Worship Resources
Lent & Easter
Explore our Lent and Easter resources for engaging worship and activities for everyone. You’ll discover inspiring materials on this page.
Recorded Webinars
Check out our webinars on Lent and Easter and get fresh insights for your church’s worship and activities. Start streaming these helpful sessions.
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Additional resources
Ash Wednesday Worship
A Modern Ash Wednesday Service
This service comes from The Pastor’s Workshop website.
Ash Wednesday Worship
This Ash Wednesday service includes an explanation of spiritual practices and a time of reflection.
Ash Wednesday Worship Service Ideas
This article includes information about the meaning of Ash Wednesday and some Ash Wednesday service ideas, including orders of worship with optional prayers, Scripture passages, and suggested hymns and songs.
Called to Humility and Repentance: An Ash Wednesday service
The Reformed Worship website offers this Ash Wednesday worship service.
Contemporary Service for Ash Wednesday
This order of service comes from Discipleship Ministries of the United Methodist Church.
Worship Connection: Ash Wednesday
This worship service from Ministry Matters includes a choice of Calls to Worship as well as suggestions for artistic elements suggestions.
Easter Skits
Easter Skits for Children and Youth
These free downloadable skits include ones for preschool, early elementary, and youth.
Easter Skits, Lent, Palm Sunday, Resurrection Drama
This page from the Sunday School Network offers a variety of skits for Lent and Easter.
A Simple Easter Play
This play is based on an Easter story in Carolyn Brown’s book Sharing the Easter Faith with Children.
Easter Worship
Easter Worship Ideas
This article has suggestions for Easter liturgy as well as links to service outlines for an Easter Vigil and Sunrise Service.
Easter Worship Resource Index
The re:worship website offers numerous links to Hymns and Songs, Calls to Worship, Prayers, Confessions and Assurances, Benedictions, and other resources for Easter worship.
The Empty Tomb
The Samford University website offers ideas for creating your own Easter worship service as well as a sample Order of Service.
Order of Worship Easter Sunday
This order of worship for Easter Sunday comes from the Presbyterian Outlook website.
Resurrection Sunday
This Easter worship service is posted on the United Church of Christ website.
Family and Intergenerational Worship
Easter Family Faith Trail
This booklet offers activities which involve different senses and different ways of connecting and growing with God for nine events of Holy Week.
Family Lent ideas
The Flame Creative Children’s Ministry website offers activities to use at home as a family throughout Lent.
Holy Week Fair
Karen Ware Jackson’s blog suggests a series of stations with stories, games, and crafts to help kids and families walk through the events of Holy Week.
Holy Week Family Worship: Outline for Maundy Thursday & Good Friday
There are suggestions for family worship during Holy Week, including downloadable outlines for Maundy Thursday and Good Friday family worship services.
Holy Week in a Box
This Building Faith article explains how to create a Holy Week Box, using simple objects, along with scripture, to tell the story of Holy Week.
How to Make a Palm Cross
This YouTube video has step-by-step instructions for make a cross out of palms.
Interactive Holy Week for Children
Building Faith offers ideas for interactive experiences for children and families for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil.
Intergen Lent and Easter
These free Lenten resources can be used for intergenerational worship or gatherings.
Lent at Home Playlist Collection
This page of the Michigan Conference of the UMC has family playlists for Lent that include a variety of spiritual practices.
A Lenten Journey
This site offers prayer practices, rituals, and activities for faith formation for each week of Lent.
Good Friday Worship
A 21st Century Worship Resource for Good Friday
The hymn “Were You There?” pairs with readings based on John 19 in this spoken/sung liturgy from the UMC.
The Celebration of Christ’s Passion
This service, normally celebrated in the afternoon, is a continuation of the Maundy Thursday liturgy.
A Funeral for Jesus
A Mennonite minister provides a funeral-like Good Friday service designed to hammer home to us in a “very deep, visceral way” that Jesus really died.
A Good Friday Liturgy for Readers & Singers
From the UMC, a liturgy using readings and choral responses.
A Good Friday Service Celebrating the Way of the Cross
Focusing on Mark 14-15, the service begins with the Old Testament background of the tabernacle and temple and culminates in communion in the most holy presence of God.
Good Friday Service of the Three Nails
This service from the PC (USA) juxtaposes the event of Good Friday with known historical events.
A Holy Week Service
This highly adaptable service is “an attempt to recall through scripture, music, sacrament, prayer and candles the entire week’s events.”It may be used for Maundy Thursday or Good Friday service.
A Liturgy for Good Friday
Observing the second day of the Easter Triduum, (Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday).
A Service for Good Friday
From the UMC, a downloadable Word document for Good Friday worship.
Sights, Sounds & Smells of Good Friday
A Good Friday service from the North Tasmanian Lutheran parish.
A Tenebrae Service for Maundy Thursday or Good Friday
This reading titled “Jesus Walked this Lonesome Valley” utilizes up to fifteen people.
Lent and Easter Websites for Children’s Ministry
Building Faith
The Building Faith website has many articles and resources relating to Lent and Easter. You might want to share the Home Practices section of their website with your families and encourage them to adopt a special spiritual practice for the season of Lent.
Flame: Creative Children’s Ministry
This site includes Family Lent Ideas, Holy Week Activities, and suggestions for a Hands-On Easter Story with creative prayer stations. There is also a section on Prayer Stations invented by children.
Messy Church
This website has activity ideas for Lent and Easter which can be used for intergenerational gatherings or in Sunday school.
Quick Links for Lent with Children.
The Ministry Matters website includes a list of resources for children’s ministry leaders and caregivers.
Talking with Children about Lent and Easter
This article provides ways to teach the children in your life to understand crucial events of our Christian faith.
Resources for Observing Lent and Easter
There is an article titled “What Do You See in the Sanctuary During Lent?” and another called “Three Reasons to Include Children on Ash Wednesday.”
Lenten Studies Available from PRC
Lenten Worship
Burying the Alleluia for Lent
This tradition is explained on the Worshiping with Children website, along with suggestions for how to do it.
Lent in 3 minutes
The Busted Halo website has a video which explains the significance of this season of prayer, fasting, and giving, and how you can make the most of this time of repentance and renewal.
Maundy Thursday Worship
A Service of Worship for Holy Thursday Evening
This service from Discipleship Ministries of the United Methodist Church includes foot washing and Holy Communion.
Jesus’ Final Meal
This document has some materials to help you create your own Maundy Thursday worship service with the main theme “Remembering the Upper Room” There is also a sample worship service.
Maundy Thursday
This article from the Reformed Worship website discusses the history of Maundy Thursday worship and includes an order of worship for a Maundy Thursday service.
Maundy Thursday Service from Laura Westby
This service is posted on the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ.
Maundy Thursday Taize Worship
This service is posted on the blog of United Methodist pastor Corey Turnpenny.
Maundy Thursday: A Simple Worship Outline
A Sanctified Art offers this simple Maundy Thursday service outline.
Passover Seder
Domestic Church
This site contains preparations for Passover and the seder, a menu and a Messianic Passover Haggadah.
Why Are Christians Celebrating Passover?
This article from the Jewish Unpacked website offers a variety of opinions from both Jews and Christians about whether Christians should celebrate Passover.
Shrove Tuesday
Pancake Party
Roots Resources offers ideas for a Shrove Tuesday event with children including quizzes, games, and more.
Shrove Tuesday Party Packs
The Building Faith website suggests what to include in take home “Shrove Tuesday Party Packs” if your church doesn’t do a pancake supper, or you know some families won’t be able to attend.
Stations of the Cross
Experiential Stations of the Cross Kit
This kit for Protestants includes a supply list, a pdf of all the signage you will need, photos of how the 15 stations can be set up and a link to photos of them.
Projectable Stations of the Cross
This free, downloadable mixed-media presentation can be printed or projected.
Creative Stations of the Cross
This article explains how one church created an experience for use throughout Holy Week. It also provides tips for organizing one for your church.
Stations of the Cross for Protestant Worship
This page offers an overview, with explanations of the practice and its relevance to Protestants, plus a sample worship service.
Video: Rethinking the Stations of the Cross
This program was produced by Brentwood UMC, located near Nashville, TN.
Worship Service: Stations of the Cross
This resource if for a service observing the Stations on Good Friday.
Scriptural Stations of the Cross
This is an alternative to the traditional stations, and a way of reflecting more deeply on the scriptural accounts of Christ’s passion.
Guidebook to Stations of the Cross
These Good Friday prayer stations include a scripture reading, reflection and suggested action.
Devotional Guide
This is a downloadable guide for Lent and Holy Week.
Stations of the Cross for Children and Families
Domestic-Church
Families can use this clear and simple guide to the Stations which contains explanations and prayers designed for children.
Good Friday Stations
These prayer stations can be used in an All-Age Service on Good Friday. Each prayer station contains a scene, a story card, a craft or play activity and a prayer activity.
The Way to the Cross: Good Friday Prayer Stations
Each station looks at the Good Friday story from the point of view of someone who participated in it. There is a picture of the individual, a symbolic object, a story card, a Bible reading card or cards, and something to collect to put into a story bag to take home.
Stations of the Cross for Youth
Stations of the Cross for Youth
This Catholic youth ministers’ site offers tips and resources for leading the Stations.
Stations of the Cross for a Youth Group
This site offers a multi-sensory experience for Protestant participants.