New Song Church, now in San Dimas, first met in the late 1980s with the intent to specifically reach out to those who were then just being called the “Gen-X” generation. The founding pastor noticed a lack of concern and focus about this first “postmodern” age group and under the guidance of his home church planted a ministry whose aim was to be contemporary, not for its own sake, but for the sake of taking the message of the gospel in new ways to a new era. As one of the first churches to focus on this age group, it garnered much attention and was for a while a model for other such churches and ministries within churches (including Willow Creek, who hired the founding pastor to join their ministry in Illinois and begin their new focused service). A lot has changed over the course of the last decade. The church has gone from meeting in a gym to its own facilities, from being primarily a young “singles” church to being a young family church. With this comes a mellowing of much of the creativity. However, as the recent Good Friday service shows, this church may still be a model for how to reach those who are uninterested or unreached by earlier church models. It is the goal of this brief paper to simply describe this service in both its appearance and philosophy.
The basis for the Good Friday service, which itself was part of an entire week’s worth of activities celebrating Holy Week, was the Catholic “Stations of the Cross”. Basically, these stations are a meditative way of getting deeper into the story of the crucifixion, with each station representing a certain specific incident in the passion story. The Catholic version contains thirteen different stations, each with a specific liturgical prayer to help focus the heart of the individual on a certain aspect of Christ and oneself. The New Song version, however, only had eight stations, combining some of the stations, and discarding others. Though there were less stations, the format of the service was not lessened. Rather, by taking as its model a very liturgical structure, New Song adapted it so as to reflect the understandings and attitudes of a newer generation of Christians. It was very old in concept, but it was very new in expression. Each of the eight stations were placed throughout the main building. The building itself is less than a year old, and reflects the modern architecture of contemporary churches on the inside, with a mandated (by the city) look of an old Spanish mission on the outside.
The typical service has a stage upfront with audience style seating facing the stage. For this service, however, all of the chairs were removed from the sanctuary, or stacked and placed so as to create new “rooms”. Along with curtains, folding walls, and other barriers, the main sanctuary was essentially “rebuilt” so as to facilitate movement throughout as people went from station to station. There was no front, nor a back. The central area of the sanctuary was formed, by barriers into a small reflection area, with a large cross placed in the middle, where people could pray or reflect on the various images or ideas which had been expressed.
As people arrived at the service they were ushered into the courtyard between the two main buildings. Here they were encouraged to simply converse with each other. There was no set beginning, rather the service continually ran between 4 p.m and 9 p.m, reflecting more of an open house (actually closer to the typical “haunted house” model). About every 15 or 20 minutes, allowing for a small crowd to gather, an actor dressed in the garb of a Roman governor exited one of the buildings and began a monologue. This was the beginning of Station One, “Jesus is Condemned to Die”. The actor portrayed Pontius Pilate moments after condemning Jesus to die, and through his monologue engaged the listeners in the story, and essentially placed them within the story as he spoke to them as local Jews of the era. From this point the small crowd was ushered by a “guide”, dressed in period costume, who led them to the Second Station. At each Station there was the name of the Station, the liturgical prayer which accompanied each Station (which were copied from a Catholic website), and a verse which showed the cosmic significance of the scene, thus adding an element of paradox to the story. For example, the first station used Colossians 1:15-16 as the verse.
The Second station was titled “Jesus Carries His Cross”. The liturgical prayer focused the individual on the need to repent of sins. This station, then, followed this confessional model and was placed in a small room at the back of the sanctuary (usually acting as the nursery during regular services). The room was darkening and an artist who was part of the community transformed the room into a place which facilitated confession. There was gentle “chant” playing from a CD, a cross covered in translucent material and lit by assorted small lights and candles, and surrounding the entirety of the room were sheets covered with the names of sins, with each sheet describing the sin and including various verses about the dangers of these sins and the ability to overcome them. There was on each side of the room a container of sand, with the prayer and verse posted above it. The individual was to write the name of a specific sin they were dealing with in the sand, then read the prayer asking for cleansings. As they read the prayer they took a small shovel and erased the letters in the sand.
At this point of rather intense meditation, the person was ushered into the third station, which actually brought them for the first time into the main sanctuary. However, because of the barriers, they could only see and walk around the very back edge. This station was called “Simon the Cyrene helps Jesus Carry His Cross”. Again, rather than having a literal picture, this station brought the participant into a deeper analysis of the scene. A professional photographer who is a part of our church was asked to portray the scene. The concept of carrying the cross has often been understood as carrying our burdens, but this station portrayed this as a command to help others with their burdens – the cross we carry is the helping of others with their burdens and needs. The display then, was simply six pictures of hands in various poses, representing how we can use our hands to help and aid, to worship and work, for the glory of Christ. Next to this display was a large cotton sheet and various art supplies, including finger paints, markers, crayons, etc. where the participant was asked to place his or her own hands, creating a new piece of art from the hands of those who came, and thus also committing to use these hands for the sake of Christ.
The participants were then asked to quietly gather and wait to enter the fourth station, which was called “Jesus Falls and Meets the Women of Jerusalem.” This stations sought to communicate the concept through more through auditory engagement. About ten people at a time were ushered into another small room outside the main sanctuary (another room usually used as a nursery). Here there were comfortable chairs, copious candles, and subtle incense. As the people were seated, one of the “guides” began the CD which was specifically created for this station, which was called “Jesus falls and meets the women of Jerusalem.” For the first five minutes, those in the room were asked to participate in an “Ignatian” prayer, a prayer which encourages relaxed meditation and engages the imagination. The speaker on the CD orally created the scene, first briefly relating the story thus far, and placing the participants in the scene with comments such as “remember the screams” or “you noticed his horrible wounds”. As the oral story continued, the participants were brought to a place where they were witnessing Jesus walk down the road with his cross, with his stumbling right where they were standing. The gentle speaking ended with the phrase “Jesus looked up into your eyes.” At this point a beautiful song began about the grace and sacrifice of Christ. This station lasted about 10 minutes or so.
When the music had ended, and after the participants were asked to read out loud the prayer and the verse (as they were for each station), they were led to the east side of the main sanctuary, where there were some chairs to sit in and a large cross leaning against the wall. This station was called “Jesus is stripped and nailed to the cross”. Soon after the participants were seated were seated two actors dressed as Roman soldiers entered from behind a curtain. The person of Jesus was not portrayed, however, but was represented by a red robe, with Jesus being allowed to be seen in each person’s own imagination as the soldiers roughly handled him and beat him. The dialogue here was not meditative, but sought to really portray the scene in a grisly and shocking way, with the participants again being engaged in the scene as onlookers.
The soldiers showed and expressed vividly their disdain for Jesus and the people. As they placed the imaginary Jesus on the cross they pounded with a heavy hammer nails into the cross, with the sound of the hammering echoing throughout the building. Each soldier did one of the nails of the arms, and then ordered one of the participants to nail the third nail into the cross. For the most part, people were too shocked or distraught to actually do this, though some did. As the soldier’s finished an actress portraying Mary came into the scene and began a very emotional monologue about her relationship with Jesus, and the grief she was feeling. The scene ended with her strong weeping as the participants were then ushered to the next station.
On the way to the next station, the participants went through the middle of the sanctuary where there was a place to reflect and pray, lit by candles, with a large cross in the very middle. There were also Bibles and small jars of anointing oil. This was a place of both waiting and reflecting, allowing for people to express to God their thoughts and reflections, without specific leading or time frames. The Sixth Station was on the west side of the sanctuary. Here there were chairs to sit in and a small screen and digital projector set up. There were also three actresses dressed in black, quietly weeping in the background. One of the “guides” pressed play on the VCR there which began the crucifixion scene from Zaffirelli’s Jesus of Nazareth. The actresses wept and mourned as the video progressed, adding depth to the scene and drawing the participants into it more as actual onlookers of the scene. The clip was about 10 or 15 minutes long.
When Jesus died, the participants were ushered to the next station which was at the front of the church and used the stage and large main screen. This station was called “Jesus is taken down from the Cross”. The stage was decorated with three large crosses, laying at odd angles, and decorated with robes, and other paraphernalia. In the middle of the stage was a 3 foot tall Celtic Cross fountain, surrounded by a bright crimson robe. The crown of thorns was hung on one of the arms of this cross. On a large screen on the back of the stage a PowerPoint presentation was displayed, using art from throughout the centuries which represented the scene of the cross after Jesus died and was being taken down, with the story of the narrative interspersed. This presentation was about ten minutes in length, though individuals were allowed to meditate here for as long as they wished.
Posted on the south east corner of the sanctuary, next to the stage, was another actor dressed as a Roman soldier. He was next to a door, that usually led to the office of the worship leader of New Song, though on this evening it led to the eighth station, “Jesus is laid in the tomb”. The soldier would periodically gesture or say something to the participants asking if they wished to see the body. He only allowed in one or at most a few people at a time, shutting the door behind them. The office was transformed into a tomb, lit only by candles placed throughout. On top of what was once the desk, though now draped in black cloth was a body, wrapped in white linen. In this room the participant was allowed to meditate on the actual death of Christ, while sitting in what really did seem like a tomb. The prayer and verse were posted above the “corpse”.
There was also a sweet incense burning which filled the small room. After a few minutes the soldier opened the door and told the participants that it was time to leave, for “the Sabbath was coming.” He ushered them out another door, where there was another verse, and a basket full of linen strips, which had been sprayed with myrrh. The participants were requested to take home one of these strips, and bring it back on Sunday morning when they could help prepare the body. At this point the participant could leave, or could return to the middle of the sanctuary for further prayer and reflection. The tension of the death was created and was not given relief.
This service was very different than typical church services. There was no single “leader” or any individual that received focus. Rather, about twenty or thirty people were actively involved in various parts of the service, using their administrative, creative, and other gifts so as to draw each participant into the scene, as individuals and as a small community, in a way which truly engaged all of the senses. This was not an intellectual enterprise, but instead sought to bring each person into the story, placing them in the original context, and letting this context minister and teach each person. Thus, every individual was both led in a certain meditative direction, but was given ample allowance to draw from the story whatever the Spirit was teaching them.
Both those that were involved in the planning and presentations and those who were participants, were thus engaged in a new, creative way which utilized the various arts, but not for its own sake, and utilized modern technology, but not with a focus on its use. Rather, by taking modern and ancient mediums, the passion story was retold in an imaginative and powerful way which truly connected to the hearts, minds, and souls of those who spent a couple of hours immersed in the story of Christ’s death and burial. This intensity could not have been possible by use of the typical liturgy of contemporary or traditional services, and I believe this type of service, which creatively and spiritually left the bounds of established “church” services, is a model for reaching out to those who have grown up in a postmodern world, whether they are Christian or non-.
