If there is a service where words are simply inadequate, it is this one. The most effective act of worship would be one where worshipers are brought to the foot of the cross and left to stand in wonder and in awe and to weep for their own sinfulness. This is not something that can be explained; this is not something to be understood. This is something to be experienced.

The question before the worship team is, “How do we help worshipers experience the sacrifice of the cross in a powerful and life-changing way?” Of course, all we have are words and actions, silence and music. The combination of the elements at our disposal helps create an atmosphere of reverence and awe in this moment. There is no way to casually approach the cross, if there is any hope of finding some meaning there. So, while there doesn’t have to be a somber heaviness that seems artificial or forced, a quiet respect is an effective approach. Let silence or quiet reflective music greet those who enter the worship space; cut down on the usual loud greetings and laughter when friends gather.

Again, the mood need not be funereal. Let there be a hint of Easter to come. But to acknowledge suffering, whether it is Christ’s or that of the body today, requires seriousness. How will you acknowledge pain and suffering? How will you give space for confession and repentance? How will you allow the death of Jesus to be the life-giving presence that we need today?

Call to Worship for Good Friday

On this day we gather to remember Jesus our Savior
who loved us and gave himself for us.
Let us draw near in full assurance of God’s endless love and mercy.

We give our thanks and praise to Jesus Christ
who carries our sorrows,
heals our wounds,
and redeems us from sin and death.

Written by Marlene Kropf in Jesus Keep Me Near the Cross: Good Friday Service. Posted on Mennonite Church Canada Resource Centre website, http://resources.mennonitechurch.ca/. Reposted: https://re-worship.blogspot.com/2014/03/good-friday-call-to-worship.html

Gathering Words

Based on Isaiah 52:13-53:12

For us, he was despised, hated, unrecognizable and ridiculed.
For us, he was wounded that we may be whole and healed.
For us, he followed like a gentle lamb to be slaughtered in silence.
For us, he poured out himself to fill those who thirst.
For Christ, we mourn.

Lindsey Baynham, Lenten Liturgical Resources from Africana Writers, edited by Safiya Fosua, 2020.

Call to Worship

(based on John 19: 16-17)

So they took Jesus, and he went out carrying his own cross,
to the place of a skull, called in Hebrew, Golgotha.
There they crucified him.

This is not a day for mourning but for awe,
wonder, love and gratitude.

All you who bow in reverence, praise Him.
All you daughters of faith, glorify him.
All you sons of faith, stand in awe before him.

Written by Bruce Prewer, and posted on Bruce Prewer’s Homepage. Visit his website for many other excellent worship resources. Reposted: https://re-worship.blogspot.com/2012/03/good-friday-call-to-worship.html

Prayer of Confession

Taken for Granted

Hear us, God. We have taken the power of the persecution and crucifixion of the Lamb for granted. We have dropped the ball with the praise we don’t give, the love we don’t share with others, and what we don’t forgive. We have tried to use God instead of allowing God to use us. This is repenting hour. We commit to redirect our will in alignment with the will of the Great I Am. In the matchless name of Jesus, we pray for forgiveness and pardon. Amen.

Carolyn W. Dandridge, The Africana Worship Book for Year B, Discipleship Resources, 2007, p. 153.

My God, You Are!

A Bidding Prayer based on Psalm 22:1-15

Instructions: Present each petition, then allow time for people to pray silently or aloud. At the end of each petition, and after some time, the leader says, “Lord, you are merciful,” and the people respond: “My God, you are.”

Petition 1: For the times and situations when we cry out, “Where are you God?”
(Silence)
Response: “Lord, you are merciful.”/ “My God, you are.”

Petition 2: For the persons in this church community—their joys, and their grief…
(Silence)
Response: “Lord, you are merciful.”/ “My God, you are.”

Petition 3: For the community…
(Silence)
Response: “Lord, you are merciful.”/ “My God, you are.”

Petition 4: For the world…
(Silence)
Response: “Lord you are merciful.”/ “My God, you are.”

Petition 5: For church leaders…
Response: “Lord you are merciful”/ “My God, you are.”

Petition 6: For the people who, over the years, have invited us to sit at their feet, the ones who have helped us grow into the people we have become. We give you thanks for the ways that we have been allowed to soak in their wisdom.
(Silence)
Response: “Lord you are merciful.”/ “My God, you are.”

Conclude this time of prayer with The Lord’s Prayer or a simple “Amen.”

Lindsey Baynham, Lenten Liturgical Resources from Africana Writers, edited by Safiya Fosua, 2020.

Prayer of Confession

(based on John 18:15-18, 25-27; 19:1-3)

“Will you lay down your life for me?
Very truly, I tell you, before the cock crows,
you will have denied me three times.” John 13:38

Lord we have denied you,
Each time we refused to see you in the faces of the hungry and the homeless.
May the old in us pass away and all things become new.

Lord we have betrayed you,
Each time we have kept our distance
from the anguish of the oppressed and the persecuted.
May the old in us pass away and all things become new.

Lord we have mocked you,
Each time we have pretended we do not know how radically you call us to live.
May the old in us pass away and all things become new.

Lord we are lost and have strayed,
Welcome us into your forgiving arms and make us new.
May the old in us pass away and all things become new.

All merciful One, God of infinite love and compassion, though we have strayed, you have never abandoned us. In this season of repentance, we come confessing our sins and reaching out for the healing power of your forgiveness. Through Christ our Lord, give us renewed and truthful hearts that will follow you in all of our ways.

From the website of Patmos Abbey—The Order of Saint Columba. Posted on the Canadian Foodgrains Bank .“Weekly Prayer” page. Reposted: https://re-worship.blogspot.com/2012/03/prayer-lord-we-have-denied-you.html

Benediction for Good Friday

(Isaiah 53: 6; John 19: 30)

Jesus, we wait here by your tomb
carrying our grief;
the grief of the betrayer,
the grief of the denier,
the grief of the crucifiers.
We carry the grief of the lost,
the heartbroken, the bereft.
Upon you was laid the grief of us all.
It is finished.
God of endings, God of darkness,
God of the tomb, God of dark days and great loss,
be with us now as we wait with Jesus.

Written by Carole Penner, and posted on her Leading in Worship blog. Reposted: https://re-worship.blogspot.com/2012/03/good-friday-benediction.html