Easter is coming quickly. In 2023 you resolved to reach people in your community with the life-changing message of Jesus. What better time than Easter to host a community outreach? The best day to begin planning for Easter is today.
Start your plan by considering this: One small way to create a bigger impact is to consider the benefits of hosting your community event in prime time ON Easter Sunday or ON Palm Sunday.
Not Your Typical Easter
Typically, churches host a seasonal community outreach event on a Saturday a week before or on Easter Saturday.
What if this year, with volunteer energy and numbers trending on the soft side, you host a community event ON a Sunday? And what if you position your event to give maximum opportunity for discipleship and long-term relationships? Might you accomplish a bigger impact without burning out your volunteers?
The idea is to welcome lots of newcomers from your community to be with your congregation on Palm Sunday or Easter Sunday by giving them a compelling reason to be there. That means Easter 2023 may not look like previous Easters. And that can make your outreach better because of the outcomes.
What you are doing is combining the appeal of a community event + the benefits of sharing the Gospel message + the engagement of volunteers = win.
The Benefits of Hosting An Outreach Event ON Sunday (observations from Cheri Pelic at Friendship Church):
You weed out people who are coming from other churches. Instead, you would mostly get people who are not attending a church and can come back on a subsequent Sunday.
You get the opportunity to clearly preach the gospel (in your service and kids’ programming) and let God work on the hearts of guests to bring them back.
You would be inviting them to what you’re going to keep inviting them back to. You reduce the difference between what you do at your special event and what you do in a regular weekend service. You help create a culture of invitation in your congregation and give people an easy entry into the church, even if they’ve never been or haven’t been to a church in a while.
Rather than recruiting volunteers and putting special programming into place, you can simply extend and increase what you already do well. You are using the systems in place for Sundays (greeters, connection strategies, kids programming, worship, etc.) You’re just adding more volunteers in each area doing what volunteers usually do there.
Volunteer recruitment becomes easier and more strategic. People are already coming to church on Sundays, so you’re not asking for an additional commitment. As you add on new volunteers for event Sundays, you can invite those volunteers to serve on a subsequent Sunday.
You can use the same systems for follow-up that you use every Sunday.
You can use the time savings you get from not inventing an event and systems to support the event to make your “every week” systems better.
Outcomes of a Sunday Event
You will be more aware of and focused on making regular Sundays engaging. Prioritize hospitality, mobilize your first impressions team, eliminate insider language, evaluate the length of time you formally gather, answer questions in your message that people are asking, direct guests to their next step, and get contact info for follow-up.
Many of the things you try for the first time (like having parking lot or lobby greeters with welcome signs or additional greeters in the auditorium) can be extended to every Sunday.
Your teams will have an opportunity to look at ways to raise the bar of excellence.
The events will stretch your normal Sunday abilities, but in ways that are sustainable as the church grows.
You may have fewer guests, but there is an increased probability that they will come back to another Sunday gathering, especially if they have children and your Children’s Ministry excels.
Volunteers don’t feel “burned out” because Sunday events require less energy and extra planning than major afternoon events.
Easter Ideas
You and your team can create an Easter experience where your guests will understand the message, walk away encouraged, and make memories with their families.
Start the event in your lobby with a photo booth, chocolate mini-eggs, balloons on streamers, and serve hot cider (great for a wintry Canadian Easter).
Start the service with a high-tempo song.
Show a kid’s video impression of Easter.
Dismiss the kids to a glow in the dark, or Easter egg hunt, a special celebration of Jesus or all three.
Preach a message on Jesus being the light of the world, alive from the dead.
Collect contact info from everyone through a draw prize.
Staff the photo booth again and serve more hot cider to create space for guest engagement.
Here are 20+ ideas for an Easter outreach.
Bob Jones is the founder of REVwords.com, an author, blogger, and coach with 39 years of pastoral experience. Bob is also an Advance Coach with the ABNWT Resource Centre. You can connect with Bob here.