A few Winnipeg pastors are sharing what their church is up to this Easter weekend and seeing the value and importance of this Christian holiday. 

Maplecrest Church

Syras Derksen is the pastor at Maplecrest Church. 

"Easter is a great time, a time when we're thinking about life," says Derksen. "We try to make it a celebration at our church."

Last year around this time Derksen said goodbye to his father Cliff who passed away. 

"As a pastor dealing with death, everyone's dealing with the death of dreams or death of loved ones. One of the beautiful things about Easter is that death doesn't mean the same thing. My dad last year wasn't preparing for death, listening to worship music. He was preparing for life. It's because of Easter that we get to do that."

Maplecrest Church is located at 906 Cottonwood Road in Winnipeg. They will be celebrating this weekend with balloons. 

"How do you enter into a story that's been told so many times? One of the ways you can do that is to look at it through a different lens every time. One of the lenses I was looking through has been the lens of freedom because Jesus was free when He did this and He says He gave His body freely." 

Glorious Hope Community Church

Pastor Joseph Seidu leads Glorious Hope Community Church, which was recently started up. 

"Easter is the absolute," says Seidu. "Without Easter, our faith will be useless. Without Easter, you and I have no hope or forgiveness of sin. With no hope, we have no assurance of salvation. Without Easter, we have no message, no gospel to share with the world."

Seidu hasn't always celebrated Easter as he wasn't always a Christian. 

"Having been born into the Islamic faith and coming to know Jesus, and having the assurance of salvation, Easter is the only thing that makes the difference. If anyone is thinking about Christianity, Easter has to be the centre of everything."

Glorious Hope Community Church shares a building with Good News Fellowship at 891 St. Mary's Road. This Easter the two will come together to offer one Easter service to both congregations and anyone interested in joining. 

"Since we moved into that building about 5 years ago, we realized we have the same goal, we belong to Christ and are the church of Jesus. We are joining together to worship. If anybody is looking for a place to go and worship, join us at 3:00 p.m. for Good Friday Service or 10:30 a.m. for Easter Sunday."

Seidu shares that this coming weekend can bring light to even the darkest situations. 

"There's so much hopelessness in this world and we're looking for someone who can provide us with hope. Jesus can be your friend. He can be by your side. He can be your assurance that at the end of it all, we have a place to go, for in Christ we have eternal life."

Salvation Army Churches 

Brian Armstrong is the Divisional Commander of the Salvation Army in Winnipeg. 

"I'm really excited about this year because we're doing events on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday," says Armstrong. "On Friday, at Heritage Park Temple, they're putting on an Easter Cantata, which is a drama/musical. On Saturday we're having a youth event at our Southlands Community Church involving families. On Sunday we'll be meeting together. All the churches in the Salvation Army will come together as one to celebrate together."

These are known as their Good Friday Service, Grave Saturday, and Glorious Sunday. 

"This season is the season that makes all the difference. The risen Christ changed the world, changed our lives, and changed everything. It's a beautiful gift."