One small group at Faith Promise is serving this Easter, but they’re not teaching children, directing traffic or greeting people as they come to hear the message.

Instead, they’ve gathered towels.

As Senior Pastor Chris Stephens shares the message, He took my Place this weekend, attendees who have never been saved or baptized will have the chance to take that next step and become part of the family of God.

In 2014, nearly 300 people were baptized across all of our campuses during Easter services. As the church has prayed for 18,000 in attendance this year, we also pray that many will come to know Jesus and be baptized. This is where Amy Meyers’ small group stepped in.

Meyers belongs to Wade and Renee Adams’ small group, which is made up of a mixture of single men and women and married couples.

“My small group is all about hugs.  So I thought a towel would be the newly Baptized first hug from their other Christian brothers and sisters,” Meyers said.

In all, their group has gathered 80 towels to add to the baptism supplies.

“It seems like every time I look in the supply closet there’s not that many towels…certainly not enough for all that might come this Easter,” she said.

Meyers, who has been attending Faith Promise for about four years, began serving as a baptism assistant in November 2014. Baptism assistants help participants sign in and ensure they have shorts and t-shirts if needed. Assistants also pray with participants and help guide them through the process. After baptisms, assistants take the towels home to wash, dry, fold and bring the towels back to church.

“When someone comes for baptism, sometimes they’re scared.  There’s lots of emotions going on.  I’ve found that usually the children are excited and ready to go, where the adults are more restrained.  I think it’s due to the emotions and thoughts in their minds,” Meyers said.

Pastor Chris is hopeful about attendance and baptisms for Easter weekend.

“I’m excited as everyone else is. Easter is the easiest time to get people to church. If you’ve watched any television the last two weeks…everything is Killing Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth, and AD that starts on Easter,” he said.

The Easter message at Faith Promise will compare Jesus to Barabbas, the prisoner released from the Roman jail the day Jesus was crucified.

In Luke Chapter 23, the Bible says Jesus was taken to Pilate, who found him innocent. Still, the people demanded that Barabbas be released and Jesus be put to death. Barabbas had been jailed for rebellion and murder.

“The crowd called for Barabbas not Jesus,” Pastor Chris explained. “But Jesus is what they needed.”

Faith Promise Easter services begin at the Pellissippi Campus Wednesday night at 7:00 pm. A complete list of Easter service times and campus locations can be found here.

 

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Faith Promise is a contemporary church with six campuses in the Knoxville region. Since its establishment in 1995, weekly attendance across all campuses has grown to more than 6,000 each weekend. Faith Promise has been recognized by Outreach Magazine as the 22nd fastest growing church in America. For more information, visit faithpromise.org.