Journey to the Cross

By Faith Bosland

Meditating on the events of Jesus' final days and his resurrection can be profound. The challenge for most of us is shutting out the noise and distractions of everyday life long enough to quiet our souls and listen to the Spirit of God.

Here's how you can set up an inspiring means to interactively meditate on Jesus' Journey to the Cross: create stations for contemplation around your facility. It's perfect if you have side rooms, stairs, pews, choir loft, and a balcony, but you can be creative and adapt to any situation.

You can offer Journey to the Cross any time of the year. Holy Week can be especially effective. Use it during camp, a lock-in, or a midweek gathering. This design has 13 stations, most of which can accommodate approximately three people at a time. Since everyone begins at the first station, you need a plan for staggering the start. Try one of these ideas:

• Gather the group for worship. Participants can leave one or two at a time to begin the Journey and return as they finish. (At some point, everyone may be participating in the Journey.) This option works well if you have a group of 30 or fewer.
• Have the Journey available between certain hours, say 6 to 10 p.m., on a particular day. People may arrive whenever they prefer.
• Have the stations set up every evening for a week. People may arrive whenever they prefer. This is a good option if you have a very large group.

Expect people to spend an hour to an hour and a half walking through the entire Journey to the Cross.

Source: http://www.youthspecialties.com/free/programming/stations/