Worship Leaders Share Their Most Memorable (and Hilarious) Easter Moments

We asked you (members of our worship tribe) to share some memorable Easter moments with us. We had an enormous response and we tried our best to pick some stories that we felt were the most relatable. Want to share some more memorable moments with us? Feel free to leave us a comment below for your chance to be featured too!

Memorable Easter Moment #1

Easter Cantata Gone Wrong. But the Show Must Go On!

Shared by Pastor Kevin

About 18 years ago now, while living in north Texas, we were having an Easter cantata of sorts.  At the time, and in that region, the big thing was “live videos.”  It was drama or sketches that acted out a particular song’s lyric and message.  Anyway, we had asked one of our young adult men to be Jesus and we went all out.

 Our actor wore a cloth wrapped around his loins much like we see in most representations of Jesus on the cross.  We had built a large 8-9 foot cross out of 6×6 so you can imagine how heavy this thing was.  We had prevailed two large nails into the wood and so when we “nailed Jesus to the cross”, the actor would grasp the nails which served to give the visual of being “on the cross” while giving the actor some stability as the scene played out.  

Well on Sunday morning, the church was packed to capacity. The morning was wonderful and powerful and meaning fun.  However… When we reached the point of “hanging Jesus from the cross,” things went south.  Literally….

As Jesus was outstretched on the cross, this position elongated his torso and hips.  In doing so, his cloth began to slip.  Slowly, uncomfortably down ever so lightly.  First perhaps a few centimeters, then an inch.  We all could see and I had no idea what to do to remedy the situation.  

Our actor was not wearing anything under the cloth and I had not know how sold out he was to his wardrobe until that moment.  At the very last second, and as the cloth was finally giving way to gravity, the actor quickly let go of one side of the cross and reached down to grasp the hem of his garment, as it were.  

But as he did, that movement caused the cross to begin to fall backward.  (Remember, he is 2-3 feet from ground and this cross is HEAVY).  The weight of that cross took over immediately and he was unable to hold his garment and maintain the integrity of the cross simultaneously.  The end result was a flash of too much skin and Jesus disappearing off the back of the precipice we had placed him on resulting in a thundering thud.  The place went silent for what seems like minutes.  A few of us rushed over to check on him and found that aside from a few scratches and light bleeding, he was ok.  

In all honesty, the added wounds and consequent blood added wonderfully to the “effect” we were going for anyway.  As any good actor will say, “the show must go on!”  And it did.  He finished out the morning strong and the message of Christ crucified AND risen was accomplished.

Memorable Easter Moment #2

Engaging Activities

Shared by Larry

A few years ago, our church was teaching on the prophetic, specifically on enhancing or increasing hearing from God. We had some discussion and some activation exercises. This started in the fall. I started seeing what I believe to be visions but they were uncomfortable. 

I met with a lady from our church who has more experience with that and we prayed for the bad visions to go away and to get clear visions and messages from God. Our celebration of a Jewish Holiday called Sukkot. We started on Friday night and had bands playing music continuously until Sunday service. I enjoyed taking the shifts as the sound guy that no one else wanted. I also have no problem working a lot of shifts. Late in the evening/night, I had messages that felt like they were being pressed into my brain. I finally opened a notepad and wrote the information down. I googled some of it and it almost exactly matched scripture. 

Next, we had a group of boys from a high school on stage playing a 2 hour shift. Around 2:45 suddenly a guy walks in the church playing the bagpipes to ‘Amazing Grace’. He played 2 verses and then exited. In the morning when the pastor came in, I showed him the words I had put to notepad. He said he knew exactly who those were for, tore the paper in half and gave 1/2 of it to our mission team and the other 1/2 to our praise and worship leader. 

Fast forward to christmas time, I had stopped having visions and messages. I prayed that I did something to interrupt that to please forgive me and let my visions return. Suddenly I got a full color vision in motion of people entering the church and the men were washing their feet. I told the pastor about it and he joked ‘I know what we’re doing Sunday’. We did nothing with it. 

Around March I got a clear message, almost as clear as a voice saying ‘what have you done with that vision I gave you?’ After some preparation, Easter Sunday, we set up a station on each side of the stage and we started out with the leaders of the men’s ministry washing feet. It morphed into people bringing up friends, relatives, etc. and washing their feet. It was an awesome experience.

Memorable Easter Moment #3

Lift Your Voice

Shared by Clint

Countless voices sang in unison this past weekend to declare Christ’s victory over the grave. The Church defiantly looked death in the face and proclaimed through prayer and song, “Death is swallowed up in victory! O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”

But in the midst of all the triumph, my wife and I still feel defeated. In the parade of all the family portraits and Easter egg hunts, our hearts and home still echo with emptiness. And as those around us wonder where death’s sting has vanished to, our souls still respond: “It’s right here.”

To my dismay, the flood of hopeful anthems didn’t bring us to the surface. If anything, it dragged us down even further. Then guilt pulls me deeper. “How could you be so hopeless, so unmoved by the promises you cling to? You who once sang triumphantly – even led others in these very songs – how could you still be songless?”

Maybe you still felt death’s sting on Sunday, too. Or maybe, while you were singing with joy, you were thinking of others who are grieving. What do we do when these words don’t seem to line up with our experience?

I found some comfort in the context of the passage that’s quoted. Paul did not pen those words as a present reality, but as a future hope: “When [we are resurrected], THEN shall come to pass the saying that is written, ‘death is swallowed up in victory’…” (1 Cor. 15:54). Earlier he says, “The last enemy to be defeated is death” (v26). In other words, we’re still waiting for this to happen. We’re still waiting for death’s sting to cease. We’re waiting for it to be finally destroyed.

Jesus conquered the grave and he will conquer ours. We look back to his resurrection and look forward to our own. The day is surely coming when “death shall be no more” (Rev. 20:4), but that day is not fully realized yet.

So for those of you who are singing against death’s power, keep lifting up your voice, for there are hurting people around you who can’t.

And for those of you who are stinging from death’s strike, keep lifting up your eyes, for our hope is not in our singing but in the One who our songs are about.

Memorable Easter Moment #4

Father & Daughter Share a Cold Easter Sunday Morning

Shared by Michael

One of my favorite Easter moments for years was doing the sunrise service with my daughter. We both looked forward to it (even though living in Maine, IT WAS CCCCCOLD!). I’d play guitar and she would play bass, wearing knit fingers on her hands, and we’d share the vocals together. One of my all time favorite memories!

Memorable Easter Moment #5

Celebrating While Grieving

Shared by James

My Easter moment is one filled with both pain and joy. On Dec 29th, I was told my Dad had Stage 4 cancer. I immediately went home to see him and be with my Mom and family. I live in MO and my parents lived in DE. I stayed 10 days then had to go back to work. We all knew it was just a matter of time. In March I received the call that my Dad was not expected to make it through the weekend, so I went home again. We arranged for Hospice to help care for him and help my Mom. 

Covid -19 epidemic was just beginning and things were very hectic. We stayed another two weeks (my wife and I) but had to come back to MO to work. 

March 26th we left to head home, it was the last time I would see my parents. We arrived home on Friday afternoon. I went to work Mon feeling just fine, but late afternoon I felt a strange chill go through my body. By the time I got home both me and my wife were sick. My brother and Mom were also sick. 

My wife had to go to the ER because she was having trouble breathing, my brother was in and out of the ER due to Covid complications, on Apr 3, my Father passed away. My birthday was Apr 4, it was the first time my mother didn’t call me. My wife (tested negative)came home after a day, my brother(tested positive) went back to the ER and they would not test me because I was not bad enough.  

My Mom, (positive)was admitted to ICU and my Aunt (positive)was now sick who also helped take care of my Dad. A few days later she was also admitted to the ICU. There was a time where I thought I would lose them all. Something inside me broke in the midst of these 10 days. I received the call I did not want to hear on Easter Sunday 2020, my mother was gone. In a span of nine days I lost both parents. 

The only consolation I could hold onto was my Mother’s resurrection was Easter Sunday the day we celebrate our Risen Saviour. It has been 2 years and my chest still hurts from the loss. One year later Easter Sunday 2021 was Apr 4, my birthday. I think it was God’s way of saying you have a reason to celebrate.

I am a Christian songwriter by God’s plan. In the year 2020, I could not have imagined writing a praise song to God but somehow he gave me not just one, but two new worship songs. We’ll Exalt The Name and The Glory. He also helped me write some songs of pain. It has been one of the hardest things to do in my life to praise God through this season. I feel the pain still every day, but because of Jesus and His sacrifice I also have hope.

Memorable Easter Moment #6

Easter & A Baby

Shared by Dorothy

In 1953 my daughter decided to arrive on Easter Sunday.  My husband had just left the house to go to buy some toy my boys wanted. I called over to my parent’s house and my sister and brother-in-law came over. When they got there maybe 15 minutes later, my husband hadn’t returned. My brother-in-law rushed me to the hospital. They called my doctor who was at the movie with his wife and daughter, He told them to stay there, as he wouldn’t be gone long. 

Came running down hallway, while nurses were doing everything they could to delay my daughter’s arrival. He delivered her and then returned to the movie to join his wife. I was one of the fortunate ones who has speedy deliveries, He had delivered one of her brothers two years before. When I was pregnant with her younger brother, my husband rushed me to the hospital several times. He didn’t want a repeat performance.

Memorable Easter Moment #7

A Song for Easter

Shared by Rev. Jon

I recently did an arrangement of the Matt Maher song ‘Christ is Risen’.

My memorable Easter moment goes back a few years to one of the first times I used this song in a worship set at Easter in my church.

‘Oh death where is your sting?…Our God is not dead he’s alive, he’s alive’. I remember putting a long pause at the end of the bridge, letting that truth hang there in reverent silence. Such a beautiful moment of powerful music and lyrics that speak Truth.

Happy Easter. He is risen.

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Read 7 Easter Lessons by Graham Gladstone