Easter’s Coming: 7 Things You Can Do Now
If you’re like most churches, Easter weekend will be your first or second largest attendance weekend of the year. It’s not too late to take one simple step that will help move newcomers from the big service into the life of your church and ultimately into a spiritual journey. Here are a few ideas to help maximize the Easter experience in your church.
Invite Invite Invite
Maybe it’s too late for an Easter mailer or it’s not in the budget. But you can provide invite cards to your church for the next 3 weekends. They’re strategic and economical. If you can’t print in-house, gotprint.com or vistaprint.com are great options. Don’t forget to create a Facebook event and ask your entire church, your ministry leaders and teams to share.
Plan a New Series
Start a compelling new message series the weekend after Easter. Just another opportunity to invite. There are thousands of free resources for message series at sites like LifeChurch.tv, Pastors.com, and more. But choose something that resonates with most people and has the potential to transform them through Christ. Promote the upcoming series Easter weekend and provide invite cards. Don’t forget the FB event.
Create a Baby Step
We encourage churches to take their current ‘next steps’ and make them even smaller. Create a baby step, something so simple that most newcomers can take the step THAT day. Maybe it’s come meet us at the Welcome Center for a free gift or maybe it’s head out the door to one of our photo booths for some fun. Make sure to get contact info for sharing photo booth photos. And have plenty of likeable people who love God and others ready to connect with newcomers.
Be Intentional
Encourage your team to get contact info for the people they meet and to have a plan for followup. It’s always helpful to have connect cards available but even more effective to keep a personal list for followup. Write it down. Plan coffee or lunch with someone. This is where you and your team meet future ministry leaders.
Make Kids’ Check-in the BEST
Be ready with something fun for kids AND parents. Consider how you can engage parents and invite them into a next step right then and there, before they ever walk into the worship area. Make sure your kids’ check-in is easy and fast too! Could you have self check-in available for your regular attenders Easter morning? Have plenty of relational people available – no long lines on this busy day.
Make Easter Memorable!
Easter is a celebration of Christ and your community is invited to your church to celebrate. It’s really okay to make it different from other Sundays. Order balloons, plan giveaways, have activities for the kids, create a fun photo booth, have a community egg hunt, feed people – any opportunity to connect. Create something they’ll remember.
Assess Your Church
Following Easter, schedule a couple of hours to meet with your team for an honest assessment. We use a tool called the Four Helpful Lists to assess what’s right, what’s wrong, what’s missing and what’s confusing. Make four simple lists and talk it out as a team. Don’t make it overwhelming, just start the process. Have your team view everything through the eyes of a newcomer. What is it like to drive onto campus? To visit for the first time? Is it complicated to park or get into the building? To navigate the children’s area? Are greeters warm & welcoming or having side conversations? Is the messaging / signage clear or confusing? Is the language confusing to a newcomer? It’s imperative that they hear the Gospel, see Christ lifted up, and come back next week if we want them to go on a lifelong Spiritual journey together with Christ and us.
By being intentional, you and your team have the power to move people toward Christ. You increase the likelihood that newcomers will return after Easter and ultimately grow deeper in their walk. We’re praying this is your best Easter ever! And remember, the scripture is clear, lift Him up and He will draw all people to Him.
