Lakeside Community Presbyterian Church

From betrayal, to grief, to excitement. This is the emotional rollercoaster of the final three days of Holy Week.

On Thursday, the church down through the ages has used these next three days for worship to acknowledge these emotions and to prepare for what will transpire on Sunday in celebration of Christ’s resurrection from the dead.

The three days, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday, are three days of worship that are intended to be one service stretched over three days. It begins with Maundy Thursday, a service of remembrance when Christ was in the Upper Room with His disciples. The second service is Good Friday, when we remember Christ’s trial and walk to the cross. The third service is the Easter Vigil or Holy Saturday, a service of waiting in hopeful anticipation of Christ’s resurrection on Easter morning.

Now most churches don’t offer all of these services but at LCPC we observe two of the three. We are having a Maundy Thursday service on Thursday evening at 7:00pm where we will remember Christ’s Last Passover Meal and partake in the Lord’s Supper and a Good Friday Service at 7:00pm where we will have a service that includes the “Rites of Nails,” remembering that it was our sins that nailed Christ to the cross. Then on Sunday at 9:45am we will celebrate that Christ is alive and that His teaching about His resurrection were true.

Let me encourage you to invite someone to any one of these services. The best way is to ask someone to come with you, but another way can be through an email. You can copy and forward this email to a friend or family member that you may want to invite.

Finally, I hope that you will take some time to pray for our services. It is through prayer that we will invite God into our worship and into the lives that will be attending.

Have a great rest of the week and I hope to see you at our services.

The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. ¹³ They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,

“Hosanna!”

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

“Blessed is the king of Israel!”

¹⁴ Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written:

¹⁵ “Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion;
    see, your king is coming,
    seated on a donkey’s colt.”

John 12:12-15Pa

This Sunday is Palm Sunday and the beginning of Holy Week.

Palm Sunday at LCPC should be a fun day as we begin our service outside the sanctuary and process in with “Willy the Donkey” leading us into worship. Tell any kids (or kids at heart) that our church is having a donkey at church this Sunday! Willy also loves taking pictures so after church you can take your picture with Willy!

Don’t forget, the most important week of the Christian calendar starts on Sunday and we have something taking place every day next week.

Be praying for our week together as we remember Christ’s last week.

Is there a family member, a friend, a co-worker that might be open to coming with you to one of our upcoming services at LCPC? Let me encourage you to pray about who you might invite and may we make this Easter time where God’s love shines through as we remember the resurrection of His son Jesus Christ.

I am praying for our week together and I hope to see you at some of our services.