Local Church to Screen ‘The Good Friday Movie’ on Good Friday

Maranatha Grace Fort Lee, a local church that meets every Sunday for worship services in the Fort Lee High School auditorium, is inviting members of the church and members of the community to the movies Friday.

“The Good Friday Movie” is not “Mel Gibson’s flick,” according to lead pastor Won Kwak of Maranatha Grace, but it is graphically violent and not suitable for younger audiences and childcare for children up to fifth grade will therefore be provided.

“Even on most crucifixes, you’ll see a very polished presentation of Jesus with his private parts covered up—very beautiful, very iconic, but the Crucifixion and what took place beforehand was pretty bloody,” Kwak said.

“The Good Friday Movie,” which was made by Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Wa., depicts events from the Last Supper through the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

Kwak called Mark Driscoll, the pastor of Mars Hill Church, “a very godly man,” but added, “He’s stirred a lot of controversy.”

“[Driscoll] was early on known as ‘the cussin’ pastor.’” Kwak said. “He’s pretty in your face with his teaching and his preaching. But he’s really right on the money when it comes to understanding Orthodox Christian beliefs.”

Kwak, who says he’s met Driscoll, comes across as anything but “in your face.”

He said Maranatha Grace had its humble beginnings on February 7, 2010, when Kwak and a team of about 17 people from the New York Metro area held its inaugural worship service at Fort Lee’s . A couple of months later, the church temporarily rented space in another church in Teaneck before “finding a great location in Fort Lee at the high school,” Kwak said.

But he also said the drawback of running a church out of a public high school is that you can’t access it during the week and that when the time comes to move to a “more permanent location,” he hopes to stay in Fort Lee “or as close to Fort Lee as possible.”

Kwak, who was born in Korea but moved to Rutherford with his family at a very early age and grew up there, said he does not consider Maranatha  Grace to be a “Korean church.”

“We wanted to be a church that reflects the demographics of where we’re ministering to,” he said. “So we’re about 40 to 50 percent Asian, and I would say of that 40 or 50 percent, about two-thirds Korean-American. But we have Brazilian-Americans, Jamaican-Americans, Greeks, Italians, you name it.”

Kwak said about 120 people regularly attend the church’s Sunday worship services at the high school these days and that after celebrating its recent one-year anniversary, “it seemed okay” for the church to start promoting itself, initially having eschewed the tendency of some new churches to send out mailers and pursue other forms of public relations.

Although Kwak said he and other church leaders did consider doing just that.

“Ultimately, we decided to go against that,” he said. “[We] felt like, let’s come quietly. Let’s start serving. Let’s start sharing the Gospel and being a light in the community first. And then, once we start establishing some relationships and credibility, at that point we can start to make it known that we’re in the neighborhood. We’re here to serve. We’re here to talk about truth and grace and hope. It’s been a great ride so far. God has been bringing people to us. We’re just trying to faithfully shepherd and take care of them.”

The free showing of “The Good Friday Movie” is Friday at 7:30 p.m. at the Fort Lee High School auditorium. Maranatha Grace Fort Lee will also hold an Easter Sunday celebration at 10 a.m. at its current home at the high school.