Holy Week brings — and starts — traditions
After opening in October, Crown Point church preparing for its first Easter celebration
It won’t be Easter as usual at LifeWell Church this month, the Rev. Danny Cox said.
That’s because this is the first year the nondenominational Crown Point church will be celebrating the religious holiday together after opening about six months ago.
“We don’t have any traditions here. We don’t have any things to fall back on,” Cox said. “We’re able to design completely new elements. We’re able to approach this thinking, ‘How do we do it differently?’ ”
There are some core elements that LifeWell: A Christian Church will focus on with other churches in Northwest Indiana during Holy Week, though, Cox said, including the story of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The Rev. Erik Grayvold said he tells the youth at his church that Holy Week — which generally begins with Palm Sunday and ends with Easter Sunday (April 21) in the Christian faith — is “meant to be a roller coaster of emotion.”
Palm Sunday begins with excitement as Jesus enters Jerusalem, Grayvold, pastor at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Chesterton, said. But as Jesus spent time in Jerusalem, people became angry as Jesus shares his message, including “telling people to love their enemies,” according to Grayvold.
On Maundy Thursday, “there’s a little bit of this awkwardness that we know what’s going to come next” with the “betrayal” as Jesus gives his final teachings, Grayvold said. His crucifixion then leaves people “haunted” as they reflect on the death of Jesus, he said.
But on Easter, there’s the resurrection and “finally, we hear Christ has risen, alleluia,” Grayvold said.
“At that point, we’re at that emotional high,” he said.
Holy Week is seen as kind of one long worship service, Grayvold said.
The Diocese of Gary will bless the holy oils that will be used throughout the year, the Rev. Martin Dobrzynski, diocesan director of worship and pastor of St. Michael the Archangel in Schererville, said.
“We’re able to design completely new elements.
We’re able to approach this thinking, ‘How do we do it differently?’”
— The Rev. Danny Cox, pastor of LifeWell Church in Crown Point
The Catholic church also has a foot washing ceremony, “following the example of Jesus … where at the Last Supper, he gets up from the table and washes the feet of his apostles as a sign of service and call for us to serve in the image and the pattern of Jesus,” Dobrzynski said.
Many churches have baptisms and first communions during Holy Week, Grayvold and Dobrzynski said. Woodmar Baptist Church in Hammond will also have an Easter egg hunt for children the day before Easter, the Rev. John Clement said. “It’s a special time,” Clement said.
The Rev. Michael Cooper said, “It’s a big experience in a short amount of time.”
Cooper, pastor at Metropolitan Community Church Illiana in Portage, plans to focus on a story of liberation and a “new dawn and new reality that sets us really in a unique place and defines us Christians.”
MCC Illiana emphasizes acceptance of gay, lesbian bisexual, transgender and queer spirituality, Cox said. Coming from an experience where people are “ostracized because of their sexual orientation or gender identity,” Cox said, “we see kind of this resurrection, this conquering of the forces of death of evil.”
Grayvold said he is going to focus his message on what the church discussed throughout Lent.
“As the people of God, we are called to be neighbors of one another, “not just to the people sitting next to us in our pews” but in the community and the world, Grayvold said.
Dobrzynski said a message his parish will focus on is that people’s sufferings are “not useless, just like Jesus’ suffering wasn’t useless. The whole thing was to redeem us to God and forgive our sins.”
“That’s the great message. That’s the hope of all Christianity, from the very beginning. We can allow God to use (those sufferings) … to transform what looks like death into life in this life and in the life beyond,” Dobrzynski said.
Clement said he’s focusing on the story of Mary Magdalene and the women who found the empty tomb. From that story, Clement said he hopes people will think about the place that women have in ministry and faith, as well as the foundation of Christianity with the empty tomb and the resurrection. Clement sees it as a positive message of “eternal life” for the world we live in today, he said.
Cox said he wants to emphasize how the empty tomb affected Jesus’ disciples. Before the resurrection, “you could make a case they were fearful, they were cowards,” he said. But after the resurrection, “things within the disciples changes dramatically” as they share the gospel.
“I think it brings us hope. I believe it brings us confidence. And I believe it brings us the opportunity to have a new life through a relationship with Jesus Christ,” Cox said.
As the church grows, Cox said they are still figuring out what their traditions will be at LifeWell, but he hopes they will always “want the ability to change and adapt.” LifeWell formed as a result of Town and Country Christian Church closing in 2017, he said.
“I don’t think this building and the decorations and the brick and the mortar, it’s not the church. The church is the people. And we like to say church is done best when he leave these walls,” Cox said.
That’s why on Good Friday, the church is focusing on outreach and will be putting together roughly 100 bags filled with toiletries, a stuffed animal and other items to give to foster children living in the area, according to Cox.
“Even with Easter, yeah, we’re coming here to celebrate, but we want to be outward focused on who we are and what we desire to be,” Cox said.