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Tomorrow, Holy Week observances around the world begin. Palm Sunday is the first observance of Holy Week. Based on Jesus’ triumphal entry to Jerusalem, it begins a cycle of daily commemorations of that awful time. Palm fronds from last year’s Palm Sunday observances have already been burned, creating ashes for Ash Wednesday in February. New palm fronds are used in many churches in recognition of the greenery thrown on the roadway as Jesus rode into Jerusalem.

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On my previous post I discussed and illustrated the mailed Easter services invitation received from Faith Christian Community. I felt Faith's invitational message appropriately targeted people seeking a connection with the "I AM".

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Easter is one of the best times of the year to invite friends, neighbors, and acquaintances to your church's services. Some Anchorage churches know how important this date is and are mailing out invitations. I received one such invitation in the mail this week.

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On Sunday, March 11, I visited All Saints Episcopal Church in downtown Anchorage. I'm not sure why I’d not visited this little gem of a church sooner, but now I’m sorry I hadn’t.

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Local Lutheran pastor Dan Bollerud, Christ Our Savior Lutheran Church, has developed a devotional resource for people on-the-go, shut-in’s, and that endangered 18-29 yr. old group I’ve been blogging about recently. To my knowledge, no other churches in Anchorage have developed or are utilizing this type of innovation.

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Two weeks ago the Faith Matters page of the Anchorage Daily News announced (see below) a Beast Feast to be held later that day at Baxter Road Bible Church.

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ChangePoint has created a new blog for the duration of Lent called A Journey Through Lent . I’m quite impressed with this heartfelt creative writing offering, penned by the hand of ChangePoint’s Communications Director Adam Legg.

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A Play With a Purpose: The Gospel According to John Mark was presented on February 11 at the Wendy Williamson Theater at UAA. I was concerned few would attend as, from personal observation, Anchorage churches do not tend to support entertainment coming from outside a specific church or denomination. The Anchorage church community often demonstrates a ‘not invented here’ mentality, failing to support some great opportunities for Christian learning.

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I, along with many other seekers, tend to visit churches on special church days in this manner: churches that have previously shown me true Christian hospitality, Bible-based messages, and music enhancing the service, rather than merely entertaining, draw me back over and over again.

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Ash Wednesday, steeped in church tradition, opens Lent, a period of soul searching, denial, and anxious observance leading up to Easter.

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The day before Super Bowl, I noticed a posting on the Faith Matters page in the Anchorage Daily News. It said that Christ Our Savior Lutheran Church was having a Super Bowl inspired/formatted service. I couldn’t resist seeing this so I went. This church, located in my previous neighborhood of Oceanview, is easy to locate on Old Seward Highway close to where it rejoins the Seward Highway.

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Anchorage churches rarely present anything of note for the local community. When they do, it seems attendees tend to support these events along denominational lines, although that truly has little to do with sponsoring churches or their theology.

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Last week I posted research results from the Barna Group about six key reasons youth and young adults are deserting church.

Predictably, some readers expressed opinions on this blog as to why they thought this was happening.

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Don’t Get Out Much
My church visits usually revolve around Anchorage proper, but when I get out to our local communities to the North (Eagle River, Chugiak, Birchwood, etc.), I usually have a unique experience. This was the case a week ago, when on January 15 I visited Eagle River Grace, sited not far past Chugiak High, on an invitation.

Greetings and Hospitality Say Much

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Just got word of an important spiritual play coming to Anchorage’s Wendy Williamson Auditorium on February 11. You’ll want to plan ahead to enjoy this rewarding evening.

What is this play about?

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As I travel from church to church in Anchorage, I’ve noticed fewer and fewer youth attending church. In many churches, I see virtually no youth at all. I’ve been perplexed by this, wondering what the driving reasons are. Some churches have instituted programs to attract and capture the missing youth, or retain those still attending. I shake my head when I see this because so often churches create “programs” as solutions for issues deeper than they seem to understand.

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Tonight I attended a wonderful church service in East Anchorage which left me tingly and warm. Anchorage Moravian Church is located in a warren of streets not far from the Muldoon curve. Arriving just before the 6:30 p.m. service, I found a parking lot mostly devoid of cars.

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Each year, based on my church visits and observations for the year just ended, I look forward to sharing things I believe churches can do, or do better to be more welcoming to members and guests, increasing attendance, and membership at the same time. Many of these things seem to appear on my lists year after year, because churches do little or nothing about them. Did you know guests decide in 5-8 minutes if they’ll ever return. How does your church fare?

Warmly Greet Each Guest and Member

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All month, I’ve been featuring a unique giving program adopted by Baxter Road Bible Church. With their December theme of “It’s Not Your Birthday”, they’ve demonstrated to the Anchorage community their understanding of the true meaning of Christmas.

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A Google search located a goodly number of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services in Anchorage churches. I used the search terms anchorage church services christmas 2011 and found many pages of local church service offerings.

Additionally, the Anchorage Daily News published, in their December 10 "A Section" centerfold, an extensive listing of local church ads and services scheduled for Christmas Eve and day.