Take a walk through a garden and you’ll experience a mixture of fragrance and color. You’ll see flowers and plants and rocks and dirt. It is the kind of place Minnesotan’s dream of over the course of a long, cold, colorless winter. While the rocks and dirt endure from one season to the next, the blooming plants and flowers are temporary. Yet we experience God’s love in all of it— the temporary and the enduring alike. This year as the season changes and we make our way toward Easter and the empty tomb, we will explore Three Days: Flowers + Rocks + Transformation: One Worship Service in Three Parts

PART ONE— OF CANDLES AND FLOWERS: MAUNDY THURSDAY, April 2 – 7:00PM

On Thursday we will enjoy fresh cut flowers at our tables as we partake in a supersized meal of bread and wine and juice together with friends. Each flower is fleeting and temporary and beautiful, much like the time we will spend together. We will remember the night Jesus gathered for one last dinner in a low lit upper room with his friends. Even though the time is finite and fleeting, we will celebrate that which is eternal, the very last thing he wanted them to remember— Love. 

PART TWO— OF STONES AND THE CROSS: GOOD FRIDAY, April 3 – 7:00PM

On Friday we will gather around the stark cross as we remember the night that Jesus died. We will share in the ancient ritual of placing symbolic visitation stones for his burial. In the Jewish tradition, these small stones are often placed at graves as an act of remembrance and respect for the deceased. The stones symbolize permanence in the midst of this fleeting life. The cross and the stones mark an ending, even as we anticipate a new beginning.

PART THREE— OF TRANSFORMATION AND NEW LIGHT: EASTER VIGIL, April 4 – 7:30PM

At the Easter Vigil on Saturday we will gather in the shadow of a garden tomb with one large stone placed at its entrance, even as the promise of new life is all around. The night will begin in the courtyard by a fire, before proceeding inside for a night of dynamic and interactive music and story telling. Ultimately we will make our way upstairs, symbolizing the journey from darkness to light. Then we will share in the most stunning transformational moment of all, the movement from death to new life and the first announcement of Easter.  We will experience the Easter Garden of lilies and mums along with music for the first time in our newly renovated and transformed sanctuary. The night will end with a huge Easter celebration feast in our brand new lobby!