In the summer of 2025, Leonardo Aguilera, his wife Bethany, and friends Katie and Justin Mertz kept circling back to the same thought. Andrews University’s Passion Play had been gone for 10 years. Why had no one brought it back? “We got to this point where we were like, ‘You know what? Nobody else is going to do it. Nobody else is going to step up. And if that has to be us, then we’re willing to do it.’”
That decision placed a sizable project in the hands of a young team trying to bring back one of the campus community’s most visible Easter traditions. And, they had to figure out how to do it from the ground up. They talked through ideas and looked for the right place to anchor the production. Pioneer Memorial Church soon emerged as that place. When they presented the idea to Pastor Shane Anderson, he welcomed it and asked them to bring it before the PMC board.
Then came the practical questions, beginning with money. Aguilera reached out to people connected with earlier Passion Plays, including then Center for Youth Evangelism Director Ron Whitehead along with his wife Betty, to understand what previous productions had required. Old documents helped them estimate costs. By the time they finished building a budget, they were looking at a figure of about $50,000. PMC approved some funds, enough to make the project feel possible and incomplete at the same time.
The rest came in over time. Support arrived through the North American Division, the Michigan Conference and the Lake Union. Church members gave smaller donations. A few corporate sponsors in southwest Michigan contributed. One especially large gift came from a donor outside the Adventist Church. By the time opening day approached, the team had met its goal and moved beyond it.
The production they built is large enough to reshape a day on campus. Aguilera said organizers are expecting between 4,400 and 4,600 attendees, along with more than 400 volunteers on Sabbath, April 4. Students fill much of the main cast, while church members and community supporters will handle many of the logistics and support roles. Nearly 5,000 people could be involved over the course of the event.
Still, the scale of the event is only part of what makes this year’s Passion Play notable. Its return has also become a story about 20-somethings, taking responsibility for something bigger than themselves.
Leo, a recent Andrews University marketing grad who now works as chief operating officer for the ministry One Mustard Seed, is lead director. His wife, Bethany, a nurse, heads costumes. Katie Mertz, Andrews University assistant aquatics director serves as drama director. Michigan Pastor Justin Mertz is working with churches in District 9 to spread the word and draw in volunteers. Andrews student Angelisse Villamizar is handling logistics. Seminarian Esteban Grajales is coordinating the marketing. Other young professionals such as Cassie Miranda-Chavez are organizing check-in and registration, while PMC’s Pastor of Administration Hans Miranda-Chavezis is handling the finances. Around them stand more experienced supporters such as “legacy director” Whitehead; Rich Aguilera, creative advisor; Darlene Anderson, market place coordinator; Esther Knott, hospitality organizer; Richard Parke, technical director; and Dan Brown, safety coordinator. The work does not fall neatly along generational lines. Younger leaders are carrying major parts of the project, while older voices are providing additional guidance.
Aguilera does not romanticize the process. “There’s definitely been moments where all of us have shared that, ‘We don’t really know what we’re doing,’” he said. What impressed him was not that the team had all the answers. It was that they kept working anyway. “Even when we didn’t know what we were doing, we went and figured out what we were doing.”
He speaks with particular affection about what he saw in the younger members of the team. “People put their head down, pull their bootstraps up and figure things out, try new things,” he said. “Nobody has ever quit or given up when things got tough.”
That matters to him for reasons that reach back into his own childhood. Aguilera grew up in the Berrien Springs area and experienced the Passion Play during its earlier years. He remembers what productions like this can do in the life of a young person. “Simple things like this project really inspired me to then do bigger things in life,” he said, connecting those early experiences to later opportunities in acting and ministry. He played the lead role of Moses in the 2024 International Pathfinder Camporee.
That memory now shapes what he hopes this year’s event might do for someone else. “My prayer is that this is something that inspires them,” Aguilera said, speaking of young people and church members who may be looking for a place to serve. He hopes the Passion Play helps them see that faith can ask something of their gifts, whether those gifts take shape in drama, logistics, design or hospitality.
He also hopes the production reaches those who arrive from outside the church. “For those that are not church members and maybe haven’t heard the story of Christ, I hope that this is a turning point in their life,” he said. “Maybe it just opens the door to start asking questions and be curious.”
As opening day approaches, the weather forecast remains a concern. The team has a rain plan in place and are prepared for the possibility of the need to pivot. Even there, Aguilera’s perspective remains optimistic. “If it rains, that doesn’t mean that God’s will won’t be done,” he said. “We’re praying that this project will be a blessing, regardless.”
The event is sold out. Your prayers are solicited for the planning team, cast and the thousands who are expected to experience the powerful story of Jesus’ death and resurrection.