Four years ago when this first began it started for two reasons - 1) The children used to have a Christmas pageant on Christmas Eve, which was pretty much universally disliked by everyone. Parents hated it because many of them work a half day on Christmas Eve so getting their children to the church by 3pm was difficult. Older people hated it because they often could not hear the children or couldn't follow what was going on. While they would have loved to watch a Christmas Pageant at another time, having it on Christmas Eve made them feel like it distracted from the holiday.
2) I wanted to try something new which involved rearranging the order of worship, and I knew if the children and youth of the congregation lead the service, much more flexibility would be given.
Yep, that is me - using children as a shield!
But in 4 years it has become one of the favorite worship services of the year. We hear of Jesus entry into Jerusalem when we gather outside or in the community room. We process into the sanctuary singing All Glory Laud and Honor and then we continue to hear the story of Jesus' last week before he dies and we respond with acts of worship after the various parts of the reading. While the order varies a little depending on what gospel we are reading from the responses are similar. After we hear of Jesus' Last Supper, we have communion. After Jesus prays in the garden, we pray for the concerns on our hearts and minds. After Peter denies Jesus, we confess our faith with the words of a creed. And at the end, when we hear of Jesus' crucifixion and death, we respond with song and our sanctuary grows darker and our song becomes sadder.
But being me - the one who uses children as a shield, I can't leave things be the same year after year. SO this year we had a visual surprise when we came into the sanctuary - a carpet of clothes, palms and flower petals that carpeted our entry.
