Written by: Charlene Arnold
On April 16, Collegedale Seventh-day Adventist Church will host the SonRise Resurrection Pageant for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020. The event will take place in a combination of indoor spaces, including the sanctuary scene in the church and the burial scene in the Iles P.E. Center. Other performances will continue across the Southern Adventist University campus.
According to Executive Director Randall Van Dolson, the mission of the event is to share the good news of Jesus with non-Adventist and unchurched people in the greater Chattanooga area through dramatization of Christ’s last few days on earth.
“It seems [that] people are very ready to have SonRise back again,” Van Dolson said. “Not having it for the past two years has increased anticipation.”
Casting Director Aaron Patterson, a junior mass communication — media production major, said the event tells the full story with biblical accuracy of what it must have been like for Jesus during His last days.
“It’s not holding back,” he explained. “It’s telling the full story and telling it to the best as we can [with] biblical accuracy.”
In addition, Patterson said, the event is very real and impactful, and he has enjoyed working behind the scenes with cast members.
Van Dolson described the event as enormous, demanding and inspiring. Coordinators of the SonRise event are also interested in helping other entities create their own resurrection pageant by providing helpful information to assist in future endeavors.