HOLY WEEK AT A MEGACHURCH
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what Holy Week looks like from the inside of an Evangelical Megachurch. For the last 7 months I’ve worked as a multimedia producer (cue sexy title: Experience Engineer) at Willow Creek Community Church in the burbs of Chicago. Willow has a special place in my heart since it truly was the place that led me to God, my wife, and out to seminary and back again.
As any of you who work in Protestant/Evangelical-esque churches know, the church calendar doesn’t get a ton of play. Easter yes. Holy Week, not so much. And so lately I’ve been finding myself longing for deeper connection to the Church (capital “C”): the body of ancient believers.
The tricky task for those of us who find ourselves on the insides of big buildings this week and next, will be to engage our communities by connecting them to our past rather than disregarding it in place of a fancy show. Shows will inevitably happen next week, however. And when they do will they be connected to something larger than our stages?
Bob Hyatt, of Out Of Ur recently wrote an article called, The Dangers of Easter. While I don’t agree with everything he says, he does supply a few sobering words for church artists and pastors as they prepare for the big day. As a side note, I think Willow is already doing a lovely job at thinking through some of his warnings. Although we all could use a little scolding and a little improvement. Some of us more than others. (Mind you, I count myself as one in need of a little lots of improvement.)
If you haven’t already found your way to the Book of Common Prayer, I highly recommend it. Because I find myself in spaces that oftentimes feel more like convention centers than sacred ones, The Book of Common Prayer has proved invaluable in helping me connect to our heritage.
While I’ve quoted it here before, I can think of nothing more helpful to those of us who make stuff in churches (for this week and the week ahead) than The Book’s Prayer for Church Musicians and Artists. May God bless our efforts, guided and misguided alike.
God, whom saints and angels delight to worship in heaven: Be ever present with your servants who seek through art and music to perfect the praises offered by your people on earth; and grant to them even now glimpses of your beauty, and make them worthy at length to behold it unveiled for evermore; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
