Churches Come Together for Good Friday

It’s an annual tradition, something that’s been going on in the area for about 30 years or so. Each Good Friday, a group of churches and their parishioners in the greater Red Bank area come together for a community worship service.

Though the message of the day is the same, the event gives members of the community a chance to hear it delivered in another way. On Friday, representatives from more than a dozen churches and organizations gave short sermons, some of them meditating on the one of the last seven words of Christ.

Rev. David deForest of the Reformed Church of Tinton Falls, helped organize the event, which is sponsored by the Red Bank Clergy Association. The group rotates its Good Friday service, this year they convened at the First Presbyterian Church on Tower Hill in Red Bank.

“I think the community recognizes that it’s pretty special that they can come together and worship as one body,” he said following the service, which was held from Noon to 3pm to a rotating group of parishioners. “In the bible, it says the world will see that Christ was sent by God when the churches are unified.”

The sermons of the day settled on seven words and their associated themes and connection to Christ through the Gospel: forgiveness, assurance, love, abandonment, suffering, victory, and repose. Each pastor provided a unique take and delivery on the subject matter they were tasked with.

Rev. Tom Johnson, of the Fisk Chapel AME Church, reflected on repose, and all notions of the afterlife.

“We’re just getting started,” he said. “Your journey is possible now.

“If you do get there (heaven) before I do, hold a place for me, because I want to get there too.”

Hymns were sung between sermons, but they weren’t the only music offerings the day provided. The New Ancients, a band that plays for Outreach Community Church in Red bank, played a couple of contemporary songs, joining with First Presbyterian’s Director of Music Ministries Adam Peithmann for an eclectic sampling of spiritual music.

DeForest said that while the delivery style was varied, the event is designed to bring everyone together.

“The main thing is always the main thing,” he said. “And that’s something that we can agree on across the board.”