Redlands Celebrates "An Easter Together"

An Easter Together is a widespread movement where a group of artists and pastors come alongside one another to share the Gospel. This year twenty-five churches were represented at their first night in Irvine, CA. The group arrived in Redlands on April 18th to play at The Packinghouse Church in Redlands. The event started at 7 p.m. with the first artist Gary Rea, a singer/songwriter from Cape Town, South Africa. He is currently the worship leader at Heritage Christian Fellowship where he leads worship regularly. Following Rea was Molly Jenson, from San Diego who is most known for her album, Maybe Tomorrow. They sang together to kick the event off. Jadon Lavik took Rea's place and sang a song he and Jenson had written together for Easter. Lavik is a pastor from San Clemente and a well-known christian artist who has released several new renditions of old hymns. "Today we take the opportunity to reflect on who God is, and who Jesus was and is, and His suffering on our behalf and how much God loves us that He would go to the cross for us. It’s such a hopeful time to celebrate, even in the midst of remembering Christ suffering on our behalf," Lavik continued, "We have the resurrection to look forward to.” Lavik played a few more songs and introduced the audience to a new song he had written, Shine On, before lending the stage to Tim Timmons. Timmons has written popular Christian songs including: Cast My Cares, Revival Song, and Christ in Me. Tim began with a story he want to share with the audience, "There’s this young preacher who went up to an old pastor and said, ‘Hey how do I start a revival in my town?’ The old guy got a piece of chalk and got down on his hands and knees on the hardwood floor and drew a circle about three feet by three feet, and he said,'Revival is not supposed to start in your town, dude. It starts in you, on your knees, in that circle daily, saying 'Jesus, where are you on the move?'" Timmons segued into his song, It Starts With Me that reflected the meaning in the story. The Pawnshop Kings, brothers Scott and Joel, shared a couple of their songs. "Are we having fun?" They asked the audience who responded with an enthusiastic cheer. The band is known for the song Love like Jesus, which the crowd sang along to. Following the brothers was pop/reggae artist Dominic Balli who shared,“There will come a day when everything will be made right, when Jesus will make all things good, and right all the wrongs.” The night continued with several of the artists coming together, and singing along with the Easter Together Choir. "The music was great, and the concert ran smoothly," said event staff member, Kelly Clemensen. After the event the artists were available at their booths to speak, pray, and sing with audience members.