For many Seymour community members, there’s no better way to kick off the Easter holiday weekend than attending the annual Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast on Good Friday.

The longstanding tradition brings people together outside of work to enjoy a breakfast buffet, prayer and fellowship while reflecting on the sacrifice Jesus made by dying on the cross.

Around 150 people filled The Pines Evergreen Room early Friday morning.

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The event is organized by Mayor Craig Luedeman and his staff and is led by the Fellowship of Jackson County Clergy, a group of local clergymen from area churches of all denominations.

Luedeman thanked former Mayor John Burkhart and Max Ernest, a longtime employee of Jackson County Bank, for resurrecting the prayer breakfast some 20 years ago.

As a member of the Lutheran Men’s Chorus, Ernest rarely, if ever, has missed the event. The group is featured each year and on Friday performed “How Beautiful,” “I Come to the Cross” and “Go Now in Peace.” Ernest’s wife, Virginia Ernest, served as the piano accompanist, as she has for the past two decades.

In his prayer, Luedeman asked for a “renewal and recommitment of life” for all those in attendance and for all people in this country and in the world.

“Help us to be gentle and understanding, to stand for what is right, to be anxious for the rights of others as we are our own, to be as eager to forgive others as we seek forgiveness from you and to help us to know no barriers so that our love is like yours, a love for all people,” he said. “May we enjoy these blessings not only on Easter, but all through the year.”

Pastor Philip Bloch of Immanuel Lutheran Church delivered this year’s message.

Bloch, being a fan of college basketball, talked about the “walk of shame,” which happens when a person walks out of a game before it’s ended because they have lost hope in their team.

Throughout life, people can easily become convinced there is little hope for the world, Bloch said.

“Many feel abandoned by God in times of trouble and distress, and many have walked away from God, perhaps ashamed,” Bloch said.

Basketball fans aren’t the only ones guilty of the walk of shame, he added.

“At his arrest in the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus’ disciples also did the walk of shame,” Bloch said. “They fled and abandoned their Lord and teacher when Jesus most needed them. It was all over, so the disciples reasoned why hang around?”

Good Friday is the day when Christians do the walk of shame because it is our sin that nailed Jesus to the cross, Bloch said.

“Good Friday, as grim as it was, reassures us that not even death can divert God’s plan of saving us through Christ’s death and resurrection on our behalf. But we don’t leave hopeless because on Sunday, Jesus will rise and remove all shame,” he said.

Instead of shame, Good Friday and Easter are about victory over death, he added.

“All who trust in Jesus will never be put to shame. Nor will we ever have to do the walk of shame again but only the walk of victory and peace with our Savior at our side,” Bloch said.

Michelle Gossett of Seymour said she was glad she made it Friday. She has been attending the breakfast for the past eight years, with the past two as part of Reedy Financial Group.

“I think it’s great that our mayor has continued the tradition of bringing our community together in prayer during this special time of the year,” she said. “I enjoyed the message from Pastor Bloch. I always like it when I hear a message in a way that I can relate to it and put a new spin on familiar Scripture. That’s what I enjoyed most.”

As a first-time city councilman, Matt Nicholson said he is making an effort to be involved with as many community events as he can.

It was his first year to attend the Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast, and he doesn’t expect it be the last.

Nicholson said Bloch’s message gave him a different way to look at Good Friday.

“He talked about the walk of shame and giving up on our team and related it to our Lord,” Nicholson said. “That was a perspective I had never really thought about.”