Johnston Union Easter Fest 2025

Six Easters ago, Johnston Union Church in Clayton didn’t even have an egg hunt because it had no kids. This past Easter, they hosted over 750 people from the community with hundreds of kids hunting over 7000 eggs. What changed? Easter Fest!

When Chris Bagley became pastor in September 2019 the church had no youth. The following Easter, though Covid hit, they did have enough kids to hold an egg hunt. By the next Easter, wanting to provide a way for a community that had been cooped up inside during Covid to get out in a Christian environment, a group of young enthusiastic members of Johnston Union got together and decided to make the egg hunt open to the community.

But that wasn’t where Easter Fest originated. It  started with what chief organizer Lauren Roelofs called “divine inspiration.” In the Fall of 2021, she woke up in the middle of the night with a burden from the Lord and immediately began writing everything down. She took that to the same group of young enthusiastic members, and an annual Live Nativity event with a festival vibe started that Christmas. That success and model was applied the following Easter, and Easter Fest was born!

Because of the church’s location, Johnston Union has long called themselves ”The Church on the Hill”. Easter Fest, along with their Nativity and other events, is them taking to heart that “a city [or church] set on a hill cannot be hid” (Matthew 5:14). They want to be a visible light to the world, especially to their rapidly growing community. Easter Fest shines that light brightly.

Each of the first three years they welcomed 150-250 people and offered over 3000 eggs to hunt. But this year in particular was unique. Prior interest via Facebook had never been above 200 people. This year over 800 people where showing interest, and it resulted in almost that many attending, with hundreds of those being kids. The parking lots of the church and the neighboring church were so full that parking was overflowing into a nearby field!

But what is Easter Fest? What keeps the community coming back? It starts at 11, but the egg hunt isn’t until 12:30-1:00. So, what gets families there early and keeps them there? It’s because there’s a lot offered! There’s multiple bounces houses, corn hole, egg races, sack races, a petting zoo, free hotdogs and drinks. This year they invited local ministries associated with the church to set up information tents. So it was great exposure for the local ministries of Hope Center Ministries, League of Logic, Canady Missions, Glorifying Him Rabbitry, as well as a continued partnership with The Homestead at Little Creek that provides the petting zoo each year. They also invited the neighboring predominately black church to lead the music portion of the “Good News” time.

What is “Good News” time? Just before the egg hunt, they gather all the visitors on the lawn using their Nativity backdrop to create a type of amphitheater. During this time they lead the kids in an Easter song, and tell everyone the story of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ through “Resurrection Eggs”: each egg opens with a different emblem of Passion Week. This time serves a few purposes. First, in gives time for volunteers to hide thousands of eggs. Two, it gets people in one location to be given information for the upcoming egg hunt. Lastly, and most importantly, it puts the gospel on a level young children can understand it, while also getting it to their parents.

It’s a tremendous undertaking requiring lots of sacrifice from the church body. It takes weeks of coordinating and planning, hours of stuffing eggs…and it takes money. It is a 100% free event, but it costs to rent the bounces houses and purchase food to feed all those people. But it’s a sacrifice they are willing to make. “We know that meal may be the only meal some of those kids and families get that day. We also know that gospel message may be the only gospel message some of those kids and families get all year. So we’re willing to sacrifice.”

Easter Fest 2025 cost the members of Johnston Union tremendous time, effort, energy, and expenses. And the Lord rewarded it! But that’s what happens when the Kingdom of Christ becomes more important than the “castle” of a single church, when we put the community ahead of the congregation, and put Christ ahead of our own comforts.