Church Rises To Easter Challenge Popular Community Service Began 31 Years Ago

The Lord has risen!

And risen.

And risen.

The refrains echoed again and again through the auditorium on Saturday. Singers and bell ringers, stage crew and director rehearsed until they got it right for today’s Easter Celebration Service - the 31st time that Christ the King Lutheran Church has invited the public to celebrate the biggest event of the Christian year.

“Okey dokey,” said director Margi Werfelmann as she stood in North Idaho College’s Boswell Hall, facing the Chancel Choir.

Between her and the choir, 10 women and one man reached with white-gloved hands for gleaming silver bells. Pots filled with scores of fragrant lilies outlined the stage.

“We’re going to start with ‘Christ the Lord is Risen Today,”’ she said as the singers’ murmuring faded. “Then we’ll do ‘Know That My Redeemer Lives,’ then we’ll do ‘Crown Him with Many Crowns’ … Do we have a pitch pipe in the house?”

The concert takes four months to organize, and the Werfelmann family has been in the thick of it for seven years. This is to be their last time. Margi’s husband Ted, pastor of Christ the King, has accepted another job.

Ted sings in the choir, along with the couple’s twin 15-year-olds, Amy and Andrea. Their son Jonathan, 12, is an acolyte, or attendant.

Youngest son Timmy, 10, sings in the “Joy for Jesus” youth choir. At midmorning, he was with the other kids who squirmed in the orange auditorium seats. They waited their turn on stage.

Jennifer Lantz, 8, was getting antsy, but she sure wasn’t going to be scared when the concert came and she was up on stage in her sunflower dress before 1,400 people.

This, she explained, is her third year of singing with the youth choir.

The idea of taking Easter beyond the walls of the church began with the Rev. R.C. Muhly.

The first Community Easter Service was at the North Shore Resort. The resort was owned by Bob Templin, one of the founders of the congregation. It was located where the Coeur d’Alene Resort now stands.

The first year, 350 people attended. It quickly became a community tradition. In 1982, the service outgrew the hotel and was moved to North Idaho College.

Its popularity grew to the point that people were standing in the aisles of the 1,400-seat auditorium, Ted Werfelmann said.

“Some people go to their own church first, and then come here to worship,” the pastor said.

That’s why the 9 a.m. service is now repeated at 11 a.m. The event has grown to include child care and a sophisticated sound system, with 16 microphones on the stage. The big volunteer staff includes 40 ushers.

The jean-and-sneakers attire of Saturday’s rehearsal will be replaced today with Easter finery. Besides the 31-member Chancel Choir and member children’s choir, the contemporary choir “New Song” will perform. The King’s Ringers and Coeur d’Alene Christian Brass also are on the program.

IF YOU GO Easter Celebration services are at 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. today at North Idaho College’s Boswell Auditorium.