A worldwide initiative focusing on Jesus Christ is anticipated to reach tens of millions of people around the globe this Easter season. The “Follow Him” campaign launched Sunday by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints includes social media, displays in select visitors’ centers, member and missionary tools and online paid promotion on Internet sites.
The initiative begins during the Easter season, but Church leaders plan to share the messages of Christ throughout the year. Mormons believe because the Savior lives, we all have access to hope, joy, peace, repentance and eternal life as we heed His call to “come, follow me” (Luke 18:22).
“It's based [on] Handel's ‘Messiah,’ the ‘Hallelujah’ chorus, which was initially produced for Easter, even though we use it a lot at Christmas,” said Elder Brent H. Nielson of the Seventyand executive director of the Missionary Department, sponsor of the Church initiative.
A new two-minute video filmed in Israel, Los Angeles and New York will be posted online at FollowHim.mormon.org and on the Gospel Library app. The video features young adults from around the world.
“The Easter initiative was filmed with Millennials, and those who see that will really love it. It's a great video,” said Elder Nielson. “Those who watch that will see that ‘hallelujah’ means that we love the Savior, we worship Him, and it will be a portion of that celebration that we try to demonstrate.”
The Church also produced a second video that addresses how the Atonement of Jesus Christ and His Resurrection helps people deal with death, guilt, pain and other burdens in their daily lives. To download these videos and pass-along cards, go to mormon.org/download.
The website and videos will be available in 29 languages: Albanian, Armenian, Cebuano, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Tagalog, Thai and Ukrainian.
Elder Nielson said the “Follow Him” initiative is designed to provide resources for Mormons and those of other faiths to share on social media and spread the message of Jesus Christ.
The shareable content is being posted on the social media pages of mormon.org, including Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest and Instagram. Advertising on the home page of YouTube will be featured on Easter Sunday, March 27, in Argentina and Mexico. Those who share online content are encouraged to use the hashtag #Hallelujah.
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In addition, a virtual “Hallelujah” chorus with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir will be released on March 13 on the website. It features the individual videos uploaded to YouTube from over 2,000 people of all ages that will be joined with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir to create a massive virtual “Hallelujah” chorus. The collaboration with the choir coincides with the release of its newest recording of George Frideric Handel’s “Messiah.”
The Missionary Department has been sponsoring Christmas and Easter initiatives for the past three years to reach broader audiences with the Church’s message that Jesus Christ lives. Church leaders hope the latest “Follow Him” media outreach effort will be as successful as previous Christmas and Easter initiatives, which focused on the birth and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
In December, the “A Savior Is Born” Christmas initiative reached millions of people around the world. The video had more than 50 million views.
The Church launched its first Easter initiative in 2014 with a weeklong campaign titled “Because of Him.” In December 2014, a month-long Christmas initiative, “He Is the Gift,” included a video that received about 34 million views. The video for the 2015 Easter initiative, “Because He Lives,” was viewed nearly 30 million times.