Believe it or not, Easter is just around the corner (again)! And for members of a church staff, that means that it’s another opportunity to be prepared, reach out, and make an impact for the Kingdom of God!
Did you know that according to Wallethub’s 2018 Easter projections, Easter was the most popular day to attend church all year with 50.5% of the U.S. population attending a church service (I’m sure 2019 will follow suit). This means that it’s more important than ever for you to be prepared.
However, when it comes to preparing and planning for Easter at this stage, there are typically 2 types of people:
- The procrastinator: you’re still sipping on your coffee and denying that one of the largest days in the life of your church is getting closer and closer.
- The overachiever: you’ve already created a to-do list that’s a mile long and are in overdrive trying to make it the best Easter ever.
No matter which category you fit in, it’s our desire to come alongside you to help you prepare, manage your time, and help you effectively reach others for the sake of the Gospel.
Here are 5 ways to ensure that your church is prepped and ready for Easter:
1. Utilize Your Church Website
It’s no secret that your church website is the digital front door to your church, this means that visitors are going online first to find out about your Easter activities. So, how can you ensure that visitors are finding what they’re looking for when they visit your site?
- Put Easter on your homepage: whether that’s a rotating banner, alert bar, or section dedicated to Easter, make sure that it’s present and impossible to miss.
- Dedicate a specific web page just for Easter: create an easy to remember URL (example: yourchurch.com/Easter) that has all of the information anyone could ever want about what your church is doing for Easter. Be sure to include service times, locations, and specific information for visitors. As a bonus, add a button that allows viewers to add the event to their calendar!
- Live stream your Easter services: While many people do attend church in person on Easter, live streaming your Easter service is also the perfect opportunity to reach even more people online. This way you reach people who can’t get out of their home, or work during the time of your services. Make sure your livestream page shares the Gospel clearly and gives opportunities for people to reach out to a minister to respond and ask questions.
2. Engage with Your Community on Social Media
It’s not too early to begin promoting your Easter services on social media using clear, branded images that give service times, sermon theme, and set expectations. But, it’s not enough to simply put content out there, it’s important that your community engages with and shares your content if you want to be effective on social media.
To do this well, ensure that your members follow you on your social media platforms, and encourage them to share your posts and invite their friends. You can also create and use your own hashtag to aggregate content from all of your Easter events. Then, encourage your members to use the hashtag by promoting it in your bulletin, website, and services.
Finally, make sure that the content you put out there is encouraging, inviting, and focused on making people feel welcome. Maybe film short videos of your staff inviting people to come, or show clips of your services or previous Easter sermons so that people know what to expect.
3. Invite Visitors to Attend Your Services
Easter is one of the biggest opportunities for outreach that your church has each year, so this year make sure that you not only pray for visitors to come, but you actively invite them. This can and should be done in a couple ways:
- Make use of your email list: if you have a list of email subscribers, visitors, or even inactive members, make sure that you compose a well-branded, exciting email inviting them to come to Easter. You could even encourage your members to forward the email on to people they may want to invite.
- Create invitation cards and encourage your members to hand them out: these cards don’t have to be complicated. Use your Easter graphic, include service times, and simply write “You’re invited!”. A personal invite goes a long way.
4. Create Appealing Easter Graphics
More than ever, it’s important to create content that is visually appealing, representative of your church, and well-branded. The good news is that even if you don’t have a graphic designer on your staff, there are amazing graphics out there that your church can use and brand.
View all of the Easter graphics available from Sharefaith here.
Once you have your graphics created, make sure that you are consistent with them and utilize them for your website, social media, and print material. The more branded and cohesive everything looks, the more recognition you’ll create among visitors and members alike.
5. Don’t Neglect Your Follow-Up
In planning for Easter, it’s easy to get so caught up in what needs to happen before the actual day gets here, that you forget to look past that. However, follow-up with visitors is one of the most important parts.
Plan now how you and your team can gather information through guest cards or online registration, and keep track of who attended so you can reach out after. Having someone personally reach out to visitors will go a long way. You could also offer a small gift to visitors that attend and include an information sheet about other upcoming events like your church’s Vacation Bible School, camps for students, women’s and men’s events, and more. This provide easy opportunities to keep them connected.
There’s a lot of work to be done to get your church prepped and ready for Easter, but let us be the first to encourage you to keep your mind on eternal things in the midst of this busy season.
“Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” – Colossians 3:2
Know that as you prepare, even when you’re bogged down in the details, the Lord is at work and wants to do big things at your church this Easter. Keep your mind focused on Jesus, His death, and resurrection, and know that the work you do is not in vain.
If your church is looking to ramp up their Easter service, check out our free Easter Survival Guide, full of resources of volunteer management, live streaming, website design, Easter graphics, Sunday School, and more!