So we’re now officially about one month to go before we arrive at the biggest church-going day of the year: easter. Which naturally begs the question, “what are you doing?” There’s lots of different things that many churches do, but I thought I’d share on a few resources that have come up so that you can sharpen your planning.
1. One resource is called PlanningEaster.com. It’s put together by Shawn Wood of Seacoast Church and they want to use that site as a resource to share what’s been working for easter programs.
From the site:
“Instead of live feeds at scheduled times, over the next four weeks, we’ll have different blog, video, and picture posts constantly being uploaded. We will be hearing from leaders from different churches around the country on how they are creatively planning Easter weekend events. Got an idea? Submit it on the “Share” page.”
Of note, they’ve also started using the hashtag of #planningeaster on Twitter, so you could easily do a search with that hashtag and see some blurbs of what people are planning. I have to say that I really commend the spirit of such sites. Everyone realizes that it’s a big day, so why hold the most effective methods to yourself? Share it!
2. Nelson Searcy has also released his yearly report of planning effectively for easter. You can download it here. It’s quite a thorough report with links to other free and paid resources that you can download and it’s filled with many great tips. Below are some of them:
- Begin a series on easter: You should never end a series on easter and you should never just do a stand alone sermon on that day. Instead, it’s better to give people a sense of continuity and momentum by beginning a brand new one on that day.
- Make your service special, but not out of the ordinary: Many make the mistake of going extravagant and crazy on that day. They bring the special choirs and famous speakers on that day, but are setting people up for disappointment as they realize the next week that the “famous speaker” is not a part of your regular lineup. Better to have an excellent day, but use your local talent.
- Have everyone fill out a response card on that day: If you don’t use a “Connection Card,” you’re leaving dozens of responses on the table. This is your big chance to give people an opportunity to follow Jesus and make decisions for baptism, but if you have no way to record and follow up with those decisions, you may as well not have made the invitation. So do it right.
- Give a free gift: Don’t let guests leave empty-handed. Put something in their hands that will help them to remember your church. Perhaps a book or cd.
- Tools: If we’re going to encourage our churches to invite their friends and neighbors, we ought to place some tools in their hands to make this easier. Searcy encourages using business-size invite cards so that your people can invite their friends.
Those are some of the things included in the report.
At our church, we’re planning to start a new series called “Their Eyes Were Opened,” in which we’ll highlight some of the miracles of Jesus, beginning with how Jesus revealed himself to some of the disciples on the road to Emmaus after the resurrection. On Sunday morning, we also usually have a sunrise service in which those that want special healing can come to be anointed. I think for next year we’ll probably try to do a really big program or play of some kind.
What about you? What are you planning on doing for easter? How do you do things differently on that day? Please share.
[image from planningeaster.com]
