Dear Grace,
Thank you praying for our high school students a few weekends ago. What a special time of worship, connection, and fun! I so thoroughly enjoyed teaching and hanging with our beloved student generation. Their songs were loud. Their love was strong. Their hearts/minds were hungry for more of God. I’m grateful for Brooke and Carlos (our high school ministry directors) and the myriad of adult servants who came up to make the weekend what it was. May God continue to bring himself glory as the next generation pursues Him!
The middle school retreat happens in just less than two weeks.
I can’t believe that we are almost at the end of Lent. Palm Sunday was a beautiful way to begin Holy Week, Jesus’ final week leading to his death…and resurrection! What topped it off for me was seeing Gary Jacobs back from surgery alongside his faithful bride/caregiver, Karen. What a joy.
Each morning at 7:30, 150+ people have been coming together the Grace Place for a short time of singing, prayer, and reflection – each day considering an aspect of Jesus’ final days, according to the timeline recorded in the Gospels. Gennette and her team have been so faithful and hospitable in putting together breakfast for any and all who could stay, facilitating time to catch up with one another. Kids in their pjs, egg hunts throughout the building. It’s been really sweet.
From Wednesday to Friday, our Journey with Jesus will present another moving depiction of Jesus’ final hours. Actors, set-builders, and hosts have been rehearsing, reflecting, and inhabiting the story of Jesus’ betrayal, trials, and execution. The experience is in great demand, so be sure to grab a time slot. There aren’t many left.
The whole week will lead us to a powerful Good Friday gathering at 7P. We’ll remember the great price that Jesus paid for our sins. Communion will be served in smaller groups, and the whole gathering will go for just past an hour, leading us into Silent Saturday.
(If you’re up for it, make plans to come out to the Meyerhoff Symphony hall at 9A on Good Friday to participate in the Southern Baptist Church of Baltimore’s 7 Last Words service. I’ll be preaching along with 6 other pastors, each for 7 minutes. It’ll be a multi-church, multi-cultural experience!) You can find out more info in last week’s Poema.
Finally, Easter will be a grand celebration of life over death. We’ve got three gatherings: 8, 10, 12, and we expect each of them to be FULL (10 will be the fullest). If you want to gauge how full each gathering is looking, you can go to the RSVP page. (To get an idea, choose a gathering time, and wait for the page to update with how many seats are available. Obviously, the lower the number, the fuller the gathering!) We’ll have baptisms at every gathering, and it will be quite the celebration! Jesus is alive!!!
As we remember resurrection, we’re praying for the Gladstone family. Trent, who served previously as one of our elders, said goodbye to his dad last Saturday. As well, pray for Mindy, whose mom went home just the day before. It feels like these home goings come in waves, and it’s not lost on me that there’s a particular tension we feel in grieving with hope, especially during the lead-up to Easter. Let’s take heart in the truth that Jesus IS the resurrection and the life. Hope is, therefore, not found in a proposition, but a person, Jesus, whom God raised from the dead. As we pray for our church family who have experienced loss, we also pray that the hope of resurrection would be theirs in fullness.
I pray that for you as well.