Gift to the community

Family tradition at Easter might mean new spring clothes to wear to church, a chocolate rabbit and colored eggs hidden in the grass. It often means family and friends gathered around the table for Easter dinner.

For members of Jackson's First Baptist Church, family extends beyond genetics to include church family, community family and, ultimately, God's family in a lavish Easter pageant the church performs as a gift to the community.

It all begins with families. Cast members encompass several generations, and participation in the pageant has become a tradition among families in the church. Participants range in age from 6 weeks -- infants who portray the baby Jesus -- to senior citizens.

"The pageant embodies what the church is supposed to be about -- people working together as God's family," said Marsha Birk, who applied makeup to the back of Mark Werner, who portrayed Jesus, to look like lash wounds from the beating Jesus received before being crucified.

Birk's son Adam sat nearby doing his homework. Later that evening, the 13-year-old Adam would be on stage as a young handicapped boy who meets his Sunday school teacher in heaven.

Jesus, left, played by Mark Werner, calmed storms during the First Baptist Church of Jackson's Easter pageant March 29. (Kit Doyle)

Werner's wife, Annette, portrayed a woman Jesus meets at a well, and his son Anthony was the disciple James.

"Until this year it was mostly my son and myself," Werner said. "My wife couldn't understand why I would take a vacation and get involved in the pageant until she got involved with it. It has brought us closer together. She just loves it. Now she understands."

A few hours before the curtain rose, families sat around tables in the fellowship hall enjoying dinner that volunteers prepared for cast members, the backstage crews, choir members, the costumers, makeup artists, ushers, counselors and prayer partners -- hundreds of people who make the pageant possible.

Laura Meese, who played Jesus' mother, said her children missed some school activities to be in the pageant as a family, but like other families they believe it was a good trade-off.

"It's fun and something we all work to do together," Meese said.

Kami Miinch applied makeup before First Baptist Church of Jackson's Easter pageant on March 29. Nineteen-year-old Miinch thinks that she has been in the pageant around 15 times. (Kit Doyle)

"And we enjoy what we do," her 10-year-old son Peter added.

Avis and Jeff Bollinger and their four children agreed that being in the pageant brought family closeness.

"It made us better people," Jeff said. "It's an outlet for us to be able to thank God."

For Jeff, a Jackson school administrator who played the doubting disciple Thomas, it's a subtle way of letting people at work know what he believes in.

"It's a way for our kids to share with their friends," Avis said. "They can invite their friends and witness to them without being forward. It's an easier to way to share stories about Christ."

"It gives me an opportunity to reach out to friends," said Sierra Bollinger, 17. "A lot of friends come because I'm in it and they think it will be funny to watch me. It's something I can do to show people what I truly believe and it gives me faith."

It's also a way for adults to interact with young people they wouldn't ordinarily get to see in other church activities.

Betty Riser, publicity chairman for the pageant, said she overheard one youngster refer to an adult as "my stage mom."

Illustrating how individual families make up a church family, Riser described an event that took place in last year's pageant. Beulah Crites, one of the women who helped with costumes, suddenly died from an aneurysm on opening night. Her brother and sister-in-law, as well as their daughters and her mother, were also participating and later "gave such a sweet testimony about how she could have been alone but was here with her family doing something she loved to do so much," Riser said.

This year Crites' daughter Heidi came to opening night, on the anniversary of her mother's death. Crites' family was again participating, as they always do. Everyone in the pageant who knew Beulah felt her spirit among them.

"She was on all our minds," Riser said.

For the past 18 years, the church has made this pageant a gift to the Jackson community. This year, said Jean Schweain, a different minister from area churches played a cameo role each night. Schweain, who wrote the script, said the inclusion of the guest ministers was her surprise gift to the cast.

"This is such a community thing," she said. "I see people from other congregations sitting in the audience."

In years past, Schweain said, youth groups from other communities came to see the Jackson First Baptist pageant. One group, she said, came back later to ask for copies of the accompanying study guide. These were children, she said, who do not ordinarily attend church.

"They were curious," she said. "They were going to do a little Bible study. The pageant is important to increase knowledge of the Bible."

Schweain wrote last year's and this year's script, coordinated the music to go with them, and based it all on Scripture, she said. The pageants are always written by someone from the church. The cast varies as time goes by and families grow and change.

"It's a huge undertaking," Schweain said. "We have such encouraging help. It take lots of us way more than anyone actually realizes. There are people who fix meals so families can come from work and school and get good nutritious meals. There are prayer teams. We all get prayer cards saying 'we're praying for you and for your health.' It's really a sweet service."

lredeffer@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 160