Behind the Series: Witnesses — Encountering Jesus When It Matters Most
A look at the planning, scripture arc, and music behind the Witnesses series at McPherson First UMC.
Life’s most important moments often reveal who we really are. This Lenten journey through John’s Gospel takes us into the lives of ordinary people who encountered Jesus during the most critical hours of his ministry. From Martha’s grief-stricken faith to Peter’s fearful denial, from Pilate’s political calculations to Mary’s Easter morning recognition, we see ourselves in their stories.
These witnesses invite us to examine our own responses when following Jesus becomes difficult, when faith costs something, and when resurrection hope seems impossible. Their encounters with Jesus challenge and inspire us to stand close when it matters most.
Visual Theme
The series graphics feature overlapping faces in profile with a watercolor aesthetic of blues, pinks, and purples. The layered faces suggest community, reflection, and the multiplied witness of faith shared across generations. This soft, contemplative style emphasizes the personal nature of encountering Jesus.
The altar design keeps the space simple and uncluttered to match the graphics’ contemplative feel — fabric draping in coordinating purples and blues as a backdrop, a single wooden cross as the focal point throughout the series, and a few candles at varying heights. The same basic arrangement remains throughout Lent, allowing the scripture and message to carry the progression toward Easter.
Congregational Resources
A 14-page printed guide titled Witnesses: A Lenten Guide accompanies the series, including weekly themes, a section on living out your faith through the five membership promises, Grace Groups introduction, Bible App connection, special services overview, and a daily Bible reading plan with scripture and reflection questions for each day of Lent.
Monthly Bible App Reading Plans: March features “The Great Escape” (14 days) exploring Exodus liberation themes. April features “The Crucified King” (9 days) focusing on crucifixion and resurrection, timed for Holy Week.
Week-by-Week Overview
Ash Wednesday, February 18 — The Shepherd Who Seeks
Scripture: John 10:1-18 (The Good Shepherd)
Sermon Type: General | Primary Promise: Prayers
Special Focus: Ash Wednesday, Beginning of Lent; One Service for Organ Music
On this day when we receive ashes and acknowledge our mortality and sin, Jesus offers us the image of the good shepherd who knows his sheep by name and lays down his life for them. The ashes on our foreheads remind us we are dust, but the shepherd’s voice reminds us we are beloved. This tension between human frailty and divine love sets the foundation for everything that follows.
Hymns / Organ
“The King of Love My Shepherd Is” (UMH 138)
“Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us” (UMH 381)
“The Lord’s My Shepherd, I’ll Not Want” (UMH 136)
“Softly and Tenderly Jesus Is Calling” (UMH 348)
“Just As I Am, Without One Plea” (UMH 357)
Week 1: February 22 — When Grief Meets Hope
Scripture: John 11:1-3, 17, 21-26, 32-35, 38-44 (Jesus Raises Lazarus)
Sermon Type: Decision | Primary Promise: Witness
Special Focus: UMW Sunday, First Sunday in Lent
Martha and Mary encounter Jesus in their darkest moment of grief over Lazarus’s death. Martha’s bold confession — “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God” — comes not from easy faith but from the raw honesty of loss. Jesus doesn’t rebuke her struggle but enters it, weeping alongside the sisters before calling Lazarus from the tomb. This opening week sets the tone by acknowledging that encountering Jesus when it matters most often happens in our pain, not despite it.
Hymns / Organ
“O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go” (UMH 480)
“Hymn of Promise” (UMH 707)
“Great Is Thy Faithfulness” (UMH 140)
“Blessed Assurance” (UMH 369)
“Because He Lives” (UMH 364)
Contemporary / Praise Team
“Raise a Hallelujah” — Bethel Music
“Graves Into Gardens” — Elevation Worship
“Resurrecting” — Elevation Worship
“Way Maker” — Sinach
“The Blessing” — Kari Jobe
Week 2: March 1 — When Power Kneels
Scripture: John 13:1-17 (Jesus Washes Feet)
Sermon Type: Call | Primary Promise: Service
Special Focus: Second Sunday in Lent, New Member Sunday
The disciples encounter Jesus doing the unthinkable — their teacher and Lord kneeling before them with a basin and towel. Peter’s protest captures our discomfort when Jesus subverts our expectations of power. This uncomfortable encounter challenges every worldly assumption about leadership, success, and significance.
Hymns / Organ
“Jesu, Jesu” (UMH 432)
“Lord, Whose Love Through Humble Service” (UMH 581)
“Make Me a Servant” (TFWS 2176)
“O Master, Let Me Walk with Thee” (UMH 430)
“The Servant Song” (TFWS 2222)
Contemporary / Praise Team
“Jesus, Friend of Sinners” — Casting Crowns
“Servant of All” — Misty Edwards
“Love Came Down” — Kari Jobe
Week 3: March 8 — When Courage Fails
Scripture: John 18:12-27 (Peter’s Denial)
Sermon Type: Decision | Primary Promise: Witness
Special Focus: Third Sunday in Lent
Peter encounters his own fear in the firelight of the high priest’s courtyard. The same disciple who hours earlier declared he would lay down his life for Jesus denies even knowing him — three times. The tragedy is not that Peter was uniquely weak, but that he was heartbreakingly human. Peter’s denial matters because it names the gap between our intentions and our actions, and promises that this gap is not the end of our story.
Hymns / Organ
“Amazing Grace” (UMH 378)
“Just As I Am, Without One Plea” (UMH 357)
“Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me” (UMH 361)
“Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior” (UMH 351)
Contemporary / Praise Team
“Come As You Are” — Crowder
“O Come to the Altar” — Elevation Worship
“Mercy” — Elevation Worship / Amanda Cook
“Grace Like Rain” — Todd Agnew
“Even If” — MercyMe
Week 4: March 15 — When Truth Faces Power
Scripture: John 18:28-40 (Jesus and Pilate)
Sermon Type: Justice | Primary Promise: Service
Special Focus: Fourth Sunday in Lent
Pilate encounters Jesus and asks the question that defines his dilemma: “What is truth?” The Roman governor represents pragmatic power that calculates consequences rather than seeks righteousness. Pilate’s question still echoes in our public squares and private decisions. This encounter exposes how power and expediency can make us complicit in injustice, and how the crowd’s voice can drown out the quiet voice of truth standing before us.
Hymns / Organ
“O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing” (UMH 57)
“I Want Jesus to Walk with Me” (UMH 521)
“God of Grace and God of Glory” (UMH 577)
“Be Thou My Vision” (UMH 451)
“Lead On, O King Eternal” (UMH 580)
Contemporary / Praise Team
“Voice of Truth” — Casting Crowns
“Christ Is Enough” — Hillsong Worship
“Stand in Your Love” — Bethel Music / Josh Baldwin
“King of Kings” — Hillsong Worship
“Battle Belongs” — Phil Wickham
Week 5: March 22 — When Violence Reveals Us
Scripture: John 19:1-16a (Jesus Condemned)
Sermon Type: Justice | Primary Promise: Service
Special Focus: Fifth Sunday in Lent
The crowd encounters Jesus beaten, mocked, and displayed before them with Pilate’s cynical “Here is the man!” The cry “Crucify him!” reveals the capacity for violence that lives in religious communities when threatened. This encounter forces us to see how easily fear transforms into violence, how quickly the threatened lash out at the truth-teller. The confrontation with the condemned Jesus reveals not only his innocence but our complicity.
Hymns / Organ
“Ah, Holy Jesus” (UMH 289)
“O Sacred Head, Now Wounded” (UMH 286)
“Were You There” (UMH 288)
“When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” (UMH 298)
“What Wondrous Love Is This” (UMH 292)
Contemporary / Praise Team
“The Passion” — Hillsong Worship
“Man of Sorrows” — Hillsong Worship
“Who You Say I Am” — Hillsong Worship
“Behold the Lamb of God” — Andrew Peterson
Week 6: March 29 — When the King Is Crowned (Palm Sunday)
Scripture: John 19:16b-22 (The Crucified Messiah)
Sermon Type: Invitation | Primary Promise: Witness
Special Focus: Palm/Passion Sunday; One Service for Children’s Music with Praise Team
Pilate encounters his own unintended prophecy when he posts the sign “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews” above the cross. In John’s ironic narrative, the truth is proclaimed by the one who questioned what truth is. The cross becomes the throne, the crown of thorns becomes the crown of glory, and the instrument of shame becomes the sign of victory. Palm Sunday celebration crashes into Passion reality, and we must decide whether we can worship a king whose crown is thorns.
Contemporary / Praise Team
“Glorious Day” — Passion
“O Praise the Name (Anastasis)” — Hillsong Worship
“What a Beautiful Name” — Hillsong Worship
“This Is Amazing Grace” — Phil Wickham
“Hosanna” — Hillsong United
Holy Thursday, April 2 — When the End Comes
Scripture: John 19:23-30 (Jesus’ Last Words)
Sermon Type: General | Primary Promise: Presence
Special Focus: Maundy Thursday
The soldiers, Mary, the beloved disciple, and others encounter Jesus in his final moments. The phrase “It is finished” is not defeat but completion — the work of love accomplished. For those gathered tonight at the table and at the cross, this encounter asks: Can we stay? When faith is stripped of comfort and certainty, will we remain? The witnesses at the cross model costly presence, choosing solidarity over safety.
Hymns / Organ
“’Tis Finished! The Messiah Dies” (UMH 282)
“In the Cross of Christ I Glory” (UMH 295)
“Beneath the Cross of Jesus” (UMH 297)
“Go to Dark Gethsemane” (UMH 290)
Contemporary / Praise Team
“Behold the Lamb” — Keith Getty
“Jesus Paid It All” — Kristian Stanfill
“Thank You Jesus for the Blood” — Charity Gayle
“The Power of the Cross” — Keith Getty
“In Christ Alone” — Keith Getty
Good Friday, April 3 — When Silence Falls
Scripture: John 19:31-42 (Jesus the Passover Lamb)
Sermon Type: Call | Primary Promise: Service
Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus — both secret disciples — encounter their moment of decision in Jesus’ death. They emerge from the shadows to claim Jesus’ body and provide an honorable burial. Sometimes our most important witness comes not in dramatic moments of life but in quiet acts of dignity when death has won its apparent victory. On this day of mourning and waiting, faithfulness looks like grief work, like showing up with spices and burial clothes, like refusing to abandon the dead.
Easter, April 5 — When Recognition Dawns
Scripture: John 20:1-18 (Resurrection)
Sermon Type: General | Primary Promise: Witness
Special Focus: Easter Sunday
Mary Magdalene encounters the risen Jesus in the garden but doesn’t recognize him until he speaks her name. Easter is not about abstract truth but personal encounter with the living Christ who calls us each by name. For all the witnesses we’ve met during this Lenten journey — those who failed and those who stood firm, those who denied and those who wept — resurrection changes the story. Mary’s commission “go and tell” becomes our commission: we are witnesses to the moment when death dies and love lives.
Hymns / Organ
“Christ the Lord Is Risen Today” (UMH 302)
“He Lives” (UMH 310)
“Thine Be the Glory” (UMH 308)
“Crown Him with Many Crowns” (UMH 327)
Contemporary / Praise Team
“Alive” — Hillsong Young & Free
“See a Victory” — Elevation Worship
“The Lion and the Lamb” — Big Daddy Weave
“Living Hope” — Phil Wickham
“Good Grace” — Hillsong United
The Arc of the Series
The series traces a deliberate emotional and theological arc through John’s Gospel. We begin at the fundamental truth that Jesus knows us, loves us, and pursues us (The Shepherd Who Seeks), then move through the mess of human response — grief and faith intertwined, power redefined through service, courage that fails, truth confronting political calculation, violence that reveals our complicity, and a crucified king whose crown is thorns. The Holy Week services intensify the encounter — staying present at the end, tending to the dead with dignity — before Easter morning breaks through with recognition, resurrection, and commission.
Each week’s “witness” mirrors something in our own experience: Martha’s grief, Peter’s failure, Pilate’s pragmatism, the crowd’s capacity for violence, Mary’s moment of recognition. The series doesn’t let us stand at a safe distance from these stories. It keeps asking: Where are you in this scene?