Bethlehem Baptist Church is preparing to put on its production of “The Victor,” a decades-long show that involves more than 100 members of the church, before Easter.<\/p>\n
“The Victor” will take place on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 7 p.m.<\/p>\n
Bethlehem Baptist Church, located at 100 Half Moon Church Road in Jacksonville, has been putting on “The Victor” every other year since 1991.<\/p>\n
“Bethlehem Baptist Church is the most friendly and loving church you may ever walk into,” said Pastor Damon Williamson. “Our people love Jesus and love one another and really want people to have the joy and hope in Christ that we have.”<\/p>\n
“The Victor” depicts a character named Benjamin, who plays the narrator and reflects on scenes from the life of Christ as he tells his own story of coming to faith.<\/p>\n
The show begins with the raising of Lazarus, followed by various miracle scenes where Jesus heals a blind man, a bleeding woman, a paralyzed boy and a crippled child.<\/p>\n
“The Victor” also depicts the last supper, as well as the garden scene where Jesus washes his disciples’ feet, with the story ultimately culminating in the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.<\/p>\n
“The Victor” typically has a cast and crew of more than 100 people, ranging from babies to the oldest members of the church. Directing this year are Debra Bryan and Laura Brown.<\/p>\n
Evan Jarman has played in “The Victor” since he was 3 years old and now plays the role of Jesus, who his father once played. His son and daughter also have roles in the production.<\/p>\n
“Anything you can do with your family as a whole makes it even better because you can spend time together and think back when you get older about what you did together, and it’s just great being able to share the story of Christ with your family,” Jarman said.<\/p>\n
He said he thinks this year’s production may be the biggest they’ve put on.<\/p>\n
Ernie Lee, district attorney for the 5th Prosecutorial District that includes Onslow County, also goes to Bethlehem Baptist and plays a Roman solider in “The Victor.”<\/p>\n
“The costumes and sets of Jerusalem at the time of Jesus add to the realism,” Lee said. “This is an incredible performance sharing the passion week and the good news. I have been honored to be part of this as a Roman soldier.”<\/p>\n
Williamson is also in the show and plays a disciple.<\/p>\n
He said “The Victor” is always a good reminder to him that the church is the body of Christ and that each member has a different role, utilizing their various gifts and abilities.<\/p>\n
“We’ve got the artsy people that do their thing, we’ve got the builders that come in and put up the construction scenes, and then you’ve got the actors that can do what they do so well, singers,” Williamson said.<\/p>\n
“That’s just been a really good reminder to me that something like this takes the whole church, and then to see the whole church actively serving the Lord.”<\/p>\n
He added that every one of their practices has been a worshipful experience.<\/p>\n
This year’s production is Jarman’s third, and he said timing and blocking and all that goes into it has become easier with each show. He expects this year’s show to be “really good.”<\/p>\n
Williamson said he hopes “The Victor” will help take people back to ancient times to remember the miracles of Jesus. For people who may have never heard the story, he hopes it gives them a moving picture of who Jesus is.<\/p>\n
“So many times, it seems like people think what’s going to fix our world is another law or something like that, but the only thing that can fix the human heart is Jesus,” Williamson said.<\/p>\n
“He’s really good at restoring broken people.”<\/p>\n
Williamson said it’s a “great privilege” to be one of the pastors at Bethlehem Baptist and that he’s so proud of all who have put work into “The Victor.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bethlehem Baptist Church is preparing to put on its production of “The Victor,” a decades-long show that involves…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":145761,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,17433,296],"class_list":["post-145760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-faith","tag-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}