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Family Easter Celebration 2013

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Mar 222013

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Last Monday evening, hundreds of Crossing Kids and their families gathered to prepare for Easter and worship our Savior with Jason Houser from Seeds Family Worship. As you can tell, young and old had a great time singing and dancing in the auditorium.

After our time of praise and worship, families moved to classrooms where they created their own Resurrection Gardens to help them prepare for Easter at home.

If you weren’t able to join us, be sure to pick up an extra copy of the garden materials along with our Family Easter devotional and free Seeds of Easter CD near the Crossing Kids registration area on Sunday.

Preparing for Easter

Devotional, Easter, Family, Lent, Parents No Responses »

Mar 122013

Growing up, Advent and Lent were seasons that not just my church but my family observed. Both were times of anticipation and waiting. Both were times of drawing closer to the manger and to the cross. Both were opportunities my parents used to start intentional conversations about the Gospel.

Lent in many ways has gotten a bad wrap. The idea of giving something up for the 40+ days before Easter in some ways has become highly ritualistic and unattached from what the season really is about. People abstain from certain foods or vices with a desire not to draw closer to God, but to lose weight or be a better person. Others attempt to sacrifice because of a desire to win the approval of man or from a distorted view of obligation. On the other extreme, Easter in many ways has become a holiday for consumers. Jelly beans, eggs, and bunnies encourage us to bypass the crucifixion and instead focus on cultural icons tied more closely to spring than anything else.

I’ve ran across several sites and blogs that have shared some great ideas for ways you can prepare your family for this season intentionally.

Tell the Easter Story with a Play Dough Mountain
A great idea for families with younger children, this blog post from Desiring God gives children the opportunity to retell the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection with play dough and pipe cleaner

Photo Credit

Resurrection Rolls
Use this fun, tasty recipe to tell the Easter story. The link includes the recipe along with a list of things to say/share as you cook together.

Photo Credit

Lent Devotional from The Village Church
While this may be a little too extensive to do with young children, it’s what I’m currently working through to prepare my heart as an individual. Each week includes a prayer from Valley of Vision to meditate on, selected scripture with a place to reflect, and ideas on things to fast from/how best to go about this process in a Biblical way. It also opens with a great rationale of what Lent is. I’ve copied a snippet of this below:

“Lent is about the gospel. It is a time to narrow the focus of the Church to the work of Christ, in particular His life and death, a season to turn from sin and trust in His atoning work…ent is a reminder that the resurrection only occurred after the crucifixion. Rather than skipping over the ministry and crucifixion of Christ, Lent is a season to prepare ourselves for the joy of Resurrection Sunday as we symbolically enter the sorrow and pain which preceded it.”

What Lent Really Means and Easter Tree Directions
Ann Voskamp writes about her own struggles with Lent along with different things she does with her family to prepare for the season. It closes with a free downloadable devotion and directions on how to make an Easter tree.

Lenten Lights from Noel Piper
Noel Piper guides families through 8 weekly scripture readings with an accompanying brief devotional. Instead of lighting candles as one might do in Advent, she suggests extinguishing candles as a way to physically represent the contrast of light and darkness.

The Jesus Storybook Bible
One of our favorite resources to share with children and families is The Jesus Storybook Bible. Pages 280-325 tell the story of Passion Week all the way through Jesus ascending into heaven. Try reading one story a week for six weeks together as a family. You can also watch a video version of Easter morning below.

http://youtu.be/d_PkwywNxCw

Celebrating Easter with Kids
This blog post is a collection of links put together by C.J. Maheny’s daughter Nicole on Girl Talk. Throughout the post, she offers many practical, fun ideas for impressing the truth of the Gospel on little hearts during this season.

John Devotional
Of course you can also check out our weekly family devotional through the book of John. Many of the passages will coincide with the Lent/Easter season. We will also share a take home devotional with you at our Family Easter Celebration on March 16.

What other ways do you celebrate the Lent and Easter season together as a family? Be sure to share your ideas in the comment section or on Facebook.

Love, Sacrifice, and Rescue–A New Lent Tradition

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Feb 212013

Today’s post is a guest blog from my dear friend Kassie Phillips. If I were to make a list of people whose lives both challenge and encourage me to believe the Gospel and live a more radical life of love as a result, Kassie and her husband Brian would be at the very top. In the last year, my friends and their three small children moved to Spain. Their stories of learning language and culture aren’t the only things that amaze me, however. You see, Brian and Kassie from the start have made imperfect but very intentional choices about the way they parent in light of the Gospel. A trip to their home when they lived in the states made this abundantly evident as do blog posts, emails, and skype dates today. More recently they’ve began a new tradition as a family to help prepare their hearts for Easter. Kassie was gracious enough to share this below.

“By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.”
1 John 3:16

First of all, let me just say that I am no expert on Lent. Until last week, all I knew was that you couldn’t eat meat, at least on some days, and there was something about ashes…

So, if you’ve never thought about Lent, you’re not alone, and I’m not far ahead of you.

Recently, we moved to Spain. Although there are very few Christians here, many of the people are Catholic by tradition. Our son, Malaki, attends a Spanish Catholic school. So I’ve been trying to use the traditions and holidays (which they celebrate at school) for our education and encouragement. I think it’s really important to give him a springboard (at home) for his questions and doubts.

It’s been like a treasure hunt. A hunt I’m thankful for because it has caused me to think beyond what is normal for me, and find Jesus in traditions and holidays I’m unfamiliar with. It has certainly freshened my view of Easter, Lent, and Jesus. And I believe that when the kids are older, they will think of these times as sweet memories.

Definition: Lent is a period of 40 days (excluding Sundays, so it’s actually around 46-47 days total) of preparation for Easter. Many people abstain from eating meat on Fridays, or fast for one day/meal each week, others give up something for the entire 40 days. The reason for the fast is to remind us of the sacrifice Jesus made for us on the cross.

Ash Wednesday is the beginning of Lent. That day was especially fascinating to me. It is a day specifically devoted to remembering our need of Jesus’ sacrifice. The ashes symbolize the ashes Old Testament saints wore when they were mourning their sins.

Practically, this is how it has worked for us: first, on Ash Wednesday; our two older kids (3.5, & 5 years old) each chose a toy to put up in the china cabinet until after Easter. I explained to them that it would be difficult, but it would remind them of the sacrifice Jesus made for us when he came down from heaven to die on the cross.

The second thing we did was take a piece of posterboard and draw a calendar. It is a path with one stone per day, from Ash Wednesday, all the way to Easter. (For some great ideas on this, Google: “Lent Calendar for kids”) Each morning at breakfast, we read a story (usually from The Jesus Storybook Bible) and talk about how that story points us to Jesus and his rescue plan. Each day, we fill in one stone with what we learned.

It’s simple. Yesterday we wrote: “Even when Joseph was sad and alone, God was planning a RESCUE!”

By the time we get to Easter, we will have spent 40+ days talking about the great rescue, and preparing to celebrate Easter. Not only should we be ready to celebrate, the kids will know what we are celebrating.

Easter People in a Good Friday World…

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Apr 062012

Growing up in a liturgical church setting, Lent was a somber time of contemplation. Ashes crossed foreheads. The hymn selection on the old pipe organ only included minor, dissonant sounding chords. Black cloth draped the altar. Items were given up. I remember hearing many of my friends complaining about unsingable melodies and the number of services they attended during Holy Week. While I kept my mouth shut about how I really felt, Good Friday, was actually one of my favorite days of the year.

For a long time, saying so made me feel a little bit guilty and morbid. Sure I loved watching the sunrise through stained glass windows on Easter and hearing Lutheran voices belting out “He is risen indeed” with more emotion and joy than you’d hear the congregation use all year long. But what I found equally, if not more, compelling was the quiet reverence and aching sorrow that echoed as each station of the cross was described. The realness of my sin exposed. The penalty willingly endured and paid for by Immanuel–God with us. Even from a young age, I realized that Easter only came through Good Friday. Both equally necessary for redemption to occur.

Some say that the crucifixion is too violent for children, that we should water down the message. My experience would argue the opposite. So would Russell Moore:

Our children need to hear the Gospel. They need to see Jesus. That means they need to see both sides of skull place. That’s graphic, sure. It’s confusing, of course. And not just for kids. But it is the only message that saves. It’s the only message that prepares one for salvation. It is, as Paul says, that which is “of first importance,” the message he received from Jesus Himself (1 Cor 15:3-4).

The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus is the Gospel. That’s the first word. If we cannot speak of that, we would be better off not speaking of Jesus at all, rather than presenting another Christ, one who meditates but does not mediate, who counsels but is not crucified, who is accessible but not triumphant over sin and death.

The apostle Paul told us the word of the cross would be folly to those who are perishing (1 Cor 1:18). He didn’t warn us that it would sometimes also be folly to those who are publishing. No matter. It is still the power of God.

This Easter, preach the Gospel… to the senior citizens, to the middle-aged, to the young adults, to the teenagers, to the seekers, to the hardened unbelievers, to the whole world. And, yes, preach the Gospel to the preschoolers.

Even and especially the youngest among us need Good Friday just as they need Easter.

A few years ago, I ran across an article where Anne Lamott quotes Barbara Johnson saying, “We are Easter people living in a Good Friday world.” It took me a few reads to connect the dots, but once I did it helped me process why even amidst sorrow and angst, I felt like maybe in ways I understood Good Friday even more than I did Easter. We live in the constant tension of the already, but not yet. We live in a world that’s broken, still under the curse despite the empty tomb. We live in between the comings of Christ where family members get sick, friends experience tragedy, and sin–both our own and of others–taints even the best things in this life. As Tullian Tchividjian writes in Jesus + Nothing = Everything,

“Peter tells us: Set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:13)…How easy it is to lose sight of the benefits that we have in Christ as we go through life’s trials. It’s easy to do because of the not-yetness of our promised blessings, the full experience of our freedom and peace…But our fullness of hope allows us now to have full and confident expectation of all that is coming to us in the end. for the Christian, the best is yet to come.“

As you celebrate Easter this year, don’t forget to contemplate not just Good Friday but the future grace that will be brought fully to us when Christ returns. Don’t shy away from sharing this truth with the littlest among us. We are all Easter people in a Good Friday world–the best is yet to come.

Let me learn by paradox…

Devotional, Lent, Reflection No Responses »

Mar 282012

I don’t think it’s an accident that the most beautiful things of this earth aren’t typically so in the predictable sense. The things that move us the most quite often involve a contrast of some type, an element of surprise.

Wildflowers creeping along a crowded highway.

The intricate wrinkles on my grandmother’s hands.

A quilt created entirely from scraps that sits on my bed.

Weeds left uncared for. Signs of aging and decay. Leftovers that otherwise had no use. Symptoms of the curse redeemed. Beauty rooted in what doesn’t seem to make sense.

Why is my heart captured by such things? Perhaps because this contrast is merely an echo of something greater. Perhaps because the face of beauty itself is described in this way.

…he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
    and no beauty that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by men;
    a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
    he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
-Isaiah 53:2-5-

With wounds we are healed. Grace at its very core is a paradox. Something so costly, so undeserved, is given freely. A gruesome, torturous method of execution becomes the central icon for redemption. A story I’ve heard since I was a little girl continues to contain an element of mystery. My faith, my hope, and my peace secured, only because the righteous died for the unrighteous. Darkness and light, bondage and freedom juxtaposed. And all this was for our salvation.

Lord, high and holy, meek and lowly,
Thou hast brought me to the valley of vision,
where I live in the depths but see Thee in the heights;
hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold Thy glory.
Let me learn by paradox
that the way down is the way up,
that to be low is to be high,
that the broken heart is the healed heart,
that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit,
that the repenting soul is the victorious soul,
that to have nothing is to possess all,
that to bear the cross is to wear the crown,
that to give is to receive,
that the valley is the place of vision.
Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from deepest wells,
and the deeper the wells the brighter Thy stars shine;
Let me find Thy light in my darkness,
Thy life in my death,
Thy joy in my sorrow,
Thy grace in my sin,
Thy riches in my poverty,
Thy glory in my valley.
-The Valley of Vision, A Puritain Prayer-

Family Easter Celebration: Game On

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Mar 172012

Last night, the auditorium was transformed into a game show called “Family Scene It.” We were joined by special guest hosts: Wacky Wanda and Candace. Three lucky families were selected as contestants and competed by answering a series of questions after watching movie clips that depicted the Easter Story. We also heard from multiple eye witnesses who really had, “seen it” including Mary Magdalene, Peter, Thomas, Mary the Mother of Jesus, and another Disciple. Together, we learned the truth of John 20:29:

Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.

Next, families gathered in classrooms to play “Minute to Believe It.” Participants rotated between fun, crazy challenges and discussion questions that reviewed what they learned during large group. Marshmallows were picked up with chopsticks, Q-Tips were shot through straws, and cookies were placed on faces and consumed without the use of hands. Check out a few of our contestants in action.

The night ended with desserts and an opportunity to continue the fun at home with our family devotional game: “Spin It to Live It.” We have extra copies of the game available this Sunday at The Crossing Kids registration area. Be sure to pick one up if you weren’t able to make it on Friday.

Preparing for Easter

5th Grade, Devotional, Easter, Elementary, Family, Lent, Little Ones, Preschool, Treasuring God in Our Traditions No Responses »

Mar 012012

I’ve ran across several sites and blogs that have shared some great ideas for ways you can prepare your family for this season intentionally.

Resurrection Rolls
Use this fun, tasty recipe to tell the Easter story. The link includes the recipe along with a list of things to say/share as you cook together.

Photo Credit

http://youtu.be/d_PkwywNxCw

What other ways do you celebrate the Lent and Easter season together as a family? Be sure to share your ideas in the comment section or on Facebook.