Monterey First Baptist Church will host a Jesus Walk on Good Friday to commemorate the crucifixion and celebrate the resurrection season by carrying a cross through town.
Monterey First Baptist Church Pastor Bill Barenkamp said the event begins at the church parking lot and concludes at Whitaker Park. The route covers approximately the same distance Jesus walked to Golgotha.
“The purpose is basically to celebrate the cross and this season of resurrection that we’re in and really the power of the cross in our daily lives,” Barenkamp said.
Participants will walk down the main street of Monterey. Barenkamp said the event is open to anyone in Putnam County and surrounding cities with no restrictions on who can participate.
“The vision really is to place ourselves in what he might have felt as he walked to be crucified after he was beaten beyond recognition,” Barenkamp said. “Because when you receive Jesus, you know Romans 6 tells us that we’ve been crucified with him in Christ and then we have been raised to walk in a whole new way of life.”
Barenkamp said the gathering at Whitaker Park will feature a devotion. Attendees will also have the opportunity to share testimonies and voice prayers of praise.
“A deeper sense of his presence in their lives,” Barenkamp said. “Because we will begin with prayer and we will end with prayer and some testimonies, a devotion, and hopefully they’ll have a greater appreciation for what Jesus did for us and what it cost him to pay the penalty of sin that we are all under.”
Barenkamp said the idea for the walk originated from a lady’s group at Sand Springs. The event serves as an alternative to traditional passion plays to create community around the cross.
“It will be a very simple and humble event just like our savior,” Barenkamp said. “And on our flyer we have Isaiah 53 verse 5 listed where Isaiah, who saw this event some 700 years before it happened, he said he was pierced for our transgressions and by his wounds we are healed.”
Barenkamp said the walk will serve as a time of fellowship, community, and celebration during the resurrection season.
The event will take place from 12pm-3pm.