The Countdown to Easter Checklist

When you think about Easter, there is a lot that comes to mind. There are decorative eggs, egg hunts, family pictures, a delicious ham dinner, colorful baskets full of goodies, and, of course, the bunny.  But, for Christians and Churches, it is much more than that.

Easter is one of the most anticipated and important events in the life of Christians and Churches each year. It is so important that every year it is one of the two most attended Church services. With so many people attending Church on Easter it presents a HUGE opportunity for Churches to minister to the community and meet people who don’t normally go to Church.

The big question for ministry leaders is, are you ready for it? Do you know what you are going to do to minister to people and follow up with them afterwards? If you are overwhelmed and stressed about all that there is to do, that is ok. It’s a big day. But we’ve got you covered with the Countdown to Easter Checklist. This checklist covers everything from before Easter, during Easter and after Easter. It provides things you can be thinking through and some specific actions you can take.

Leading Up to Easter

Pray. The key thing to remember is that no matter what you do or say, that is not going to change people’s lives. Not even that awesome Easter themed event will change someone’s life for eternity. It is the power of God that will. That is why it is best for you to give everything you do in preparation for Easter to God and let Him lead you. The more you can line up with His plan and purpose, the more effective your Easter activities and conversations will be.

Cast Vision to Church. Let people at your Church know the opportunity weeks ahead of time. Encourage and challenge them to use the Easter season as an opportunity to share about Jesus. There are a variety of ways you can do this. You can do this during announcements, with creative videos, in sermons or in groups. In fact, some great ways you can cast vision and encourage others leading up to Easter is in your Groups. For example:

• Text Group. Create a text group via Apps like Remind or Text in Church where you send daily encouragement to a group. In these text groups you will send day people get a new text message daily that gives them a Bible verse and thought to challenge them. It’s a great way to encourage people you are ministering to. Another text group you can form is one where you start a text group with 10-12 people and act like a daily chat group where you are sharing encouragement throughout the day. This could be done on Apps like Signal, WhatsApp or regular SMS Text Apps.
• Facebook Group. This group is a group you specifically create for Easter. You can start this group on the Thursday after Ash Wednesday. You can use this group to post daily scripture studies, thoughts or worship songs encouraging people as you get closer to Easter Sunday. Posting once a day is sufficient but if more people engage, there are plenty of other things you can share leading up to Easter.
• Online Bible Study. Bible study apps like YouVersion are great as there are so many Bible Studies to be part of. The best part about apps like YouVeriison is that you can start a Group Online Study where you can invite friends and people in your Church or ministry to it. In the YouVersion Bible App there are ways you can have discussions after each reading and devotional time. Here is a quick tutorial on how to create an Online Bible Study through YouVersion.

Encourage Personal Invites (in person and online). No matter how creative your promotion videos are or your Facebook ads are, personal invites are the most effective way to invite others to Church. People respond well to being personally invited by a friend. This could be in person or online via social media. As simple as it seems to encourage people to personally invite others to Easter services, a lot of people feel uncomfortable inviting others because they don’t know how. That is why it is important to show them. You can make a video showing how someone can invite someone through a simple conversation. Or, you could show them by making a video as an example of what it looks like.

Easter Events

Events that Engage Families. Even if they aren’t Christians, families love Easter events. This is a great way to create fun and excitement over the Easter season. And, in today’s world these can be very phygital events. You have an in person and online component that can be used to really sped the word about what you are doing.

• Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt –  This could be great for families or young adults. Strategically place Eggs (big eggs, not the tiny ones) around your community and let them find them. Incentivize it by giving away a big prize for the winner person/team. How can you do it? Post clues or locations on your social media channels or on your website so people will be checking regularly. Then, when people collect/find the last egg, give away a prize and an invite to Easter at your Church. This is just one of a variety of ways you can do an Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt.
• Easter Surprise Trips – Surprise people at your Church or in your community with fun Easter goodie bags. In fact, bring 2 bags, one for their family and another for them to give to another neighbor or friend as a way to invite people to Easter services. It’s very similar to the “Boo” Bags people do during Halloween.
• Pictures with the Easter Bunny – This set up is very similar to taking pictures with Santa. You set up times for families to come in and get FREE picture with the Easter bunny. You can get a cute backdrop or create one at your Church so that when families come in they are greeted by the Easter bunny and take pictures. Then, you can send them their FREE pictures. With that email, you can also include an invite to Easter services.
• Breakfast with the Easter Bunny – Just like taking pictures with the Easter bunny, doing a breakfast a few weeks before Easter can be a fun way to engage and encourage your community. And, it could be a great way to invite people to Easter services at your Church.

Be Intentional in your Easter Events. Sure, Easter is a busy time and Church Staffers have a lot on their plate. But, they also need to be thinking strategically. If ministries are hosting Easter events, are they just events are are they intentionally planned out events. Is there a call to action in these events that people who attend will get an invite to come back to Easter services at your Church? Are volunteers serving being prepped to have intentional conversations with those who come to these events? Without a call-to-action and intentional conversations happening, these are wasted events.

Online Preparations

Make sure your Website and Social Media is Updated. As non regular Church goers start searching for Easter services in their area, they are most likely going to search Google. Hopefully, your Church will pop up on the first page of Google. Regardless, once they find your Church you need to make sure your website is update with the correct days, times, location, and contact information. This sounds like a no-brainer, but you would be surprised how many Churches have outdated information on their webpage. And, how their social media channels are outdated. Some Churches still have Google+ icons as a social media platform (that platform officially shut down in 2019). Update your information on your website with all the you Easter info front and center. And, update your social media.

Do Facebook Ads. The reality is that Facebook ads are not as effective as they used to be. However, they are still effective. People may not Google Search for Churches but they could stumble upon your Church on social media. That is why you can use Facebook to place ads about your Easter services. Even if you do these ads a week or a few days before Easter, it is still a good play to do some Facebook ads. One tip to consider, video always works a little better than still photos. If you can do a video ad, that could be extremely effective. If not, a photo or a set of carousel images could be effective, as well.

Utilize Snapchat. Teenagers and young adults are huge fans of Snapchat. They use it regularly to message their friends. And because it is a popular app on their phones, there are two strategic ways you can utilize Snapchat this Easter.

• Geo Filters. Geofilters are images that you overlay on your snaps. They are extremely popular and people use them to send to people to share where they are and what they are doing. Snapchat has a series of these geofilters no matter where you are at. However, there is a unique benefit to them for Churches. You can actually use them to promote your Church service or event. Churches can use these Geo Filters in the weeks leading up to Easter to promote Easter services at your Church. People can send Snaps to their friends using a “Come with me” image to your Church. Learn how you can create them here.
• Context Cards. These can be found on Snaps that are sent to you that are tagged with the Snaps’s venue-specific Geofilters, or any Snap that is public on the ‘Our Story’ feed. You will know which Snaps have Context Cards when you see the “More” text towards the bottom of the Snap you are looking at. When you swipe up on “More”, Snapchat will first provide basic info including the name and category. Encourage people using Snapchat to use Context Cards when they share a Snap from Church to their friends, especially leading up to Easter. This “brand exposure” can help people think of your Church when they look at going to Easter services this year.

Empower Digital Missionaries and Champions. Digital Missionaries are people who use social media to share about Christ. They can share through writing, video, audio, photography, and other online tools. Digital Champions are people who love social media and love sharing about what your Church is doing online. They can share it through their own social media accounts or they can also share it on community pages, highlighting events or activities your Church is doing that the community may enjoy. Empower Digital Missionaries and Champions. Find out who these people are at your Church and mobilize them to minister to people and share about what is happening at your Church this year. Send them weekly updates on all that is happening and encourage them with different ways they can minister online. The more they know about what is going on and how to minister online, the more effective they can be.

Hospitality and Next Steps

Prep your Hospitality Team and Online Chat Hosts. We living in a phygital world. People are now experiencing Christ and Church online at a much higher degree than ever before. But they are also coming in person, despite declining overall Church attendance. That is why you need to prep your Hospitality Team and Online Chat Hosts well to welcome people in ways that help people feel accepted. This should be a regular occurrence every week, but with an influx of people in person and online, it’s important to have all hands on deck for your teams so you can be prepared to greet and welcome more people than normal. In fact, here are 5 tips that will help your Hospitality Team and Chat Hosts can do during Easter to help.

Make sure You have Online and In Person Next Steps. This is so important as so many people come to Easter services just because that is what they are “supposed to do”. Many people do not normally come back the following week. That is why it is so important to have clear next steps your Hospitality Team and Chat Hosts can share out to others. Make sure your attendees have every opportunity to connect and take a next step.

• Connection Cards. These cards allow people coming to your Church an opportunity to learn more about your Church. But, they also allow Churches to learn more about the people attending. What do they like and what are they interested in. This is a simple first step people take when they want to learn more about your Church. Make sure you have a digital card set up so that either in person or online attendees can simply click a link to fill out the form. You can even have a QR code that people can can.
• A “Meet the Pastor” Meet Up. You can do this in person or online. It can happen either after each Easter service or on the Monday evening immediately after Easter. This can be with the Senior Pastor, Campus Pastor or another Minister who is good at connecting with others. Here, the Pastor can share the mission and vision of the Church as well as answer questions they may have. It doesn’t have to be a long, but it could be a great next step for people to take. It is more personable than a connection card.
• Discipleship Opportunities. People attend Easter services for a variety of reasons. While no one knows for sure why they attend, it is the hope that those attending will hear something during the Easter service that will cause them to want to learn more about Jesus. Have a few different discipleship opportunities for them to learn about while they are at the service. These could be Online Bible Studies, Life Groups or other Groups available that you can share links or a QR code with.
• What’s Next. The reality is that most people come to Christmas and Easter because they are special and unique days. But, they don’t have to be. What is something that you, as a Church, can celebrate and bring people back for? Some Churches have guest speakers the following week to share, speakers who have name recognition. Mother’s Day is also coming up. Is there something you could highlight for moms to be interested in? What is something you can invite them back to?
• Service Opportunities. Two things we know about service. Milennials and Gen Z love to get behind a cause. And, when you serve others, you grow in your faith and feel good about it. Provide service opportunities for people to connect with. It could be service around the Church or an event that you are doing such as a mission trip or a community service outreach you are participating in. Provide service opportunities to help people connect.

On Easter Sunday

Cast Vision On Stage. While there will be a good amount of people there who already come to your Church, there will be a good amount who haven’t been before. That is why it would be worthwhile to take time to share about what your Church is all about and encourage them to use some of the next steps opportunities to learn more. Even if you made a quick 60-90 second video to share during the service about what your Church is about would be great.

Enjoy the lead up and day. It is Easter after all! Jesus died for you, too! Celebrate that with your family and friends. It is a celebration! Make sure you spend time with your family and that you relax and enjoy the day after the services are over. Work hard leading up to that point, but let God do the work on Easter Sunday. He will bless it in ways you can not even imagine.

Follow Up

Follow up might be the most important thing you do all Easter season. No matter how much you prayed and casted vision, how great your events were leading up to Easter was or even how powerful the service was, if you do not follow up with the connections you made, all the work you did will be for not. Take the days after Easter to regroup and distribute who needs to follow up with what. Hopefully you already have processes in place, but even if you don’t, get the staff and key volunteers together to process who will do what and by when. The sooner you follow up, the more effective it will be.

Conclusion

Easter is one of the best opportunities your Church and fellow believers have to share about Jesus and the power of the resurrection. It’s a great opportunity because, outside of Christmas, more people come to Easter services than most any other service during the year. If your Church wants to reach your community for Christ and make an eternal impact, there are many things you can do. It all starts with prayer and asking God to help you determine what is best for your Church and community. Just because another Church is doing something, doesn’t mean you have to do that. Do what best fits the culture of your Church.

As God leads you, be open to different activities you can host and prepared to welcome people and follow up with them. The more you can connect with and encourage people on Easter, the more effective you will be at connecting with them long term. But remember, the point of you doing all of this as you countdown to Easter is to help others discover Christ and come to know Him as their Lord and Savior so that they can have life to the full here and eternity with Christ. May God bless and guide you all this Easter.

What do you think? What else is on your Countdown to Easter Checklist? Share your ideas below or on social media.

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