Matthew Starner

What an amazing time of worship!  Tonight was our Good Friday service.  It’s hard to have a service on a Friday night at the theater like we do on Sundays, so for times like this, Journey rents a space from another church here in town. First Reformed Church  in Byron Center has a building they call the ROCK (Reaching Others for Christ’s Kingdom) where we often hold our off-Sunday events like our Christmas program and our volunteer appreciation banquet. It’s essentially a gymnasium, but it’s carpeted and much nicer than just a gym.  Tonight was amazing.

Good Friday At Journey

What I’ve Done – Linkin Park

• We did a slower, acoustic version of this song as an opener. Kristie did a great job on this one and it set the stage for the night perfectly.

The Wonderful Cross – Chris Tomlin

• A good one to start off for Good Friday. We haven’t used this one much and but it was good to hear everyone singing out on it.
  

You Are My King – Billy James Foote

• Another great one that we don’t use much, but always goes over great when we do use it.
  

Empty Me – Jeremy Camp

• A simple song of confession.
  

At this point, we read the story of Jesus’ trial and crucifixion, which was followed perfectly by…

Beautiful the Blood – Steve Fee

• I really like this one and the team did great.  I’ve gone back and forth about whether or not this is a good song to use when considering first-time guests because of the language in the song (the references to blood and nails, where if you weren’t familiar with the story, you might not understand the reference.) but tonight, it fit absolutely perfect.
  

Pieces – Red

• When everyone came in, they got a piece of wood (1/4″ plywood cut into a  rough 5×5 square). While Josh sang the this solo, we had everyone write their name on their board. Josh and the team did an amazing job.
  

After the song, everyone brought their board up to the front and nailed it to a frame of a cross that we made. It was a powerful moment to listen to all those hammers pounding in the silence, each nail a reminder that it was for everyone of us that Jesus hung there.

Majesty – Delirious

• A great piece to end the service with – powerful but reflective, but subdued enough to maintain the mood we worked hard to create. It was moving to see people coming forward to the cross to pray and to see the people who were even moved to tears with the power of the moment. Truly an awe-filled moment.

And now, we wait in quiet expectation for the miracle of Easter.

Thanks to Kristie Barber for the pictures.