Easter is just around the corner and the FC worship team will be holding a spiritual emphasis week to celebrate the holiday. Because of this, chapels will be held everyday but Wednesday for the week of March 26-30.

On Monday, there will be an optional chapel during lunch held in Ground Zero. Under the instruction of Worship Team Adviser David Martens, the Worship Team students have spent several days preparing for this week.

“Well I knew we wanted to have our Easter week be a very special time, so we focused time and prayer and just came up with having a daily chapel,” Martens said. “It was a student-directed thing to have the chapels optional, they wanted students there who were interested [in the Easter story], who were like-minded.”

Monday will be on the topic of Triumphal Entry, which involves the city of Jerusalem’s reaction to Jesus?s entry, all the while contrasting it to the final reaction of the disciples to his crucifixion. Seniors Jonathon Passmore and David Casuga will be playing alongside sophomore Jenna Weimer.

“We’re talking about the Triumphant Entry to highlight what it was like from the perspective of the disciples and why they were so shocked that a week later their should-be king was crucified,” Passmore said. “I believe it will help us sympathize more with the disciples concerning why they were so surprised that Jesus would let himself be killed.”

All the songs that the students will be playing are closely related to their chapel’s topics. Passmore says that the specific set-list for Monday helps to relate the emotions of the disciples.

“Our beginning songs are supposed to mimic what the crowds sounded like and what the disciples heard as they walked into the city,” Passmore said. “Our closing song is for us to worship God for all the reasons that he could have not let his son die, but did anyway for our sake.”

The next two chapels, held Tuesday and Thursday, will be on normal chapel schedule. During the Tuesday chapel, senior Brady Lee will speak on the topic of Psalm 22 and how it relates to the crucifixion scene.

“We’re going to be talking about the cross and what that means to us,” Lee said. “I’m going to share how Psam 22 relates to Christ on the cross. There is amazing significance behind Jesus’ words: ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.’ I’m really excited to share with everyone.”

On Thursday, chapel will be focused on the resurrection of Christ. During this time of worship, Student Leadership will distribute communion to the student body.

Finally, the chapel Friday will also be optional, and feature juniors Brandon Porter’s and Matthew Adam’s presentation on the second coming of Christ. Throughout the week, Porter hopes that these optional chapels will call in students who want to take in a different perspective of the resurrection.

“We’re talking about the return of Jesus after the resurrection. Hopefully we can put a new spin on something that Christians consider really trite, and I hope that we can provide some new insight to the students throughout the entire week,” Porter said. “I think it’s good that we made a lot of the chapels optional. If we had made it mandatory, then people would have gotten tired of them. We hope that people who are there are people who really want to learn and will actually take something away.”

Because members on both teams were absent due to various trips, students in Worship Team have spent the last two weeks planning for spiritual emphasis week. In order to set their minds on the coming task, the class read the crucifixion story in the first three gospels.

“I thought it was really cool that we were planning so far ahead,” Porter said. “We read the Easter story three times in the gospels and saw the three different perspectives. [Because of this] I’m hoping that the school can see us attacking the topic from a new perspective; the content is very serious but the presentation is very laid back.”

With so many different opportunities throughout the week, Martens hopes that, at one of the chapels, students will become more personally connected to God through the retelling of the Easter story.

“I hope they [students] will be able to connect more with what the Easter story is all about and the reality of the resurrection,” Martens said. “I’m hopeful that the students who come and participate will not only get a grasp of what Easter means to them personally, but that they’ll grow deeper in their relationship with God.”

For more campus news, read the March 22 article, BRIEF: Student Leadership schedules Sadies (VIDEO).