Everyday application

Aaron Feduk stood before a crowd of more than 4,000 on Easter Sunday and spoke about his past struggles with drug and alcohol abuse, failed romantic relationships and materialism.

But, despite his strife, all was not lost, said the 26-year-old Orange resident. Believing nothing else could fix his troubles — not the right car, not the right girl — Feduk looked for help from above.

After more than a year on the fringes of the Rock Harbor Church congregation in Costa Mesa, where he had been attending with a friend, Feduk came to the realization that nothing he could do would grant him “redemption.” So he said he chose to commit to the teachings of Jesus Christ on an intellectual as well as a spiritual level.

There was only one thing left to do, Feduk said.

“After a very rational experience, I told [my friend] I’d like to give my life to the Lord.” The truly good news for Feduk was that “that decision was just the beginning,” he said. Saturday marked the four-year anniversary of his commitment to the Christian faith.

“The Lord’s transforming me to be a better son to my parents, brother to my [siblings], employee to my employer and husband to my wife,” Feduk told the crowd at the 9 a.m. Rock Harbor Easter Service held at the Pacific Amphitheater in Costa Mesa.

The remark about his fruitful marriage drew an emphatic holler from someone in the crowd. It might have seemed out of place at other Easter celebrations, but with this group that has earned a reputation of maintaining a culturally sensitive mindset and hipper congregation, it seemed barely out of the ordinary.

With a mix of acting, dance, music, personal testimony and some biblical passages, church staff and teaching pastor Mike Erre presented the redemptive message of Jesus Christ’s life, death and resurrection to a number of believers, religious seekers and all those in between.

Part of the message included a dramatic presentation of two parables told by Jesus Christ in the New Testament of the Bible.

The group of 33 performers attempted to offer an “updated version” of “The Parable of the Lost Sheep” and “The Parable of the Wedding Banquet,” in order to help today’s modern audience get a stronger grasp of the analogies’ meaning.

“What it does is provide a visual for people, not just listening to a sermon,” performer Evan D’Angeles said.

At the end of the message attendees were invited to come up to the side of the stage to pray with volunteers. A handful of people made the trek down concrete steps toward the stage in front of the large crowd, some with a companion to make the journey a little easier.

“I think the most important thing is to communicate that this is an authentic experience … Anyone with the heart to have it can,” Feduk said. There is a lot of pain in a lifetime, he said. That can break people, but humanity was “designed to have that brokenness mended by God,” Feduk said.

Reverend Chris Heath offered a similar message later that day at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church on the Balboa Peninsula. Heath spoke about the smaller “deaths and resurrections” people encounter on a daily basis. The difficulties each person experiences often- times lead to a lesson or some benefit of making it through such trials, he said.

Who has had a bad accident and survived, relationships that are broken, or an illness and been cured or not cured? All of these are “everyday little deaths,” Heath said. But if you believe in the message in the Bible, it states that believers will be renewed, physically or spiritually, he said.

“In a world full of bad news, this is really good news,” he said.

“It doesn’t mean you have to get ordained,” Heath said. “You preach it by your life. Even if it means you have to look odd to the world.”

It was a smaller crowd at the church just off Balboa Boulevard, but the house was packed, and people really responded to the talk.

“I don’t think I could put it any better than he said it,” congregant Edward Chase said. “He melded the story of Easter with our everyday lives, the ideal and the real … new life and new chances.”