Churches make plans for Good Friday, Easter in Jackson
JACKSON, Tenn. — Pastors throughout Jackson shared their plans to celebrate one of the holiest times of the year.
Many churches are preparing for Good Friday and Easter, but with a few changes after not having in-person services last year.
“We are actually having a Saturday service instead of having it on Friday. It starts at 6 p.m. We have special music and worship that’s going to be taking place. We also are having a special Easter service for our children. We’re also taking communion together,” said Chris Smith, Campus Pastor for Love & Truth Church in Jackson.
Pre-pandemic, Smith says the church would hold service on the Friday before Easter in a large combined service of all campuses.
Smith says they were unable to celebrate at all last year due to the pandemic.
“Being able to celebrate Easter together at our churches, as Christians this year, I think it’s really special, and I believe this is an opportunity for people to come back to church that haven’t been coming,” Smith said.
Northside Assembly Church Lead Pastor JP Vick says his church will celebrate Good Friday during two different services. Last year, his church was forced to go virtual.
“It was different, but we were still doing it together, so we like to think of it as we just made sanctuaries out of a lot of homes,” Vick said.
Greater St. Luke, along with Historic First Baptist Church and others, are celebrating together virtually.
“We’ve been all week, combining churches together through what is holy week services at 12 noon and at 7 p.m., and on tomorrow, Good Friday, we’ll come together virtually again on our platforms to worship and to celebrate what is good for our need,” said Historic First Baptist Church Pastor William Watson.
Watson says he doesn’t feel it’s safe to return in-person just yet.
“It is safer to do virtual, especially for our demographic because as it relates to even the vaccine now, we’re kind of lagging behind,” Watson said.
Englewood First Baptist Church is used to celebrating Easter with over 6,000 guests at the Ballpark at Jackson pre-pandemic.
Senior Pastor Adam Dooley says the goal this year is to be able to have in-person after celebrating virtually last year.
“This year we wanted to just put all of our eggs in the Easter basket, so to speak, and so some of the other services like Good Friday and others, we haven’t focused on,” Dooley said.
Dooley says the reason is because to celebrate Easter, their churches are having 10 services between all campuses.
The majority of the pastors agree it’s time to get back and worship together again and begin to form a new normal.
