Grace Christian Fellowship offers Good Friday, Easter events

Grace Christian Fellowship, 3200 Warrior Lane, is offering multiple opportunities to celebrate Easter this year.

They invite everyone to the observation of the “earth’s saddest day and the gladdest day, (which) were just three days apart.”

Pastor Brian Sharp and the congregation invites everyone to their Easter services.

The first event will begin at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 28, at the church. It is called the Living Last Supper.

A sunrise service will follow Sunday, March 31, with breakfast at 6:30 a.m. and the dramatic Easter celebration at 10 a.m.

“We’ve been doing a version of (the Living Last Supper), probably at least 25 years,” Sharp said. “We changed a little bit here and there. The basic idea is, it’s a creative way to serve communion by reenacting Jesus and his disciples in the upper room.”

It starts out with the disciples in the DaVinci.

“They’re dressed up like Jesus and the disciples in full costume behind the table,” Sharp said.

The “Last Supper” is a mural painting by the Italian High Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci, dated to c. 1495–1498. The painting represents the scene of the last supper of Jesus with the 12 Apostles, as it is told in the Gospel of John.

“The actors are still and they come to life as time progresses,” Sharp said. “This really doesn’t take very long. Then the disciples come down, they serve communion to everybody. But this year, we’ve got a new twist.

“We’ve probably got 32 people who are going to be involved with this whole presentation, which obviously is more than Jesus and his 12 disciples. It’s going to be a very creative ending. It’s going to be impactful. There’s a surprise, I would just say it will be a very unexpected ending.”

There will be a lot of activity. After communion is done, people go back in their seats and sit down.

“Then we’ll have a very creative ending that’s going to be very dramatic,” Sharp said. “It’s probably not what people think this is a good Friday service combined with a upper room thing.

“The ending is not going to be what people expect.”

The Living Last Supper program will take place only one because it was on a Thursday that Jesus met with his disciples in the upper room, Sharp said. “Thursday night leaves you with an idea of the Good Friday message too, but we don’t do anything on Good Friday,” he said.

Sharp explained the congregation will have sunrise service at 6:30 a.m. Sunday, March 31, and a dramatic Easter celebration at 10 a.m.

Everyone is welcome and Sharp said, “We usually have a very good turnout. Usually the ending is a little different from year-to-year. We start out the same and end up different. This year is going to be really different. I want to emphasize it’s going to be above and beyond what we normally do.”