EASTER IDEAS | Greg Atkinson

Wouldn’t you know it – Easter is in April this year and it’s still hard to believe how quickly it’s come. If you’re worried about finding enough resources to help support your services, fear not – there are a ton! Just check out my annual Easter Media Review. I want to take a few moments to share with you some ideas on how to use the resources I mentioned in my review.

As a culture and in our times of corporate worship, image is the language we speak in. For me, two main images come to mind: The Cross and The Tomb. When I think of planning worship services or events for this time of year, I see these images come to life in our musicals, Passion Plays, concerts and services such as Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday or Good Friday (whichever your church does) and Easter Sunday morning. (If your church does a sunrise service, I’ll pray for you!)

As you know, visuals can be used by God to make a lasting impression on your visitors and congregation. From children waving palm branches, to a live reenactment of the Last Supper, to a Living Cross, Passion Plays and other fine dramatic presentations, to pictures, animations and videos on the screen - all telling the Gospel story a fresh and vibrant way.

As I suggested last year, I encourage you to try some variety this year. If your church always does a musical or a Passion Play with live actors, try incorporating media WITH the live drama. I did this 6 years ago when I directed my first Passion Play in South Carolina.

We had a large cast of actors/extras, Jesus, Roman Guards, the Disciples, etc., but we also utilized our screen to have the characters interact with people on the screen. What if your “live Jesus” stood before a “pre-recorded” Pilate on the video screen and interacted with him? Take the principle and run with it.
When it was time for our scourging scene, we had Jesus taken off stage by some aggressive guards…the next thing the people see is the disciples tying Christ up to a post outside (which had been pre-recorded – like when David Letterman runs off stage and it looks like he’s going outside). Now think about this in terms of logistics: we had Jesus taken off stage by the guards, while the people were watching Christ whipped on the screen (which is VERY difficult to pull off live – we took full advantage of the magic of video), our “live Jesus” was backstage getting the fake blood put on him and changing in to his ripped up costume. Just as the video of the scourging ended, the congregation jumped as they heard a Roman soldier yell “Move!” and turned to see the live and now bloody Jesus, coming down the isle with the cross.

Take the thought of live drama interacting with video and dream away! What if all kinds of random images were flashing by on the screen while the “live Jesus” was hanging on the cross? By “live Jesus”, I mean actor.
If you’re in a contemporary church and use lots of media, why not bring some live elements into your service? What about a cross on the stage? What about a cross tilted and laying on its side? (It doesn’t have to stand straight up) Three years ago, Fellowship Church, here in Dallas, had live actors on many crosses all across their stage.

I enjoy creating and showing video testimonies each Easter. Let your people, through the magic of video, share how they came to know Christ. This is especially powerful on Easter due to the number of visitors you’ll have. Think about the blind man that Christ healed in John 9. He wasn’t able to debate the skeptics, he simply said, “All I know is once I was blind. Now I see.” Your story is powerful and causes people to stop and listen.

Here are a few specifics ideas of how to use media this Easter season:

© 2006 - Greg Atkinson

Greg Atkinson is the Director of WorshipHouse Media and Founder of MultisensoryWorship.com