sacrifice of self on behalf of others. This is exactly what Christ did for us, allowing Himself to be opened with the shards of whips and rusted spikes so that we might be spared the penalty of the Fall and our own sin . . . death.

How deep the Fathers Love For Us – Stuart Townend

movement 6 RED

NARRATOR: Red . . .The Blood . . .Blood flowed from the wounded heart of God as He became sin for us. Men upon their death either proclaim their own innocence, or condemn the judges who sentenced them to death, or else ask pardon for their sins. Jesus, perfectly innocent, cursed no one and asked no pardon. As Mediator between God and man He extended pardon. As High Priest who offered himself in sacrifice, He pleaded for sinners. He thus fulfilled the redemptive promise given to man at the Fall that redemption would come as the seed of woman crushing the serpent of evil. Now God, in crushing His Son, fulfills the promise. . .

Oh the Glory of it All – David Crowder Band

movement 7 BLACK

Continue with final song in darkness with candles and images on screen. All but the Christ candle are extinguished.

Black is put over the colors of the cross

Burning of sins is explained and instrumental during the writing (song played on CD)

Congregation is welcomed to burn the papers

The Wonderful Cross

the reserve sacrament is given For communion

Amazing Love – Billy Foote


Open recessional

Comments

13 responses to “Holy Week: Good Friday Service”

  1. Fred McKinnon Avatar

    Looks good man – I wish I could come to some of your services – I love the mix and flow of liturgy, spoken word, responsive reading, etc.

    BTW – Bebo Norman will be doing a concert in our new facility here in May … looking forward to it!

    Fred

  2. kim Avatar

    I love the symbolism of the colors…. this is a great service plan. If we didn’t already have something lined up for this year, I think I’d grab it! Maybe 2009…. I look forward to hearing how this goes for your congregation.

  3. klampert Avatar

    Fred: We need a keyboard player.. hint hint.

    Kim…all thanks to Jordan for sure on the order
    I changed the music for it and I really like the stuff we are doing. it is really contemplative.
    By the way…thanks for stopping by. Havent heard from you before. Are you a reader or first timer to here?
    Ill be adding you to my blogroll now.

  4. erzsi1113 Avatar
    erzsi1113

    As fussy as you are about me having moved, I am ten times fussier because when I see stuff like this I realize how sad I am that I’m not there.

    (As if the sobbing from the time I left the party on Sunday until — oh, about New Haven weren’t an indication of how sad I am…)

    St. Michael’s is such a special place and I am still struggling to find a new church home. I wish I were there to celebrate Lent and Easter with you all.

    I love the service — How Deep the Father’s Love is probably my favorite song. Am very sad to be missing it…

  5. klampert Avatar

    not to make you sadder, but when you left kelly said to me that she wished you were still here because you would make a great friend..

    Liz you are missed for sure…But God has a plan..
    I know that sounds like a copout, but who knows …you may end up back here one day…or….

  6. Russ Avatar

    I love the graphic!

  7. klampert Avatar

    russ…thanks man..

  8. jordan fowler Avatar

    Guys, we have more freebie good friday services for you on the trench as well. One of the most powerful ever was an entirely tactile service we did. We’ll post it up so you can use it this year. WOW Easter is EARLY this year. We just moved into the new building and bang, it was here. Good Friday is probably the absolute favorite service I design. I get to take our mod congregation back to my ancient liturgy loving roots. The Cup is another powerful service we did. I’ll see which ones we have posted yet and get them all up.

  9. Rich Ellis Avatar
    Rich Ellis

    Are you sure that there is a song called “Paradise” by the choir. I cannot find it or any reference to it.

  10. klampert Avatar

    RICH.
    Go to http://www.thechoir.net o there you can download CD’s. they had 2 brilliant CD’s called at the foot of the cross part 1 and part 2. Paradise is on part 2.

  11. David Wilson Avatar

    Wow! You guys are really working at moving the message forward.

    Great work.

    David

  12. klampert Avatar

    thanks david…Im really excited about this service

  13. jordan Avatar

    Hey, how did this service work for you guys. We were trying to “track” people who were using it to see how it went. We had almost 300 downloads of Celtic Colors service and 230 of The Cup. Just wondering how it went for people. We’ll put up the completely tactile service AND a building walk through service to get you ready for 2009. The walk thru service is awesome but takes some serious prep. Let me know how it went. Of course everything we give away for free (we’re also sharing the free backing video we did for Hughes’ Happy Day).

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